The Amherst College men’s cross country team competed in its fifth meet of the season this past weekend, and standout Mohamed Hussein ’18 claimed his fourth individual first-place title. Amherst earned a collective second-place finish at the NESCAC championship meet.
Williams was the lone team to beat Amherst, and the Ephs earned 36 points to claim their fourth consecutive NESCAC championship.
Amherst’s second-place finish placed them above Tufts, Hamilton and Middlebury who took third, fourth and fifth respectively.
Hussein finished the race with a time of 24:43. He finished six seconds ahead of the second place runner, Bijan Mazheri of Williams.
Senior captain Dan Crowley supplemented his impressive season with a third-place finish. He shaved off an entire 28 seconds from his time at last year’s NESCAC Championship meet, finishing in 25:01. This was his third finish in the top five this season.
Raymond Meijer ’17 also fared well, finishing in 12th place for the purple and white. He finished half a minute behind Crowley with a time of 25:31.
Craig Nelson ’18 and Kevin Connors ’17 rounded out the top five runners for Amherst on the day.
Nelson raced to one of his best times of the fall season, finishing the race in 25:36. The time earned him 16th place overall.
Connors followed shortly behind to finish in fifth place among the purple and white runners. His final time was 26:09, good for 30th in a field of 120.
The remainder of Amherst’s runners all finished with impressive times.
Captain Jeff Seelaus ’16 raced to a 26:16 finish, just seconds behind his teammate Connors.
First-year Tucker Meijer followed just four seconds behind Seelaus, posting a time of 26:20. He was named the NESCAC rookie of the year for his showing at the race.
Other all-conference recognitions came for Hussein, Crowley and Raymond Meijer. Hussein and Crowley were both recognized as first-team honorees while Meijer’s impressive 12th-place finish earned him second team laurels.
Additionally, as the first-place finisher at the meet, Hussein was recognized as the most outstanding performer. He remains undefeated against Division III competition in all races this season.
Other contributors for Amherst included Cosmo Brossy ’19 (26:37), Jack Wesley ’18 (26:39), Scott Nelson ’18 (27:01), Steven Lucey ’17 (27:13) and Kristian Sogaard ’19 (28:13).
After such a successful weekend, the purple and white will look to carry this momentum into the upcoming ECAC championships, which will be hosted by Williams this year. The race will begin at 12:30 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 7.
Last year, Amherst took third place out of the 43 teams competing at the ECAC championships. Lucey was the top indivdual finisher for the Jeffs at the meet in 2014, taking third place.
“One of the biggest things we have to focus on is closing up the gap for our number three and number seven runners,” Raymond Meijer said. “We’ve had a small gap in past races, so we know it’s possible. So, although we were dissapointed not to get the win, we’re making sure not to dwell on it and to use it as motivation for the big championship races coming up.”
The meet is the Jeffs’ second to last of the regular season. They’ll travel to Winneconne, Wisconsin for the NCAA Division III Championships in two short weeks.
