Last Saturday morning, the men’s and women’s cross country teams competed in the Little Three Championships, hosted by Amherst. Despite the rainy weather, the Cardinals put up a good fight against their two biggest rivals, though both the men and women came in third overall.

On the women’s side, Ravenna Neville ’10 and Julia Mark ’13 dominated the five-mile race. Going neck-and-neck with Amherst’s Sophia Gallagher for the majority of the race, Neville finally took the lead with only a few feet to go and crossed the finish line with a time of 18:51. Neville’s time made her the second Wesleyan woman in the last four seasons to take first in the race, the first being Ellen Davis ’07 who also took the Little Three title in 2006.

Finishing 20 seconds behind Neville was Mark, who placed third with a solid time of 19:11. Although Mark was not happy about the rainy weather, she was proud of her team’s effort.

“It was a pretty rough day out there, considering the rain and mud,” Mark said. “The course was quite slippery at times and some people fell, but we put up a great fight and although we didn’t win, we scored well.”

Coming in after Mark for Wesleyan was the tandem of Tess Crain ’12 and Rose Keough ’13 who placed 15th (19:49) and 16th (19:49), respectively. Rounding out the group, Sarah White ’11 finished the race six seconds later with a time of 19:55.

Although the Cards did not come in first, the team remained optimistic at the end of the day.

“Despite coming in third, the scores between Amherst, Williams and Wes were close,” Neville said. “And it puts us in a good position for the end of the season to qualify for Nationals.”

“Our team hasn’t peaked yet,” Mark added. “We’ll continue to improve over the next few weeks and we’ll have the opportunity to race against these teams again later in the season. This is a really exciting time for [Wesleyan cross country].”

The women’s final tallies were Williams with a final score of 37, closely followed by Amherst with 42, and Wesleyan not far behind with a total of 50 points, its lowest score in the meet since 1996 (45).

Unable to claim any of the top spots, the Cardinal men had a tough day against Williams and Amherst. Leading the way for Wesleyan, Charles Lang ’11 came in seventh place in the race, with a time of 26:22. Close behind him was Justin Spring ’10, who placed 11th with a time of 26:35.

“Overall, the meet was definitely encouraging,” Lang said. “A lot of guys really stepped up and ran tough in the cold, rain, and mud, particularly Skyler Cummins [’13] and Henry Molofsky [’13], who had breakout races for the season.”

Marc Whittington ’13 placed 13th with a time of 27:00 and was closely followed by Cummins, who completed the race in 27:03. Coming in 21st place, James Lawrence ’12 finished with a time of 27:23.

“Marc had a strong showing and Justin had a fantastic comeback from a disappointing race at [the New England Open],” Lang said. “I think we’re all ready to be seen at the NESCAC [Championships] this Sunday.”

The men’s final scores for the day were Williams in first place with 25 points, Amherst in second with 35, and Wesleyan in third with 64.

Although the Cards did not come through with an overall victory, they did an impressive job against a pair of nationally ranked teams. Wesleyan will face Williams and Amherst again at the NESCAC Championships hosted by Trinity on Sunday.