No. 16 men’s cross country placed second out of five during the Purple Valley Classic on Saturday. Chuckie Namiot ’25 closed out his final home course race with an individual victory, finishing with a time of 26:53.
The meet was the team’s second race of the year, two weeks after a runner-up finish to No. 14 Amherst at the Little Three Championships. According to the Ephs’ more seasoned athletes, the relatively young team is rounding into form nicely, despite some early competitive defeats.
“We’ve got a lot of young guys finding their footing on the team,” said Luke Zanuck ’26, who finished second for the Ephs and sixth overall at the Purple Valley Classic. “I think everyone’s starting to gel together more as the season’s been progressing. Everyone’s getting more training, and I think even though we’ve taken some losses in the first two, we’re going to build and be better over the course of the season.”
The team’s training has been key, especially for the first-years, they said. Both Eli Welch ’28, who placed third on the team and seventh in the race, and Emil Nelson ’28, who took 21st place, highlighted summer mileage and an increased intensity early in the season as critical to their growth.
“I was doing a lot of the workouts that coach sent,” Welch said of his summer training. “I would try to do at least one or two a week, really focusing on my progression long runs, and I think that’s helped. Obviously when we came back [together] as a team, it was good that everyone was in good shape from that.”
The team’s competitive fire was also fueled by the presence of former teammates, who attended in celebration of alum weekend. “Williams has a very long-standing tradition of success in cross country, so it’s great having guys who have been really good at running in the past come back and watch, cheer us on, and support us,” Namiot said.
As for the race, the Ephs narrowly lost to the No. 9 RPI Red Hawks: The Red Hawks scored 22 points to the Ephs’ 34.
“RPI is a great team,” Zanuck said. “They’re always a contender in the region, so we knew it wasn’t going to be any sort of cakewalk.”
The team’s race strategy was to utilize pack racing, according to the runners. Zanuck, Welch, and Ryan Hardiman ’26 formed a strong 2-3-4 pack for the Ephs. “I was just trying to follow coach’s plan and get a strong pack going,” Welch said. “I was trying to work with Luke and Ryan, and I think that worked out throughout the race.”
The Ephs’ second through seventh runners all finished within eight seconds of each other — a testament to the team’s ability to race together. Malcolm Oakes ’28, Grahm Tuohy-Gaydos ’25, and Rick Yanashita ’26, representing the Ephs’ fifth, sixth, and seventh runners, all finished the 8k race within a second of each other, clocking in between 27:18 and 27:19.
Although the Ephs were unsatisfied with their results, they knew they weren’t far from success. “We were 12 points away from winning, which in the grand scheme of things isn’t a huge margin,” Nelson said. “We just need everyone to have that good or great race to pull ahead.”
The Ephs are now looking ahead to the rest of the season, harboring lofty goals for the future. “We want to be competitive at NESCACs,” Namiot said. “I feel like that’s a meet that we can win, especially as our young guys get to know the distance and get some more college training under their legs.”
The team’s first-years, already playing a big role in the Ephs’ success, are ready for the higher-stakes races later in the season. “The ultimate goal is to go out and win nationals,” Welch said. “Obviously, there’s a lot of factors that influence that, but if we control what we can control and keep working hard, that is definitely an achievable goal.”
The team will race on Friday at the RPI Harvest Classic in Saratoga Springs, N.Y.
