The men's cross country team had planned to meet NESCAC rivals at Dartmouth College this weekend, but when the meet was cancelled in wake of Tuesday's tragedy, they were suddenly confronted the prospect of an off weekend.
Instead of resting, the Jumbos found another meet to run in. Entering the UMass-Dartmouth Invitational, they pulled off an impressive second place finish in a less-than-ideal atmosphere.
"Emotions were high that week everywhere, but we felt like it was something we needed to do for ourselves to try to move on and put all those things behind us," said senior co-captain J.R Cruz.
Though Dartmouth's race would have been smaller, the switch did not affect the Jumbos preparation for the race, because the quality of competition would have been similar in either venue.
The decision was made party as a result of the team's new training program. Under the new system, which divides the team into two groups that alternate weekly, the cancellation would have prevented most of the Jumbos' top runners from competing in their first race of the season.
"We really wanted to get a race in and see where we were physically," senior co-captain Ben Smith said.
Running a fast-paced race, the Jumbos were surprised by their own success and pleased to find themselves ahead of schedule so early in the season. The team easily beat out most of its competition, running neck and neck with MIT before losing by a mere two points in the final standings.
"MIT is amazing," Cruz said. "It always seems as if they beat us early in the season, but we're not worried."
Along with the excitement of finishing second, the Jumbos were very satisfied with their individual times. Running along the same course as the Nationals race, many runners ran faster than anticipated. Cruz, for example, finished with a time of 25:07.42 for a fourth place finish, a time almost 20 seconds faster than his recorded time at the Nationals tournament (25:26). Cruz was closely followed by Smith, who finished in eighth place (25:21.94).
With the captains leading the way, the Jumbos' ran together as a pack - an important component for a successful team showing. The entire team was impressed with freshmen Michael Don, Bryan McNamara, and Nate Brigham, who were able to stick together and run the five mile course in under 26 minutes.
In their first collegiate race, the freshmen showed that they have the abilities to be key contributors.
"What we need from them is consistency and that's exactly what they gave us. They were better than we all expected," said sophomore James Lamoureaux.
"They were conservative but also ambitious which was good to see because they're going to be important role players for us," Smith said.
The ability of the younger Jumbos to keep up with the fast pace of the course enabled the squad to finish with a team average time of 25:35.41.
While the meet was only the first race of the season for this set of runners, Smith feels that the team is already benefiting from Coach Connie Putnam's new training program. The Jumbos entered the relatively serious race with a relaxed outlook and tried to accomplish team goals instead of individual ones.
"It was a good day for all of us, no one in particular stood out," Lamoureaux said.
With groups running races only every other weekend, the two-week training period allows the Jumbos to train hard and recover, which Smith feels allows him and his teammates to "reap the benefits of a hard training."
"I wasn't surprised by our performance because the changes we made this season were so we can precisely do the things like this," he said.
The group that raced on Saturday will now have a two-week rest period before it competes in the Jumbo Invitational at the end of September. The Tufts runners who opened the season at the Hayseed Classic will run again this Saturday at the Codfish Bowl in Franklin Park at 1 p.m.
