Tieuli brothers leaders of pack.

PositionSPORTS

Byline: Carl Setterlund

In 2005 when Chris and Cameron Tieuli were freshmen on the St. John's cross country team, they had their older brother, Matt, then a senior, to guide them.

Coach Raul Laborde said Matt was his top runner since he debuted as a freshman, but the older Tieuli has since moved on to the University of Notre Dame, and the burden of carrying St. John's to success now falls on the twins' shoulders.

"Last year was their first year running without Matt and I think they were a little bit lost without the older brother to follow," Laborde said.

Cam and Chris, originally from Upton, started running cross country in seventh grade at Nipmuc Regional Middle School, largely because of their brother's success, and it carried over into high school.

For the most part, the Tieulis have stuck together since, the exception being when Cameron played freshman baseball instead of running outdoor track with Chris.

Though identical, one brother holds a slight edge. Cameron was a member of last fall's T&G Super Team and usually runs 10-15 seconds ahead of his brother.

"Cam was the No. 2 sophomore in the state last year and potentially should be our No. 1 runner this year," Laborde said.

Cameron's 15:05 finish in the Division 1 race at the Central Mass. Championships was good enough for fifth place, and helped St. John's retain its title. He was also the Pioneers' top runner in the state championships, leading them to second place.

"We came in thinking that we had to beat Brookline to win it," Cameron said.

The Pioneers did edge Brookline (third place), but finished behind Brockton.

Despite Cameron's accomplishment, Chris has beaten him before, just not head-to-head.

"Their freshman year we had a meet against Wachusett, and I came up with this wacky idea of running Chris in the JV race and for whatever reason Chris beat Cam's time that day. It's happened one other time that I split them up and I'm curious as to why that's happened," Laborde said. "My impression is that Chris has a habit of deferring to Cam, just from seeing them race. Maybe without following Cam in a race, Chris was able to run better. He's got the same potential."

Whatever the reason for it, Chris aims to reverse his trend of coming in second to his brother.

"I'm going to try my hardest to catch (Cameron) this year. I'm going to stay with him in every training run," Chris said. "I think I can definitely beat him if I really put my mind to it."

With the Tieuli twins hitting their...

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