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Sam Haney was first for Tufts, seventh overall at the ECAC meet
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WILLIAMSTOWN - Even without their top seven runners, the Tufts men's cross country team placed four athletes in the top 20 to finish second of 44 teams at the ECAC Championship hosted by Williams College on Saturday.
Williams placed four runners in the top 15 to claim the team title, accumulating 44 points. The Jumbos' score of 77 was good enough for the runner-up position. Middlebury placed third with 102 points, while Bates and Keene State rounded out the top five with 137 and 172 points respectively.
After receiving 17 inches of snow in last weekend's storm, the course at Mt. Greylock High School was certainly not in its fastest condition. Although the snow had melted, the mud left behind made for very difficult racing. Nonetheless, many athletes were able to battle through the soggy course to post some impressive performances.
Sophomore Antoine Gisore of New England College bested the 300-man field, crossing the line with a time of 26:10 over the eight-kilometer course.
The first Jumbo across the line was junior Sam Haney (Essex, CT) who placed seventh overall with a time of 26:40. Only three seconds behind Haney was sophomore Jake McCauley (Darien, CT), who placed ninth overall. Senior co-captain Scott McArthur (Denver, CO) closed out his collegiate cross country career by clocking a time of 27:00, good enough for 16th overall. Seven seconds behind McArthur was fifth-year senior Jerzy Eisenberg-Guyot (Brookline, MA), who capped off his career with a 19th place finish.
Closing the scoring for the Jumbos was junior Luke Maher (Carmel, NY) whose time of 27:29 was good enough for 26th place. Rounding out the top seven were sophomore Benji Hansen (Madison, WI) and first-year Sam Garfield (Holland, PA). Hansen finished 29th with a time of 27:31, while Garfield clocked a 27:51 to finish in 44th place.
The impressive team performance marks the end of strong season for the Jumbos' second seven runners. They will look to carry the momentum into the indoor track campaign, which begins December 3 with the Husky Invite hosted by Northeastern University.
Next Saturday, the top seven runners on Coach Ethan Barron's squad will look to secure a berth to the NCAA Championship when they compete in the New England Division III Championship hosted by Bowdoin College.
ECAC Championship results
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