Jumbos find strength in numbers this fall

It was a largely momentous cross country season for the Jumbos in 2016. The women’s team, anchored by now-senior Brittany Bowman, finished an impressive eighth out of 32 in the tricky six-kilometer race at the national championships. The men were represented at nationals by Tim Nichols (LA '17) and Luke O'Connor (LA '17), who finished third and 20th, respectively. It was a season full of individual silverware as well with Nichols taking home USTFCCCA Men’s Cross Country Scholar Athlete of the Year and Bowman claiming USTFCCCA Women’s Cross Country New England Athlete of the Year.

“[Nichols and O'Connor] were definitely the best one-two punch in the region,” senior co-captain John Greenberg said. “Tim and Luke were excellent role models on and off the course.”

Greenberg is one of two captains of the men's team tasked with filling the shoes of the departing graduates, partnering with fellow senior Sam Little in a season rife with optimism.

“I think they’ve been great captains,” assistant coach Michael Schmidt said. “They’ve led the group right away, really cohesively.”

On the women's team, Bowman, of course, has set the bar very high for her peers. That doesn’t mean others can’t step up around her, as demonstrated by the impressive overall team performance at nationals. With only three of the seven runners who competed at nationals still remaining on the team, there are certainly spaces to fill.

“[Senior] Margot Rashba has already shown big improvements from last year and could have an exciting season,” Bowman told the Daily in an electronic message. “[Lydia Heely] and Nicole [Kerrigan], both sophomores, are also looking very strong. Both of them were injured at some point last year but put in a lot of hard work this summer, and I think they can both have great seasons.”

For the men, the absence of Nichols and O'Connor cannot immediately be replaced like-for-like. Nonetheless, the men’s team will seem to echo the strength in numbers solution the women’s team has taken too.

“There’s a really good junior cohort led by Christian Swenson, Dylan Jones, Colin Raposo, Rory Buckman and Andrew Doherty Munro,” Greenberg said. “It will be a very fun and unique running experience.”

A couple members of the junior class emerged as standout performers during last season.

“We had a couple breakout sophomores last season,” Schmidt said. “[Junior] Brian Reaney really comes to mind. He had a great cross-country fall. That junior group is really big, so I think when you have a really big group, there can be more possibilities of guys really working together and pushing each other because there are so many of them. And I think that’s definitely a group that’s ready to break out.”

While breaking out may be the focus for upperclassmen, the first-years face the similarly daunting task of breaking in.

“We approach working with [first-years] in that their primary priority is just to get used to Tufts and what the program is about and how to balance being a student and everything else,” Schmidt said. “If they run really well and they’re PRing [personal record-making] and they’re making championship meets, that’s really great and an awesome achievement for them.”

The women's team welcomes 13 first-years this season, while the men's team has 10.

“The [first-year] class this year has been amazing,” Bowman said. “They are committed and serious about training and invested in the team. They are all great additions and quite a few of them are already making an impact and pushing us upperclassmen hard.”

There’s a mounting excitement for the meet on Saturday up at Bates. The Bates Invitational is only four teams per gender, and coach Schmidt noted that it’s a good way to get back into the mentality of racing the six or eight kilometers, respectively, for the women and the men.

“[The goal is] to push each and to work off of each other in a race," Schmidt said. "We’re not too invested in the times or the places people put up yet because it’s still early.”

Don’t mistake the lack of urgency for a lack of competitive drive, though. If anything, it certainly indicates that the team is ready to dig in and commit for the long haul. The men are out for revenge — “not thrilled,” according to coach Schmidt, by their collective showing last year. Nichols and O’Connor are undoubtedly two of the greatest to ever run at Tufts, but the collective may prove to be greater than the sum of its parts.

“We believe we have underperformed at that meet every year given how much talent we have on our team,” Bowman said. “[The goal is to] have everyone run the race to their full potential. Hopefully ... we will improve upon our eighth-place finish last year.”

Fast times, literally and figuratively, are on the way for Tufts cross country.