Women's XC runs one hill of a race

Author: Jeff Patterson

The women's cross country team finished ahead of 48 teams on Saturday afternoon to win the NCAA New England Regional, hosted by Springfield College. Last week the team was left out of the Power Rankings, but this week they ran with powerful legs.

"Our team handles high pressure races well," said Erin Archard '07. "We knew what we needed to do and got it done."

After finishing fourth in the NESCAC Championship to some of the best teams in the country - Amherst, Tufts and Williams - two weeks earlier, this race was a different story with a happier ending.

Andrea Giddings '07 finished sixth in 22:01.2, Archard crossed the line 16 seconds later in ninth and Alexandra Krieg '09 came in 12th.

"There were a lot of rolling hills," said Giddings, as she described the Massachusetts course. "We do a lot of hard hill work in the beginning of the season and [the hills gave] us an opportunity to surge and pass people."

Makely Lyon '07 and Claire Schultz '07 rounded out Middlebury's five scoring runners. Schultz's 24th place finish was huge in the 73-78 point differential because the fifth runner from second place Amherst, Katie Moravec, finished 30th.

"We all had good races on Saturday and that really made the difference," said Giddings. "We were very motivated going into it and we all stepped up."

The men's team, which ran before the women on Saturday, finished in eighth behind the winner, Williams. Jimmy Butcher '08 finished fifth out of 309 runners in 25:52.8, averaging 5:10.56 minutes per mile. Peter Murphy '09 finished 31st in 26:32, but no one could catch the Ephs, who dominated the event to beat their closest competitor, Bowdoin, by 68 points.

The women will continue their season this weekend at the NCAA Championship in West Chester, Ohio. Butcher will represent the men's team as an individual.