The men's cross country team ran to the best finish in Tufts history at the All-New England Championship race. The Jumbos still thought they could have done better.
"I think you should be happy any time you can establish your best performance all-time at a race," coach Connie Putnam said after his Jumbos finished a school record sixth out of 48 teams from Divisions I, II, and III on Friday afternoon at Franklin Park. "But six of our seven guys are not satisfied with their performances. They felt like they could have done better if they had done it over again. Sixth is good, but we know we can do better, and we want to work towards getting better."
For the second year in a row and only the fourth time in school history, Tufts garnered a top ten finish at the large and highly competitive meet. It was also the second year in a row that the team finished first out of Div. III teams. Tufts (227) finished behind Div. I schools Providence (25), Boston College (159), Maine (181), New Hampshire (186), and Quinnipiac (208).
Senior co-captain Nate Brigham finished 20th overall and fifth out of Div. III runners, finishing in 25:18. Junior Matt Lacey, running what Putnam called an "exceptional" race, was right behind him, finishing 21st overall with virtually the same time.
"That's the first time I've ever run with Nate in a race," Lacey said. "Usually he is out like a rocket in big races and no one else really sees him. But he had a bit of a rough start, and he had decided ahead of time that if he wasn't feeling great he wasn't going to go out with the leaders like he usually does. I caught up to him around the three mile mark and we worked together really well the last two miles, helping each other along and moving up about 15 places."
Last year, Lacey started the season strong before fading later in the season. But he tweaked his training this year and not only started well, but has stayed strong as well. Lacey finished third out of collegiate runners at the UMass-Dartmouth invitational, and then cut 40 seconds off of his Grafton time from last year and 47 seconds off of his All-New England Championship time.
"Losing Lacey last year was a huge blow," Putnam said. "We took too big of a risk in how much we let him run. I take the blame on that, we should have backed off sooner, and this year [has] looked much, much better."
"Every race feels like a new breakthrough," Lacey said. "I placed much higher than I thought I could have. I just really want to keep it going."
While Putnam was happy with the way Brigham and Lacey ran together, on the whole he was unhappy with the way his runners stuck with one another.
"We got off the line with a real good push - the whole team was within six seconds of each other at mile mark," Putnam said. "But while we were in good vicinity, we were not in good contact and consequently we fell out of our pack."
Finishing third for Tufts was senior Peter Bromka, who ran a 25:53; good for 52nd overall. Junior Matt Fortin finished 65th in a time of 26:07, while sophomore Josh Kennedy ran a 26:12 to finish in 69th place. Senior co-captain Brian McNamara (26:41) and freshman Chris Kantos (27:58) also ran for the Jumbos, but did not score.
"Bromka found himself running alone, but still did a great job being stubborn and maintaining position," Putnam said. "But after that we got broken apart for various reasons."
Kennedy was bothered by a slight ankle sprain after the two mile mark, while Fortin, after a failed attempt to lead Kantos had left him behind, had to work to improve his position throughout the second half of the race.
Because the All-New Englands somewhat resemble the national championship race in terms of competition and depth of the field, it was a good test for Tufts and left the team feeling optimistic.
"We got extended a little more than we would have liked," Putnam said. "But when you take it in perspective to the D-III teams we just overpowered them completely."
"It felt really good to be able to move up from like 40th at the three mile mark to 21st at the end," Lacey added. "Because that's exactly the race I need to run at nationals.
I'm just going to need Kennedy and the other guys with me."
Along those lines, the squad will focus on forming a tighter pack this upcoming Saturday at the Southern Maine Invitational. Tufts is familiar with the course, having run on it twice last year, and it will once again be the site of the NCAA New England Championship on Nov. 13. For this reason, Tufts won't go all out this weekend.
"It will basically be a review of last year and a warm-up for this year [at the New England Championship]," Putnam said. "We'll try to run tight as a group and go at about seven-eighths of our speed, just get comfortable with the terrain."
