Teams: Men's Cross Country: Team Overview

As a perennial power in the New England region that continues to gain strength, depth, and talent, the Tufts University men's cross country program is among the best in the nation. The program successfully entered a new era four years ago under Coach Ethan Barron and continues to maintain its status among the nation's elite. The Tufts men achieve great team and individual success every year. In each of the past 15 years, Tufts men's cross country has either competed as a team at the NCAA championship race (nine times) or had an individual run in the race (six times). The Jumbos recorded their best-ever finish at Nationals with a fifth place in 2005.

The 2009 cross country team will be powered by a pair of seniors - two-time All-American Jesse Faller and two-time All Region performer Nick Welch. Joining them will be senior Ryan Lena and juniors Chris Brunnquell, Jeff Ragazzini, Jerzy Eisenberg-Guyot, who were all regular scorer for the team last fall.

Barron was a captain, Academic All-American, school-record holder and All-American on the Middlebury College track team. He came to Tufts as a graduate assistant coach in the fall of 2002 and earned his Master's in educational studies. As an assistant, Barron worked primarily with Jumbo sprinters, jumpers and hurdlers.

On the coaching front, Mark Carberry and Mark Coogan will assist Barron for cross country. Carberry was an All-Conference runner while attending Villanova University and has coached at the high school and club levels since graduating. Coogan, who previously coached at Phillips Exeter at MIT, joins the Tufts staff this season.  He is a three-time US road race champion and represented the US in the marathon at the 1996 Summer Olympic Games. He is an eight-time member of the U.S. world championship cross country team and earned a silver medal in the marathon at the 1995 Pan-American Games. He is also a two-time bronze medalist at the U.S. Track & Field Championships.

Since his promotion to head coach, Barron has worked to expand the coaching staff by adding multiple assistants to the team. In 2005, he was elected New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) Coach of the Year for both cross country and track & field. In 2007-08, Barron received similar accolades during the indoor and outdoor track & field seasons. He earned the NESCAC Coach of the Year for the spring, and was voted New England Coach of the Year during the indoor season. In recent years, the Jumbo coaches have earned a total of seven Coaching Staff of the Year honors.

As members of the NESCAC, Tufts is part of the nation's most competitive small college conference academically and athletically. The NESCAC is a group of highly selective liberal arts colleges and universities that share an academics-first philosophy for intercollegiate athletics. The Tufts program has matched its competitive success with academic achievement. During the 2008 cross country season, six Tufts men were named to the NESCAC All-Academic Team. Additionally, recent cross country/track & field alumni Trevor Williams, Mickey Ferri, Fred Jones, Scott Merrick, and Nate Scott received Tufts Alumni Association awards for their outstanding academic and athletic achievements while at Tufts. Forty-one Jumbos were named to the Academic All-America team during the last four years alone.

Located right outside of Boston, a world-class city renowned for its academic institutions, Tufts offers a well-rounded collegiate experience to student-athletes. Within its picturesque small-college campus, Tufts is a major university with "an unprecedented diversity of programs, exceptional faculty and staff, and bright and talented students," according to President Lawrence S. Bacow. The Athletics Department sponsors a varsity program of 28 sports that is among the most competitive in the NCAA's Division III. Tufts finished 10th in the 2009 Learfield Sports Directors' Cup, which awards points based on NCAA performances.

The team's cross country course in Grafton, Mass., home of the Tufts Veterinary School, has hosted several recent regional championship races.