Display the depth: These were the key words for the Jumbos this weekend at the Div. III Eastern College Athletic Conference Championship meet, held at Colt State Park in Bristol, R.I. this weekend.
The Jumbos certainly did display their depth, as their sub-varsity runners - those ranked eighth through 14th on the team - carried the squad to a second-place finish with 75 total team points.
"The course was very unusual," sophomore James Traester said. "It included a sideways incline, and it bottlenecked into some tight woods where you could only run two abreast."
Williams took the top three individual spots and the team competition with 26 points, but that did not stop Tufts from besting all other squads - many of which were varsity teams - in the race.
Junior Marshall Pagano led the Jumbos with a fourth place finish in the 8k race, improving on his 26:23.0 time at NESCACs and running 26:02.52 to finish just behind Williams' Kieran Scannell.
The rest of the Tufts pack soon followed, as juniors Greg Hardy and Colin McCrory and freshman Brian McLaughlin all finished within nine seconds of each other; Hardy finished in eighth at 26:17.08, McCrory finished in 10th at 26:22.30 and McLaughlin finished in 12th at 26:26.08.
Traester served as the Jumbos' fifth scoring man on the day, finishing in 41st at 27:00.80, and junior Sam Garfield joined him in the finishing chute just eight seconds later in 47th as the timer struck 27:08.62. Junior Joseph St. Pierre was the final Jumbo to cross the finish line, clocking a 27:56.48 time for a 95th-place finish.
"Overall, we wanted to all start somewhat up front and finish in the top 30," Traester said. "We mostly executed that strategy perfectly with good positioning, and it led us to a very good finish at this meet."
Pagano agreed that the team met its expectations and demonstrated its depth at the meet.
"We came into the race wanting to improve on our fourth place finish last year, and we definitely achieved our goal," he said. "We knew we had one of the deepest Div. III teams in the nation this year, and this meet served to validate that fact."
Traester also downplayed the role of the weather, which can have a huge effect on cross country races.
"The weather was pretty good. Temperatures were definitely perfect," he said. "There was only a slight issue between the second and third mile as the course opened near the ocean, which made conditions very windy."
But overall, neither weather nor personal anxieties had an effect on the team's performance.
"We put no pressure on ourselves coming into this meet," Traester said. "We came in to see what we could do, to try and prove that we had the deepest team around. I think we, as well as Williams, proved that we have the deepest cross country squads in the northeast region."
Despite the fact that the race was one of the most spread out of the season, the Jumbos managed to ride a solid 58-second split from their top five runners en route to their second place finish.
"Pack running has definitely been more prominent this season than in years past," Pagano said. "In past years, strategy had taken an every-man-for-himself attitude, but this year, running in packs, especially with our [number three] through [number] seven guys, has helped much of our team run faster races."
Next for the Jumbos is the NCAA Div. III New England Regional Cross Country Championship Meet, which will take place on Nov. 16 at the University of Southern Maine, where they hope to qualify for the National Div. III Cross Country Championships held later in the month at Hanover College in Hanover, Ind.
According to Pagano, the Jumbos are expecting a "home field" advantage even though the meet will take place two hours from Tufts.
"We usually have about 70 fans come out to the regional meet, which definitely helps our guys," he said. "It motivates them to run faster and intimidates the other teams."
