Senior Leslie Crofton beat the entire field of 179 runners this past Saturday at the 33rd Annual Codfish Bowl, leading the Jumbos to a third place finish overall. The Jumbos, who finished only behind Connecticut College and Amherst, equaled last year's team performance at the Franklin Park course.
Crofton crossed the line first with a time of 18:13, five seconds faster than the second place finisher, Abigail Anthony of Bates. "I didn't expect to [win] at all," Crofton said, "But I did think of the race was a good measure of where I'd be this season."
A year ago, Crofton finished in seventh place and had the second fastest time for the Jumbos. This year, however, she beat her 1999 time by over a minute, and also topped former Tufts cross-country powerhouse Cindy Manning's '99 time by 40 seconds.
Saturday's meet marked the first race in which the Jumbos put on their spikes, approaching it as the first competitive meet of the season. The team used the first two meets purely as training races but stepped it up Saturday because the slate of opponents was tougher than in previous weeks.
Crofton was not the lone Jumbo to turn on the heat Saturday, as junior Heather Ballantyne came through in seventh place. Ballantyne, who had not raced in two weeks due to a minor injury, took the number two spot from sophomore Mary Nodine, finishing with a time of 19:23. Nodine, Tufts' second finisher in the first of two meets of the season, crossed the line in 27th place (19:23), while sophomore Heidi Tyson's time of 20:26 was good for 46th place and Tufts' sixth spot.
While the upperclassmen have been vital to the Jumbos' success, the squad continues to receive huge contributions from the freshmen. Continuing a season-long trend, three of Tufts' top seven spots on Saturday went to freshmen. The fourth, fifth and seventh team finishers were freshmen Lauren Caputo (35th), Lauren Dunn (42nd), and Katie Mason (51st), respectively.
The trio is part of strong class of incoming runners that has been consistently in the team's top ten throughout the opening weeks of the season. Also included in this group is freshman Emily Craighead, who came in the tenth spot for the team Saturday, taking 66th place overall with a time of 20:50. Craighead, touted as the team's top freshman runner, did not race in last week's Fitchburg Invitational due to a rolled ankle. After leading the freshmen corps in the Hayseed Classic on Sept. 9, her somewhat weaker performance upon coming back from injury will likely improve in future races.
"[The freshmen] are a huge asset to the varsity team this year," Crofton said. "We will depend on them a lot as the season goes on."
For Caputo, Saturday was possibly the best meets she's run this year. "I was really happy," Caputo said. "I was surprised to be in the top five. I've run the Franklin Park course, before, so I was very comfortable with it."
Rounding off the top ten were senior co-captain Jennifer Edelmann, who finished in 55th place (20:37) and sophomore Kathryn Hughes (64th place, 20:37).
The Jumbos beat out 11 teams with their performance, but fell to 12th-ranked Amherst for the second straight year. The Lord Jeffs totaled 49 points, while Connecticut College finished close behind with a score of 59. Tufts' 108 points was well ahead of the fourth and fifth-place finishers, NESCAC-rivals Trinity and Bates.
"We did pretty well [as a team]," Crofton said. "But we are definitely capable of beating the teams ahead of us, particularly Connecticut College."
The Jumbos will have the home advantage this weekend, hosting the Tufts Invitational on Saturday at 1 p.m. The race, which pits Tufts against Williams for the first time this season, will take place at the Tufts New England Veterinary Medical Center in North Grafton, Massachusetts.
"This week will tell us more," Crofton said. "There will be a lot of very talented teams we haven't raced yet, like Williams."
