While the varsity runners enjoyed a week of rest, the Jumbo underclassmen ran hard to a sixth-place finish in Saturday's Keene State Invitational.
Host Keene State dominated the race, finishing first with 31 points. Dartmouth (49) finished second while the University of Southern Maine (80), UMass Lowell (97), and Baldwin Wallace (108) filled out the top five. After Tufts' No. 6 finish, Wheaton College (214), Fitchburg State (234) and St. Anslem (240) were the bottom three.
With the All New England Championship meet next week, coach Ethan Barron rested his top eight varsity runners, allowing some of the team's younger members to display their abilities. His runners took advantage of the opportunity with several impressive finishes; most notably coming from sophomore Anyenda Inyagwa (28:22), junior Peter Goransson (28:31), and sophomore Skye Isard (28:44). The trio formed Tufts' top three and finished 35th, 37th, and 40th overall.
Inyagwa, vying for a place on the varsity squad, was pleased with his performance.
"It felt good," he said. "Our strategy was to pack together the first few miles and then coach said that if we felt good after that, we could finish strong and pass the pack. I was feeling really good so I decided to pick it up. Our season strategy has focused around pack running and it has worked out pretty well."
Barron was extremely pleased with the performance of his runners, especially given the difficulty of the course.
"The Keene State course is definitely a difficult one," he said. "At first it looks nice and seems to be a course you could run pretty fast on. But once you get on it, it's squishy and the turns are hard. It's a lot of work but despite that, we got some really good times from our guys."
Both Barron and Inyagwa were impressed with the performance of Isard, who has been suffering from shin splints in recent weeks.
"It's good to see Skye do so well," his classmate said. "He was awesome. I think he was one of the main components of the pack and once he gets to 100 percent he really is going to do even better."
While Inyagwa and the rest of last week's runners worked hard on Saturday, senior co-captain Matt Lacey and the rest of the varsity squad were able to relax.
"It was a good time to have the week off," Lacey said. "We had been racing for four straight weeks so it definitely was a big help to get a break before next week's race."
Lacey and the rest of the team are looking ahead to next week's championship.
"This is where performances start to matter a lot more," he said. "We have no excuses and we're definitely going to be going all out."
Barron shared the view of his co-captain.
"This is going to be our first real race effort," he said. "It's going to give us an idea about how our NESCAC rivals are and how good they are running. But I still think that we will see even more improvement between next week's race and the ECAC and NESCAC championships later on in the season."
With several Division I schools and NESCAC rivals running, the Jumbos are gearing up for the intense race ahead.
