Purple Valley Classic at Williams

Sept 22nd 2007

Full Results Men and Women

Team Scoring

Women - 1st with 48 points

Men - 2nd 64 points

Individual Results

Women

Men

Race Recap

Athletes of the Meet - Rom Cabeza'08 and Elise Tropiano'09

For the first of three times this fall, the teams headed to Williams, and their XC course held at Mt. Greylock HS. Taking advantage of a beautiful day, and great competition at the front, both teams ran away with successful days. The men got things started, and despite a few key runners either out with colds or running through it, they were determined to prove their mettle against the field. A strong trio in the Amherst Purple finished in the top 10, as Daniel Murner and Will Yochum placed 5th and 6th, a second apart, and Florian Reichert grabbed the 10th spot as he ran his first race for the team. Eric Holaday continued his steady rise and improvement, as he raced with in the Williams scoring 5 for the entirety of the race before finishing 14th, and ahead of their 5th runner. carlyle Eubank, battling the 3rd week of school plague that has been running its way through the team, struggled a bit was able to finish in 29th, and close out the scoring for the team. First year Ben Mears got his first taste of Top 7, as he finished 6th for the team, and Rom Cabeza had a strong race to finish 7th for the team. John McGrail worked his way through the pack in the 2nd half of the race to close out strong.

The women got the win in their race - their first 6k of the year - but it was extremely hard fought as they held off Plattsburg and Williams in a see saw battle. Elise Tropiano locked horns with the Plattsburg's top runner - a Top 4 finisher at the XC NCAA's from a year ago - and, while ultimately finishing 2nd, raced to her best 6k ever. Heather Wilson grabbed 5th overall, while Sophie Galleher struggled with a fast opening pace but finished strong to break up a pair of Plattsburg runners who were their 3-4 scorers. Caitlin Murphy had a very strong 2nd half of the race to finish in the top 15, while Kim Partee continues to improve quickly, as she finished 2 spots back to finish out the scoring. Nicole Anderson and katie Moravec rounded out the top 7, as they both placed in the Top 25 of the race. Kristen Ballinger showed no problems with the 6k distance, as she moved up comfortably throughout the race and unleashed a vicious kick in the alst straigh to walk down a handful of runners. Cate Knuff and Melissa Pritchard worked well together, and both cracked 25 minutes. Care giaimo had a nice 2nd half of the race to pick up Christina Wong as they finished within 2 seconds of each other.