This past weekend, the Amherst College women’s cross country team traveled to Middletown, Connecticut to compete in the 2015 NESCAC cross country championship.
The team looked to build upon its third place finish in the race last year. While Amherst could only manage fourth place out of the 11-team field, the team’s performance indicated that the team would be in good hands for the next few years.
First-year Lizzie Lacy finished the 5K with a time of 21:48, and in doing so finished first out of the 123-woman field. After being one of Amherst’s most consistent runners for the majority of the season, Lacy finally captured her first career individual title when it mattered most.
In winning the race, Lacy also captured the most outstanding performer and rookie of the year awards. She is only the third women’s cross country runner to achieve both of these distinctions in the same year. As a result of her performances at this meet, Lacy was also named to the All-Conference first team by the NESCAC office.
While Lacy stole the show with her outstanding effort, many other Jeffs also put in excellent performances.
Savanna Gornisiewicz ’17 ran well, as she has all season, and finished with a time of 22:19, good for 12th place among the field. She garnered second team All-Conference honors, her second All-Conference distinction in as many years. Her time this year represented a 21-second improvement over her fifth-place finish last year at the 2014 NESCAC Championships.
Behind Lacy and Gornisiewicz, first-year Veronica Rocco finished with a time of 22:52, earning 24th place overall for the purple and white. Her time also represented the third-best finish for a first-year among the others competing at the meet.
Rounding out the scorers for the Jeffs were senior captain Betsy Black and junior Cara Lembo. They finished in 36th and 51st places, respectively.
The Jeffs look to build on this performance next week at the 2015 ECAC Championship, hosted by Williams. Amherst finished in sixth place as a team at the 2014 meet.
