WILLIAMSTOWN - Freshmen Dylan Jones and Matthew McDermott both earned honors while leading the Tufts Men's Cross Country team to fifth place at the 2015 Eastern College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) Championship on Saturday at Mount Greylock High School.
Jones and McDermott both received All-ECAC honors by virtue of their top 15 finishes at the race. Jones was seventh overall completing the eight-kilometer course in 26:59.94. McDermott was 14th with a 27:08.29 finish. The race included 277 competitors overall.
Tufts' top five finishers recorded a 152 team score for fifth place out of 40 teams overall. The Jumbos were in tight competition for fourth place, losing out to Colby (145) and edging NYU (155). Amherst won the ECAC Championship with a 53 score, followed by Williams (77) and Middlebury (117).
Teams typically race their second varsity line-ups at the ECAC Championship. Tufts' youth shined through, as three of their five scorers were freshmen and the other two were sophomores.
A pair of sophomores scored third and fourth for the Jumbos. Sam Little was 24th overall with a 27:23.67 time and John Greenberg was 46th in the field (27:55.79). The fifth and final Jumbo scorer was freshman James Gregoire in 64th place (28:17.53). A fourth Tufts freshman, Tom Doyle, raced sixth for the team and 64th overall with a 28:17.96 right behind Gregoire.
Sophomore Liam Simpson from Wiliams was the race champion with a 26:24.13 winning time.
The Jumbos compete for a berth into the NCAA Championship next weekend at the NCAA Regional race hosted by Connecticut College.
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