Sports
Hamilton XC leads the pack
By Yoshi Hill ’16
October 29, 2015
With ideal conditions and the benefit of hosting the meet, Hamilton’s cross country teams put on a triumphant display at the New York State Collegiate Track Conference Championship. Michelle Fish ’17 took home the individual title, powering the women’s team to a second-place finish, a mere eight points behind the team titlists Nazareth College. The men’s team ran away with both individual and team recognition, taking seven of the top 10 finishes on the day which gave them the team title by a wide margin of 53 points.
Improving upon a fourth place showing at the Hamilton Invitational, the women’s team had four runners in the top 12. Hanna Jerome ’18 completed the six kilometer course in 22:59, 30 seconds after Fish, and placed fourth overall. Regarding Fish’s performance, Captain Grace Berg ’16 added, “Michelle has been making her return after battling injury and cross training for the majority of the season.” Elizabeth Perry ’18 and Caitlin Anthony ’18 followed close behind in eighth and twelfth respectively. Overall, the team had five members receive NYSCTC recognition.
The Continentals were without Lainie Smith ’16, a qualifier for last year’s Division III National Championships, due to a stress fracture, and Lindsay Heyer ’17, who made the 2014 NYSCTC all-conference team. Despite the loss of these important contributors, the team pulled off a remarkable achievement, which should help build up momentum as they prepare for this week’s NESCAC conference race.
From the outset of the men’s race, Hamilton was in the lead. Running in the lead pack all the way through, Adam Pfander ’16, Harry Sullivan ’16, Jack Moses ’16 and Jack Pierce ’17 controlled the pace of the race and occupied the top four spots. The Continentals’ fastest runner at the Hamilton Invitational, Pierce, led for the start of the race; however, Pfander, winner of this race in 2013, and Moses eventually caught up to him and raced ahead to finish first and second respectively. Pierce finished only six seconds after Moses with a time of 25:34 and Sullivan was right behind to grab fourth place.
Evan Abelson ’16 explained this approach, stating, “Our goal was to win this meet decisively. Other teams have been skeptical of our ability to perform consistently well, but we have dominated our past two meets and established ourselves as legitimate contenders for Nationals.”
Sprinting neck and neck, they encouraged each other throughout the entire race. It also permitted the team to practice running in a pack, which will be important in the more challenging races to come as strategy becomes essential to success.
The men’s coach, Brett Hull, lauded his team, saying, “This meet was a good tune-up for the NESCAC Championship. It allowed for us to shake off any competitive rust from Fall Break. It was definitely a confidence booster.” Abelson finished fifth in 25:54, a personal record. All seven scoring finishers earned NYSCTC recognition along with Peter Deweirdt ’18 and Reilly Shew ’19, who placed 16th and 17th respectively. Additionally, Pfander, Moses, Sullivan, Henry Whipple ’18, David Freeman ’16 and Deweirdt set their personal-bests on a course that is known to be exceptionally challenging.
Additionally, for their strong showings, Pfander and Fish were both honored as Division III Athletes of the Week by the US Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association. Like Pfander, Fish posted her personal best time over the weekend, the seventh-best time ever run on the Continentals’ 6K course.
For both teams, two straight home meets should serve as a helpful springboard into the rest of the postseason when they will be expected to continue pushing ahead and notch new records. Berg recapped the encouraging outcome, saying, “This race demonstrated we have a lot of individual talent and have improved a lot over the course of the season. Now we need to focus more on reducing the time between our first runner and seventh runner.” This week they will travel to Middletown, Connecticut where Wesleyan will host the NESCAC championships, a race filled with some of the best Division-III runners in the country.