Jumbos Take 2nd at ECAC Championship

(11/11/2014 7:33 PM) Full Results

This past Saturday, the Jumbos traveled westward to Stanley Park course for the ECAC Championships hosted by Westfield State. While the top 7 runners rested for next week’s NCAA Regional Championship, the second 7 toed the line to battle with teams from around the east coast. Facing a mixture of varsity and sub-varsity teams, Tufts ran their way to an impressive 2nd place team finish, falling only to NESCAC foe Williams College.

Junior Michael Curley set an aggressive tone early in the race, leading the entire 300 runner field through the first 3 miles. The fast pace that he established certainly played a role in the slew of PRs that were run. As the race wound back into the second woods loop, Tufts was well established at the front of the race, with Seniors Sam Garfield and Joe St Pierre, Junior James Traester, and Sophomore Bobby McLaughlin all following Curley comfortably in the top 15.

For many runners the fast early pace took a bit of a toll, and the front group became thinner and thinner. With a mile to go St. Pierre had taken over the reins as Tufts front runner and was locked in a close 5-way battle for 3rd with Curley, the top 2 Williams runners, and the #2 Amherst runner. Not far behind were Traester and McLaughlin, in a similar battle with the next 2 from Williams, and then another small gap to Garfield, along with the 5th and 6th Eph runners.

When it all shook out at the end, Williams maintained enough of an edge to nudge Tufts by a mere 14 points (an average of less than 3 places and 3 seconds per runner). Tufts held a strong lead over 3rd place Amherst College, and lowered their point total from this race last year, and coming much closer to getting the elusive ECAC victory.

The top 7 as a whole posted an average of a 10 second PR (the PR train was led by Sophomore Michael Caughron, who set a personal best 8k time by 47 seconds). Four of the Jumbo squad raced at Stanley Park 2 years ago, and they averaged a 50-second improvement on that course, most notably by Traester who ran almost a minute and a half faster. The success of a younger ECAC squad is always a positive indicator for the future; we will certainly have some great pieces with which to build a team once the current seniors depart.

Next weekend, the Tufts varsity team will look to build upon their teammates' ECAC success. We will return to Williams College for the New England DIII Regional Championships. The crazies will be out in full force, we hope you will be too!




Full Results