The men's cross country team lived up to its potential when it raced at full strength last weekend.
Tufts placed all five of its scorers in the top seven overall to dominate its own Jumbo Invitational at Grafton.
Tufts (22) finished first out of ten teams, followed by Keene State (64) and Trinity College (81).
Senior co-captain Nate Brigham, running in his first race of the season, finished second overall with a time of 26:10. Junior Matt Lacey (26:19) and sophomore Josh Kennedy (26:31) were right behind him in third and fourth place. Senior co-captain Brian McNamara and junior Matt Fortin finished sixth and seventh overall, both running 26:49.
"I thought we did a good job of taking all those top spots," Brigham said. "Everything went according to plan."
It was the first time in Grafton history that five Jumbo runners all finished in under 26:50 in one race.
"It's the best team performance we've ever had there time-wise," coach Connie Putnam said. "This is probably the best team that's ever seen the turf out there."
At the same time, Tufts realized that it did not necessarily run against full squads from Keene State or Div. II UMass-Lowell.
"I'm a little disappointed in those coaches," Putnam admitted. "When we put this race together I thought everyone would run their top guys and really push us. To be fair those might have been Keene's best guys this year; I don't really know. But it means we didn't run as hard as we would have had to because we were in a commanding position."
It was the first time this year that the Jumbos ran a full squad. Brigham, who had yet to run except in the Alumni Race, originally wasn't going to participate, but he went to Putnam and said he wanted to.
"We just decided that it was the right time," Brigham said. "We felt like it was the home invite and the team could use a boost and I could use a boost. I went out there and felt good and ran relaxed."
"I was really pumped because it was my first chance to race with all those guys: Kennedy, Fortin, Nate, Mac, Bromka," Lacey said. "The plan was to eliminate most of the field in the first mile, and in terms of the team race we were in excellent position from the start, and then we ended all doubt."
The race was not all gravy though, as Putnam was disturbed about the break from the fifth and sixth runners to his next pack of Jumbos. Freshman Chris Kantos finished 16th overall, sophomore Justin Chung finished 19th and junior Kyle Doran finished 20th.
In cross country, only the top five runners on a team score points, but other runners can displace runners from other teams to raise their point totals.
"When you're a top 10 team like we're supposed to be, you need to stick closer together than we did," Doran said. "It's something we need to work on."
Still, the squad was happy with its performance on a tough course. Most of all, it was happy to win its home meet after two years of losing it.
"[Putnam] was really pissed that Keene beat us last year," Lacey said. "He loves Grafton more than anyone and it kills him when people outrun us there."
"I hate to lose to anyone, period," Putnam said. "But you really don't like it if you lose on your home turf."
"It was definitely good to win it," Brigham added. "We won it my freshman year so it was good to come away with a victory [senior year]."
From here, the Jumbos begin a cycle of runners racing every two weeks heading into the crucial late-season meets.
"We always say that Conn. College and UMass-Dartmouth are fun meets," Lacey said. "But the real season starts at Jumbo."
