Recognizing Our Seniors - Christine

Christine Dzialo (Belchertown, MA) was one of two seniors on this year's squad. Dzialo was a 4-year member of the Cross Country team at Smith and captain for her junior and senior years. Dzialo's senior season was the most successful of her career. She led Smith in each of the meets she competed in. She finished as runner-up at the 7 Sisters championship in a career-best time of 18:56. Two weeks later she picked up the second XC All-Conference honor of her career at the NEWMAC championships where she finished 8th (her highest placing ever). In her final collegiate cross country race, she turned in a bold performance, crossing the line with a personal-best for 6k and her highest placing ever at the regional meet (39th). Dzialo was a consistent performer for the team throughout the season, but also helped to foster the great team chemistry that developed over the course of the season.

A multi-sport athlete, Dzialo also captains the Smith Swimming and Diving team and found herself competing in the pool just three days after her cross country season ended. Dzialo's coaching staff and teammates will miss her talent, dedication and leadership! Congratulations on a fine senior season and a fine career!

Recognizing Our Seniors - Anna

Anna Cressotti (Southampton, MA) was one of two seniors on this year's squad. Anna was a 3-year member of the Smith Cross Country team (missing her junior year while studying off-campus). Cressotti had a highly decorated career at Smith. She twice won Newmac All-Conference honors and this past year she collected her second Newmac Academic All-Conference honor in cross country. She also won the Seven Sisters championships her sophomore year. She served as captain for this year's team along with Christine Dzialo. Cressotti's season got off to a promising start with a convincing victory at the season-opening Smith Invitational. Her racing was curtailed for the rest of the season due to injury, but she remained an active team member and provided a strong leadership presence for the young team.

The team and coaching staff would like to congratulate Anna on a fine career at Smith. Your presence will be missed!

Off to Regionals!

Tomorrow the team will depart for our NCAA regional meet in Gorham, ME. We'll be leaving tomorrow morning so as to preview the course before Saturday morning's race. The race itself (Saturday at 11) will be quite an event.

The regional meets are the qualifying meets for the National Championships the following weekend. There are 8 regionals around the country but ours, The New England Region, is the largest in the country, with nearly 50 teams expected to compete. That means as many as 350 runners in the race! Additionally, our region is likely the most competitive in the country. The most recent national rankings show MIT ranked #4, Middlebury (the defending national champs) #5, Williams #7, Amherst #10, Wesleyan #19, and Colby #28. That's 3 teams in the top 7 (and 6 in the top 28) from just 1 of the 8 regions!

Only the top two teams from Saturday's will advance to nationals automatically but as many as 5 can go with at-large bids granted by the NCAA committee. Individuals may qualify for the national meet as well. After the qualifying teams have been determined, the top seven finishers who are not on one of those teams will advance.

The regional meet also gives the Smith women another crack at their Newmac opponents. Springfield and Coast Guard beat Smith by less than 20 points at the conference meet 2 weeks ago and they (along with Wellesley College, the #2 team at Newmacs) will certainly be on the runners' minds during the race on Saturday.

Go Pioneers!

Newmacs and Halloween!

The team returned to Franklin Park in Boston this past weekend for the Newmac Championships. MIT (the #3 ranked team in the nation) ran away with the competition. Smith placed 5th, just 20 points out of third. Christine Dzialo had her highest finish ever at Newmacs (8th), and Raquel Lemire and Shannon Mackenzie both ran excellent races for first-years. The team now has regionals to look forward to in two weeks.

Enjoy a picture of this year's Halloween costumes from friday's pre-race practice!