Bo's Win Home Invitational on Alumni Weekend

(1/20/2007) Full Results

This past Saturday the Jumbos welcomed their graduated athletes back for the annual Alumni Weekend. There was a great turn out of alumni who watched, supported, and ran for Tufts one more time. Recent grad Nate Brigham '05 took the highly sought after crown in the 2007 Tufts Has Beens Mile. His 4:32 was good enough to beat out fellow classmate Aaron Kaye.

The current Jumbos had another strong showing at their second home meet of the season. With classes starting back up the week before, the Tufts men still had enough pop in their step to place first of fifteen teams, beating familiar NESCAC foes Bates, Amherst, and Colby.

Across the board, many Tufts athletes found themselves racing outside of their usual events to keep the weekly grind to a minimum. The 55m was paced by Fred Jones and freshman Marc Soskin who placed fourth (6.75) and sixth (6.87), respectively. Highly contested among the Jumbos, the 55m hurdles saw freshmen Ikenna Acholonu, Jared Engelking, and senior David McCleary take the top three places with times of 7.87, 7.90, and 8.37, respectively. All three times were season bests. In the 400m, five Jumbos placed in the top eight. Led by freshman Andrew Longley's 51.35, the four other Jumbos were all within a second and a half of his second place time.

The middle distance squad also took a strong step forward this weekend. Four freshmen ran great races in the 500m. Alex Landy led the group with a time of 1:10.25, followed closely by Daniel Stone, Jason Hanrahan, and Josh Gordon. Freshman Matt Tirrell won the 800m this weekend in a time of 1:58.85. In the 1000m, three Tufts athletes placed in the top five: Dan Sullivan, Billy Hale, and captain Nate Cleveland, who towed the pack through 800m and finished third in 2:35.36.

Finishing up the track events, the distance team also had a powerful showing. Freshman Nick Welch (4:27.58) led four teammates with a win in the mile. Ryan Lena, Dave Sorensen, Ben Silver, and Peter Browne were close behind. In the 3000m, Justin Chung placed fourth, and in the 5000m, David Tilton and Peter Goransson took third and fourth, respectively.

On the runway, the Tufts jumpers held its own against strong opposition. Fred Jones won the long jump with a leap of 6.94 meters, while teammates Skip Pagel and Jared Engelking placed third and fifth, jumping 6.39 and 6.18 meters, respectively. Jake Fromer placed third in the triple jump with a distance of 13.16 meters, a collegiate PR. In the high jump, sophomore Ted McMahan placed second, and junior Jeremy Arak placed third, both with heights of 1.91 meters.

Rounding out the field events, the Jumbo throwers had a very productive weekend. In the weight throw, junior Joe Brown placed third with a distance of 15.79m. Seniors David Igbalajobi and Tyler Groff both threw PRs of 13.41m and 12.84m. Finally, junior Derek Engelking placed second in the indoor pentathlon. He totaled 3,159 points over the five events, earning him a Division 3 New England and ECAC qualification. Derek Engelking was the 6th Tufts pentathlete to qualify for the regional championships next month. Look for Tufts squads at BU's Terrier Invitational and Bowdoin's 5-way meet next weekend.


Full Results