Fifth year senior Peter Bromka said last week that the men's cross country team's top six runners all felt they could place in the top 15 at Saturday's NCAA Div. III All-New England Championship at Southern Maine. Instead, the Jumbos placed five runners in the top 20overall - but that was still more than enough to send Tufts out to Wisconsin for its second consecutive national championship race appearance.
Led by junior Matt Lacey and sophomore Josh Kennedy, the Jumbos totaled 62 points to capture the All-New England Championship for the second year in a row, finishing first out of 39 schools. Williams (83), Keene St. (112), and Bates (145) also qualified for nationals, while Wesleyan (189) and MIT (190) were among those missing the cut.
After a fairly easy first two miles in which the pack stuck together, the pace began to pick up and Lacey and Kennedy stayed ahead together. Lacey began to pull away from Kennedy and finished sixth overall with a time of 26:09.5, but Kennedy came back and was right behind him in seventh place, finishing in 26:10.8.
"I know Lacey and Kennedy were really happy with how they ran, and they should be," senior co-captain Brian McNamara said. "The rest of the guys did fine, but those two at the top stayed ahead of the pack and did well."
Senior co-captain Nate Brigham was just off their pace, finishing in 22:26.4, good for 11th place, while Fortin (26.36.9) and McNamara (26:40.9) finished in 18th and 20th place overall, respectively.
"I was our fifth guy and I was 20th, and anytime your fifth guy is 20th you're going to be fine," McNamara said.
"That's exactly what we needed to do," coach Connie Putnam said.
Freshman Chris Kantos finished in 38th place with a time of 27:11.9 and Bromka finished 55th in 27:32.3.
The win spelled the Jumbos' third straight win following triumphs in the NESCACs and ECACs, and thus their second consecutive triple crown as they matched last year's feat. And, most importantly to the team, it extends its season to next Saturday, when Tufts will fly out to Eau Claire, Wisconsin for the NCAA Div. III National Championship race.
"I think last year we definitely were more excited [after regionals]," Brigham said. "This year we're looking more towards next weekend. Hopefully we'll have another good day and someone will come up big next week."
"We were more focused on running a controlled team race, and going less all out then we did last year," Kennedy said. "Last [year] we had never won regionals and definitely wanted to win. This year, we wanted to win, but our primary goal was to get to nationals with gas left in the tank."
Coach Connie Putnam affirmed that one of the keys to the race was not overexpending energy at the expense of next week.
"Matt Lacey said after the race that he was able to hold back, he knew we were OK, we didn't have to press at the end," Putnam said. "I'm pretty sure Josh did the same and I know Nate held back."
While the win didn't spark the same celebration that last year's regional victory did, Tufts still views two New England titles in a row as a significant achievement.
"When we talked about the season, we always said that we should win regionals and run at nationals," McNamara said. "But afterwards we were like, 'wow, we won regionals again.' It's not easy to be the best team in the regionals, and to do it twice ... we were pleased. Winning a second time is a lot more difficult that winning the first time."
"This time was more satisfying in that we could win without having our best day," Brigham said. "Last year I felt like we had to have our best day to win regionals, but not this year."
