Junior Duo Lead Jumbos to Third-Place NESCAC Finish

(11/2/2015 9:17 PM) Full Results

On Saturday the Jumbos competed in the NESCAC Championships held at Wesleyan University and placed third in the team standings. In doing so, we beat five teams that have been ranked in the top 35 nationally this season. While we still have room to improve over the next weeks, across the board our team ran exceptionally well.

Juniors Tim Nichols and Luke O’Connor led the way for the squad placing 5th and 6th overall with times of 25:08 and 25:10. Both Tim and Luke were first-team All-NESCAC, and they were the first Jumbo duo to earn that honor since 2008. Tim's 5th place finish was actually the best finish by a Jumbo since Matt Rand's runner-up performance in 2012. Both Tim and Luke’s respective times were well ahead of the top Jumbo mark the last time the conference meet was held at Wesleyan, as Matt Lacey was our top finisher then in 25:28.

Sophomore Ty Enos was the team’s third man, finishing 20th overall in 25:57. Despite Wesleyan being one of the more challenging courses in the conference, Ty still managed to run within 2 seconds of his PR. Ty had a particularly fantastic finish to his race as he moved up nine places over the course of the final mile.

Senior co-captains James Traester and Michael Curley rounded out the top five for the Jumbos running 26:19 and 26:20, respectively. Not far behind the senior duo was junior Michael Caughron who came in at 26:28 and placed 42nd overall. The performances of both of the Michaels were particularly noteworthy as they both were just over 15 seconds from their lifetime PR’s. Being so close to individual top marks on such a hilly course with tough footing sets them up to do well over the next weeks.

Senior Mitchell Black finished seventh for the Jumbos in his final collegiate cross country meet. Mitch placed 58th overall with a very strong time of 26:40. His race had quite an exciting finish as he moved up fourteen spots from mile four to mile five.

Of the three freshman who competed, all ran very well. Christian Swenson, Matt McDermott, and Dylan Jones all placed within the top ten of the 36 freshmen in the meet as they ran 26:44, 26:51, and 27:11, respectively.

The sophomore duo of Sam Little and John Greenberg were the eleventh and twelfth finishers for the Jumbos. Our depth was on solid display, as John was the best 12th man of any team in the conference.

Overall, we improved on our 5th place finish from last year and have now placed in the top three for three of the past four years. This is also our lowest point total since our conference championship team in 2012. While conditions obviously may vary, the 2005 Jumbo squad that ended up 5th at NCAAs averaged 26:02 for the top five while our 2015 group averaged 25:46.

Next week the varsity squad will have the week off in preparation for Regionals while the team's 8-14 runners will be competing at ECAC’s at Mt. Greylock HS in Williamstown, Mass.



Full Results