The gloomy weather outside matched the spirits of the men and women’s cross-country teams as they fell to Williams this weekend in the Little Three Championships at Mount Greylock High School in Williamstown, Mass.
Heading into the meet on the men’s side, the Ephs and Cardinals, both nationally ranked, knew it was going to be close, but in the end the Ephs prevailed beating Wesleyan 24-34 on the men’s side and 23-61 on the women’s side.
The women’s race went off first with Ellen Davis ’07 leading the way for the Cardinals with a third place finish over the 5k course in 18:06. Lucia Pier ’08 and Delia Springstubb ’08 also came through with strong races for the Cardinals placing 10th (19:18) and 11th (19:20) respectively. But the pack of Amherst and Williams runners split up the Cardinal’s other scorers as Co-Captain Erin Smith ’06 took a tough spill during the race and was unable to recover, finishing in 22nd in 19:38. Anna Schindler ’09 rounded out the scoring for the Cardinals. Despite the tough race, Wesleyan showed its heart finishing a mere five points behind Amherst, the 5th ranked team in the nation.
The men’s race drew the attention of the entire NESCAC as Wesleyan looked to end Williams’s streak of 17-straight Little Three titles. In the end, the Williams course would decide the outcome.
The women’s team saw a strong performance from Pier, who is in her first ever season of collegiate cross-country.
Captains Owen Kiely ’06 and Wes Fuhrman took the race out in a quick, but relaxed five-minute mile, closely followed by the Ephs top two runners, including last year’s NCAA runner-up Neal Holtschulte. The rest of the squad stuck with their respective man on Williams’s squad. At three miles into the race, Kiely and Fuhrman still ran with William’s top two. Wesleyan’s number-three man Jon King ’07 once again ran smooth and consistent, slightly off the top pack, executing his job perfectly, finishing in 5th (26:21) overall. Behind King, the Cardinal’s Mike Brady ’07 and Anda Greeney ’07 were battling Williams’s fourth and fifth men with no one giving an inch. The Eph runners broke the Cards on the final hill on their home course and down into the finish as he placed 10th in 26:54. Greeney was right behind him, finishing 12th in 26:56. The final mile and hill was the Achilles heal of all the Cardinals as even top guns Kiely and Fuhrman finished 3rd (28:38) and 4th (28:41), falling to the hard-kicking Holtschulte and fellow Eph Stephen Wills.
“It kills me when the Williams’s coach comes up to me after the race and says, ‘Hey you guys ran really well today,’” said Coach John Crooke after the race. “They think it’s their God-given right to win every year. You know, I can say you guys ran well today. You guys did your best. But I won’t, because that means I have given up on you. Something I will never do.”
With the meet returning to Wesleyan for the first time in twelve years, the team looks to make this homecoming a sweet one, by defending their house. The game is about to get real.