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Friday, Mar 29, 2024

Cross country teams sweep home events

“It was a great day to be a Panther,” said cross country coach Terry Aldrich following Saturday’s dominating showing in the home meet. The men’s and women’s teams were victorious at Middlebury’s Panther Invitational last weekend, sweeping both races –– the women’s 5K as well as the men’s 5-mile course. Eight men’s teams and six women’s teams from other colleges competed against the Panthers in the meet. Middlebury led the pack, with both men’s and women’s teams nearly sweeping the top 10 places. The women’s team took eight of the top 10 and the men’s team placed seven runners in the top the top 10 finishers.

Although it was not a highly competitive meet for Middlebury, it gave the team a chance to “develop the ability to run as a pack and feed off of each other’s energies, which will make [them] a better team down the road,” said Aldrich. He added that the meet was a great place for the team to work on their strategy for running the race, saving energy in the beginning so that they can bring it home fast at the end.

Panther all-star and winner of the men’s race this weekend, Micheal Schmidt ’12 was enthusiastic about the successes of the Panthers, especially of the new athletes. “The team had another good day at a low-key meet,” said Schmidt. “Our first-year runners ran especially well.”

On the women’s side, first-year Colette Whitney ’14 won the race with a time of 18:48, closely followed by her teammate Amanda Lee ’11, who placed second. Sweeping the rest of the top seven places were Margo Cramer ’12, Katie Rominger ’14, Maddie Hubbell ’14, Addie Tousely ’13 and Claire McIIvennie ’12, respectively.

The men took home a first place in their race for the third straight year. Schmidt came across the finish line with a time of 27:01. Just behind him was Greg Krathwohl ’14, clocking in at 27:09. Panther Jack Terrett ’11 took fourth, Jack Davies ’13 fifth, Samuel Miller ’12 sixth, Nate Sans ’14 seventh, and completing the near sweep of the top 10 places was Leif Castren ’14 in ninth.

“The team ran intelligently, they worked together and ran very well,” said Aldrich of the overall performance.

The Panther cross country team will compete in the Williams Invitational next Saturday. Schmidt explained that the team’s practice strategy and teamwork will hopefully carry the Panthers to another victory this weekend.

“We’ll get our first big challenge this weekend when we race at Williams, where we’ll see a lot of the top teams in the region,” said Schmidt. “Both teams have a fluctuating order of runners which helps people stay on their toes at practice. Everyone’s working well together; hopefully that translates into success against the teams we compete against.”“

With both teams looking stronger than ever, this season is shaping up to be a fitting tribute to all the great work that retiring coach Terry Aldrich has put into building the program –– the several speedy first-years finishing in the top 10 are a strong testament to the high caliber of competition represented by Middlebury cross country.

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