Amherst Results

Race Recap

Runners of the Meet - Carlyle Eubank and Elise Tropiano

The teams headed up to Williams, and the now very familiar course at Mt. Greylock HS, looking to secure a spot at the NCAA Championships. Needing to either finish in the Top 2 to automatically qualify or finish in the Top 5 to be eligible for an at-large selections, the teams raced with purpose and got the job done. The men knew on Saturday that they had raced well enough, as they finished 2nd and earned the automatic spot whereas the women's fat rested in the hands of the selection committee and around 4:45 on Sunday afternoon, they learned that their 5th place finish in the region was good enough to make the trip to nationals. The men had a balanced attack, as they have been doing all season, and put their 5 scoring runners into the Top 35 - all earning All Region honors. As has been the case, there again was fluctuation in the order of the finishers and another top scoring runner as Eric Holaday led the team this weekend for the first time. Eric raced aggressively, putting himself in very good position during the race and would finish 15th to lead the team, with Daniel Murner coming in a few steps behind in 18th. Carlyle Eubank had a strong return after battling illness woes, and made a big impact with his 24th place finish. Jimmy Swanson and Will Yochum finished together in 32nd and 33rd and were able to close out the scoring, and benefiting by the distance between Trinity's 4th runner and their final scoring runner who was well back, to be able to grab the other automatic spot. Harrison Lakehomer and Peter Foote, finished 56th and 64th. They will all get one final chance to put everything together on the same day, and if they race aggressively and get themselves locked into the races where they are capable of being at, then we could make a huge impact on the national scene this weekend.

As they have been all season, the team was bolstered by the 1 point put up by Elise Tropiano as she became the first Amherst woman to win the district meet - joining Rob Mitchell from 1997 as the only runners to win the NE title. Using the race as a final tune-up for Nationals, she did some things in the race that will benefit her at the National Championships and enable her to race with the Top runners in the country. She outdistanced the rest of the field by 45 seconds en route to her victory. Sophie Galleher returned, after a some off races due to illness, to the lineup and came through big for the team as she grabbed 28th, while Zandra Walton had another solid race to finish 42nd - only a few seconds away from All-Region honors - in her final XC race for the team (she will be interviewing for the prestigious Mitchell Scholarship this weekend and be unable to compete at the national Championships). Hallie Schwab and Nicole Anderson finished together in 51st and 52nd, and both were in front of some of the MIT and Colby scoring runners to help keep the scoring tight. Shannon McKenna, returned after a 4 week lay off due to a bizarre ankle injury, to finish strong in 72nd, and should be able to race even better next week with an extra week of running under her legs. While it has been a tough fall with injuries, the team was able to put it together to have the opportunity to race t nationals and will rely on their experience in the past years to try and make a big mark this weekend.