On Saturday, November 1, the 32nd annual NESCAC Cross Country Championships took place at Middlebury College. The men competed in an 8K (4.9 miles) race at noon and the women will run a 6K (3.7 miles) at 1 p.m.
The Camels ended up with a tenth place finish out of eleven teams at the event, led by Ben Bosworth in 21st place.
Last year, the Williams College men brought home their seventh title in nine years. They beat Middlebury, the runners-up, by twelve points last year, having three of the top nine runners.
At last year’s championships, the Connecticut College men took eighth place, while the women finish seventh. Michael LeDuc ’14 won the men’s individual title with a time of 24:35, topping the previous course record by eighteen seconds. It was the first time that Connecticut College won an individual title in the Cross Country program’s history for the championships.
This season, the Camels have been off to a great start. According to senior captain Michael Joyce, “The team has been running really well this year. The top pack of our team has been able to run both workouts and races very tight and close together.” Looking back on the previous season, he said that he doesn’t think that the team has ever been so close between the top ten guys on the team.
Additionally, the Camels have been preparing themselves for the high level of competition they will see at the championships. Joyce said that the team has been competing in “some top level races this year, including the Iona Meet of Champions and the Paul Short Invitational at Lehigh.”
The Camels are still feeling confident even with the loss of national champion LeDuc. Joyce said, “the team has been working really hard and since we have such a tight pack this year, I think it is very possible that we can finish higher at NESCACs than last year.”
