Women

The women’s cross country team will have four of last year’s top five runners, which promises great success for the program. Last year, the women’s team qualified for the NCAA meet by placing third behind Middlebury and Williams at the NCAA District Championship meet. The team’s eighth place NCAA finish was the program’s best result since it won the division title in 2007, and the third top-10 finish in the last five years.

Standout Ali Simeone ’13 is coming off of a particularly impressive sophomore season. She finished third individually at the NCAA Regional meet and 12th overall at last year’s NCAAs. Senior captain Melissa Sullivan is also a top finisher, as she garnered 11th at regionals. Both she and Simeone were named All-NESCAC last year. Sophomores Victoria Sosnowski and Angie Epifano also performed well at their first NCAA Regional meet, and will likely continue to bolster the team as they move up in their running careers.

Men

The men’s team battled injuries and illness last season, but persevered under the leadership of a strong senior class. The loss of captains Will Yochum ’11, Steve Corsello ’11 and John McGrail ’11 to graduation will be tough on this year’s squad, but tri-captain Dillon Buckley ’13 said that, “despite losing some talent up front from last year, we really are confident that our team can be a force to be reckoned with in the region.”

Patrick Grimes ’13 and Buckley both earned points for the Jeffs at last year’s NESCAC championships, and will step up to lead the team this year, along with senior captains Alec Jacobson and Ben Scheetz. Buckley thinks that “the freshman class is a talented group of guys so hopefully they can make the transition to the college ranks well and help us achieve our team goals. We also have a good group of sophomores and juniors who are ready to step up and factor into the scoring.”
The first meet for both teams this season is the UMass Amherst Invitational on Sept. 10.