The cross country team's All New England lineup took time off this past weekend as the rest of the squad competed Saturday in the Saratoga Springs Invitational. Down its top seven, the abbreviated Jumbos squad missed its goal of finishing in the top three, tying for fourth place with Vassar College.
Though the course was particularly hilly, runners were not able to wear spiked shoes to help themselves along the terrain, due to large areas of pavement. "The course took a toll on some of our performances," sophomore James Lamoureux said.
The absemce of the top seven was evident, as Tufts' leading scorer, junior Yee-Juan Chen, finished 21st among all runners (27:16.91). The other teams competing at Saratoga raced their varsity lineups.
"It gave us a serious evaluation of how those kids stood up to the challenge of that kind of performance," coach Connie Putnam said. "The answer to that is that they were ready for it."
The race afforded the runners who will not compete in the upcoming NESCAC championships the chance for one last meet before the postseason gets underway. It also gave Putnam one more look at his runners before finalizing his NESCAC championship lineup.
Along with the seven runners that competed at All New Englands, Putnam will add five more to compose the 12-man lineup allowed in the NESCAC meet. After last week's race, in addition to the All New England junior varsity race, the coach decided to add juniors Yee- Juan Chen and Adam Sharp, sophomores John Rosen and James Lamoureux, and either freshman Ryan Phil or Aaron Kaye to his lineup. While Putnam would like to run Phil, he awaits an injury report on the rookie before cementing his lineup.
The seven who sat out this past weekend and will compete at NESCACs are seniors J.R Cruz, Ben Smith, Jason Mann and Justin Lewis and freshmen Nate Brigham, Brian McNamara and Michael Don.
Winning the NESCAC title is the team's goal this weekend at the Bowdoin College-hosted championship. While the Jumbos were able to defeat each Div. III team at the Oct. 12 All New England race, they enter the NESCAC championship wary of their tough competition - Bowdoin finished one place behind Tufts at New Englands and will have the benefit of racing at home this weekend.
Still, the Jumbos are confident. "If you're faster as a team, the course shouldn't make a difference," senior co-captain Ben Smith said.
The Jumbos have practiced hard this week in preparation for the upcoming meet. During the All New England meet, problems with pack running concerned Putnam. To correct this problem, the team has run fartleks - simulations of race situations in order to force the habits of running together and group pacing - all week.
"Packing it up is going to be a big part of NESCACs," Smith said.
Though Bowdoin may have the advantage of knowing the course better, no team entering the meet will be able to sport a lineup with as much depth as Tufts.
"Hopefully it'll come down to the top five and our fifth man will finish way before all of the other teams' fifth men," Smith said.
While the new additions to the varsity lineup are coming off a meet weekend, the top seven hope that a week of rest will not dull their sharpness on race day. Putnam said his team is physically prepared for the race and that he will spend the week focusing his men on the mental aspect of the game.
"Every athlete going into the race is going to be motivated," Putnam said. "If we have more motivation and spread it out over all five miles then that will be the key to winning it."
