Cross country runs wild in Albany Women wrap up 2nd place finish while men end up in 6th

Author: Dan Berkman

On Oct. 15, the men and women's cross country teams traveled to Albany, N.Y. for their final tune-up before their big NESCACs race this next weekend. This past weekend, the teams had a week off from racing which conveniently coincidenced with fall break. At Albany, both teams ran fast times considering the muddy course from all the rain. The men's team finished sixth out of 27 teams and the women finished second out of 23 teams. Both teams were very please with their results at Albany and feel fresh going into this weekend's big race.

Back in Albany, the men's varsity race saw 220 runners sprinting from the starting line to a sharp hairpin turn after only 150m. To avoid the bottleneck and getting caught on the narrow pathways, the Middlebury team had to get out quickly. Sophomore Jimmy Butcher led the charge by finishing ninth overall with a time of 25:10, finishing with the top pack of runners. Senior captain Garrott Kuzzy, having recently recovered from an ankle injury, looked back to top form as he and Will McDonough '07 both broke 26 minutes with times of 25:52 and 25:56 respectively. First-years Pete Murphy and Jack Wambach continue to come up big for the team as both get more comfortable with collegiate racing. Murphy finished in 60th place overall in 26:23 as Wambach came in at 26:31 in 67th place and fifth on the team. These times indicate a strong improvement for the team considering only four years ago they were at the bottom of the NESCACs. Chris Pelliccia noted that this is one of the best men's team the college has seen in years and "We have a really good chance of finishing third at NESCACs (behind Williams and Tufts) and we will definitely finish in the top five."

On the women's side, getting second place behind the University of New Hampshire gave the team a lot of confidence going into NESCACs. Andi Giddings '07, Alexandra Krieg '09, and Makely Lyon '07 led the Middlebury Women early in the race. Unfortunately, Giddings suffered a cramp at around mile 2 and was forced to pull out of the race, but the rest of the team was able to rally to make up for the lose of one of their top runners. Krieg finished eigth overall with a strong sprint at the end to earn a time of 18:09. Lyon pulled out 10th place with a time of 18:15 followed by Erin Archard '07 with a time of 18:34, good for third on the team. Senior captains Claire Anderson and Kelsey Rinehart had very strong individual races and came in only a second apart to finish fourth and fifth on the team with times of 18:57 and 18:58, respectively. Allison Brown '07 won the women's junior varsity race with a time of 19:30. Claire Shultz '07 remarked, "Everyone was really happy with their races and we have a lot to look forward to in the coming weeks, especially at NESCACs."

The NESCAC Championship meet is this weekend hosted by Wesleyan University. Unlike other sports that have a "regular season" followed by a "postseason", this one race alone determines who the NESCAC champion is. This is definitely one of the biggest meets of the year and both teams look to make strong performances. Based on the season so far, both the men and women look to have one their best finishes at NESCACs in a long time.