The men's cross country team on Saturday had its strongest race yet at the Open New England Championships, taking 17th out of 47 teams and fifth among Div. III schools.
The sophomore duo of Matt Rand and Kyle Marks led the way for Tufts, making huge jumps from their finishes at the same meet last year.
Rand finished in a time of 25:44 on the 8,000-meter course, claiming 54th among the 318 competitors — 49 spots ahead of his finish last year. Marks finished close behind with a time of 25:53, taking 68th and making a 113-position jump from last year.
Tufts' next four runners finished within a spread of 12 seconds. Junior Scott McArthur led this pack, taking 95th in a time of 26:11. Freshman Benjamin Wallis was just five seconds back, finishing 26:16 in 108th place. Sophomore Tyler Andrews and freshman Liam Cassidy were 128th and 129th, respectively, in times of 26:22 and 26:23.
"I was incredibly pleased with the varsity race," coach Ethan Barron said. "It was the best pack running I've seen out of a Tufts team ever at that meet, and the one athlete who didn't have a pack to run in did some of the best moving up I've seen in the varsity race in my career."
The athlete Barron referred to was Tufts' seventh-fastest runner, freshman Andrew Shapero, who started off near the back of the pack but worked his way up throughout the 8k race to cross the line in 26:42 for 160th place.
"The whole varsity squad ran well," McArthur said. "I was especially impressed with how close we all were. … Kyle had an awesome race. He's the sort of runner who can go out hard in a race and hold on better than just about anyone else, and Franklin Park played to his advantage in that way.
"Matt also ran really well," McArthur said. "Going out in a 4:50 mile makes for a tough last four miles of a race, but he did a really good job of hanging in there and running with some of those top runners from Div. I schools."
If there was any doubt about the team's depth, this race quashed it. While in 2008 only five members of the squad clocked in under 27:00 on the course, followed by six in 2009, the Jumbos had 13 racers finish under that time this year combining the seven racers in the varsity race and top six finishers in the sub-varsity races.
"There was significant improvement from last year," McArthur said. "The varsity team last year ran a strong race, but the depth that we have this year was really showcased both in the varsity and the sub-varsity races. I personally saw a lot of improvement, and I know that everyone else on the varsity squad did too. Everyone [ran a personal record], which is a pretty rare occurrence."
Junior Connor Rose led the Jumbos in the sub-varsity race, finishing in 26:27 to claim 14th among 200 entrants. Rose's time was over 50 seconds faster than his time at the meet in 2009.
In an incredibly strong region, the Jumbos were the fifth team among Div. III schools.
But the squad knows just as well as anyone else that they need to keep their pace up against the tough competition, even if the efforts are against Div. I and II teams.
"There's some incredible parity in the region this year," Barron said. "You had the ninth place-ranked team in the country, [Brandeis], be the eighth Div. III team this weekend, so if that doesn't tell you about the competitiveness of the region this year, then I don't know what will."
The team's 17th-place finish was three positions higher than last year. Its fifth-place finish out of Div. III schools was two higher than last year, as the team finished seventh in the category in 2009. And this weekend's result comes without Tufts' frontrunner from last year — Jesse Faller (E '10).
"We lost a lot last year, more than just Jesse," Barron said. "We lost Ryan Lena (E '10) who almost qualified for nationals in outdoor track, and we lost Nick Welch (LA '10), who was a national caliber runner ... [but] everyone is collectively stepping up because we don't have Faller, a top 10 in the nation guy, right now."
The squad on Saturday will travel to Harkness Memorial State Park in Waterford, Conn. for the Connecticut College Invitational.
"This week made me and the rest of the team really excited for the next couple of races," McArthur said. "After such a strong weekend, going into Conn., we don't have anything to prove or anything to lose, so I think with that, the team is going to go out there and go big. It's a fast course there so lot of opportunity for new PRs and another great weekend."
