For the majority of the men's cross country team members, the Fall season wrapped up with a fourth place finish in the ECAC tournament last weekend. Coach Connie Putnam rested his top seven runners in order that they remain healthy for this weekend's national qualifier meet, while the Jumbos who went to ECACs put together a strong showing to conclude the season.
Running against the varsity lineups of most teams, the men's team demonstrated its depth by edging out several rivals, including Williams and Bowdoin.
"I was pleasantly surprised with the whole performance," Putnam said. The ran in a pack for most of the race and the top team members finished within seconds of each other.
Finishing first for the squad was sophomore James Lamoureux, who came through in 18th place overall with a time of 27:31. Following close behind Lamoureaux were sophomores Peter Jurczynski (27:41), and freshmen Ian Joseph (27:43) and Aaron Kaye (28:00).
While Keene State won the race easily (72), followed by Amherst (81) and Colby (96), the Jumbos' strong finish (126) helped Tufts edge out Williams by just one point.
"We ran against stiff competition from the top three teams, but I was very pleased with us," Putnam said.
For now, the majority of the Jumbos are preparing for the indoor track season. Meanwhile, seven runners who raced at the All-New England meet on Oct. 12 will continue priming for this weekend's Div. III Regional championship race.
Spending the week "resting up and pampering ourselves," as senior co-captain J.R. Cruz put it, Putnam feels that his varsity lineup is ready to compete for a spot at nationals. Only the top five teams competing at the Div. III regionals will move on, but Putnam said that seven teams enter this race with a legitimate shot of qualifying.
The toughest competition the Jumbos expect to face comes from Keene State and Bowdoin. Keene has raced faster than any other team this year, while the Polar Bears beat the Jumbos at the NESCAC championship. Williams, MIT, and Trinity will also be vying for a qualifying spot.
Making nationals has been the team's goal since the season started, when it began working with Putnam's new training program. The team was split into two groups ("the Tusks" and "the Trunks"), and the Coach created a workout schedule that allowed his runners to race every other week, as opposed to every weekend, and rest longer in between races.
Last season, runners felt that the rigorous race schedule was too physically demanding and left them drained for their most important postseason races. After changing his program this season, Putnam is pleased with the results and is able to take a healthy lineup into the qualifiers.
"In a lot of ways its [the new program] been a big benefit to us," the coach said reflecting on his changes.
The final test will come this Saturday as the top seven match up against their best competition of the season in the regional championships at Westfield State.
