With the season culminating at Div. III Nationals in Ohio over the weekend, the Jumbos ran strong and finished in fifth place. This finish marked the best final result in the Jumbos' history and also was the eighth time the Jumbos finished in the top ten at the big race.
Tufts (216) went into the race ranked fifth in the nation and looked to prove that prediction wrong by cracking the top four and grabbing a podium spot. Calvin, Wisconsin-LaCrosse, North Central College and Nebraska Wesleyan were ranked first, second, third and fourth respectively in the national polls.
The Jumbos, however, would fall just short of their podium goals as Wisconsin-LaCrosse (94) took first, followed by Calvin (117), Haverford (118) and Nebraska Wesleyan (132).
North Central College had a terrible performance, taking 12th out of the 24-team field. With North Central struggling, Tufts could have moved in for a podium spot, but Haverford, who went into the race ranked seventh, stole the show by taking third with 118 points and two All-Americans.
Although the team didn't get a podium finish, Coach Ethan Barron was definitely very pleased with the performance of his runners.
"It was a great finish," Barron said. "You can't have the highest finish in team history and not to be happy with that. The teams that finished ahead of us ran really good so frankly, I am really pleased with the way we ran."
The main story of the day was the performance of junior Josh Kennedy who finished 22nd overall with a time of 26:13. Kennedy's finish earned him All-American honors and it was the second week in a row where Kennedy was the first of all Jumbo runners to cross the finish line.
Junior Justin Chung (26:57) finished 72nd overall while senior co-captain Matt Fortin (27:03), sophomore Chris Kantos (27:04) and senior co-captain Matt Lacey (27:08) finished 81st, 83rd and 88th, respectively. Senior Kyle Doran (27:32) and senior Neil Orfield (28:04) rounded out the Jumbos' top seven runners by finishing 127th and 176th.
The foundation for the Jumbos record team finish was the performance by Kennedy. The junior's finish allowed him to accomplish his own personal goal as well.
"I had a goal all season to be an All-American just like last year so it was definitely really gratifying to achieve that," Kennedy said.
While it might have been a record finish, it wasn't what the Jumbos had expected and it was obvious that while they were happy with their accomplishment, there was still a sense of disappointment from the team.
"It was an OK day," Kennedy said. "The course was in bad shape and a lot of people were falling down on turns. We could have finished a little higher."
While Kennedy raced to All-American status, the biggest surprise of the day was the unusual sub-par performance of senior co-captain Matt Lacey. In the last race of his Tufts career, Lacey sunk to fifth on the Jumbo squad. It was the first time Lacey had finished worse than second all season.
"I just didn't feel it," Lacey said. "I can't pin-point why I didn't do so well, but I am definitely not happy with the way I ran."
While obviously disappointed about his personal performance, Lacey said he was still happy about the overall performance of the team.
"The team finish was good," Lacey said. "It wasn't our ultimate goal but the teams that ran ahead of us were really good. Our team ran really solid."
Barron was extremely sympathetic for his senior co-captain.
"It is always hard on a coach to see one his athletes fall short of his goal," Barron said. "However, I know and most importantly he knows that that this race was not a true representation of his abilities. He still has track to showcase how great of an athlete he really is."
With the season now at a close, the Jumbos can look to next season with excitement and anticipation. While they will be losing both of their captains, and one of their best runners in Lacey, the team will still have a core of solid veterans that will return.
"We have three out of our top four runners returning and we hope to get a solid recruiting class, maybe a freshman that we could put in the top seven," Barron said. "That's the beauty of the Tufts program; we really have good young players that can step up once the veterans graduate. Expect the Tufts cross country team to be once again competitive next year."
