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(12/03/15 1:09am)
On Saturday, Nov. 21 both the men’s and women’s cross-country teams competed at the NCAA National Championship at University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh in Winneconne, Wisconsin this past Saturday. It was a chilly day with highs in the upper 20’s, but the Panthers made the most of it. Facing challenging conditions and competition, both the men and the women’s teams posted impressive finishes in the final meet of the season.
On the men’s side, Sebastian Matt ’16 earned All-American honors, as did Abigail Nadler ’19 for the women as they both finished in the top 35 places overall. The men finished 24th in a field of 32 teams, while the women were eighth in a similar field of 32 teams.
Nadler led the women’s team with a 28th place finish.
“I just tried to stay in the lead pack and remain relaxed,” Nadler said. “I was struggling near the end but overall I’m happy with my race. Everyone on the team put it all out there and we should be happy with that.”
Adrian Walsh ’16 (53), Erzsie Nagy ’17 (94), Sasha Whittle ’17 (142) and Katherine Tercek ’16 (152) followed Nadler to complete the team scoring. Also racing were Nikki Schachman ’16 (187) and Emma DeCamp ’17 (216). Outside of the Middlebury team, Williams won the national championship and Abrah Masterson of Cornell College was the individual champion.
On the men’s side, Sebastian Matt ’16 finished as an All-American in 17th place. Chony Aispuro ’18 (92), Brian Rich ’17 (137), Sam Cartwright ’16 (229) and Kevin Serrao ’18 (245) scored the rest of the points for Middlebury. Conor Evans ’19 (253) and Sam Klockenkemper ’17 (267) also competed. For the men, Wisconsin-Eau Claire won the championship and Ian LaMere of Wisconsin-Platteville claimed the individual title.
Matt felt reflective after his final race as a Middlebury panther.
“It was an incredible day,” Matt said. “Coming back from a draining regional race, we gave it our all. It wasn’t the best race we’ve run, but it was the best race we could have run. Mickey came in clutch, leading us from the beginning to the end.”
This wraps up the season for the cross-country teams, but shortly we will see many of them race out on the track. There will be many of the same match-ups and it promises to remain exciting.
(11/19/15 3:39am)
This past Saturday, Nov. 14 the men’s and women’s cross country teams competed at the NCAA Regional Championship at Connecticut College, racing at Harkness Memorial State Park. The women’s team secured a third place finish among 56 teams, while the men’s team finished sixth of 55 teams. The women automatically qualified for the NCAA Championship this coming weekend, while the men were awarded an at-large bid on Sunday, Nov. 15. The NCAA awards 16 men’s and women’s teams the automatic qualification, and selects 16 more teams for the at-large bid.
On the women’s side, Abigail Nadler ’19 continued her great first season, bringing in the Middlebury top five in fifth place out of 390 racers. Adrian Walsh ’16 (19), Katherine Tercek ’16 (23), Erzie Nagy ’17 (26) and Emma DeCamp ’17 (35) followed Nadler.
“The regional race was a big improvement for our team from NESCACs,” Nadler said. “Everything is coming together at the right time and we’re ready
to reach another level at nationals." These five places brought the Middlebury women’s team score to 108 points, just a single point behind second place Tufts, who followed Williams overall. Placing in the top 35 earned all five scorers All New England honors. “Individually, it is hard for me to specially salute any one particular person that had a great race as I think they all did, which led to how well we did,” Head Coach Nicole Wilkerson said. “It is such a collective effort and I was incredibly pleased with how the women performed. We are excited for next weekend and will look for stiff competition from Williams, John Hopkins, MIT, Tufts and St. Lawrence.” The men were led by Sebastian Matt ’16, who finished in 13th place in a field of 380 competitors. Brian Rich ’17 (15), Chony Aispuro ’18 (21), Sam Klocken- kemper ’17 (57) and Sam Cartwright ’16 (62) followed him.
“Everything came together at the right time,” Matt said. “Our top three runners all ran their fastest 8k’s on a super windy day ... we’re peaking at the right time and are ready for nationals. I’ve never been excited to go to Wisconsin until now.”
Wilkerson also paid tribute to the men’s performance.
“The last 1k of the race was critical because both Sam Cartwright and Klockenkemper passed at least 10 people and snuck us into 6th place,” Wilkerson said. “It was nerve racking waiting for the NCAA Committee to decide if Midd would get a bid to compete but I was really glad when we heard that we were selected. With the men going to NCAA’s, it makes it the 6th year in a row that we have been competing at NCAA’s. Prior to six years ago, the men’s team has never qualified even once so the streak we cur- rently have going is pretty important and remarkable.”
Both the men’s and women’s teams will travel to Winneconne, Wis. next weekend where they will compete in the NCAA Championship hosted by the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh at the Lake Breeze Golf Club. The teams race on Saturday, Nov. 21, with the women beginning at noon and the men going off at 1:20 p.m.
(11/11/15 9:23pm)
The men’s and women’s cross country teams competed at Mt. Greylock High School this past Saturday, Nov. 7. The men competed in a field of 40 teams, placing third with 117 points total. They followed Amherst, with 53 points and Williams with 77. The women also had an impressive finish, ending fourth overall with 78 points in a field of 46 teams. This was an upset for the other teams in the competition, as the women entered the ECAC Championship ranked eighth. They followed Tufts with 45 points, University of New England with 63 and Williams with 73 points. Both teams rested their top eight runners in preparation for NCAA Regionals this weekend, and the NCAA National Championship the following weekend.
The women had five runners finishing in the top 20 runners of a 311-runner field. The top finisher for the women was Robin Vincent ’18 who finished fifth. She was followed closely by a tight pack of Olivia Artaiz ’16 (18), Caroline Guiot ’16 (19), Claire Gomba ’19 (20) and Read Allen ’18 (66). Artaiz and Guiot finished out their final season and final race on a high note, crossing the finish line at nearly the same time. Tiana Thomas of University of New England won the race with a time of 22:54.20.
Artaiz was proud of her team after running her last race for the Panthers.
“I would say that we went into this weekend all knowing it was our last race so wanted to have fun with it,” she said. “We were all in a good mood in the line and it was a symbolic race for Caroline and I as it was out last race ever wearing a Middlebury uniform. We ran the entire race together and finished at the exact same time. We had plans to hold hands across the finish but we found out you can’t actually do that in cross country or you get disqualified. It was a good close to the season and we were all happy to race one last time for each other.”
On the men’s side, Samuel Klockenkemper ’17 was the top finisher for Middlebury, finishing in 10th place. He was followed by Kevin Serrao ’18 in 15th, Harrison Knowlton ’19 (18), Benjamin Hill ’19 (25) and Andrew Michelson ’19 (50). The men competed against a field of 277 runners, making their top five finishes all the more impressive. Liam Simpson of Williams College topped the competition with a time of 26:24.13.
“It was a great day,” Klockenkemper said. “We ran a team of mostly first-years and to get third like that speaks to the depth of our team. We’ve got a lot of positive energy moving forward from this meet and our performance at NESCAC’s, and I think we’re all just excited to see what this team can do. We’re running fast when it counts.”
While many of the Panthers finished out their season with this meet, the runners who were rested this weekend will compete again this Saturday, Nov. 14 at regionals. The women race at 11 a.m. and the men follow at 12:30 p.m.
(11/05/15 12:57am)
This past Saturday, Oct. 31 the men’s and women’s cross country teams competed at the NESCAC championships hosted by Wesleyan University at Long Lane Farm. It was a beautiful fall day and the conditions were great for running on Halloween. The Panthers competed against the ten other teams in the NESCAC, some of the best teams in the country. The competition included Middlebury, Williams, Tufts, Connecticut College, Wesleyan, Bowdoin, Bates, Colby, Hamilton, Trinity College and Amherst College. Overall, the women placed third out of eleven and the men placed fifth, with great performances on both sides.
The women finished third behind Williams and Tufts, with a total of 92 points. Williams and Tufts had 30 and 66, respectively. The women were well ahead of fourth place Amherst with 113 points and fifth place Bates with 139 points. The top five finishers for the women were Abigail Nadler ’19 (2), Adrian Walsh ’16 (13), Emma DeCamp ’17 (22), Katherine Tercek ’16 (27) and Sasha Whittle ’17 (31).
“Overall, I’m very excited about getting second place, but I know there’s still room for improvement,” Nadler said. “I’m really proud of how hard the team ran, but we all know that we still haven’t reached our full potential.” She finished just one second behind the NESCAC Champion Lizzie Lacy of Amherst.
The men’s team finished fifth behind Williams, Amherst, Tufts and Hamilton. They finished with a total of 147 points, just three points behind fourth place Hamilton. They averaged a four second faster 8K pace overall than the fourth place finisher, indicating just how close the race was. The top five finishers for the men were Sebastian Matt ’16 (13), Chony Aispuro ’18 (17), Brian Rich ’17 (18), Sam Cartwright ’16 (37) and Sam Klockenkemper ’17 (58).
“A lot of people really stepped up this weekend,” Rich said. “Now that we’ve qualified for regionals, we can focus on building the speed necessary for the late-season meets.”
Overall, Head Coach Nicole Wilkerson was happy with her team’s result.
“We were happy with the results but will look to improve on them,” Wilkerson said. “We had some excellent performances from the women but I think we can close the gap (and pass) on Tufts even more. MIT will be in the mix as well at Regionals.”
Next weekend, the teams go on to compete at ECACs hosted by Williams, and NCAA Regionals at Connecticut College the following weekend. There are only three more potential meets left in the season for Panthers Cross Country, with the final meet being the NCAA Division III National Championship in Wisconsin.
(10/22/15 12:46am)
Both the men’s and women’s cross country teams competed at the University of Albany Invitational on Saturday, Oct. 17. The meet was full of competition, as the Panthers once again competed against mostly Division I schools, making both team’s performances all the more impressive. The women finished third out of thirteen teams and the men won the meet, championing a field of fourteen teams.
The Middlebury men’s team edged out Siena College by a single point and third-place Marist by four. The competition was close, but the men persevered, even while missing three runners of their Varsity team.
“We raced well regardless and didn’t let ourselves get complacent behind our opponents, proven by the fact that we won by one point,” Chony Aispuro ’18 said. “In the running world this means our team pushed itself to pass as many opponents as possible; every runner matters and we didn’t let any get away from us to take the win.”
The top seven for the men were Sebastian Matt ’16 (3), Aispuro (6), Samuel Klockenkemper ’17 (15), Connor Evans ’19 (24), Harrison Knowlton ’19 (26), Kevin Serrao ’18 (40) and Tim McGovern ’18 (43). The top five scoring places brought the team to a score of 74.
The women also had an impressive performance at Albany.
“Initially we were a little disappointed with third place because we’ve been racing really well, but our scoring was very successful in this tight race and we scored better than we have in the past two years when we had very strong teams,” Adrian Walsh ’16 said.
The top seven finishers for the women were Abigail Nadler ’19 (2), Katherine Tercek ’16 (15), Emma DeCamp ’17 (21), Walsh (23), Katherine MacCary ’19 (24), Robin Vincent ’18 (27) and Sasha Whittle ’17 (32). The top five finishers brought the team score to 85 points, just three seconds behind second place Marist. Additionally, the spread between first and fifth finishers on Middlebury was only 51 seconds, indicating a very strong team performance on this windy Saturday.
“The results showed how deep the talent is for the women’s squad,” Tercek said. “The time lapse between our top seven runners was less than a minute. We want to get that gap to be as small as possible with championship season beginning in two weeks with NESCACS.”
Following a successful weekend at Albany the team is looking forward to championship season.
“Yesterday was just a fun meet,” Head Coach Nicole Wilkerson said. “The men raced without three of the top guys so their win was especially sweet. The women raced well, although they came out in 3rd. I am so excited for our conference meet on the 31st and glad we have an rest weekend before it. Our women’s team has narrowed our margin between 1-5 and we are just incredibly deep and strong. On the men’s side, the conference is very talented and deep this year, where more than half of the conference is ranked nationally.”
The teams rest this weekend, before returning for the NESCAC championship meet Saturday, Oct. 31 at Wesleyan.
(10/15/15 12:25am)
Both cross country teams competed in Franklin Park at the Open New England Championships this past Saturday, Oct. 10 in perfect weather for a cross country meet, sunny and in the mid-60s.
The varsity men’s team finished 12th out of 38 Division I and Division III teams with a score of 343 points and the JV team finished 12th out of 20. The top seven finishers for the men were Sebastian Matt ’16 (26), Ascencion Aispuro ’18 (46), Ethan Realander ’19 (64), Sam Klockenkemper ’17 (102), Connor Evans ’19 (117), Sam Cartwright ’16 (133) and Miles Meijer ’19 (150). They competed against a total of 251 runners.
Matt was happy with his team’s performance but is wary of future challenges.
“It was a solid day, some people really stepped up, but we’re really going to need to click to beat the competition,” Matt said. “It’s a really fast year for the NESCAC, but we can definitely compete. We have the quality and the depth to race with the best.”
Aispuro feels similarly.
“The last thing we want is to be content,” he said. “‘How good can we get?’ is the real question, and I don’t plan on settling, just as I won’t settle with finishing behind a Division I competitor. This is the second big meet we attended with Division I names. We need to go in there thinking that no matter how big the competition, we’ll still take them on, no holds barred.”
As for the women, the varsity team finished tenth out of 39 teams with a total of 293 points and the JV team finished seventh out of 28 teams. The top seven finishers for varsity were Abigail Nadler ’19 (5), Adrian Walsh ’16 (64), Erzsie Nagy ’17 (68), Robin Vincent ’18 (71), Katherine MacCary ’19 (85), Emma DeCamp ’17 (163) and Sasha Whittle ’17 (169).
Nadler continues to finish with the top competition at these big meets. Her fifth place finish was the fastest among DIII runners, losing to only three Boston College and one Northeastern runner, and proving enough to garner All-New England Honors.
“The first mile a lot of the team, including myself, got stuck behind other runners, but after it began to open up I just began picking people off and moving up,” Nadler said. “Our team is super strong, and in a few weeks we’ll be ready to show that at NESCACS.”
A little bit smaller than last week’s varsity meet, Open New England’s still provided a great opportunity to anticipate the bigger meets of the post season that is swiftly approaching.
“We’re closing the gap on some of the top teams in the region right now,” Assistant Coach Jordan Schilit said. “We have some work to do, but we’re happy with how we’re peaking thus far. [It] should be an exciting post-season. The team is looking forward to the championship season this November, it’s all a function of everyone staying healthy, and our varsity all running well on the same day. If that happens, we’re going to have a very strong November.”
On Saturday, Oct. 17, the team goes on to compete at the UAlbany Invitational for the last regular season meet of the year.
(10/07/15 11:44pm)
The men’s and women’s cross country teams competed at the Paul Short Invitational at Lehigh University and the Vermont State meet at Johnson State College this past Friday and Saturday, Oct. 2-3. Both teams came away with victories at the Vermont State meet.
At the Paul Short Run Friday the men competed in a highly competitive field of 27 teams with a total of 278 runners. A majority of the teams were Division I schools, with the remaining teams being some of the best in Division III.
Sebastian Matt ’16 was the first finisher for Middlebury College, placing 84th overall. He was followed by Ascencion Aispuro ’18 (107th), Sam Cartwright ’16 (137th), Miles Meijer ’19 (142nd), Sam Klockenkemper ’17 (159th), Harrison Knowlton ’19 (161st) and Tim McGovern ’18 (167th).
“Overall, it was a great weekend,” Matt said. “At Paul Short, the team threw down some neat times despite muddy conditions and at the Vermont state meet, the team stepped up despite ridiculous hills. Things are coming together for the postseason.”
The runners that did not compete on Friday at Paul Short ran at the Vermont State Meet on Saturday. The men’s team won the meet as Brian Rich ’17 took first, and Connor Evans ’19 finished right behind him in second. They were followed by Ethan Realander ’19 (4th), Jonathan Perlman ’19 (6th), Matt Sjogren ’19 (8th), Benjamin Hill ’19 (15th) and Peter Elkind ’18 (16th).
When asked about the big win, Rich said, “Winning the Vermont State Championship is a huge step for our team in qualifying for NESCACs. It was a true testament to the strength of our united collective.”
The women’s team had a successful weekend as well. They placed 19th out of 33 teams, a majority of which were competitive Division I teams, at Lehigh on Friday. Abigail Nadler ’19 had another stellar weekend, placing first for Middlebury in 20th out of 313 total finishers. She was followed by Adrian Walsh ’16 (72nd), Katherine Tercek ’16 (113th), Katherine MacCary ’19 (151st), Erzsie Nagy ’18 (154th), Sasha Whittle ’17 (185th) and Nikki Schachman ’16 (195th).
Nadler was obviously very excited about running against such fierce competition. “The atmosphere was amazing and it was really fast and flat course, which we don’t get to race on very often,” said Nadler. “Since there were so many people, the first mile was a little hectic and the team got a little stuck, but we remained calm and worked our way up throughout the race”.
Walsh raised the subject of team chemistry, a concept not often associated with the more individualized sport of cross country.
“Considering the size and caliber, our team did an amazing job finding each other and working together,” she said.
On Saturday the women’s team managed a perfect score, winning Vermont State Meet. They filled the first six places, with Claire Gomba ’19 in first, followed by Caroline Guiot ’16, Olivia Artaiz ’16, Read Allen ’18, Isabella Alfaro ’18 and Katie Merrick ’17. Guiot and Artaiz had great first races back from injuries.
Both teams will be back in action Saturday, Oct. 10 when they travel to Franklin Park, Mass. to compete in the Open New England Championship.
(09/30/15 9:58pm)
The women and men’s cross-country teams competed at the Purple Valley Classic at Williams College this past Saturday, Sept. 26. While the weather was more cooperative than the previous weekend, the Williams course is notoriously “challenging, yet rewarding,” according to Erzsie Nagy ’17. The women placed second overall in a field of 17 teams and the men placed sixth in a field of 22 teams.
There was intense competition at the Purple Valley Classic including four women’s teams that ranked in the top ten and seven men’s teams that ranked in the top 25. The women followed only Williams in the competition, placing ahead of MIT, Geneseo State and Amherst. The men followed Amherst, Williams, Geneseo State, MIT and Pomona-Pitzer.
Scoring for the men were Sebastian Matt ’16 (22), Miles Meijer ’19 (26), Sam Klockenkemper ’17 (33), Brian Rich ’17 (35) and Tim McGovern ’18 (38). Mohamed Hussein of Williams finished first overall.
Middlebury’s fourth place finisher, Rich, was thrilled about the competition and the performance of his teammates.
“It was just swell to get out on the course with some great runners. The way we worked together was neat and I hope we can work as a team in future meets,” Rich said.
For the women, the top five finishers were Abigail Nadler ’19 (2), Adrian Walsh ’16 (12), Erzsebet Nagy ’17 (13), Katherine Tercek ’16 (14) and Katherine MacCary ’19 (25). Lacey Serletti of Williams won the race on the women’s side. Nadler continued her streak of top place finishes this week after winning the Aldrich invitational last Saturday. She had another great race this weekend, finishing just seven seconds behind Serletti.
“It was a great experience racing with such strong competition and working with the team to move up throughout the race,” Nadler said.
These results show two runners in the women’s class of ’19 and one in the men’s class of ’19 scoring for Middlebury Cross Country. The first-year class put in a strong effort the past two weekends.
“Individually, I was really impressed with [Nadler] and [Meijer],” Wilkerson said. “They both raced extremely strong and fast.”
Despite great individual performances, the team’s performance as a whole were what seemed to stand out to Wilkerson.
“While I would like to praise those two individual performances as outstanding, I thought both teams did really well,” Wilkerson said. “Both teams averaged about 25 to 30 seconds faster than we did on this course last year, which happens to be one of the better indicators as to how we are looking. It is still early in the season, and this is a good indicator that our team is stronger than it has been in years past,” Wilkerson said when asked about how the team stacked up against some of the bigger teams in the NESCAC.
The team competes at the Paul Short Invitational at Lehigh this Friday, Oct. 2 and the Vermont invitational at Johnson State Saturday, Oct. 3. There will be over 45 teams at the race at Lehigh, with mostly Division I teams and the best Division III teams.
(09/24/15 12:51am)
Both the women and men’s cross country teams competed on their home course, hosting the Aldrich Invitational this Saturday, Sept. 19.
Five teams constituted the women’s competition: Middlebury College, Le Moyne College, Saint Michael’s College, Norwich University and Paul Smith’s College, while the men competed against only Norwich College, Le Moyne College and Paul Smith’s College.
Middlebury dominated the competition on both the men’s and women’s sides Saturday. The women filled the first nine places, scoring only 15 points in comparison to 64 points scored by second place Le Moyne College. The top five finishers for the women were Abigail Nadler ’19, Robin Vincent ’18, Erzsie Nagy ’17 and seniors Adrian Walsh ’16 and Katherine Tercek ’16.
Nadler enjoyed a great first race in her collegiate career at home.
“It was really nice to have my first college cross country race at Middlebury in front of friends, and my family came out,” Nadler said.
In respect to her race, she spoke of how she was able to run with other girls on the team and “build momentum.”
On the men’s side, the top five scorers were Sam Klockenkemper ’17, Miles Meijer ’19, Sebastian Matt ’16, Brian Rich ’17 and, lastly, Tim McGovern ’18 in sixth place.
Klockenkemper most enjoyed being out on the home course surrounded by his teammates.
“It was just super neato to put in a good effort with all the guys,” Klockenkemper said.
Miles responded similarly, excited about the freshman class as a whole.
“It was neat to have such a great group of freshmen for the whole first half of the race,” he said.
The team trained hard the past few weeks and coach Nicole Wilkerson said this factor and the weather were reflected in the times from the competition.
“I was pleased with the results; it was really great to have the first-years in uniform and racing with the team.,” Wilkerson said. “We have a strong class of first-year men and women and it was exciting to see their debut. The times were a bit off, but we had a hard week of training, coupled with racing in temps in the mid-80’s, so I am not concerned.”
Overall, the men filled eight out of the first ten places. This brought their team score to 16, again far lower than second place Norwich University with 56 points. Le Moyne and Paul Smith’s followed Norwich on the men’s side. On the women’s side, Saint Michael’s, Norwich and Paul Smith’s followed Le Moyne.
Middlebury travels to Williams next weekend, Saturday, Sept. 26, to race in a larger invitational against some of the top teams in the NESCAC. Runners and Wilkerson are both excited for what is to come.
When asked about this past and next weekends races, Klockenkemper expressed that the team is “really fit right now and excited for what’s to come.”
”We’re really looking forward to toeing the line with a lot of the teams in the conference this coming weekend when we race at Williams,” Wilkerson added.