Women place 12th at NCAAs

Senior co-captain Carter Hamill led the scoring for the Jeffs as she has all season and since her freshman year. Hamill finished fifth in 21:34, garnering All-American honors for the fourth year in a row. Coach Erik Nedeau was duly impressed with Hamill’s performance. “Carter had a great race to cap off an incredible season,” Nedeau said. “She led her chase pack for the entire race and then succumbed to two Williams teammates who had been feeding off of her throughout the race.”

Another dependable runner for the women has been sophomore Shauneen Garrahan who finished second for the Jeffs. “Shauneen had been sick and ran a very tough race,” said Nedeau. Garrahan placed 24th in 22:18, earning All-American honors for a second time.

First-year Kim Partee stepped up to the challenge of running with an injury and came in 124th in 23:32. “Kim Partee definitely had the gutsiest performance as she was running the race despite what was determined to be a stress fracture,” said Nedeau. “She did not have the race that she would ideally have liked to have had, but considering that she was on one leg essentially, she raced awesome.”

First-years Katie Moravec and Laura Mortimer finished 155th and 177th, respectively, to complete the scoring. Amherst’s sixth and seventh runners were junior Ginger Polich and senior co-captain Alison Rodriguez, who finished 181st and 196th, respectively.

Overall, the race went as well as expected. “Injuries to key people throughout the season made it difficult to challenge for the championship like we had hoped we would be able to,” said Nedeau. Nevertheless, the team pulled off 12th place while adapting to the loss of key runners.

Although the team will undoubtedly miss Hamill’s leadership next year, the team will have the advantage of many underclassmen returning with a national competition under their belts.