First-years lead men's cross country to 3rd at Bates Invitational

The Tufts men’s cross country team opened its season Saturday at the Bates Invitational, held at Pineland Farms in New Gloucester, Maine. The race featured many of Tufts’ NESCAC rivals, including Bates College, Conn. College and Middlebury College. The fifth team that competed at the invitational was the University of Southern Maine. The Jumbos placed third out of the five teams competing in the race.

Four Jumbos finished within the top 20 at the Bates Invitational. First-year Evan Ensslin ran the best time out of the Jumbo contingent in a stunning collegiate debut. He ran a 26:17.2 in the 8k to finish eighth out of 76 runners.

Ensslin was thrilled with his team-leading result, stating how he his fellow teammates as well as the invitational’s unique winner's prize motivated him. 

"I really wasn’t sure what to expect going into the race, but I was super excited to run and to see how I would do transitioning from a 5k to an 8k race, and to do well felt great," Ensslin said. "I also heard that the top-10 finishers got maple butter as their trophy, so of course I was going for that as well."

Maple butter trophies aside, Ensslin commented on how he prepared for his first-ever 8k race.

"I had never run an 8k race before, so coach Schmidt and I planned that I would go out conservatively and see how I felt as the race went," Ensslin said. "I hadn’t raced all summer, so I was scared I’d get caught up in the excitement and go out too fast, but I was able to run with some other guys on the team, who helped me set a good pace."

Finally, Ensslin acknowledged fellow first-year Kyle Krell, who he commended as a source of inspiration for his and the team's success.

"I also felt ready for the race due to lots of help from fellow teammate and judiciary candidate, Kyle Krell, whose work ethic and leadership on and off the court has pushed me to work harder than I ever have before," Ensslin said. "He has been a real inspiration for me this season."

Fellow first-year Connor Giersch followed not far behind Ensslin and took 12th with a time of 26:42.5. Giersch spoke about his happiness with the results of his debut performance.

"I was very pleased with the result. I performed better than I dared to even hope for," Giersch said. "The Pineland course had a lot of rolling hills, which really played to my strengths as a runner, and I'm glad that I could take advantage of them so successfully."

The dominance presented by the two first-years in their first college meet highlights the high potential of the new crop of Tufts cross country athletes. Sophomore Joseph Harmon ran a 26:49.9 to finish 17th and was closely followed by junior Patrick Nero, who ran a 26:56.7 to finish 20th.

Many Jumbos finished between 30th and 40th place as well. Junior Peter Horvath ran a 27:21.0 to finish 31st, and sophomore John Cyprus followed right behind him, running a 27:23.2 for 32nd. Sophomores Nick Delaney and Collin O’Sullivan and junior Dalton Tanner took 35th, 36th and 37th with times of 27:29.9, 27:30.7 and 27:32.4, respectively.Junior co-captain Harry Steinberg and Krell followed not far behind, coming in 42nd and 43rd with times of 27:41.3 and 27:44.9, respectively.

Senior co-captain Taylor Wurts finished 53rd with a time of 28:10.0, sophomore John Pappo finished in 59th place in a time of 28:30.1, first-years Oliver Printy (28:45.8) and Eli Kritzer (28:49.5) finished 64th and 65th and junior Joe Berrafati finished 67th in a time of 29:09.01.

At the Bates Invitational, the top-10 times from each college were recorded for total team scoring. For Tufts, Ensslin through Steinberg's times were scored to give Tufts a third place finish with a score of 268, just edged out by Conn. College, who finished second with a score of 264. Bates blew away the competition with a team score of 109. Bates’ low score was largely due to five runners finishing in the top 10. Middlebury finished fourth with a score of 295, and the University of Southern Maine finished fifth with a score of 413.

Overall, the Jumbos were very happy with the outcome of the race.

"We were pleased with the result," Giersch said. "We knew the Bates guys rarely lose on their home course, and we only just got edged out by Conn. College. On the other hand, we beat Middlebury solidly and had some good individual results with Evan Ensslin bringing home the maple butter in eighth place."

Tufts is back in action on Sept. 28 as they travel to Williamstown, Mass., to compete in the Purple Valley Classic, hosted by Williams.