“DIMOG.” The confused jumble of letters painted on their chests spelled out nonsense. “I thought Middlebury students were smarter than that,” one of the course officials joked. Eventually the final “D” ran across and the message was rearranged: “GO MIDD.”
The starting gun fired and the runners flew by, heading across the sports fields into the distance. This year’s race was hosted by Bowdoin College and their course is notoriously quick. Beginning in a large grass practice field, runners immediately make their way to the edge of the athletic complex. Once on the perimeter trail, the course hugs the outer line of each sports field and eventually enters the woods.
A hard-packed trail snakes between the trees on the back half of the loop. The path narrows, wind dies down, and sun dips in and out. The dirt merges into grass again and a couple kilometers later, the course soon resumes on the same loop as before — and remains pancake flat the entire time. The 6-kilometer women’s race completes this loop twice, while the men’s 8-kilometer race rounds the perimeter three times.
In the women’s race, Middlebury’s Audrey MacLean ’27 quickly separated herself from the rest of the pack along with a couple of other runners. Bea Parr ’25 followed close behind in the chase pack, with the lead in this group flipping between runners throughout the race. Exiting the woods for the second time, the front of the race narrowed to just MacLean and Hamilton’s Keira Rogan. With just over a quarter mile remaining, the two were dead even.
“I passed Keira and tried not to look back,” she later recalled. The crowd roared, urging on both runners towards the finish. Sprinting to the line, Middlebury’s MacLean crossed ahead of Rogan by just over one second, claiming the individual NESCAC title.
Middlebury’s remaining points were scored by Parr, who came in 13th, Victoria Fawcett ’26 in 22nd, Kate Ratcliffe ’25 in 38th, and Naomi Atwood ’28 in 44th. Violet Ross ’25 finished in 49th, followed by Mary Cestaro ’28 in 56th and Caroline VanSchaick ’27 in 57th. Overall, the Middlebury women placed fourth as a team.
“It was definitely the hardest sprint I’ve done, but it was totally worth it,” MacLean reflected.
Her teammates were key to her victory as well, as Maclean was motivated by the fact that “the rest of the team was working so hard” and that everyone “had been training to run with grit and run with [their] hearts.”
Building on the theme of competing for the team, Ratcliffe expressed that she was happy to see so many of her teammates succeed at the meet.
"I was just feeling really stoked to do everything that I can for my teammates and run for them because we've all been putting in so much work and the vibes have been so great this season," Ratcliffe said. “So many of the girls had PRs today, and today was the day to do it.”
For a few runners, Saturday’s race was also the end of a long journey. “I just wanted to leave it all out there and do my best because it’s my last cross country race and that’s a really special thing,” team co-captain Morgane Orcutt ’25 reflected.
One hour later, the men’s race began in similar fashion.
The starter gave his final instructions and all was quiet. “On your marks.” Their heads tilted towards the ground and bodies leaned forward, coiled like springs under tension. Hundreds of spectators looked on from both sides of the starting straight and the chilly wind thickened. The starting pistol shot out, and moments later swarms of blues, whites, purples, reds and yellows flew by.
Middlebury’s Drew Donahue ’25 took the lead early, battling at the front with runners from Williams College, Bowdoin, Amherst College and Connecticut College. Soon entering the crucial middle section of the race, the Middlebury men fought hard for each place through the woods. At times completely out of sight, this is where much of the race was decided.
Rounding the final turn, Middlebury packed a potent triple punch close behind the lead of the race. Benjamin Hughes ’27 finished in fifth, followed by Ziggy Goddard ’25 in sixth and Drew Donahue in eighth. All three ran within one second of each other.
Shef West ’26 and Cam Miles ’28 finished in 21st and 53rd to round out the top scoring five, and Harry Griff ’26 and Tucker Jakobe ’25 crossed the line in 56th and 57th respectively to complete Middlebury’s top seven. In a historically close finish, the top four teams were separated by just 11 points. The Middlebury men’s team finished third in the team standings behind Williams and Amherst, beating Tufts by one point.
Going into the meet, co-captain Goddard expected a fast race and “a tight spread among the top teams.” Regardless, he felt that the 11-point spread was fairly uncommon for these competitions.
“It was a tough team battle,” Goddard said. Like the women’s team, a critical part of the men’s race was also relying on and running for their teammates.
“It was really just about doing what we could and hoping our boys were stepping up behind me,” Goddard said after the race.
An equally prevalent theme on Saturday was the tangible energy at the races. Reflecting on his first NESCAC meet, first year runner Miles called the atmosphere created by the other teams and spectators “loud and rowdy.”
“I could just tell with the environment, there was a lot more pride on the line,” Miles said.
Middlebury had a particularly strong showing among student supporters for the team as well.
“We had more than 20 people who weren’t on the cross country team come support us, which I really appreciated and it made us see how much love there is for Middlebury cross country and the sport as a whole,” Orcutt said following the race.
With the panther flag flying higher than any other, it was like an army charging into battle as students, parents, and coaches dashed from the woods to the fields as quickly as possible. The passion left out on the course by the runners and the feverish excitement of the crowd was palpable all of Saturday, and was a testament to the unique character of the NESCAC cross country championship meet. Both teams now turn to the closing stages of the postseason, and will hope to carry the energy from NESCACs moving into the final races of the 2024 season.
