Jumbos finish eighth at Purple Valley Classic

The men’s cross-country team took eighth place in the Purple Valley Classic at Mount Greylock High School in Williamstown, Mass. on Saturday, Sept. 26. Twenty-two teams participated in the eight-kilometer race, which was hosted by Williams. The Jumbos also finished in third place out of six teams in the five-kilometer event.

Amherst emerged at the top of the podium in the on eight-kilometer race with 42 points. Williams and Geneseo St. finished just behind in second and third place with 45 and 55 points respectively. In the 5ooo-meter race, Saint Rose came in first with 41 points, and Williams narrowly missed out on the top spot again with 43 points. Tufts was in third with 51 points in a point system based on adding the combined places of the top five racers for each team.

The Jumbos rested their top 11finishers from the previous meet. 

“It’s a long season, so many people were given a breather," first-year Christian Swenson said. "Everyone who ran did really, really well. A lot of guys ran a lot faster than they did the week before, which is especially impressive because this course is usually a slower course. People were setting [personal records] by more than 40 seconds."  

Sophomore John Greenberg, who also raced this past weekend, agreed with the decision to rest the team's top racers, especially because the Jumbos are still at the beginning of a long and challenging season. 

"Typically, we usually have everyone run Purple Valley -- we did last year -- but this year we decided [that] because of the difficult courses, we'll be competing on for the duration of the season and [because of] how long the season is, it made sense for some of our top guys to be rested," Greenberg said. 

The top finisher for Tufts in the eight-kilometer race was sophomore Ty Enos, who is also a cartoonist for the Daily. Enos finished 60th overall out of 244 competitors with a time of 27:17.3. He was followed closely by first-year Andrew Munro who ran a 27:18.3 -- good for 62nd place. Following them was first-year Tom Doyle who ran a 27:22.6, and classmate Brian Djerf rounded out the Jumbos with a time of 27:48.1. All Jumbos finished in the top 100 for the day. 

"[Enos] was one actually of our top finishers last year for nationals," Greenberg said. "He's coming back from injury, [but] his first race this weekend was very promising -- I imagine that he's only going to get better from here. [Munro] is also a very talented runner. It'll be interesting to see how he progresses over the season, too, [and] he definitely did a lot better this weekend than he did two weekends ago at Bates."

The overall top finisher in the eight-kilometer race was Mohamed Hussein, an Amherst sophomore who ran a blazing 25:16.7. He was quickly followed by Bijan Mazaheri, a Williams senior who finished in 25:17.9. The race was essentially a two-man contest between Mazaheri and Hussein, with the third-place finisher, Pomona-Pitzer senior John Fowler, coming in more than 20 seconds later at 25:39.7.

The five-kilometer race was a unique inclusion this past weekend, giving some of the mid-distance runners the opportunity to showcase their skills before the official track season begins.

"The mid-distance runners don't necessarily usually have that many opportunities to race -- it's more about training for the track season," Greenberg said. "But it was unique in that this weekend they had a [five-kilometer race], [and] the coach thought it'll be a good idea for them to compete. And they all did a very good job."

First-year Hiroto Watanabe led the Jumbos in the five-kilometer race, running an impressive 16:48.8, good for sixth place overall in a competition that included 69 runners. Classmate Colin Raposo followed for ninth place with a time of 17:00.7. Tufts senior Alex Apostolides and sophomore Tom DePalma came in 13th and 14th with times of 17:18.1 and 17:21.9 respectively.

The Jumbos will take this weekend off in preparation for their upcoming meet on Saturday, Oct. 10, at Franklin Park for the All New England championship.

“We are ranked very high in the nation, but NESCAC is also a very good conference," Swenson said. "It will be difficult beating some teams but I think we have a chance of competing with anyone in the conference this year."