While eight teams comprised the field for Saturday's Tufts Invitational, in essence the race was a dual meet between Williams and Tufts, as the two rivals combined to take the first 13 places in Williams' 24-34 victory.
"The teams took approximately 85 percent of the top 25 places," coach Connie Putnam said. "It was a blatant, obvious comparison of the two teams."
Once again the Jumbos' top four runners, senior Dave Patterson (26.22.5, 3rd place), and juniors J.R. Cruz (26.23.5, 4th place), Ben Smith (26.44.2, 6th place) and Jason Mann (26.48.5, 8th place) clustered together among the leaders, proving that they are approaching mid-season form.
Nevertheless, Tufts was not satisfied with its finish in the meet.
"We did not run as well as we would have liked," Mann said. "It's early [in the season] so we are not overly concerned but every time you lose by ten points something isn't right."
So far this season that "something" has been the performance of the fifth runner. While the gang of four has become a sure bet to perform well and pack together during every race, the key to the Jumbos' future success rests on the shoulders of the fifth man. The delta between number one runner Patterson and number four Mann was only 26 seconds, but the gap between number five Justin Lewis (27.46.1) and Mann was a whopping 58 seconds. If Tufts intends to move into the elite group of teams, it must drastically reduce the lag between the fourth and fifth runners.
"We need to get a fifth man," junior J.R. Cruz said. "[The gap between] the fourth and fifth man is going to kill us in big meets. The one through four runners are close but the 2nd pack is way behind the first."
Unlike small meets where there are fewer runners, in larger, end-of-season meets such as the New England Championships and Nationals, the hole between the fourth and fifth runners should grow exponentially because in those races a few seconds could mean a number of places.
On Saturday, six runners, including Williams' six-through-nine men, finished between Mann and Lewis, who was the Jumbos' fifth runner for the second time this season.
"[Williams] exploited the distance between our fourth and fifth guys," Putnam said. "Their two guys who finished 9th and 10th overall beat our fifth runner (15th overall) and that was the turning point [of the meet.]"
Despite the wide gap, Putnam was pleased with the performances from five-through-seven runners, Lewis, freshman James Lamoureaux (27.49.9, 16th place) and senior co-captain Adrian Wilairat (27.57.7, 20th place), respectively.
"Lewis had a great race and Lamoureaux and Wilairat ran personal records on the course," Putnam said.
With mid-season fast approaching, those runners vying for the fifth spot are starting to feel some heat, realizing that they are the X-factors who will determine the Jumbos' fate.
"[There is] a little bit of pressure because I want to be the fifth man," Lewis said. "I've never been in this position before. But I know [the pressure] is not all on me. I know the other guys will be running well."
"You can't put in better fuel or a new carburetor to make [the potential fifth runners] run faster, like you can to a car," Putnam said. "We have this hole to close and the team is working as hard as is humanly possible."
According to Putnam, the team will focus on three areas in hopes of sparking an individual to take the leap and plug the hole in the fifth position. Concentration, strength and segmentation (running parts of courses during practice) are the elements that Putnam intends to stress for the rest of the season.
The schedule does not get any easier for the Jumbos this weekend as the team treks to New Hampshire to battle the number two team in the nation, Keene State. The Jumbos are the tenth ranked team in the country.
"Frankly, we have not ran as well against Keene State as I'd like," Putnam said. "[This week] I'm going to research and try and find out why."
"Keene State is always good," Mann said. "This meet is always interesting. Last year we didn't run well. We respect what they've done but we want to let [our] freshmen know that there is a difference between respect and fear."
