Knowing that they needed a top-five finish to be considered for NCAA Nationals, the Tufts men secured fifth-place at the Div. III New England Regional Championships. The Jumbos rallied back from a disappointing NESCAC finish two weeks before and beat several teams that were ranked ahead of them in the New England polls.
Though the team's placement earned eligibility for an at-large bid to Nationals, the Jumbos' season track record ultimately precluded a trip to Ohio.
"I think overall we had a pretty solid performance," said senior co-captain Josh Kennedy. "We went in ranked 10 in the polls and came out five in the race, so we exceeded a lot of other people's expectations and a few of our own too."
The NESCAC performed up to its always-high expectations, taking the top five spots and seven of the top 10. Williams blew the field away with 57 points, followed by Bowdoin (125), Trinity (164), Wesleyan (165) and Tufts (180). Middlebury and Amherst finished eighth and ninth, respectively.
Battling back from a week-long illness, senior Justin Chung came in first amongst the Jumbo top five and eighth overall with a time of 25:58. Chung will be representing Tufts at Nationals based on the strength of his personal finish as the third of seven individual runners from New England to head to Nationals. Runners whose teams received bids are excluded from the seven individual qualifications.
"This year is the second time I will be competing in [Nationals], so there's not too much pressure going in," Chung said. "I like to keep the mentality that it's just another race, and I'm going to do my best."
Kennedy (26:27.5, 26th) and freshman Nick Welch (26:35.5, 35th) joined Chung with All-Regional honors. Welch squeaked into the cut-off place past sophomore Harrison Lakehomer (36, 26:35.7) of Amherst by two tenths of a second. Junior Dave Sorensen and freshman Jesse Faller brought it home for the Tufts top five at 45th and 66th in the race, finishing in 26:50.7 and 27:17.3, respectively.
"I saw five well-crafted races from these five, from all of our runners in fact," coach Ethan Barron said. "Obviously, everyone had a role to fill, and they did it to the best of their ability."
Chad Uy (83rd, 27:38.0) recovered from having his shoe kicked off to finish the race in sixth for the Jumbos while Peter Browne (123rd, 28:25.4), who had similar shoe problems two weeks ago at NESCACs, crossed the line as the last of the Tufts top seven.
"Honestly, very little has changed for us as a program since NESCACs," Barron said. "We were always confident that we were good enough to get into a berth position, but I still don't think we put our best race forward."
According to the new selection process, half of the 32 National spots are filled by automatic bids, bestowed upon the top two finishers in each of the respective Regional meets of the eight regions - Atlantic, Central, Great Lakes, Mideast, Midwest, New England, South/Southeast, West. The remaining 16 spots are left for at-large bids, open to the third through fifth place teams in Regionals and evaluated based on the teams' competitive position throughout the season.
Williams and Bowdoin received their automatic bids to Nationals as the top two teams at New England Regionals. The teams representing the New England region as at-large bids are Trinity and Wesleyan, coming in third and fourth ahead of Tufts' fifth place at 180 points.
"If we could just get one more week out of [our team], we would peak like we know we could," said Barron, before the results of the at-large bids were released.
Indeed, the season for the men's cross country team seems to be ending just as it is hitting its stride. However, with the majority of the team continuing to run in the winter as a part of the indoor track team, the only place for the team to go is forward.
"The nice thing about our sport is that there's always a chance to make up for a disappointing result," Welch said. "Indoor track is right around the corner."
