With only four teams competing in the Plansky Invitational at Williams on Saturday, the men's cross country team faced little opposition. The Jumbo's lack of competition was evident, as they came away from the meet with an easy win.
The Jumbos scored 26 points, followed by RPI with 55 points, in a field of four teams. Tufts had eight runners finish in the top 15 of the race's 65 competitors. Senior Jesse Faller led the way for the Jumbos, finishing the 8,000-meter race in third place with a time of 26:19.
Faller was supported by junior Chris Brunnquell, who claimed fourth with a time of 26:53.
The Jumbos also filled out spots 6 through 10. Freshman Kyle Marks led the pack with a time of 27:06, while senior Ryan Lena and sophomore Connor Rose rounded off the scorers for Tufts in places 7 and 8, running 27:08 and 27:09, respectively.
Rose was followed by junior Jeff Ragazzini, freshman Matt Rand and sophomore Scott McArthur, who placed ninth and tied for tenth respectively.
"I thought the team ran well," Rose said. "We packed up for basically the whole race, and we all felt really good … The strategy was to work together and stay comfortable. The coaches said we could pick it up at the end of the race if we were feeling good, but not to go too hard."
"We were going into the race with a mentality that we were tempo-ing through it, and that it was going to be more of a workout," assistant coach Mark Carberry added. "So to see the guys run considerably faster than they did on the course last year makes us pretty happy with where we are.
"[Brunnquell and Rose] are two that particularly stepped it up," he continued. "They wanted to go out there and put in a really good effort, and they both did without hesitation."
Both Brunnquell and Rose ran faster in the tempo effort this weekend than in the Open New England Championship last weekend at Franklin Park — Brunnquell by 27 seconds and Rose by nine.
"[My race] was a good tempo effort, and it was the pace I wanted to go," Brunnquell said. "[Franklin Park] last week was probably one of my worst races in college, and this was a very good one … I wanted to try to stay with Jesse [Faller] as best I could, so I did that for three or so miles, and ran by myself for the last two.
"Everyone did pack running for pretty much the whole time," Brunnquell continued. "Our strategy was to go something like 5:25 [mile] pace for the first two miles, and feel good for at least two, and if you felt good pick it up a little for the last three or at least keep 5:25 going."
Rose was similarly happy about his effort after a poor showing at last week's meet, where the Franklin Park course caused some trouble for the Jumbos.
"Franklin Park was a bit rough for me, so this was a good confidence boost with NESCACs coming up in two weeks," Rose said. "I felt really fresh and with championship season coming up, it was a nice tune-up and I feel very ready.
"I wanted to work with Matt Rand, Jeff Ragazzini and Scott McArthur, and that's basically what we did," he continued. "Some people were feeling better than others, so we kind of broke apart a little in the last mile, but there were six of us who finished within 10 seconds of each other."
The team raced on the Williams course last year in both the Plansky Invitational and NCAA New England Championships.
According to Carberry, among the 12 competitors Saturday, there was an average improvement of nearly 55 seconds over times run on the course last year. The Jumbos will look to further improve on these times when they return to Williams on Nov. 7 for the Eastern College Athletic Conference Championship
The Jumbos hope they can carry over the pack-running technique from this tune-up race to the upcoming championship season.
"It's definitely the goal [to pack run] because we have so many guys all really close in terms of what kind of shape we're in," Rose said. "We should be able to pack up, and if we do, it will help us a lot in terms of running faster and hopefully working up and passing people as a pack."
The racers from this weekend will rest Saturday and return for the NESCAC Championship at Trinity on Nov. 1.
"Going off of this race being a tune-up, we're all looking forward to the championship races," Rose said. "We're looking forward to a good peak, and our top group looks really strong, so hopefully we can have a successful showing at NESCACs and all the championship races."
The Jumbos feel confident after their win, but they know that the NESCAC race will bring significantly tougher competition.
"The NESCAC conference is really deep this year, so we know that we're not going in as favorites and I think that's a good thing," Carberry said. "These guys have shown throughout the bulk of this season that they run intelligently, they run tough, and they run with a lot of passion for the team. If we can go in with a similar mentality to the championship races, I think we can surprise a lot of people."
The team member who did not qualify for the NESCAC Championships will look to finish off their season on a high note in the Mayor's Cup at Franklin Park in Boston.
"For a lot of guys, this is going to be the end of their season, so I'd love nothing more than to see some great PRs on Franklin Park," Carberry said. "It's a course that we know well … so I think a lot of guys are wanting to go in there and put an exclamation point on a season that has already been successful for just about every guy."
