Women’s cross country claims another title at Williams

The Middlebury cross country team had another great showing this Saturday at the Williams Purple Valley Invitational. For the Panthers, it was their first highly competitive meet of the season. They ran against some of the top teams in the region. They competed in the 6K for the women, and the 8K for the men. Both men’s and women’s teams trained up through the event, so their respective victories were all the more exciting. captain Cailey Condit ’11 was enthusiastic about the team’s performance: “Having the team run so well with tired legs say a lot about how strong and deep we are.”

The weather worked in the Panther’s favor, making the ground dry and compact for better running conditions, according to captain Margo Cramer ’12. Middlebury, once again, had a very strong showing in the top 20 places, especially on the women’s side. The top female finisher was Collette Whitney ’14 in sixth place with a time of 22:42. Cramer was thrilled about the win, saying, “We have great depth as a women’s team. We had nine women finish before most teams third.”

Not only the depth, but the speed of the women’s team propelled them to the top of the finishers, with six Middlebury women crossing the finish line before Williams saw their third runner come across.

NESCAC performer of the week and top men’s finisher in the 8K, Michael Schmidt ’12 commented on the excitement of watching the women dominate, once again.

“The women showed why they’ve won so many championships. They are always exciting to watch.”

The women defeated the home team for a first place finish overall.

The men finished before both Williams and Amherst, which was encouraging, and ran well despite injuries and training hard up to the meet. Their top three finishers crossed the line before most school’s had a second or even first runner cross, which is a testament to the speed of the men’s team. Schmidt finished first with a time of 26:00. Schmidt has confidence in the fact that,“Everyone wants to run fast and step up as a team so we just need to have it come together at the right time.” The men had a strong showing in the top half of finishers. Along with Schmidt, Greg Krathwohl ’14 and Jack Terrett ’11 finished among the top 20 runners. The Middlebury Men finished fifth overall, just behind Fordham and Tufts who tied for third, and ahead of Williams and Amherst.

For the Panthers, next weekend may be bittersweet. They will be running at home, and their alumni will be coming to not only cheer them on but also to compete in an alumni 5K. However, it will be Coach Terry Aldrich’s last home meet before he retires.

Coach Aldrich has been at Middlebury for 36 years, and coached almost as many All-American Cross Country runners. Over the years, he has coached both Men’s and Women’s cross country teams. He helped the Women’s team to several state, conference and regional wins as well as ECAC wins, NCAA regional titles, and five NCAA championship titles. Both teams will miss him.