Panthers Race to Top-10 Finishes Nationally

On Saturday, Nov. 23, the Middlebury cross country teams were in Hanover, Ind., to run in the NCAA Div. III National Championships. On a blustery mid-west day, the women recorded a third place finish while the men finished seventh, the highest finish in program history.

Entering the meet, the women were ranked fourth in the country behind Johns Hopkins, Williams, and Calvin College. Johns Hopkins came out on top with a score of 85 points, Williams took second with 137 points, and the Panthers improved on their ranking by scoring 185 points for third. Calvin finished seventh, behind University of Chicago, MIT, and NYU.

Upon the starting gun, the ladies quickly moved near the front of the race. At the NCAA regional meet, they had been boxed in early in the race and were unable to maneuver through the field, so they wanted to ensure that this did not happen again. However, Middlebury went into the race knowing that the NCAA championship would present a challenge unlike any other they had faced this season.

“We all grew so accustomed this year to being out in front of every race, even when we didn’t win, because most of the competition wasn’t at the same level as we were,” Alison Maxwell ’15 said.

After the beginning stages of the race, they managed to settle into a rhythm and some of the girls were able to run together. Erzsie Nagy ’17, Maxwell, and Katherine Tercek ’16 led the girls for the first two kilometers with Emily Singer ’14 and Katie Rominger ’14 only a few seconds back a third of the way through the race. As the race progressed, the women were able to maintain their tight group, a crucial strategy in large races where a team finishing essentially as one can be far more devastating than one front runner followed by a group of stragglers.

Nagy, who had been the team’s top runner at both the NESCAC and Regional meets, broke away from her teammates to move into a low point scoring position. She maintained a place in the mid-twenties for much of the latter stages of the race before an unfortunate fall near the finish line.

“Erzsie really just went to the well and came up 10 meters too short,” head coach Nicole Wilkerson said. “She raced with everything she had.”

Even if Nagy maintained her position, the Panthers’ final team position would not have changed.

Maxwell was the team’s top finisher, completing the six-kilometer course in a time of 22:00. Behind her were Nagy, Singer, Rominger, and Tercek, with all the scorers finishing within 20 seconds of one another. Summer Spillane ’15 and Sarah Guth ’15 rounded out the competitors for the Panthers.

After the women’s podium finish, it was time for the men to take to the course. Amid stiff competition, they scored 297 points for a seventh place finish. St. Olaf College won the meet with a paltry 84 points and perennial favorite North Central College finished a close second with 86 points.

Before the races, both teams had the opportunity to run the courses twice. This allowed the men to devise a strategy that they thought would give them the best opportunity to perform.

“As a team, we wanted to get off the line quickly to avoid traffic, but then settle into an even race pace and work the later sections, using the rolling hills to our advantage,” Kevin Wood ’15 said. “We did not quite execute the plan as we hoped, but we still had a program-best finish, of which we are very proud.”

In the early stages of the race, Wood, Greg Krathwohl ’14, Nate Sans ’14, and Wilder Schaaf ’14.5 were running near one another while Sebastian Matt ’16, Sam Craft ’14, and Luke Carpinello ’16 formed a second pack of Panthers. As the race moved along, the men strung out. Krathwohl and Wood slowly moved away from Sans and Schaaf while Matt began to move up from his pack to the leading group of Middlebury men. At the end of the race, Krathwohl continued to move through the field, eventually finishing 16th among all competitors. His finish earned him All-American honors and was the highest a Middlebury man had finished at the NCAA meet in program history. Finishing behind Krathwohl were Wood, Sans, Matt, and Schaaf to score and Craft and Carpinello completing the squad.

Despite a strong top-10 finish for the men, the team couldn’t help being a little bit dissatisfied with the result.

“We were a bit disappointed with seventh, even though that was a school best,” Wilkerson said. “We had a few guys fade a bit too much. I think [we were disappointed] because we laid it out to contend for a higher finish. We raced more aggressively than we had in the past at NCAAs because we wanted to compete for those top spots. We also have one of the most competitive Conferences and Regions in the Nation and the men had to race really hard at both the Conference championships and the Regional meet just to be safe to even get to Nationals. Overall, the men’s teams from New England did not do well at Nationals and I think it was because of the weeks of really hard racing and competition leading up to NCAAs. Perhaps some fatigue there that other regions did not have.”

With the cross country season now completed, the teams will look toward the indoor track and field season as well as next year’s cross country season. They will have big expectations for next year where they will hope to improve on their finishes from this year.

“As a team, I think we’re proud of what we have accomplished but, even more so, I think we are determined to improve upon this year and build a podium team for next year,” Wood said.