Jumbos earn 4th consecutive NCAA National Championship bid

(11/18/2014 2:59 PM) Full Results

77 Crazy Jumbos from the Tufts Track and Field, Cross Country, and Crew teams made the long drive out to Williams College this past Saturday to watch their friends and teammates compete in the New England DIII Regional Championships. The XC men fed off of their support and fought to a 6th place finish in what would seem to be the strongest region in the country, earning themselves an at-large bid into the DIII National Championships next weekend in Mason, OH.

It was a calm but icy cold day, and the frozen ground made for firm and fast conditions. The race got off to a fast start, but sophomore duo of Luke O’Connor and Tim Nichols established themselves in the front pack early on. Senior Marshall Pagano took an unfortunate fall within the first 200 meters that set him deep back in the field.

Through the middle miles of the race, Freshman Ty Enos showed excellent poise and racing ability in his first big collegiate cross-country race. He found his drive in the midst of the chaos and moved up through the crowd better than anyone else, earning a top 50 finish. He improved his time on the same course by almost 2 minutes from the Purple Valley Classic back in September. His step-up performance was undoubtedly the single biggest difference maker in getting the team to nationals.

The Senior duo of Nick Guarnaccia and Colin McCrory fought hard and held on to strong finishes, though they struggled to progress as much as they would have liked in the last 2 miles of the race. There is certainly a stronger performance in their legs, and hopefully they can find it in Ohio. When accounting for additional non-NESCAC runners, O’Connor and Nichols matched their NESCAC performances and earned All-Region honors with their 17th and 9th place finishes, respectively. Nichols time of 25:39 is the fastest time on record for a Tufts runner at the Mt. Greylock course.

With their selection to the National Championships, Tufts joins Williams and Middlebury as the only 3 New England teams, to make nationals for 4 consecutive seasons, and one of 15 programs nationwide to make it all 4 years. We look forward to having one more chance to compete with the best teams in the country! For those who cannot make it to Ohio, there will be a live stream of the race on NCAA.com. It’s going to be a good one!



Full Results