Images Courtesy of Maddy Dombal ’26
On Saturday, November 1, the women’s cross-country team recorded the program’s highest ever finish placing third out of 11 teams at the team’s home course, Harkness Memorial State Park, at the NESCAC cross-country championships. Ranked 13 in the nation and third among NESCAC teams heading into the meet, the team recorded 81 points behind No. 1 Williams College and No. 9 Middlebury College to finish third in the conference on a windy afternoon on the Long Island Sound.
The Camels were led by Grace McDonough ‘26. who finished runner-up, a program best individual finish. By virtue of her second place finish, McDonough earned All-NESCAC first team honors, in 21:05.0. McDonough found herself surprisingly in the lead through 1.65k. “The start of the race went out a lot slower than expected so I found myself closer to the front than I would have hoped, but going into the race, my “plan” was pretty simple: to have fun,” said McDonough. “Since it was my last time running at Harkness, I wanted to soak it in and run a race I would be proud of. During the race, I was focused on the fact that every place made an impact on our team score which helped bring me through the finish, along with the positive atmosphere created by my teammates, friends, and family that lined the course.” Once the field thinned out, McDonough dropped back to third at the halfway 3k point before dropping to sixth 4.8k in. However, McDonough dropped the fastest final 1.2k split of the field to move up to finish in second. Despite the windy conditions, McDonough was not fazed. “The conditions are the same for everyone, so all you have to do is race the person next to you, and on a good day, this might just be enough to overcome less-than-ideal conditions to earn a personal best,” said McDonough.
The Camels’ team score was boosted tremendously by Kiera Tallas ‘27 and Abby Williams ‘27, who earned All-NESCAC second team honors finishing eighth and 14th in personal record 6k times of 21:19.14 and 21:46.49. “Because we had raced our home meet [in the same course] just two weeks prior to the NESCAC meet, I definitely had a plan coming into the race…the NESCAC meet is a much smaller race with only about 150 girls racing which was a huge mental change from competing with almost 300 girls at our home meet,” said Tallas. “Going into the race, I knew that the conditions were far from ideal, unlike two weeks prior. Despite this, I really tried to focus on the aspects of the race that I could control rather than things that were out of my hands. For instance, I focused on doing my usual warm-ups and mental preparations, preparing for the race as if the weather was ideal. Thankfully, the wind wasn’t awful but I definitely tried to run behind someone during the windy parts of the course.” To run her personal record 6k time, Williams focused on staying with Tallas as long as possible. “I had a plan to not really focus on time but rather placement because I wanted us to place high at NESCACs,” said Williams. “I…tried to keep my sights on Kiera because I knew that if I stayed close to her I could get a personal best…I really like being able to use my teammates to push myself.”
Neither Tallas nor Williams expected to finish in the top 14 to earn All-NESCAC honors. “I definitely wasn’t expecting [the] three of us to earn All-NESCAC honors, I thought it would just be Grace,” said Tallas. “Being an All-NESCAC runner is an unbelievable honor that I never thought I would get when I was a freshman [and] I’m grateful that my dedication to the sport and the unbelievable amount of self-determination I had last year has been paying off.” Williams similarly did not think of the possibility of earning All-NESCAC honors until during the race. “I didn’t expect it at all…when someone yelled to me that I was in 14th, the adrenaline set in and I knew I had to push it.”
Following closely, Alexa Estes ‘26 and Alsacia Timmerman ‘26 rounded out the scoring for the Camels finishing in 28th and 35th respectively in times of 22:16.01 and 22:28.11. April Schilling ‘27 and Abby Fernald ‘26 rounded out the Camels top 7, finishing 49th and 78th in times of 22:49.28 and 23:23.23. “Having raced the same course just two weeks before, I knew what I wanted to replicate from my previous performance and what I wanted to change,” said Schilling. “Before meet day, I visualized myself making these changes during the race and how that would create a different outcome. Since it was our last time on the course this fall, and hosting conference champs at your home course is rare, I went into the race with a sense of gratitude…this gratitude made me even more excited as I realized how lucky I was to be able to race at our beautiful home course, with so many of my teammates.”
The women’s cross-country team came into the meet ranked third among the 11 NESCAC teams and knew they had a target on their backs with pressure to perform. However, the team was well-prepared to perform. “Because we were ranked high in the nation and among the NESCAC teams, I think there was definitely a bit of pressure to live up to these expectations…with the meet being at our home course, this also brought about an additional pressure to perform,” said Tallas. “In order for us to feel mentally prepared, we did a lot of workouts at Harkness Park leading up to the meet. The Tuesday before the race we did the last 800 of the course six times [and] a week prior to that we had done the last 1k of the course five times. Having done these workouts and running the last part of the course a number of times really helped us feel strong during the last few minutes of the race.”
The team felt well-prepared to perform given the work they had put in prior to the season.
“I’d say there definitely was a pressure to perform but I don’t think any of us ever doubted what we were capable of…we knew going into this season that we were capable of making it to nationals and being in the top 15 teams,” said Schilling. “I think we all have this trust for each other that eases that feeling of pressure. Collectively, we all know we were ready to put in the work with summer training, that we would continue to listen to our bodies, and that we were ready to show up and commit to doing hard things throughout the fall semester.”
Although cross-country is a fall sport, much of the work for the season is done in the summer. “The majority of work is done over the summer in order to set us up for a successful season. It requires an immense amount of self-discipline to complete the summer training with some of us running 50+ mile weeks without having our teammates to run with everyday,” said captain Caitlin Bird ‘26. “We were fortunate in that we only graduated one senior last year and all of our captains from last season were named captains again for this season so overall there was not much shifting in leadership.”
For the camels, the team’s program best finish was a reflection of all the dedication and hard work team members have put into the team. “Our team right now is the best our team has ever been, and this is something that we have said throughout the season…what’s special is although only 15 people on our team raced at NESCACs and only seven will continue to race at the other championship races, this mindset is present throughout every single individual on our 34 person team,” said Schilling. “Our finish at NESCACs makes me really proud and grateful to be on this team and to be a part of this present moment.”
Having finished sixth, fourth, and ninth in the preceding three years, the team feels proud of their third place finish. “We came in pretty close to the bottom of the barrel my freshman year, and have worked past program bests, season bests, and personal records,” said Timmerman. “The growth we’re seeing here is one that I’m really happy to have been a part of and one that I’m excited to take with me in life…it couldn’t have happened without all the friends, rivals, and teammates I met along the way [and] this kind of rise can happen for any team if they give it their all and it’s really cool to see it in a sport that usually happens away from the public eye.”
The Camels are not done yet and have their eyes set on performing well at the NCAA Mideast Regional meet at St. Lawrence University on November 15, where they can earn a spot to the NCAA DIII Nationals meet.
“The Mideast Region is so deep and strong which makes for an exciting racing opportunity,” said McDonough. “Our team is hoping to keep building on the season we’ve had so far and challenge teams we’ve been neck-and-neck with in previous races earlier in the season.”
The women’s cross-country team hopes to place high enough as a team so that they are able to compete at the national championship meet for a third straight year. “I think it would be amazing if we placed 3rd as a team [at regionals],” said Schilling. “We always have a goal of beating Middlebury, so it would be really amazing to go after that and be able to successfully execute it.”
