A third−place finish by junior Matt Rand at the NESCAC Cross Country Championships Saturday matched the best−ever result for a Tufts athlete at the race. Rand crossed the line of the 8,000−meter course at Amherst in 26:15 among a field of 129 runners, improving eight places from his 2010 11th place finish and earning his second consecutive All−NESCAC honor.
Middlebury senior Michael Schmidt, the 2010 runner−up, took the individual title in a time of 25:51, and he did so despite losing a shoe in the mud in the third mile. While Rand was running in second for most of the race, Bowdoin sophomore Coby Horowitz made a big move during the final mile to pass Rand and cross the line in 26:11 as the runner−up.
Rand led the way to a fifth−place team finish, a disappointing result for the Jumbos who went into the race hoping to finish in the top three. However, with some of the usual scorers nursing injuries, it was up to several younger members of the squad to step up and fill the gaps on Saturday.
Williams placed all five of its scorers in the top 15 of the race, scoring an impressive 49 points. Bates and Bowdoin tied for second, each with 79 points. Then came last year's champions, Middlebury, in fourth with 94, and Tufts 15 points behind them with 109.
"We were disappointed in that we know we can be up there with the teams ahead of us, but we were also impressed that … we could have had other people ... to fill the places of the people who were having a bad day," sophomore Liam Cassidy said. "That showed our depth and our strength and now we're that much more hungry for Regionals."
Sophomore Brian McLaughlin was the second Tufts runner across the line in 26:46, good for 20th place. Classmate Cassidy was next, in 25th place with a time of 26:50, on his way back to top form after recovering from early season injury issues.
"It was a good race and it was good to get back up there place−wise after having an injury. I felt a lot stronger than the last race and I'm recovering even better as I keep training," said Cassidy, about his second race of the year. "Brian kept moving up throughout the race, and once I caught up to him, I just tried to stay on his back and go with him. He was having a great race and really helping out the team, running second when some other teammates who are usually up there were hurting."
Junior Kyle Marks was just two seconds back from Cassidy in 27th place. Sophomore Andrew Shapero rounded out the scorers for Tufts with a 37th place finish in 27:06. Sophomore Ben Wallis and junior Sam Haney rounded out the top seven in 41st and 44th, respectively.
The conditions on the 8,000−meter course were certainly difficult to fight through Saturday, between the cold winds and the sections of calf−high mud.
"It was a very difficult race because of the mud — probably the worst mud I've ever run in," Rand said. "We got out very well as a team. We had four guys in the top 10 at the mile, but unfortunately then the mud really hurt us. It took a lot out of us, and we weren't really able to get into the rhythm to run a very solid even−paced race, so place−wise, we suffered significantly in the second half of the race."
The mud section was just where Schmidt was able to gap the whole field, powering through the muddy loops and preventing anyone from returning to striking distance.
Though the result was a disappointing one, the real test of the Jumbos' ability will come on Nov. 12 at the NCAA Div. III New England Championships at Bowdoin, where Tufts can redeem itself against the NESCAC schools and the rest of the region in their quest for a berth to Nationals.
"Regionals is the focus of the season; that is what our training is geared for, so we peak at that meet, not NESCACs, so no matter how we finished on Saturday, our goals for the season did not change," Rand said. "We want to qualify for Nationals as a team, and we know we have the potential to do it. It's just a matter of having five guys perform well on the same day."
The Jumbos found it promising that even on a bad day, they were within striking distance of the teams they will be battling against on Nov. 12. Tufts was only 15 points behind Middlebury, which earlier this season made a statement to the region by finishing as the top Div. III school at the Open New England Championships.
Regionals will likely once again be a battle to the finish for Rand, Schmidt and Horowitz, with the addition of the top non−NESCAC runners of the region.
"Head to head I've beaten every other runner in the region, so knowing that, I have very high expectations for Regionals," Rand said. "I think the course will be better suited for me than Amherst, so I think I will be able to stay near guys like Schmidt and Horowitz. I just want to stay near the front the whole race and see what I can do near the end."
While the top seven runners will rest for Regionals, the second seven will compete at the ECAC Championships at Williams on Saturday, putting the true depth of the Jumbos on display.
