Men
This past Saturday, the Amherst men’s cross country team traveled to Williams to compete in the Purple Valley Classic. Thanks to Mohamed Hussein ’18 and his fifth place overall finish, the Jeffs took fourth place in the 21-team event.

Hussein recorded a time of 26:25.9, and just behind him was Dan Crowley ’16 with a time of 26:33.1, which was good enough for ninth in the 236-person field. Rounding out the top five for Amherst were senior captains KC Fussell (27:05.6) and Greg Turissini (27:08.2) along with Raymond Meijer ’17 (27:08.7), who finished 24th, 27th and 28th overall, respectively.

“This race was a great early season test for us, as the number one, two, three, four (us), five, seveb and 10 ranked teams in the New England region all raced,” said Turissini. “Mo and Ray really stepped-up for us and helped us secure a fourth-place finish. We beat Tufts and Middlebury for the first time since 2009 and 2010, respectively. Overall, I think it was an excellent starting point for the season.”

“We have some work to do in the coming weeks, and we will make some adjustments to things, but overall, I thought the team did a great job of competing and working together,” said head coach Eric Nedeau. “They have been doing a fantastic job of getting in quality workouts so far this season, and I’m looking forward to that continuing.”

The Jeffs next meet is the NEICAAA Championships on Saturday, Oct. 11 at Franklin Park in Boston.

Women
The women’s cross country took fifth place with 153 points at the Purple Valley Classic this past Saturday hosted at Williams.

The Jeffs were led by Savanna Gornisiewicz ’17, whose time of 22:56.7 placed her eighth overall in the 267-person field. Next across the tape for Amherst was Nicky Roberts ’18 (23:15.0), who was 15th overall. Senior captains Lizzy Briskin (23:42.5) and Jessie Kaliski (23:54.4) were the third and fourth-place finishers for the Jeffs and 32nd and 41st overall, respectively.

“I thought our top four raced exceptionally well. I was happy to see the way we matched up runner by runner with some of the other teams in the meet that will be our big competition at the end of the year. It’s still early, and we still have a lot of work to do, but I’m happy with where our scoring five are at,” said head coach Cassie Funke-Harris.

The Jeffs’ next chance to compete will be next Saturday, Oct. 4 when they travel to Lehigh University for the Paul Short Invitational.