Cross country races to second place finish in NEWMAC championship

On Saturday, Oct. 27, Wellesley cross country came in second place, behind MIT, in the New England Women’s and Men’s Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) Championship, held at Smith College in Northampton, Mass. MIT is ranked first in the nation, and Wellesley has come in second behind them for the past four years.

Wellesley runner Priyanka Fouda ’16 was the only non-MIT student to be in the top ten. She earned a ninth place finish, earning all-conference honors with a time of 19:07.50 in the 5k event. 

The Wellesley team as a whole had a strong finish. Five of the team’s runners placed in the top 25, including Randelle Boots ’13, who came in 16th in her first race of the season after coming back from injury. Sara Putterman ’13 took 21st, Christina Lucas ’13 took 23rd and Taylor Bickford ’15 took 24th. 

Points are allotted based on the finishes of the top five runners for each team. The goal is to get the fewest points possible. MIT won with 15 points, the lowest possible score. Wellesley scored 75 points, Smith took third place with 124 points and Wheaton was fourth with 131. Coast Guard, WPI, Mount Holyoke, Springfield, Babson and Clark rounded out the bottom six.

While they did not contribute to the team total, the sixth and seventh Wellesley runners, Ada Smith ’13 and Victoria Lee ’16, were in the hunt at 26th and 32nd. These results show the depth of the current Wellesley line-up. 

“We improved a lot on the course, having raced it at the start of the season,” Assistant Coach Allison Wade said. 

“This is one of the strongest teams Wellesley’s ever had. We have a lot of talented runners who have contributed over the course of the season,” Coach John Babington said. “Across the board we saw an average [of a] minute and 17 second improvement.” 

Wellesley is now looking ahead to the 2012 NCAA New England Regional meet. They have steadily improved their ranking at this event over the past three years. We will have to wait until Nov. 10 to see if they can bring it up again this year.