MEN
The Amherst cross country squad made the short trip to the UMass Minutemen Invitational on Saturday to open the 2012 campaign, and both teams turned out performances to build upon against very strong competition.
The men’s team came in fourth place overall out of five teams in a field that included two Division I programs and a Division II program. In fact, the efforts of Greg Turissini ’15 and his teammates were almost enough to beat the Univ. of Connecticut for third place, but the Huskies just edged out the men’s squad.
That said, Amherst did finish far ahead of the only Division III competition, Keene State. Turissini paced the team with a five mile time of 24:38, that put him at seventh place overall.
His performance earned him NESCAC Performer of the Week honors, the first time a member of the men’s cross country team has won the award in more than three years.
KC Fussell ’15 and Gus Greenstein ’16 also turned in solid times for the Jeffs, finishing back-to-back in 17th and 18th place with nearly identical times of 25:03 and 25:04, respectively.
The duo of Adron Pittman ’13 and Alvaro Morales ’14 also ran together and finished two seconds apart.
Pittman came in 24th place with a time of 25:20, with Morales coming in at 25:22 for 25th place.
WOMEN
The Amherst women also ran well over the weekend, placing third overall out of six teams. This accomplishment stands out as especially notable considering the Jeffs beat a pair of Division I squads in UMass Amherst and Colgate Univ., and only finished behind Boston College and Stonehill Univ.
Standout senior Keri Lambert was instrumental in the Jeffs’ solid team performance, finishing third overall with a five kilometer time of 18:06.42.
Eight Amherst runners finished in under 20 minutes to complete an all-around team effort, including Lizzy Briskin ’15 and Lauren Almeida ’15.
Briskin finished in 19:13.43 to earn 22nd place, while Almeida was not far behind, clocking in at 19:24.90 for 23rd place.
These breakout performances, especially from Briskin, are encouraging signs looking forward for the Lady Jeffs.
After the successful weekend at UMass, both the men and women will turn their attention to NESCAC competition this Saturday.
The men will travel to the Wesleyan Invitational, while the women are set to run in the Purple Valley Invitational hosted by Williams.
Given the Jeffs ran well enough to compete with Division I programs this weekend, they should fare well against their Division III NESCAC rivals next weekend and for the rest of the season.
