Men
The men’s cross country team raced to a second-place finish at the NEICAAA cross country championships this past weekend.
As they have been all season, the team was again led by the efforts of Mohamed Hussein ’18, who crossed the finish line in second place overall in a field of 252 runners. The sophomore standout was named the U.S. Track & Field Association NCAA Division III Athlete of the Week for the third time in as many chances this season.
While Hussein was the indisputable star of the race, the Jeffs performed well as a unit as well, placing all seven of the team’s runners in the top 80.
Dan Crowley ’16 also continued to enjoy an impressive fall campaign. He placed second among the purple and white runners, crossing the line with a time of 24:55 to finish 10th overall.
Craig Nelson ’18 placed 40th overall with a time of 25:30. Raymond Meijer ’17 finished just 10 seconds behind him, placing 60th in the field.
Tucker Meijer ’19, Jeff Seelaus ’16 and Steven Lucey ’17 rounded out the scoring for the Jeffs. They finished with times of 25:47, 25:48 and 25:51 good for 71st, 74th and 80th, respectively.
Amherst returns to action when they host rivals Wesleyan and Williams for the Little Three Cross Country Championship this Saturday, Oct. 17. The meet will start promptly at 1 p.m.
Last year, Amherst placed second in the meet, falling to the then host school, Williams. Hussein looks to improve upon his fourth-place mark as a first-year, while Crowley and Raymond Meijer will also hope to factor largely into the scoring again this season.
Women
Junior Savanna Gornisiewicz placed 36th overall at the NEICAAA championships to help lead Amherst to a 20th place team finish among 39 competing teams. The Jeffs improved five spots from the mark they posted back in 2013 at the same tournament, scoring 74 fewer points.
First-year Lizzie Lacy cross the line in second among the Jeff runners, notching a time of 18:34. It placed her at 45th overall in the field of 263 runners.
Senior captain Besty Black placed 152nd overall, crossing the line in 19:36. This was a full four seconds faster than the time she posted back in 2013.
Tess Frenzel ’17 ran to a 164th place finish with a time of 19:40. She saw a significant improvement from her time in the race as a first-year, shaving off a whopping 1:16.
First-year Veronica Rocco continued to impress in her debut campaign, placing fourth among Jeff runners and 168th overall with a time of 19:44.
Junior Cat Lowdon rounded out the top five for the Jeffs, finishing three seconds after Rocco with a time of 19:47.
Amherst plays host to rivals Wesleyan and Williams for the Little Three Championships this Saturday, Oct. 17.
Last year Amherst raced to a second-place team finish at the meet. Gornisiewicz paced the team, finishing second place overall and finishing just four seconds behind the first-place runner.
Williams has won the meet seven consecutive times and holds the majority of victories with 28 total.
With many of their top five from last year lost to graduation or studying abroad, the Jeffs will look to their experienced junior runners and strong core of underclassmen to help boost them to a home course victory.
