MEDFORD, MA (September 4, 2025) – Led by a senior group that has held starting roles since their first year, the Tufts University women's cross country team is set to begin a promising new season on Saturday.
Seniors
Lexi Dean,
Liz Donahue,
Grace Ogden and
Jaclyn Turner all started for the Jumbos during the championship races in 2022. As juniors last fall, they helped lead Tufts to one of its most successful seasons in recent years.
Aided by fellow returning starters
Katya Henisz and
Zoe Margolies, Tufts recorded their best NCAA East Regional finish since 2021 with a second-place showing last season. That earned them their first NCAA Nationals team berth in three years, where they ran to a commendable 16th-place finish.
"We're very fortunate to have such experience," said Director of Track & Field and Cross Country
Jamie Norton. "Because of our experience, we've been able to shift the focus of our team a little bit and hone in more on the end of the year. We're prioritizing running our best at NESCACs, Regionals and Nationals."
Though having six starters back from last year's team is great, it's the overall depth that has the coaching staff particularly excited.
"There are 14, 15 women who it wouldn't shock me if they worked their way into the top seven mix," Coach Norton said. "We have a couple strong runners up front, but the back-end depth is hopefully going to be what pushes us forward."
The Jumbos have several returnees from last year's NESCAC line-up including senior Vivan Lau, juniors
Mia Corso and
Sonia Olson and sophomores
Phoebe Bryar,
Grace Doyle,
Logan Elie and
Eleanor Whitehouse. Senior Deirde Flanagan's return to the team and the progress of sophomore
Samara McVey are other factors, as is the talent in a 10-member class of first-years.
Donohue was the NCAA Regional runner-up last year and earned All-NESCAC status, while Margolies was just outside of All-Conference recognition and finished eighth in the Regional. All six returnees achieved All-Region recognition. Their ability to take it to another level this fall will be a key to the Jumbos enjoying even more success this season.
"We have several people on the team ready to make that jump," Norton said. "We're working on forming a really clear vision of how we want to execute our races, something that I don't think we were able to really find quite as successfully last year. We're developing a confidence to see ourselves as one of the top teams in any race that we're in and to execute our races accordingly."
The Jumbos will be at Trinity College's George Suitor Invitational to start their 2025 season on Saturday.
"We had some good conversations with the returners during preseason to set expectations and set goals," Norton said. "Now it's just about focusing on the day-to-day and having fun together and working hard and trying to be the best group we can be and seeing what happens."
--JUMBOS--
