The Massachusetts cross-country teams will compete Saturday, along with 24 other teams at the Albany Cross Country Invitational.
The number of teams attending the invitational has gone up considerably from last year. The increased size is due to the Northeast Conference Championships being held at Albany this year. As a result, a sizeable number of teams in that conference will compete to get an idea of the course.
Middlebury, New Hampshire, Albany, and Binghamton are among the strongest women’s teams at the invitational. Middlebury and New Hampshire should produce quite a duel, as both have had great programs in the past few years. Binghamton, the team that defeated UMass in come-from-behind fashion in the second half of the race, should make its mark as well.
Women’s coach Julie LaFreniere is confident about the race. While her squad is hitting mid-season form, she’s still nervous about this weekend’s race, which has the chance to become a free-for-all.
“The team is really starting to gel,” LaFreniere said. “What I worry about when it’s that many runners together are things like people tripping, or incidents like the last meet where [senior] Tricia [Silva’s] shoe was pulled off in the beginning of the race. She made an incredible comeback, but it only takes one incident like that.”
LaFreniere also has high hopes for junior Lauren Donohue.
“Lauren’s been looking much better,” she said. “She’s starting to look very different in her races and workouts, much stronger. I’m looking forward to seeing what she can do.”
For the men’s teams, Syracuse looks to be near the top, as their lead runner is the defending champion for this meet. Marist, the defending team champion for the meet, looks to be in the top three as well, and a good match for Syracuse. New Hampshire also looks strong, as it placed well in the New England championships even with several runners sitting out due to injuries.
Albany also poses a threat for the UMass men. The Maroon and White placed fifth last year, with Albany outpacing it by a ten-point margin, and that’s one of the few things coach Ken O’Brien would like to see change this year.
“It would be tough for us to crack that top three, but I’d like to see us narrow the gap there was between New Hampshire, Syracuse and us last year at this meet,” O’Brien said.
O’Brien poses that as a goal, and also hopes to improve on the team’s performance from last week.
“I was a little disappointed, but I chalked it up to a lack of experience. I’d like to see if the kids learned from that experience within the last seven days,” said O’Brien.
He likes the meet for its competitiveness, its placement in the schedule (two weeks before Atlantic 10 championships), and its size. With 25 teams competing, it’s a bigger meet that serves as excellent preparation for the A-10 and NCAA championships.
O’Brien thinks the team’s performance last year at the meet can be duplicated on Saturday, even though the field will be significantly tougher.
“Instead of having a lot of our scorers between about 25th and 40th like last year, I think we can put a few more in the top 25.”
