Jumbos 19th at Open NEs, Faller 6th Overall

(10/11/2008) Full Results

This past weekend the Tufts cross country programs joined the rest of the New England teams at Franklin Park in Boston for the 2008 Open New England Championships. Division II powerhouse UMass Lowell successfully defended their title from an onslaught of D1, D2, and D3 teams. The Jumbos finished 19th overall and were the 5th place Division III team.

Junior Jesse Faller led the stampede for Tufts with a 6th place overall finish and time of 24:55. Faller was the top DIII runner this weekend outpacing MIT's Hemu Arumugam by 24 seconds. Nunior co-captain Nick Welch was the #2 runner for the Jumbos this weekend, finishing 71st overall. His 25:55 was just off his 8k time from 2 weeks before at the Codfish Bowl. Welch, like most of his teammates, is amid an ongoing battle with the flu that is tearing through campus right now. Be thankful that the Jumbos are getting it out of the way early in the season. Classmate Ryan Lena rounded out the trio of juniors that led the pack of Jumbos. His 26:34 was an 12 second improvement from Codfish. The pair of sophomore 10k runners Jerzy Eisenberg-Guyot and Chris Brunnquell rounded out the top five. Both made huge gains in the last two weeks and look to move up even more in the coming weeks. Both fought health issues to knock off 24 and 58 seconds respectively, from two weeks prior.

Freshman Connor Rose continued to gain experience with the new 8k distance as he finished 26 seconds ahead of his only other 8k time (UMass Dartmouth Invite). It is difficult to highlight those athletes in the JV races as the results have yet to be posted; however, freshman Henry Frey was the top finisher for the Jumbos in the sub-V section with an unofficial time of 27:13. Sophomores Anthony Pellettieri and Andrew Bellet both posted impressive finishes as well.



Full Results