TUXC Split Squad finishes 8th at UMass Dartmouth

(9/18/2004) Full Results

In one of the weirdest races of his life, junior Matt Lacey ran one of his best. All he needed was a little help from a Japanese national team and an old friend.

Despite running on the some of the worst course conditions he and coach Connie Putnam had ever seen, Lacey out-dueled the remnants of Hurricane Ivan and most of the competition to finish ninth overall. He placed third out of collegiate runners and first out of Div. III athletes at Saturday's UMass-Dartmouth Invitational.

Bates (58) edged out the Brown Bears (62) for the win, while a Tufts squad minus seniors Peter Bromka, co-captains Brian MacNamara and Nate Brigham and sophomore Josh Kennedy finished eighth out of 29 teams.

With rain continuing to fall throughout, most of the runners got bogged down in the soggy, muddy course. However, Lacey avoided that problem by lining up in the starting box next to a team of elite Japanese collegiate runners that have been staying and running with the Brown team for several weeks.

"The plan was to kind of key off them at the start and follow their lead, so [junior Kyle Doran and I] did that, and after 200 meters I looked back and realized that the rest of the race was behind us, and I could basically run whatever path I wanted," Lacey said. "Getting out fast was really good because it was much easier to move through the mud and wet spots without having to worry about getting tripped up with anyone."

Putnam agreed that getting off to a fast start was crucial on a day when the wind was so strong that at times he thought it might have blown some of his lighter runners.

"The majority of the rest of the guys on the team maybe didn't see the opportunity to get out ahead of the pack and stay there instead of getting stuck back in the rain. It takes somewhat of a veteran to see that," Putnam said, referring to his juniors.

However, Doran fell off around the three-quarter mile mark and met up with sophomore Justin Chung. Doran finished 40th overall in a time of 26:39, while Chung finished 46th in 26:46. Freshman Chris Kantos (27:22) and junior Mike Cummings (27:25) finished 74th and 76th overall, respectively.

"I like getting out well and not having to pass, but Doran is the opposite because he runs better from behind, relying on finishing speed," Lacey said. "He gains confidence from passing people, while I gain confidence from being ahead of people. So him getting out early probably hurt him. He kind of sacrificed his race so I'd have someone to run with."

Lacey had someone to run with the whole race, because as Doran dropped back, Lacey joined a pack of three Brown runners, including his old Amherst Regional High School teammate, junior Owen Washburn.

"He and his two teammates caught up to me at around .75 miles, and we smiled and said a few words, then I just tucked in to their group and ran with them," Lacey said. "We still train together when we're home, but it was the first time we've raced since high school, and it gave me a lot of confidence to be able to run that close to him, because he always beat me in high school. I had nothing to lose, running with a bunch of D-I guys."

Running with the Bears propelled Lacey to a time of 25:42, one second off of his career best, which he set at the New England Championship his freshman year. This course was actually about 20 meters shorter than a typical 8k race due to construction, but Lacey felt the poor weather negated the shorter distance.

"The weather was ridiculous," Lacey said. "You had to slow down on turns, and I saw a lot of guys go down, but luckily I was able to get out ahead and avoid muddy patches."

Lacey finished behind six Japanese runners and two Brown runners, including Washburn, to rank as the top D-III finisher.

"The Japanese guys just killed the field," Lacey said. "They [put a gap] in the whole field in the first half mile and were just running together and laughing. They were almost 20 seconds ahead of everyone at a mile."

The fact that Lacey wasn't intimidated by the high-caliber international competition, but instead used them to his advantage at the beginning of the race, left Putnam impressed.

"He got out there and ran with some really good people," his coach said. "He showed he can maintain it with a different class of athlete; he had a special race."

Story by Ben Hoffman of the Tufts Daily


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