Friday,
November 7, 2003
Written by Michael Douglas
MEDFORD
- The New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) has announced
it's all-conference award winners for Men's and Women's Cross-Country for the
Fall 2003 season. The Tufts University Jumbos were well represented. Six members
of the Men's and Women's squads were recognized, including Men's Rookie of the
Year Josh Kennedy (Guilford, CT/Hopkins
School). Tufts Head Coach Connie Putnam was honored as Men's Coach of the Year. The Jumbo Men
won their first-ever NESCAC Cross-Country Championship last weekend at
Middlebury College (Nov. 1).
The
All-NESCAC teams are selected based on the performances at the conference
championship meet. Seven runners are named to both the First and Second Teams.
Kennedy
led a pack of five Tufts runners from the Men's squad who were named to the
All-Conference teams. In addition to his Rookie of the Year award, Kennedy was
also named to the First-Team All-NESCAC. Junior Nate
Brigham (Penacook, NH/Merrimack Valley HS), sophomore Kyle Doran (North Attleborough, MA/Bishop Feehan HS), junior Brian
McNamara (Saratoga Springs, NY/Saratoga Springs HS), and junior Neil
Orfield (Burnsville, MN/Apple Valley HS) were all named to the All-NESCAC
Second Team.
Kennedy
finished seventh overall at the NESCAC Championships with a time of 26 minutes,
54.4 seconds on the 8K course, which was 27 seconds behind event-winner Neal
Holtschulte of Williams College. Kennedy was the only freshman among the top-10
finishers. Brigham (26:57.5), Doran (27:02.2), and McNamara (27:04.4) were right
behind, finishing in an 8-9-10 pack. Orfield was only five seconds behind
McNamara at (27:09.5), placing 14th. The Jumbos finished with a combined overall
score of 48, nine places better than runner-up Williams College.
Following
Tufts' victory, Putnam was named Coach of the Year for leading a program that
made a turnaround after finishing fifth in a field of eleven only one year ago.
Tufts has featured a successful and balanced team this year, with five different
runners finishing atop the squad over the course of eight races. The team is
currently ranked ninth in the nation, and is the top-ranked squad in New
England. This is Brigham's third consecutive All-NESCAC recognition. He was
named conference Rookie of the Year and to the Second Team in 2001, and was a
Second Team pick last season.
Senior
Lauren Caputo (Belmont, MA/Belmont) was the lone Tufts member of the
All-NESCAC Women's squad after being named to the second team.
It was the senior tri-captain's first all-conference selection. Caputo
finished twelfth overall with a time of 19:00.7 on the 5K course, 47 seconds
behind event-winner Shauneen Garrahan of Amherst College. The Lord Jeffs
captured the conference title with a team score of 55, while head coach Kristen
Morwick's Jumbos finished seventh overall with a team score of 174. Caputo was
Tufts' top runner this season, finishing atop the team in all but one race, and
gracing the top-15 in six of her seven races.
The
Jumbos will host the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) Championship
meets this weekend (Nov. 8). Both squads will look to use the ECAC meet as a
tune-up in preparation for next weekend's crucial NCAA New England Championship
meets (Nov. 15) at Southern Maine.
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