Saturday will mark the third straight year the men's cross country has been to nationals as a team. It will be the Jumbos' eighth appearance overall - appearances that began in 1996 when the team finished seventh. Tufts has made team or individual representation at the race every season since 1994.
Yet Tufts is still wondering about the view from the podium, where the top four teams collect their trophies. It is no easy feat, but the members of this year's squad believe they have a better chance than in years past - and they just might be right.
"Definitely, that's been our goal since the beginning of the season," senior co-captain Matt Lacey said.
"In the past maybe it was a stretch, we would have had to run a perfect race [to get top four]," co-captain senior Matt Fortin said. "But now we can just run a solid race like we've been doing all year and still get top four, we feel. We definitely think it's very realistic."
Last weekend's blowout win at the NCAA Division III New England Championship shows that the Jumbos probably don't have to worry about teams from the region storming past them. Tufts finished with 62 points, ahead of Wesleyan (118) and Keene St. (132), both of which also qualified for nationals.
"We're not even looking at other New England schools," Lacey said.
The Jumbos' primary competition will come from Midwest schools. Tufts is ranked fourth nationally, behind Calvin College, Wisconsin-La Crosse, and Nebraska Wesleyan (which it lost to by 33 points at the Jim Drews Invitational), and ahead of Wisconsin-Oshkosh and Wartburg College.
The Jumbo squad will be led by its two stalwarts, Lacey and junior Josh Kennedy. Kennedy has led the team at nationals the last two years, finishing 54th as a freshman before earning All-American status last year with a 32nd place finish.
After a slightly off-week at regionals, Lacey plans to run with Kennedy, which he said "will make it much easier on both of us."
Do the Jumbos need stellar races from the pair to finish top four overall?
"Not necessarily, but it would be a major, major help," Lacey said. "It would mean a lot if Kennedy or I were up there."
"They're a great combined presence and if they get up there that gives us a great combined number up front," Fortin said.
It's worth remembering that Fortin himself will be racing in his third nationals. After finishing 165th his sophomore year, he improved to 66th last year, two places ahead of Lacey's 68th place finish in his first nationals.
"It becomes less of a huge race now that I've done it multiple times," Fortin said. "[The first time] it's complete chaos, everything just moves so fast. You definitely try to tell the guys who haven't done it before what it's going to be like, but overall experience is the best teacher."
Seniors Neil Orfield and Kyle Doran competed in nationals as sophomores and sophomore Chris Kantos did last year. That leaves junior Justin Chung, coming off a strong race last week, as the only Jumbo without nationals experience.
While the rest of the squad drives to Delaware, Ohio today, the varsity team flew out with coach Ethan Barron Thursday and ran on the hilly course at the Methodist Theological School and Dornoch Golf Club.
"It's definitely tougher than last week's course and we think it will play into our strengths," Lacey said. "We've done a lot of work with hills and various paces, and this isn't going to be a race where you can just go out and run one speed the whole time."
Barron is trying to keep the squad calm as it nears the completion of its season.
"He's been trying to keep us in our comfort zone," Lacey said. "This isn't out of the ordinary; we don't need to go in with all this pressure that we need to run out of our minds for our goal to happen. We just need to do what we can and what we have been doing all season and we'll achieve what we want."
