The men's cross country team traveled to Southern Maine thisweekend for the Twin Brook Invitational, hoping to run better as apack and to increase its familiarity with the course, whereregionals will be held on Nov. 13. Mission accomplished.
Tufts' top seven runners all finished within five seconds of oneanother as the squad secured second place out of twelve teams atSaturday's Invitational. Keene St. (49) claimed first, followed bythe Jumbos (70), MIT (77), Coast Guard (102) and Brandeis(136).
Senior co-captain Nate Brigham (27:37.93), sophomore JoshKennedy (27:38.41), senior co-captain Brian McNamara (27:38.92),junior Matt Fortin (27:39.34) and fifth-year senior Peter Bromka(27:40.26) finished in the 12th through 16th spots. Juniors KyleDoran (27:40.38) and Matt Lacey (27:43.17) were just behind,finishing 17th and 18th, respectively.
"We accomplished exactly what we wanted to do," coach ConniePutnam said. "We came up here wanting to run better as a pack andtighten up our delta and we did that. It's a difficult course, andcoming up here gave us a good chance to get the rhythm of things. Ithink the guys understand the course and the terrain."
Last weekend, the Jumbos finished a school-record sixth out of48 teams, but Putnam was still bothered by the way the Jumbo packbroke up throughout the course of the race.
Because Tufts improved this race, Putnam wasn't concerned thatthe Jumbos didn't win.
"We were running three to four seconds off the pace that Keeneset," Putnam said. "I think we could have given Keene a run but wehad agreed to stick together and that's what we did."
Southern Maine will be the site of the Nov. 13 NCAA New EnglandChampionship, which qualifies teams for the national championshiprace. The New England Championship race will mark the fourth timethe Jumbos have run the course in the last two years.
"I feel confident, but anything can happen between now and theregionals," Putnam said. "I just hope everything goes well untilthen and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that everyone stayshealthy."
Tufts will have next weekend off from an official race, but willcontinue to train until, the following weekend, when thechampionship portion of the season begins with a trip to Colby forthe NESCAC Championship.
Tufts won that race last year at Middlebury and will come in asa favorite again this season.
"Bowdoin, Colby and Bates will have a slight advantage in thesense that they've run on it more recently than us," Putnam said."We haven't been up there in a couple of years. But it's a coursethat lends itself towards rewarding patience in the first two and ahalf miles and then pushing out ahead over the second half."
