Tufts Caps 2014 XC Season with 22nd Place Finish at Nationals

(12/2/2014 12:36 PM) Full Results

For the 4th consecutive year, 8 jumbos traveled to the Midwest to compete in the NCAA Division III Cross Country Nationals. Coming in as the last team in the New England region and the 25th ranked team nationally, outside expectations were not particularly high for the team. The team ran well and outplaced their “seed” to finish 22nd, beating at least one team from six other regions.

The Jumbos’ nationals race was highlighted by Senior co-captain Nick Guarnaccia, who broke into the top 100 in the race. Following a series of disappointing races at NESCACs and Regionals, Nick put himself out there and found the strength he was searching for all season, beating over 15 runners who he lost to one week before and improving by 55 places from his finish the year before. He came in right behind Sophomore Luke O’Connor, who put a cherry on top of his breakout cross country season crossing the line 80th. He cut his finishing position in half from his 157th place last year. The top 3 Jumbos were led by Tim Nichols, who struggled early in the race but fought through a dense and muddy pack of runners to finish 69th.

Taking a step back and looking at the season as a whole, each individual Tufts runner took their running to a new level that they had not seen before. Almost every runner saw themselves PR. We had 4 first-time NESCAC runners, 3 first-time ECAC runners, and 5 first-time Regional/National runners. As a team, we saw people who had never been in the spotlight step up to fill the void left by last year’s graduating class, and did a great job in their new roles. A slew of seniors saw excellent summer training pay off. For instance, senior Colin McCrory went from never making his own team’s NESCAC squad to one of the 200 or so best DIII runners in the country. His fellow seniors Greg Hardy, Marshall Pagano, and Joe St. Pierre also found new consistency in training and put themselves in the top 7 at different points in the season and were important varsity contributors.

3 freshmen found great success at different points in the cross country season, all running 27:00 or faster. Look for this group to do great things in the future as they continue to adjust to college lifestyle and training. In distance running we are always looking forward to the future, and it looks bright for the Tufts team. We return 3 of our top 5 runners, including 2 in the top 80 nationally, and also our 2, 3, 4, 6, and 7 runners from ECACs (3 of whom finished in the top 20 in that race).

Now we head into the offseason, with finals and holidays on the horizon the Jumbos will take some down time in running to rest and recuperate for the upcoming indoor track season. We resume racing action on January 17th with our first of 4 home track meets. Thanks to everyone who has followed and supported us throughout this excellent cross country season!



Full Results