Cross country sprints toward NCAA regional Women earn fourth while men finish fifth during ECAC championships

Author: Dan Berkman

With the top five runners on both the men and women's cross country team sitting out this race with regional's this upcoming weekend, the JV teams stepped up in their place for the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) race. On a sunny and warm November day, the Middlebury runners ran exceptionally fast times on the flat and grassy course along Long Island Sound at Harkness State Park in New London, Conn. The Middlebury women finished fourth out of 29 teams and the men finished fifth out of 38 teams.

In the men's 8k race, Chris Pelliccia '07 led the charge for the team with a personal record (PR) of 26:22 and 18th place overall. Captain Baker Lyon '06 beat his personal best time by nearly a minute, finishing in 25th place overall and second on the team with a time of 26:30. Just a second behind was first-year Jack Wambach with a time of 26:31, good for 27th place overall. Coming in fourth for the team and 72nd overall was Rainey Johnson '09 with a time of 27:12. Rounding out the top five scorers was Morgan Byrne '06 with a time of 27:34.

The fifth place finish for the men's team exemplifies the depth of the team as a whole. The NESCAC teams often rest their top runners for regional during this ECAC race, but many non-NESCAC teams and some NESCACs, such as Bates, run their varsity squads regardless of regionals the next week. That put a lot of pressure on the JV team, but they were up for the challenge. Conor O'Neil '07 stated, "This was a great race considering we ran our JV team and others ran their varsity. That means a lot for the whole team going into regionals."

The women ran one kilometer longer than they normally race, running a 6k race instead of a 5k. The team ran in a super tight pack, with all five scorers coming in 12 seconds of each other and the top four runners coming in six seconds of each other. Senior Captain Jenny Jorvig and Emily Jacobs '09 both came in with the time of 23:27, good for 23rd and 24th place overall. Only two places behind them in 26th place was Claire Shultz '07 with a time of 23:32, closely followed by Nora Segar '06 with a time of 23:33 and 26th place overall. Alison Brown '07 rounded out the top five with a time of 23:39 and 32nd place overall.

The women's team has run together in tight packs all year, which has worked well in their favor. Captain Claire Anderson '06 confirmed, "Everyone is working really well together and pushing each other to run faster." The fourth place finish also helped give confidence to the team that they had a good shot of making one of five teams for nationals from the northeast. Only three men's teams can make it from the region. It will all come down to regionals this weekend in Springfield, Mass. to determine if either Middlebury team can continue their racing season.