On Saturday, Oct. 4, the Middlebury cross country teams visited Vermont Technical College to race in the Vermont State Meet. The men won their sixth consecutive state championship while the women continued their streak of victories that has lasted longer than anyone currently associated with the program can remember.
The women secured their victory by scoring 21 points, topping second-place St. Michael’s by 20 points. Olivia Artaiz ’16 was the top Middlebury finisher, taking second place by completing the five kilometer course in 20:27, less than 10 seconds off of Saint Michael’s Chloe Boutelle’s winning time.
Behind Artaiz came the usual Middlebury pack: Sarah Guth ’15, Robin Vincent ’18 and Erzsie Nagy ’17 all finished within four seconds of one another, less than 20 seconds behind Artaiz while finishing in the third, fourth and fifth spots overall. Rookie Liesel Robbins ’18 was the last scoring Panther, taking seventh place in 20:50. Nagy, the NESCAC’s top returning runner, made her season debut after battling some early season injuries.
Assistant coach Jack Davies commented on Nagy’s return.
“It was exciting because she is an extremely talented athlete who is going to be key to our success in November,” Davies said.
Conditions, course difficulty and the general lack of competition did not lend themselves to fast times, but cross country is about place, not time.
“While the atmosphere of the state meet is certainly more relaxed than some of our other meets, we take a lot of pride in being the best Vermont team across all three NCAA Divisions, and we certainly raced to win,” Davies said. “It was a really tough, hilly course that featured a cow pasture, cornfield, veterans graveyard, and an apple orchard, and it was cold, with driving rain, which added to the course’s difficulty, but we like to think our training in Middlebury prepares us for anything.”
On the men’s side, Sam Klockenkemper ’17 took first place overall to lead Middlebury to the team victory. The Panthers – whose 24 points put them 28 points ahead of second-place Lyndon State – also received scoring contributions from Charlie Jones ’15, Peter Elkind ’18, Matt Gillis ’18 and Luke Carpinello ’16.
“It was great to get the win,” Klockenkemper said. “It was actually my first race back after dealing with a knee injury, and it was a perfectly low-key environment to do it. Also, I won a quart of maple syrup, so that’s pretty neat.”
Overall Middlebury runners took six of the top 10 places in the race, including four of the top six.
Both the men’s and women’s teams were able to rest several of their top runners at the State Championship meet in hopes of recording top finishes at this weekend’s Open New England Championship. That meet – which will pit the Panthers against top Division-I, II and III competitors from around the region – will be held on Saturday, Oct. 11 in Franklin Park in Boston.
“We are feeling very strong and are excited to race against a bigger and more competitive field this coming week in Boston,” Artaiz said. “We haven’t really got the chance to go all out in a race and we are all are ready to.”
At last year’s meet, both the men’s and women’s sides finished fifth overall in very competitive fields.
