The Panther cross country teams traveled to Williamstown, Mass. on Saturday, Sept. 27 to race in the Purple Valley Classic hosted by Williams College. Purple Valley is traditionally the first big race of the season for New England Division-III cross country teams and also serves as a preview of the NCAA D-III New England Regional Championship in November, which will be run on the same course.
Amid strong competition, the women finished with 65 points — second to only MIT’s 36 points — while the men took home a sixth-place finish with 152 points.
The day started with men toeing the line, running the same eight-kilometer distance they will race all season. The Colby Mules were the surprise winners with 55 points after finishing second to Middlebury in the previous week’s Aldrich Invitational. The Mules were bolstered by the return of their top two runners — David Chelimo and Peter Hale — both of whom did not run at Aldrich but turned in strong races at Purple Valley. Chelimo won the race in a time of 25:42 and Hale placed seventh with a time of 26:30.
As has been the trend thus far this season, Kevin Wood ’15 was the first Panther to across the line, logging an eighth-place finish with a time of 26:31. Wilder Schaaf ’14.5 finished the course in 26:45 for 15th place. Behind Schaaf came Sebastian Matt ’16 in 44th, Brian Rich ’17 in 51st and Sam Cartwright ’16 in 52nd.
After the men, the women took to the course, bumping back up to the six-kilometer race distance that is standard in championship races after running five kilometers the previous week.
Alison Maxwell ’15 finished fourth with a time of 22:44, just 21 seconds behind the winner Sarah Quinn of MIT. Adrian Walsh ’16 was the second finisher for the Panthers, crossing the line with a time of 23:00, good for 11th place overall. Finishing within 25 seconds of Walsh were Addis Fouche-Channer ’17 in 14th, Summer Spillane ’15 in 16th, and Olivia Artaiz ’16 in 20th to round out the scoring places.
Walsh described how the warm temperatures altered the team’s strategy at Williams.
“It was a pretty warm day on Saturday which definitely affected everyone’s strategy in the race,” Walsh said. “As the race progressed, the packs seemed to break up slightly but everyone overall worked really well together and helped each other to the finish.”
The next competition for the Panthers is the Vermont State Meet, hosted by Vermont Technical College, on Saturday Oct. 4. The Panthers have won the State Meet every year they have entered in recent memory and plan on continuing their dominance this season.
After that, the teams will travel to historic Franklin Park in Boston to compete in the NEICAAA Championships, one of the oldest cross country meets in the United States.
Walsh expressed optimism as the middle of the season approaches.
“We placed second overall which is a great starting point and it’s exciting to think about what the team is capable of on a really good day,” Walsh said.
