The men's cross country team claimed 16th place at the ECAC Championships on Saturday in a race of 48 Div. III teams at Colt State Park in Bristol, R.I.
The race was dominated by Williams, who scored just 64 points, 36 ahead of second-place Keene State (100) and 80 ahead of third-place Middlebury (144). The Ephs were remarkably well-balanced on Saturday: Their top finisher, freshman Mark Springel, took fifth, while their next five runners came in spots 13, 14, 15, 17 and 18, with only 16 seconds separating those five competitors.
St. Vincent senior Adam Smith crossed the line of the 8,000-meter course with a time of 26:18 to win the individual competition.
Like many other varsity squads, Tufts took advantage this weekend and rested its top six runners for the upcoming regional meet, giving the opportunity for younger Jumbos to compete. Freshmen Connor Rose and Henry Frey stepped up to lead the squad in the 8k, finishing 67th and 68th out of a field of 322 runners with times of 28:22 and 28:23, respectively.
"I really wanted to stick with Connor and gauge off of him, not [going] out too hard and still [having] some left at the end," Frey said.
Finishing third for Tufts was senior co-captain Dave Tilton, who placed 94th with a time of 28:46.
Junior Josh Gordon -- the Jumbos' fourth finisher, coming in 132nd with 29:26 -- had a particularly stand-out race.
"[Gordon] is planning on going abroad in the spring, so he knows that he really only has cross country season," assistant coach Mark Carberry said. "He just went out there and attacked [the course]. He's just been getting healthier as the season goes along, and he had a very good race. He had nothing to lose."
Freshman Phillip Grannan was the final scorer for Tufts, coming in 149th. Also in the race for the Jumbos was sophomore Sam Hutchinson, who crossed the line 193rd.
"I think [the team] ran well," Carberry said. "It was a very challenging course in the sense that there were not a lot of obstacles on the course but a huge field. We had to be looking at 300-plus runners in the field and not a lot of room to really maneuver. The first mile got out slow for everyone, but after that everyone did stick to the game plan and move up.
"We really wanted to see the top three guys in the race -- [freshman] Connor Rose, [freshman] Henry Frey and [sophomore] Andrew Bellet -- work together and be able to move up through the field," he continued. "But unfortunately Bellet hit a parking median less than a mile into the race and had to drop out."
With runners seven through 13 racing, the event was also a competition among the runners to determine spots for the upcoming regional meet.
"It was a good litmus test for who would be the best available option potentially for the seventh guy [on varsity]," Carberry said. "Unfortunately Bellet's inability to finish the race didn't shed a lot of light on who that guy could be."
With ECACs marking the last meet for many of the Jumbos who raced, Carberry was pleased with their finishes but regretted that the course and racing conditions were less than ideal.
"This meet was their Nationals, so to speak, and I think a lot of them really went out there and put everything they had on the line," he said.
Frey agreed that the course had a negative effect on how the race played out.
"There were just too many people," he said. "The course funneled off much too early, [and] I think they definitely could have run the race in a more wide-open place. There were too many runners in a small place, and that was a big factor. I think that affected a lot of people's times ... It went a lot slower than expected."
Saturday will see Tufts travel to Williams for the NCAA New England Championships, where the varsity squad will return to the field to compete for a shot to attend the NCAA Championships in Hanover, Ind., the following weekend.
