Teams: Women's Cross Country: Team Overview

►Wilfert an All-American with 31st at Nationals
►Wilfert to run at NCAA Championship Race again
►Wilfert garners All-Region honor
►Wilfert on NESCAC First Team
►Wifert runs to second conference weekly honor
►Wifert is NESCAC's first Performer of the Week

►Alumni Questionnaire

With outstanding talent, an excellent facility and a rich tradition, the Tufts University women's cross country program is one of New England's best regardless of division. Now in her 10th season, Coach Kristen Morwick guides a program that annually adds to the long list of athletic and academic achievements compiled by the program since its inception in 1976.

Last year, Stephanie McNamara finished 11th out of 287 national-qualifying runners at the NCAA Championship Race. Amy Wilfert also placed among the top 50 in her first NCAA race last season. In 2007, Katy O'Brien, Cat Beck and McNamara earned All-American honors with top 35 finishes at NCAA's. In 2006, the team posted its best-ever finish at the NCAA Championship by taking fifth place. O'Brien and Beck earned All-American honors that year, while O'Brien won the New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) race that season. Tufts has been represented as a team or individually at six straight NCAA Championship races. In 2000, individual national qualifier Leslie Crofton placed fifth at the NCAA race.

As members of the NESCAC, Tufts is part of the nation's most competitive small college conference academically and athletically. At the 2008 NCAA Championship, four conference teams placed among the top30. Tufts also competes against other top New England Division III programs such as MIT and Keene State on a regular basis. The ECAC Championships provide competition from outside New England, while the New England Open Championships include Division I, II, and III opponents.

The NESCAC is a group of highly selective liberal arts colleges and universities that share an academics-first philosophy for intercollegiate athletics. The Tufts program has matched its competitive success with academic achievement. Five Jumbos were named to the 2008 NESCAC All-Academic team.

Located right outside of Boston, Tufts offers a well-rounded collegiate experience to student-athletes. Within its picturesque small-college campus, Tufts is a major university with "an unprecedented diversity of programs, exceptional faculty and staff, and bright and talented students," according to President Lawrence S. Bacow. The Athletics Department sponsors a varsity program of 28 sports that is among the most competitive in the NCAA's Division III. Tufts finished 10th in the 2009 Learfield Sports Directors' Cup, which awards points based on NCAA performances. The University's proximity to a world-class city renowned for its academic institutions is also a major draw.

A 1988 graduate of Dartmouth College, Morwick was previously the head coach of cross country/track & field at Williams College. At Dartmouth, Morwick competed in the multi-events and held the high jump record for several years. She was also a member of basketball team. She began her coaching career at Tufts as an assistant under Branwen Smith-King. Hired at Williams in 1996, Morwick's cross country teams there qualified for the NCAA national championship race from 1996-99 and twice she was named New England Coach of the Year. At Tufts, she was selected NCAA New England Indoor Coach of the Year in 2004, 2005 and 2008.

The team's cross country course in Grafton, Mass., home of the Tufts Veterinary School, has hosted several regional championship races.