Cross Country Teams Impress in First NESCAC Competition

On Saturday, Sept. 28, the Middlebury cross country teams traveled to compete in the Purple Valley Classic hosted by Williams College. The meet featured NESCAC rivals Williams, Amherst and Colby, as well as regional powerhouse MIT and a slew of other regional opponents. Against this stiff competition, the women came away with their third victory in as many meets while the men finished third.

The women started the day off strong, to narrowly beat out MIT (38) and Williams (46). The Purple Valley Classic was also the first six kilometer race — the standard distance for NESCAC and NCAA competitions — of the year for the women.

The Panthers ran as a strong pack with Erzsie Nagy ’17, Katherine Tercek ’16, Emily Singer ’14 and Katie Rominger ’14 taking finishes five through eight, respectively. Nagy, who was the top first year in the race, finished in 22:46 with her three teammates crossed the line within 10 seconds of her. Summer Spillane ’15 rounded out the scoring with a 12th place finish in 23:02.

Nagy, who ran her first six-kilometer race ever, credited her team for her performance.

“We run together, in our blob, and I knew going into the race that if I could just stay ‘blobbed,’ then I would be okay. I tried not dreading the extra 0.6 miles and to just take the race as it came,” Nagy said. “Our team is strong and communicative, that’s why we finish so closely together.”

Coach Nicole Wilkerson was particularly impressed with the women’s ability to run together against the stiff competition and believes this will be their strength moving forward.

“Most impressive [was] how naturally tight the women ran,” Wilkerson said. “They really counted on each other and pushed each other. It was something we have been working on but for them to execute it that well was impressive.”

The men were unable to replicate the women’s winning ways, falling just a point short of second place Williams (59) and a further 18 points off of victors MIT.

Kevin Wood ’15 and Greg Krathwohl ’14 built off of strong races from the previous week to finish in 6th and 7th, respectively. Wood completed the significantly slower 8-kilometer course in 26:21 with Krathwohl less than five seconds behind.  Nate Sans ’14 netted a top 10 finish in 26:38 and Wilder Schaaf ’14.5 and Luke Carpinello ’16 completed the scorers for the Panthers.

The lead pack of men went out rather slowly on the hilly course and the Middlebury men were well positioned in the pack.  Wood noted the distinct team tactics at work towards the end of the race.

“In the second half of the race, the pace really picked up and it started to strain our pack a little more … being strong in the second half is important,” Wood said. “MIT and Williams both executed this well.”

Both Wood and Wilkerson pointed out that the men were coming off a hard week of training and were dealing with some sickness, and while a single point loss to Williams is difficult, the Panthers are able to rebound.

“This weekend was good to get to test our team strength against some other top competition for the first time this year,” Wood said. “Although we were hoping to place higher up, we were competitive with both teams and will continue to be competitive with them through the course of the season. Getting a close third can be hard to swallow, but it is also very motivating. It will bring focus and intensity to our training.”

The Panthers have an off week before traveling to Boston to race at historic Franklin Park in the NEICAAA Championships on Saturday, Oct. 12. This meet, colloquially known as Open New Englands, has been held for over 100 years and invites every school in New England, Divisions I, II, and III.