In their first race since placing 12th at the NCAA Division III Cross Country National Championships last year, the Mammoths dominated at the Smith Invitational on Saturday, Sept. 9. Amherst won with a near-perfect score of 17, while Franklin Pierce, a Division II school, finished a distant second with 50 points.
Unlike most college cross-country races, the Smith Invitational was contested at the 5k, rather than the usual 8k, distance.
After losing only two of their top-seven runners from 2016, the Mammoths look to have a strong season and return to nationals for the fourth year in a row.
Several experienced members return in 2017, all of whom will help the Mammoths challenge for a NESCAC Championship after placing second to rival Williams the past two years.
Anthony Spina inspires enthusiasm in everyone that he meets. In the classroom, Spina brings an earnestness that professors and classmates alike find magnetic. On the baseball diamond, he brings lightning-quick bat speed and an equally quick ability to put his teammates at ease in the clubhouse. In Amherst Christian Fellowship (ACF), he speaks and reads with a presence and wisdom that belie his youth. This enthusiasm is simply a mirror image of his own approach to life.
The women’s basketball team was flawless in the 2016-2017 season, finishing with a 33-0 record for the first undefeated season in program history and their second National Championship. Throughout the season, the Mammoths found their most challenging competitor in NESCAC rival Tufts, whom they defeated three times over the campaign in regular season play, the NESCAC Championship game and the National Championship game.
Last weekend, the men’s track and field team traveled to Trinity to compete at the Trinity College Invitational. The unscored meet gave the Mammoths an opportunity to tuneup for next weekend’s NESCAC Championships, which will be hosted by Bowdoin.
The meet kicked off with Aziz Khan ’18 competing in the preliminary round of the 100-meter dash, where he qualified for the eight-person final with a time of 11.39 seconds. In the final, he matched his preliminary round time to place sixth overall.
In their last regular-season meet before the NESCAC Track and Field Championships, the Mammoths competed at the Tufts Sunshine Classic, finishing in third place. For some Amherst athletes, it was their last competition of the season, as the season’s remaining meets have qualifying standards. For the NESCAC championship meet, teams are limited to three entries per event, each of whom must meet the NESCAC qualifying standard.
