WATERFORD, CT - With all five scorers earning All-New England honors (top 35), the Tufts Men's Cross Country team finished third at the 2015 NCAA New England Region Championship Race on Saturday. It's the Jumbos' best showing at the Regional meet since 2007.
Barring an unlikely development, the effort should earn Tufts a spot in next Saturday's NCAA Championship field. The top two teams at today's Regional (Williams and Amherst) received automatic berths into Nationals. At large berths will be announced today, with Tufts expected to receive one.
Jumbo junior Luke O'Connor was third overall at the race, the highest Tufts finish since Matt Rand was also third at the 2011 Regional. O'Connor ran a 24:43.7 race over eight kilometers today, just 1.7 seconds behind second-place finisher Bijan Mazaheri from Williams (24:42) and 3.9 seconds off of Regional champ Mohamed Hussein from Amherst (24:39.8). O'Connor was 17th at last year's NCAA Regional.
Junior Tim Nichols earned his third All-New England honor with a sixth-place time of 24:55.1 today. It was his second top 10 finish at the Regional, including last year's ninth-place race. He was 30th as a freshman in 2013.
The NCAA Men's Regional was competed at Harkness Memorial State Park, home course of Connecticut College. Running in familiar territory, the Jumbos received what they have come to expect from O'Connor and Nichols. However, sophomore Ty Enos, senior co-captain Michael Curley and freshman Christian Swenson also delivered All-New England efforts to help Tufts take third.
Interim head coach Mike Schmidt's Jumbos totaled an 80 score, 12 behind second-place Amherst (68). Williams won the Regional with a 67 score to edge the Lord Jeffs. Fourth-place Wesleyan was well behind with a 114 score and MIT was fifth at 128.
Enos had a 25:21.5 time today that was third for Tufts and 18th overall, earning him All-New England recognition for the first time. Curley was close behind in 25:23.3 for 20th overall. The fifth and final Tufts scorer was freshman Swenson in 33rd place (25:35.7).
Tufts senior co-captain James Traester was not far off All-New England with his 25:48.7 time for 45th overall.
The race included 55 total teams and 380 runners.
If they receive an at large berth into Nationals as expected, the Tufts Men will compete at the NCAA Finals for the sixth straight year and 15th time overall next Saturday in Wisconsin.
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