Onslaught of PRs for Jumbos at NEICAAA Championships

(10/14/2014 12:09 PM) Full Results

The Jumbos traveled across town to Franklin Park this past weekend, in what was the closest thing to a home cross-country meet they will have all season, for the NEICAAA All-New England Cross Country Championships. The squad was split up for the first time this season, with the top 7 running in the varsity race and the rest of the team running sub-varsity. The varsity squad came in 18th overall in an unusually competitive field, and more importantly were the 4th DIII team. The JV team fared much better, finishing 3rd as a team and besting cross-town rival MIT as by 1 point as the top DIII group.

In the varsity race, the Jumbos struggled to establish their position early on in the race. The team found itself in the back half of the race in the first 800 meters, leaving a lot of ground to be made up on their opponents and a lot of bodies to pass in the wet and muddy conditions. They did a good job of working up through the middle part of the race, but could not make up enough ground to get on the same level as some of their NESCAC rivals.

Senior Co-Captain Nick Guarnaccia lead the charge most of the way for his Tufts team, with a very strong final mile to post a huge 8k and Franklin park PR of 25:21. Sophomore Tim Nichols had by far his strongest performance of the season as well, with a Franklin Park PB 25:23. The two were the 10th and 11th DIII runners in the race. Sophomore Luke O’Connor ran a smart and conservative race as he nurses a quad strain, and came in not far behind at 25:35.

The second pack of Tufts runners also posted a slew of lifetime and/or Franklin Park PRs. Senior Colin McCrory dipped under 26:00 for the first time, and Junior Mike Curley, Senior Greg Hardy, and Co-Captain Marshall Pagano all inched closer to that threshold. That group will look to learn from their first “big race” experience and close the gap to the front pack as they look towards NESCACs.

In the Sub-V race, Senior Joe St Pierre mixed it up with the front pack, and lead his squad with a 26:02 12th place finish. He missed being the fastest DIII runner in the race by 1 position, and his time would have placed him in the top 35 DIII runners in the varsity race. He was followed closely by a pack of Tufts runners: Sophomore Bobby McClaughlin, Junior James Traester, Senior Sam Garfield, and Freshman Ty Enos. Enos had a particularly impressive performance, improving upon his 8k PR from a much faster Bowdoin course by a minute and 20 seconds. Those 5 runners plus the varsity 7 will represent the Jumbos at the NESCAC Championship in 3 weeks.

Overall, every single returning Tufts runner ran a personal best time for the Franklin Park 8k course, and 5 of the 6 who were new to Franklin Park ran lifetime 8k PRs (FR John Greenberg missed his PR by 2 seconds). This outstanding rate of improvement is a sign of good things to come for the Jumbos as they look towards the Conn College invite next weekend and the NESCAC Championships at Middlebury College on November 1st. Stay tuned for more great races from the Jumbos!



Full Results