Williams Women Stand Out at Plansky Invitational
On Saturday, October 13, Williams hosted the annual Plansky Invitational at their home course at Mount Greylock High School. The invitational featured two different race distances for the women: a standard 5-kilometer race (5k) where the women captured second, and a speedier 4-kilometer race (4k) where the Ephs secured first place.
The Ephs' home course was bursting with fall foliage as the teams' buses began pulling in. The race day featured much cooler temperatures than the week before and the course was populated with runners in hats and gloves keeping warm before the race. Speakers blasted playlists of pump-up music that boomed across the fields getting all the runners excited for the start. Junior Sarah Hill who ran the 4k for the Ephs was energized by the race atmosphere: "The beautiful mountains, weather, and music combined provided for a good pre-race psych-up" she commented.
The women's 5k-squad was the first to the line and got off to a speedy start after the 12:00 gun. Immediately, the Williams runners formed tight packs of teammates running together and encouraging one another through the wooded trails. Coach Pete Farwell had recommended that the girls remain smooth and relaxed throughout the race so as to finish strong at the end.
A conservatively planned race worked well for the Ephs who managed to capture second place overall (39 points) after Tufts (34 points). Moira Yoe ‘10 kicked it in first for Williams with a quick time of 19:31 for a 5th place finish. Not far behind was a formidable pack led by Jessica Clarke '10 in 7th (19:49), followed by teammates Elly Teitsworth '10 (8th, 19:49), Natalia Rey de Castro ‘09 (9th, 19:58), first-year standout Tina Meade '11 (10th, 20:00), and senior star Laura Walls (11th, 20:07). In for Williams just seconds later was Gillian Tedeschi (20:14), securing the 13th place spot for the women.
Soon after the 5k women crossed the finish, the 4k Williams runners exploded across the starting line. After many teams had put all their runners in the 5k, Williams was primed to dominate the 4k with more than half their women still ready to race due to such a deep team of racers. Right from the gun, the Williams runners pushed their way to the front of the pack. The duo of Olga Kondratjeva '10 and Rachel Asher '09 sprinted their way to the finish first with lightning fast times of 14:52 and 14:54 respectively. Again, the Williams women had an impressive pack of runners, this time led by senior captain Lissy Robie (4th) who flew through the finish shoot with a swift time of 15:11. Steps behind Robie was Sarah Weber '11 (5th, 15:13), junior Lauren Philbrook (6th, 15:14), who as the Eph's fifth runner secured the win for the Ephs, and Bret Scofield (7th, 15:14) who was the 6th Williams runner to cross the line.
Overall, junior Natalia Rey de Castro was impressed with the
tight group of Williams runners in both races and is looking
forward to upcoming championships: "There was a great pack in the
5k with 5 girls in the top 10 making us excited for next week's big
meet". Next Saturday, the Ephs will be battling it out at the
Little Three meet in Middletown, CT with rivals Wesleyan and
Amherst.
Women's 5k
- 1) O'Brien - 18:46 - Tufts
- 2) Beck - 18:47 - Tufts
- 3) McNamara - 19:12 - Tufts
- 4) Malloy - 19:27 - RPI
- 5) Yoe - 19:31 - Williams
- 6) Markowitz - 19:43 - RPI
- 7) Clarke - 19:49 - Williams
- 8) Teitsworth - 19:49 - Williams
- 9) Rey de Castro - 19:58 - Williams
- 10) Meade - 20:00 - Williams
- 11) Walls - 20:07 - Williams
- 12) Wilfert - 20:08 - Tufts
- 13) Tedeschi - 20:14 - Williams
- 14) Sargent - 20:23 - Johnson and Wales
- 15) Schultz - 20:24 - Babson
- 16) Hopkins - 20:25 -Tufts
- 17) Links - 20:30 - Williams
- 18) Loftus - 20:38 - Tufts
- 19) Negrich - 20:42 - Hartwick
- 20) Picascia - 20:47 - Tufts
- 21) Kyle - 20:48 - RPI
- 22) Shih - 21:00 - Tufts
- 23) Allegretti - 21:02 - Tufts
- 24) Buletti - 21:09 - RPI
- 25) Brown - 21:15 -RPI
- 1) Tufts - 34
- 2) Williams - 39
- 3) RPI - 80
- 4) Johnson and Wales - 161
- 5) Babson - 173
- 6) St. Anselm - 211
- 7) St. Joseph - 273
Women's 4k
- 1) Kondratjeva - 14:52 - Williams
- 2) Asher - 14:54 - Williams
- 3) Monks - 15:00 - MIT
- 4) Robie - 15:11 - Williams
- 5) Weber - 15:13 - Williams
- 6) Philbrook - 15:14 Williams
- 7) Schofield - 15:14 - Williams
- 8) Finn - 15:22 - MIT
- 9) Wentz - 15:27 - MIT
- 10) Labuz - 15:35 - MIT
- 11) Doyle - 15:40 - MIT
- 12) Gatowski - 15:46 - MIT
- 13) Gordon -15:48 - MIT
- 14) Tory - 15:50 - Williams
- 15) Emhoff - 16:01 - Williams
- 16) Bolger - 16:07 -MIT
- 17) Katzelnick - 16:13 - Williams
- 18) Koch - 16:14 - RPI
- 19) Hyde - 16:19 - Williams
- 20) Hill - 16:20 - Williams
- 21) Meehan - 16:22 - Williams
- 22) Ray - 16:26 - Williams
- 23) Stephens - 16:32 - Williams
- 24) Perron -16:37 - Assumption
- 25) Kosina - 16:39 - RPI
Team Scores
- 1) Williams - 18
- 2) MIT - 41
- 3) RPI - 141
- 4) Assumption - 170
