The men's cross country team enters its season with what could be its strongest squad in history. Between a powerful returning team of upperclassmen and a large, promising group of freshmen, the Jumbos are confident of their potential.
"We're looking better than we ever have when I've been here," senior co−captain Jerzy Eisenberg−Guyot said. "We have way more depth than we have before, and everyone on the team is working a lot harder."
Though the squad graduated its frontrunner and three−time cross country All−American Jesse Faller (E '10), the athletes returned this semester with more depth than ever before.
"It will be tough not having the guy that you know will score one or two points every meet, but I think [senior] Jeff Ragazzini and [sophomores] Matt Rand and Kyle Marks will be pretty close to where Jesse was last year," Eisenberg−Guyot said. "We lost the upfront power of Jesse and Nick [Welch] (LA '10) when he was healthy, but I think we have so much depth that we will make it up in our fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh runners."
The Jumbos had a strong showing last year, finishing just two points out of second place at the NESCAC meet. Though it took a disappointing eighth place at the New England Championships, shattering hopes to run at NCAAs, the team still had a strong season with a deep squad, led by four athletes earning All−Region honors at New Englands.
"The funny thing about last year is if you just look at results from Regionals, it looks like a disappointment, when in reality we had the bulk of our guys running their best races at the right time. We just had a few exceptions," Welch, now an assistant coach, said. "We have a pretty good sense of what got us to there and what made us able to have those guys ready at the right time, and we'll be looking to do those things again and tweaking a few of the things that we could have done better."
Two seasons of track and a summer of training later, the Jumbos return to racing excited about what they will bring to the NESCAC and the region this fall.
"Pretty much across the board, every returning athlete has made a jump forward from where they were at this time last year," Welch said. "A ton of the guys had breakout track seasons, and the freshmen we had last year were some of the best freshmen in the region. They've all come back after having run new PRs [personal records] in the spring, and everyone has taken a positive step forward from last year."
"Everyone who is healthy who was on varsity last year had a better summer training than they have in the past," Eisenberg−Guyot added. "They've been looking better in workouts than ever."
Racing alongside the returning squad is a strong group of first−years, contributing 12 names to the roster of 37.
"We never expect much from freshmen, and then when they do incredible things, like they often do, it's sort of a bonus," Welch said. "This year we have one of the best incoming freshmen classes that we've ever had, and they will definitely contribute. Our priority is to see the big picture of how they'll contribute not just this season, but over the next few years. I haven't a doubt that they will be huge contributors during that time.
"Last year we were able to have our freshmen adjust brilliantly to college cross country and have our returners develop from where they were the year before," he continued. "That in a nutshell is the recipe for a successful program, and if we can keep doing that, then we'll be in a pretty good place."
The Jumbos open their season this Saturday with an 8k race at the Bates Invitational.
"We're going to be ‘tempo−ing' the first few miles and then pushing the last couple, and it's going to get people used to running together and working as a pack and adjusting to racing again because we haven't done it in a few months," Eisenberg−Guyot said.
"It won't [quite be] a full squad," Welch added. "We're going up to Maine really just to have fun and race hard. Beyond doing those two things we don't have any specific expectations."
