Most recent meets first
Click on the Sports Information XC Site

Purple Valley Classic - Sept 27th

Runners of the Meet - Daniel Murner and Sophie Galleher

What was forecasted to be a very muddy and wet affair, turned out to be a great day for racing at the Mt. Greylock course. Running the style of racing that best suits each person as opposed to planned strategies for the race, the teams really got to see where they are at for this point of the season. The men were looking forward to not only racing Williams for the first time, but also seeing Keene State and Coast Guard after racing raced them last week. On the hillier and more challenging course, the team showed their strength as they got out well and continued to press at the front. Daniel Murner established himself at the front of the pack, and while Williams Edgar Kosgey broke away in the middle of the race for the win, Daniel stayed within contention for 2nd throughout. Will Yochum moved up to Murner in the last mile and would finish 5th overall. Ben Mears and Eric Holaday each had another very strong race, hammering the middle portion of the trails and would finish 13th and 15th overall. Carlyle Eubank would round out the scoring as he placed 19th and was followed closely by Harrison Lakehomer in 23rd. Jimmy Swanson made good work of the hills to come in 36th and close out the Top 7. Peter Foote, battling a bit of the cold / flu that has been going around, finished just out of the Top 50 and then John McGrail and Alec Jacobson came in together. Jack Seaver had a nice race, bouncing back from a little off day last weekend to post a solid showing. The guys finished 15 points behind Williams, but on the other side of the coin, they put a huge gap between them and Keene (who beat us last week handily). Several guys ran in the JV 5k, and Will Bell was the first amongst the teams runners as he opened up his season with a slightly shorter race and was followed closely by Steve Corsello and Ben Klein.

The cold / flu that has been going around unfortunately did not spare Caitlin McDermott-Murphy nor Nicole Anderson, and without 2 of the teams top runners the dynamics of the team scoring took a different spin. Elise Tropiano stayed in close proximity of the leaders through about 2 miles, and then put in a strong surge to pull away over the last mile in the first 6k effort of the season, and just missed breaking 22 minutes on the course. Sophie Galleher, running off the pace of the front running trio, grabbed a 4th place finish in a very good run. Shannon McKenna making her 6k debut fared well, and with the absence of Murph and Nicole, finished as the 3rd runner for the team in 25th overall. Only 13 seconds separated our 4-7 runners, as Zandra Walton, Liz Dalton, Christina Wong and Melissa Pritchard worked the race together, pushing one another to strong finishes. Liza Schalch made a nice transition to the 6k, and even said how it did not feel nearly as bad as she thought it would, as she just missed breaking 25 minutes. Cara Giaimo, like she did at Umass last weekend, had another very strong race and continues to make big strides. Several other first years including Laura Zaccagnino and Liza Gilhuly also got their first taste of the 6k distance. Despite feeling the sting of Nic and Murph's absence, they were still able to finish 3rd overall behind very deep Williams and Middlebury teams., and we will certainly have our hands full with both of them throughout the remainder of the season.

UMass Dartmouth - Sept 20th

Runners of the Meet - Mercedes Taylor and Ben Mears

With the teams’ quote of the week being “Running is about adapting to the unexpected and being able to modify plans at the last minute. Like all life, it’s about taking risks,” the men’s and women’s teams practiced adapting to the unexpected this weekend at the UMass Dartmouth Invitational. The teams’ race strategies were well-guarded secrets until minutes before each race, but both teams adapted well and executed according to the plan. Both teams finished 2nd - Men losing top honors to Keene State while women bowed to MIT. The varsity men were instructed to have five runners together through three miles, before taking off at their pace of choice in the last two miles. Though they got out a little bit slowly, the pack of five moved up throughout the first three miles, before breaking up with two miles to go. Will Yochum probably ran the fastest last two miles of anyone in the race, moving all the way up to sixth place and running 25:14, close to his PR. Carlyle Eubank (25:32) also had a solid finish, as did Daniel Murner (25:42), who must have been moving so fast at the end that the finish line timers missed him entirely. (As of this writing, the results have the men finishing fourth, because Murner was left out of the results. With Murner added back in there, the team moves up to a very close second.) Harrison Lakehomer, who sat out most of last year, made a solid return (25:42) and Eric Holaday (25:48) rounded out the top five. Ben Mears moved up throughout the race to finish in 25:50, and Peter Foote sacrificed himself a bit by running with the top four early on, but he still hung on for a solid finish (26:04). In the men’s JV race, John McGrail ran aggressively and contended for the win before finishing third in 26:10. Alec Jacobson continued to pleasantly surprise his coaches with his 27:09 finish, and Steve Corsello looked strong as he made his Amherst College debut (27:25).

The women's plan was to keep a tight pack of 5 through the 2 mile mark before splitting up. They did as planned, keeping their pack of 5 intact through the 2 mile mark and were in about 45th place before they set off after the leaders. Elise Tropiano, despite having only 1.1 miles to make up ground, was still able to move quickly through the masses and grab the win a very quick 18:11. Sophie Galleher and Caitlin Murphy finished together - both cracking the Top 10, while Nicole Anderson was a few steps behind to finish in the Top 20. Christina Wong rounded out the scoring, as she placed 52nd and was well faster then her time here last year, as was the case for Zandra Walton, Melissa Pritchard. Liz Dalton was the 5th runner in the pack strategy through 2 miles, but her mid week illness may have sapped some strength needed to finish it off as strong as she hoped. In the JV race, a trio of first years had solid races as Shannon McKenna raced with a lot of poise and nearly won the rae, finishing 2nd in 19:00 while Laura Zaccagnino and Eliza Schalch raced together through the race ad finished 8th and 10th. Mercedes Taylor dipped under 20 minutes for the first time with a great effort, and Cara Giaimo sped in 4 places later, just missing breaking 20 minutes and another 6 spots back saw Melissa Sullivan kicking hard to run 20:29.

Amherst Invite - Sept 6th

Runners of the Meet - Melissa Pritchard and Kevin Hanley

Both teams got their seasons under way at our own invitational, and came away with victories on both sides - though by small margins. With the race being early, and emphasizing the extension of a solid training period and having the focus be the later meets, both teams had a race plan of large pack running - regardless of how the race were to unfold. The men were instructed to race as a pack of 8, which they did to perfection, running very comfortably throughout the race and finishing in a tight pack in places 4-11. The team welcomed back a healthy Harrison Lakehomer to the lineup, and he along with Carlyle Eubank, Will Yochum, Ben Mears, Eric Holaday, Peter Foote, Daniel Murner and Jimmy Swanson all finished within 1 second of each other, with John McGrail a little off of them. Kevin Hanley, Travis Cohoon and first year Alec Jacobson worked well together as the trio would all place in the Top 20. Ben Klein grabbed the 20th spot while first year Geoff Ainslee raced well to come in shortly after that in his collegiate debut.

The women, like the men, focused on running together as a large pack and helping build the pack rather then focusing on the race itself. Like the men, they came across the line within a second of each other as Caitlin Murphy, Sophie Galleher, Nicole Anderson, Liz Dalton, Elise Tropiano, Zandra Walton and Melissa Pritchard finished in the tight group and were able to hold off Springfield for the win. It was a great opener for Melissa as she benefited from the pack running and had a great race to stay in the group and has really stepped things up. Christina Wong and first year Shannon McKenna both cracked the Top 20 and looked solid as did Mercedes Taylor and first year Eliza Schalch, while several other first years got their first taste of college racing - on a very muggy, and less then ideal day for racing!