Opponents don't put up a fight at Panther Invite

Author: Livingston Burgess

The only thing the Middlebury cross country teams left in question at the Panther Invitational on Sept. 15 was which squad, men's or women's, dominated the competition more thoroughly. Both teams scored the minimum points possible, and both showed off returning All-American leaders who paced their respective packs.

In the earlier women's race, Lyndon State's Lyndsay Calkins rabitted early with a massive pack of Panthers close behind. By the end of the race, Alexandra Krieg '09 had overtaken Calkins to win with a time of 18:51, and Middlebury claimed 17 of the first 19 places to easily beat the nearest competitor, St. Michael's, 15-53.

More important than the victory, though, was the way the women showed unequivocally that they are prepared for the defense of their national title. They will rely on young talent to compensate for the loss of two All-Americans, and young talent was abundant at Ralph Myhre Golf Course Saturday.

Following Krieg were Amanda Lee '11 (19:32.6), Hannah Meier '11 (19:38.1) and Jessica Spar '11 (20:23.4) in third through fifth. By comparison, Krieg and Erin Archard '07 ran 19:32 and 19:33 at last year's Panther Invite on the same course. Three months later, both runners earned All-America honors.

Krieg believes that the team's dynamic this year-lots of strength in the underclassmen-gives them an extra dimension and a lot of ability to progress through the year. The squad's early season training program, combined with an impressive performance in the season's first race, put it in a good position to achieve this goal.

"Training focuses on our building strength during preseason and the first few months, and working on speed toward the end of the season," Krieg said. "The fact that Amanda, Hannah, Jess and the other first years are running so well this early in the season is very exciting because I feel there is so much opportunity for growth and improvement over the course of the season."

The men ran second and were, like the women, gracious hosts everywhere but on the course. Places one through 11 all went to the Panthers, and captain Jimmy Butcher '08 led the race wire-to-wire, finishing the five miles in 26:31. Afterwards, Butcher showed minimal signs of fatigue as he was grinning from ear to ear, clearly satisfied with both his own performance and the team's.

"It was definitely as good as we could have expected," Butcher said. "This was our best early-season performanceÖprobably ever. It's fantastic to have that really tight gap there, in the three-four-five guys."

A pair of juniors, Jack Wambach '09 and Dan Kaufman '09, were fourth and fifth respectively, with times of 27:58.4 and 28:06.8.

One of the day's most impressive races was turned in by Bruce Hallett '10, who left the chase pack to make a run at Butcher, and wound up second in 26:49.6, just 18 seconds behind Butcher's winning time. Hallett was similarly pleased with the results of the race.

"It was a fantastic team effort," said Hallett. "The freshmen especially did a great job of stepping up [from high school 5K to 8K distances]." Leading those first-years was Stanis Moody-Roberts, who turned in a time of 28:08.5, good for sixth place just behind Kaufman.

The men's performance was even more noteworthy given that they were running without three strong competitors. Captain Pete Murphy '09 rested an injured Achilles, and Chris Free '10, who was eighth at last year's Panther Invitational, and Victor Guevara '10 sat out as well.

Hallett attributed the ability to perform well shorthanded in part to Butcher's leadership.

"He's such a great runner that he makes everyone else better than they'd ever ask of themselves on their own," he said.

Middlebury's season continues this Saturday when they travel to Williamstown for their first taste of NESCAC competition this season - the Williams Invitational.