Football, men's cross country fill up All-NESCAC rosters

This fall, Tufts athletics has left an impression in the NESCAC, with 22 Jumbos athletes and two coaches being named to All-NESCAC teams. Athletes from every sport were represented with teams fielding as many as eight selections.

Finishing 5-3 on the season, the football team boasted eight players selected to the All-NESCAC Team, the most in school history. Senior tri-captains Caleb Hudak and Justin Kelley, with classmates Mark Tilki and Marcellus Rolle were all named to the First Team. Senior tri-captain Reid Palmer and fellow fourth year Matt Keller earned spots on the NESCAC Second Team with juniors Rich Aronson and Kevin Holland.

This was the third First Team selection for defensive lineman Hudak, the team's second leading tackler.

"He's an outstanding player and an outstanding leader," coach Bill Samko said of his second-year captain.

Tilki earned two First Team spots, one for his defensive play at cornerback, the other as a special teams returner. Leading the best pass defense in the NESCAC, Tilki picked off five passes, returning two for touchdowns to add to his 29 tackles on the year. Selected as the All-NESCAC returner for the third year in a row, Tilki was sixth in the nation in kickoff return average, with 31.2 yards per return with one touchdown. Tilki also fielded 19 punts to average 10.6 yards per return.

"Tilki had a great year. He was a critical factor in many of our wins," Samko said.

Palmer and Keller were third and fourth on the team in tackles respectively, and Palmer led the team with 36 solo tackles.

"Keller had his best year by far," Samko said.

After playing defensive line for his first two years at Tufts, Aronson made the switch to offense this year, and Samko expects even more out of him next year.

"He's just starting to scratch the surface of what he can do," Samko said.

In its best season ever, the Men's Cross Country team had five runners and its coach among the NESCAC elite. Coach Connie Putnam was recognized as NESCAC Coach of the year. In his 20th season as the Jumbos' head coach, Putnam turned the team around from a fifth place finish at last year's NESCAC's to its first ever NESCAC and New England titles.

n addition to being the men's cross country team's only First Team selection, freshman Josh Kennedy was also Conference Rookie of the Year. He was Tufts' top finisher at the NESCAC Championships on November 1, finishing seventh. He also placed seventh at the ECAC Championships the next week, good for second on the team.

That's pretty impressive winning rookie of the year," assistant coach Ethan Barron said. "He's been running really big races for us all season and really stepping up when it counts. He never gets fazed; he's a big meet runner."

Finishing right behind Kennedy at NESCAC's were junior Nate Brigham, sophomore Kyle Doran, and junior Brian McNamara, in eighth, ninth, and tenth places. Sophomore Neil Orfield wasn't far back at 14th.

"You couldn't ask for better sophomores than Neil Orfield and Kyle Doran," Barron said. "They show race experience beyond their years. They race with the confidence level of runners much older than themselves."

Brigham earned his third All-NESCAC recognition in three years, having been named conference Rookie of the Year and to the Second Team in his freshman year, and a Second Team pick last season.

"Brigham has been a strong frontrunner for us all season, he's been a great physical leader and a great role model to the younger guys," Barron said. "And Brian McNamara is one of the smartest runners I've ever come across. He really saved us in the NESCAC championship race."

Barron stressed that the team's success does not come from their individual performances though.

"They're winning because they run together," he said. "The reason we had five All-NESCAC runners is because they stick together and never let anyone slip behind. It speaks volumes about how Coach Putnam trains these guys. He really coaches them to not let anyone slip behind and it really comes out in the races."

"The best thing to say about Connie is that when he sets a goal, he's going to work as hard as he can and do as much as he can to achieve that goal," Barron continued. "Winning NESCAC's is a goal he set over 20 years ago, and he has transformed Tufts into a program that has achieved that."