The men's cross country team ran its way to victory on Saturday at the Connecticut College Invitational in Waterford, Conn. In a field of 225 competitors at Harkness Memorial State Park, the Jumbos' top five runners placed within 30 seconds of each other and in the top 20 overall.
Tufts' score of 59 tied with Div. I UConn for first place.
Once again, sophomore Matt Rand led the Jumbos' charge. Rand crossed the line of the 8,000−meter course in a time of 25:47 to claim fifth. He was only 20 seconds behind The College of New Jersey's Tom Bocchino, who won the individual race.
Fellow sophomores Kyle Marks and Tyler Andrews were close behind, securing their spots as top−10 finishers. Marks and Andrews took ninth and 10th, respectively, with times of 25:56 and 26:00.
"I was really happy with my race," Marks said. "I went out pretty hard, and then at the end, Tyler really helped me not fall off the pace more than I did, and we worked together until the end.
"Tyler had a really great race," Marks added. "He's finally getting fresh legs after cutting down his mileage a bit for the end of the season, and I think he will only continue to improve as the season goes on."
Rounding out the scorers for the Jumbos were freshman Liam Cassidy and junior Scott McArthur, who crossed the line together in 26:16, earning 17th and 18th places, respectively.
Though the athletes expected to run fast times on the flat course, substantial winds slowed the field down. Cassidy, however, still captured a personal record on Saturday.
"It went really well. I went out slow, and then I closed pretty fast," Cassidy said. "I planned to go with Scott and [freshman] Ben [Wallis], and then if I had anything more at the three−mile [marker], go faster. That pretty much happened, except that Scott stayed with me, and we both pushed each other to finish really well."
Wallis came in close behind Cassidy and McArthur, finishing 21st with a time of 26:20. Three seconds behind Wallis in 23rd place was senior co−captain Jeffrey Ragazzini, who is returning to top form after being sick earlier in the season.
"The team did really well," Marks said. "We showed our depth. We had not that big of a spread between our first and seventh, and we had a couple guys coming back from sickness and injury. The freshmen are continuing to do really well."
The race wrapped up a solid regular season for the Jumbos, who believe that they have improved over the course of the four meets they have run.
"The freshmen are [now] definitely more comfortable running an 8k, and we just work better as a team," Marks said. "We're more comfortable with our own individual racing strategies, and we know what works for us now. Hopefully, we can only improve going forward."
"I've been smarter in not going out too fast," Cassidy said. "I've learned to be conservative with the first few miles and then have the mental strength to push through in the last one. We all keep improving every race."
Though the squad has found much success thus far, the work isn't over yet.
"Hopefully [we can] get our one through seven [runners] closer together, towards the faster end, and just dig into the killer instinct more in the championship season, which we haven't really had to dig into yet," Marks said.
Most of the squad will rest next weekend before heading into the team's championship season. The Jumbos will travel to Hamilton on Oct. 30 to face off against conference rivals at the NESCAC Championships.
"Both NESCACs and Regionals are going to be really competitive this year, more so than last year even, but I like our chances with the team we have," Marks said. "If we have two Saturdays like I know we can have, then we'll be pretty successful."
