Last week, with the pressure on to earn a national bid, the men's cross country team pulled off its best race of the season. The Jumbos finished third in a field of 47 teams at New England Regionals, good enough for an at-large bid to the NCAA Div. III Championships, held at St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minn on Saturday.
But NCAAs did not go quite as well as Regionals, and the Jumbos end their season with a disappointing 26th-of-32 finish on the sport's biggest stage.
It was the team's first NCAA Championship appearance since 2005, and ninth overall.
"It would be a lie to say we weren't a bit disappointed overall," sophomore Nick Welch said. "It's a mix of emotions, because on the one hand we were very happy to have made it at all, and it was a success for us to even be there, but it certainly wasn't the result that we had hoped for."
Sophomore Jesse Faller led the Tufts squad for the second consecutive week, finishing in 25:03 to place 18th among 280 total participants and earning All-American honors. That is the highest finish by a Tufts runner at Nationals since Nate Brigham (LA '05) finished 11th on the same course in 2002.
"I think I've been getting a lot better at preparing for races," Faller said. "Whereas a year ago I would have viewed myself as the opposite of a clutch runner, I think I've gotten a lot better at big meets. We had really exciting races at NESCACs and Regionals and it was awesome to be a part of that."
"Give [Faller] a lot of credit; he's All-NESCAC, All-Region, All-American," coach Ethan Barron said. "That's a huge benefit to the team from an immediate standpoint. It's nice for the program as a whole to know that Jesse's coming back for another two years."
Senior tri-captain Dave Sorensen finished second for the Jumbos, coming in 79th overall at a time of 25:43. Senior Chris Kantos checked in third (26:13, 175th) and Welch followed close behind (26:15, 179th).
The final scorer for the Jumbos was freshman Greg Pallotta, coming in 254th overall at 27:08. Junior Dave Tilton and freshman Jerzy Eisenberg-Guyot finished with times of 27:25 and 27:50.
Tufts' total score was 538, five points out of 24th place. The winning team was NYU, which totaled 128 points. Tyler Sigl from the University of Wisconsin-Platteville was the individual winner with a time of 24:24.
Inexperience clearly played a factor in the Tufts' finish, as Kantos was the lone Jumbo to have participated in an NCAA Championship race. Kantos finished 53rd overall in 2005, when the team came in a program-best fifth place, and 136th overall as a freshman in 2004. Kantos also had experience racing the championship course in high school, but there was only so much he could do to help prepare others.
"The course had changed a little bit from when I ran it before, but we went over it a few days before the race, so I think everybody was comfortable with it," Kantos said. "Nationals is such a crazy race every time; words can only do so much.
"It's not that the caliber of runners is better - it's just that there's so much more depth of runners," he continued. "Instead of having one or two guys that can run an exceptional time, there are 50 guys that can run it. In that respect, there's no letting down the entire race."
Nevertheless, Tufts now has gained experience that Barron can put toward future Nationals appearances. Next season's roster will feature five returning runners who participated in Nationals this year.
"I'd say there are two components of what I've learned from being there [Saturday]," Welch said. "One is the more practical component of now knowing what national competition is. Once you get through your first one, you know what it's like to be on the national stage and to be facing nationwide competition.
"The other side of it is, for me, motivation," he continued. "These opportunities are pretty rare, and I know we don't want our careers to be full of disappointment at Nationals ... We can take away a lesson in how it feels to come home with a bit of unresolved business. Next time, we know we'll still have something to prove."
Despite ending on a sour note, the men's cross country season was still a productive one. A year after finishing eighth at NESCACs and not qualifying for NCAAs last year, Tufts has managed to rebuild its reputation as one of the strongest teams in New England.
"I was a little disappointed that this in particular was my last race, but we still have to view the season as a success," Kantos said. "Our goal at the beginning of the season was to qualify for Nationals, and we were able to do that."
