Men's Cross Country's 7th at NCAA Championship is Team's Best Since 2012

SPARTANBURG, SC (November 22, 2025) - The Tufts University men's cross country team earned its best finish at the NCAA Championship Race in 13 years today by placing seventh on the eight-kilometer course at the Roger Milliken Center.

The 2025 Jumbos earned the program's seventh top 10 national finish overall. The seventh-place effort is the best by a Tufts team at Nationals since the 2012 squad also placed seventh. The Jumbos were the highest-finishing team in New England at today's competition.

Tufts was led today by All-American performances (top 40 individuals) from senior Cullen McCaleb and junior Harris Gulbransen. Running at the national championship for the first time, McCaleb led the Jumbos in 21st place with a 24:27.7 time. Gulbransen ran second for Tufts and 35th overall with a 24:38.1 mark.

McCaleb made a strong move from the fourth to sixth kilometer points. In 74th place after four kilometers, he advanced to 47th at five kilometers and then into All-American territory through six kilometers. He picked up 11 more sports over the final kilometer for 21st. It's Tufts' top national finish since 2023 when Ivan Appleton was 13th. Gulbransen was steady throughout, staying within the top 40 for the nearly the whole race.

Senior Quinn Hampson was third for Tufts and 58th overall, compiling a 24:55.5 time that is his best in three NCAA Championship races overall. Junior Jonah Reisner scored fourth for the Jumbos in 102nd place out of 291 total finishers with a 25:20.0 mark.

Tufts' 255 team score was narrowly ahead of eighth-place Pomona-Pitzer (258) and ninth-place MIT (259). Jumbo senior Amokrane Aouchiche's strong finish helped the cause. He moved up from 131st to 117th over the final kilometer to help lower the team score. He recorded a 25:26.7 time.

Also in action today for Tufts was senior Calvin Cummings with a 25:34.5 mark (135th) and junior Avery Smart at 26:01.7 (200th).

Along with the women's team finishing 11th, it's the best combined performance at NCAA's in Tufts team history. 

This concludes an outstanding 2025 season for Director of Track & Field and Cross Country at Tufts Jamie Norton's squad. In addition to today's top national performance since 2012, the Jumbos also won the program's first NESCAC title since that year.

Wisconsin-LaCrosse dominated today's 32-team competition with an 82 score. Emmanuel Lablond from Johns Hopkins University won the individual race with a 23:35.0 time.