Wesleyan University Will Host 23rd Annual Championship

HADLEY, Mass. - Wesleyan University will serve as host for the 2005 NESCAC Cross Country Championships, slated for Saturday, October 29, at the Long Lane Farms Course in Middletown, Conn. The women’s race will take place at 1:00 p.m. and will be followed shortly afterwards by the men’s race at 2:00 p.m.

The Tufts men will make their bid for a third consecutive NESCAC title with the leadership of senior Matthew Lacey and junior Joshua Kennedy, both First Team All-NESCAC a year ago. The Jumbos finished sixth in the 93rd New England Cross Country Championship on October 8, the highest place for any Division III team.

Looking to unseat Tufts will be a host of squads, including 2004 runner-up Williams, which will be searching for its ninth men’s crown. Senior Neal Holtschulte, the 2004 NESCAC Most Outstanding Performer and a three-time All-American, finished third at the New England Championship, the highest place for any NESCAC student-athlete. His efforts helped Williams to an eighth place showing at the all-New England event. Host Wesleyan will look to senior Owen Kiely and graduate student Wes Fuhrman, both First Team All-NESCAC selections a year ago, to pace the Cardinals during the Championship, after they finished a school-best 10th at the New England Championship.

On the women’s side, Middlebury and Williams shared the NESCAC Championship in 2004, the first time two teams have ever shared the crown. Both schools have had a strong showing in the Championship event over the past decade, as the two schools have combined to win the last nine titles. Of the top 10 runners in last season’s Championship event, six departed upon graduation and the four remaining represent four different teams. Factor in a strong showing by multiple NESCAC squads at the New England Cross Country Championship earlier this month and one is hard pressed to predict which team will come away as the 2005 Champion.

Williams came in second in the all-New England Championship, spurred by a fourth-place finish by two-time NESCAC Most Outstanding Performer senior Caroline Cretti (2002, 2004). The defending Co-NESCAC and NCAA Champion Ephs were followed closely by rival Amherst, which placed fifth at the event. 2004 NESCAC All-Conference First Team member junior Shauneen Garrahan helped Amherst by finishing third, the highest finish among NESCAC student-athletes in the women’s race. The Jeffs have placed in the top three at the NESCAC Championship three out of the last four years, finishing second to Middlebury in 2003. Colby and Middlebury rounded out the NESCAC teams in the top 10 of the New England Championship, as the Mules finished seventh while the Panthers came in a solid 10th out of 44 teams. Wesleyan’s Ellen Davis, a NESCAC All-Conference Second Team member in 2004, made her mark at the New England Championship with a fifth place finish.

The Long Lane Farm course is the home of the Wesleyan University cross-country team. The newly designed course opened in 2004 and is a true cross-country course that runs through fields, wooded trails and even a small creek. The course has long gradual hills with one major hill that the women run once and the men run twice. The women’s 5k course begins on an upper field, where the runners complete a loop of the field before heading into the woods, proceeding across a creek towards a back field loop. After completing the back field loop, the runners return to the woods before finishing a final loop on the upper field. The men’s 8k course runs the same loop as the women and then heads back into the woods for a second loop, finishing on the upper field. The men’s 8k course record is 25:48.2 held by Wes Fuhrman of Wesleyan. The women’s 5k course record is 17:53.3 held by Carter Hamill of Amherst

Results of the 2005 NESCAC Cross Country Championship will be available Saturday evening online at www.nescac.com.