New Faces Spark Strong Start in Jumbos' First Race of the Season

(9/23/2013 11:40 AM) Full Results

The Jumbos traveled to Gorham, ME for the first intercollegiate race of the season. Running without #1 2012 returner, Ben Wallis ‘13, as well as a number of athletes recovering from sickness, the men placed a respectable fourth against most of the top squads in the New England Region, finishing just ten points out of second place.

With a strong senior core graduating last spring, six of the men’s top seven runners cracked the varsity seven for the first time in their running history. The group strategy was to work primarily in packs and steadily move up throughout the second half of the 5-mile race. That discipline in the opening miles paid off, as most of the men were able to drop the pace considerably in the final couple of miles.

The first Jumbo to cross the line was Jamie Norton ’13, chopping fifteen seconds from his opening pace to the last mile to run 26:05 and place 15th. Battling some sickness, Andrew Shapero ’13 kept an impressively even cruise, coming in just five seconds later. Don’t expect Wallis to concede those top spots so easily to Shapero or Norton in the meets to come. Working with Norton for the majority of the race were Nick Guarnaccia ’13 and a pair of rookies – Tim Nichols and Luke O’Connor. The trio all came in within four seconds of Shapero, leading to an incredible nine-second spread from the Jumbos’ first to fifth man. With Wallis added to the mix, if that pack can stay as tight in November, the Jumbos will be in a very strong spot.

The men also welcomed back Benji Hansen ’13 and Liam Cassidy ’13 after almost two years since their last cross-country races. Seeing them on the course again was a big boost, and both show room to progress very well down the line, with Cassidy having NCAA experience from the 2011 9th-place squad and Hansen placing 6th for the team. In addition to the eye-opening freshmen times posted by Nichols and O’Connor, rookie classmates Bobby McLaughlin and Michael Caughron handled their first-ever collegiate race with poise, both running consistent splits and coming up with strong finishes. Look for better and better times as the four adapt to the new race distance and get some more 8K experience under their belts.

The Jumbos will head back to Maine this coming weekend, competing at the Bowdoin Invite on Saturday, September 28. The men’s race goes off at Noon.


Full Results