Tufts Performs Well With Weekend Double Header

(1/27/2007) Full Results

This weekend marked the first double header of the season for the Tufts Track & Field team. The bulk of the team traveled to Bowdoin College in Brunswick, ME, while a handful of athletes remained in the Boston area to compete at Boston University's Terrier Invitational. There was no shortage of excitement at both venues.

Starting the day off were the Jumbo 3k/5k runners at BU. In his first 5000m of the season, senior Chad Uy set the bar early with a 21 second PR for a time of 15:29.96. Minutes later senior Josh Kennedy and freshman Nick Welch each lowered their 3000m PRs with times of 8:39.54 and 8:41.83, respectively. Closing out the day at BU were senior 800 runners, Nate Cleveland and Dan Sullivan. Sullivan's race was a smooth New England qualifying mark 1:59.06. Cleveland leapt from the middle of the pack with 400m to go to win his heat, finishing the day for Tufts with a solid indoor PR of 1:55.42.

The Jumbos competing in Maine saw MIT and Springfield jump out with intensity that caught the Jumbos off guard. Quickly responding, the Jumbos stepped up their concentration and focus and regained the lead at the midway point. MIT's depth, however, was too much on this Saturday as they gapped the field by 40 points by the end.

Although they may not have left victorious, the Jumbos did take many memorable performances from Bowdoin College yesterday. Claiming four of the top six places in the high jump, Tufts welcomed back sophomore James Bradley from an early season injury. He responded with a 3" inch PR for first place. He and teammate Jeremy Arak both made three solid attempts at the an NCAA provisional height of 2.01m. Continuing in the jumps, senior captain Fred Jones continued his dominance winning both the long and triple jumps with leaps of 22'5.5" and 46'2.75". Skip Pagel's mark of 21'0.75" earned a 5th place finish in the long jump.

The freshmen continue to excell in the high hurdles. The Tufts class of 2010 claimed four of the spots in the finals, with Ikenna Acholonu and Jared Engelking going 1-2 in the event. Andrew Longley also had an impressive showing in the preliminary round running 8.09. In the dash, senior Mickey Ferri had the best day for the Jumbos. He took 2nd in the 55m with a 6.73 clocking. Mickey would have been the victor of the 200 had he not been disqualified for a lane violation. Consequently, freshman Andrew Longley took 1st place in the event with a time of 23.06.

The Tufts middle and long distance runners impressed as well. Freshmen Billy Hale (800m) and Jason Hanrahan (1000m) both qualified for the New England Championships, taking 3rd and 5th respectively. Classmate Ryan Lena improved his early season 3000m performance with a PR of 8:51.10. Rounding out the distance events was junior Dave Sorensen, whose wire-to-wire 5000m win in 15:19.41 was another Jumbo PR.

Ultimately it was MIT's depth that brought down the Jumbos. As MIT took at least three scoring spots in the 1000m, 3000m, 5000m, LJ, TJ, and PV, the Jumbos could only respond by dominating two events (HJ and HH). The engineers' performance was a repeat of their strong showing from the previous week. Over the past two weekends the engineers have knocked off two New England powerhouses in Williams College and Tufts University.

Next week Tufts will play host to some very high caliber competition at the Tufts Stampede. With schools like Trinity, Stonehill, Springfield, Williams, Ithaca, Keene State, Eastern Connecticut, and UMass Lowell due to compete, the Gantcher Center will display some exciting races and competition. Athletes will be aiming for exceptional times and marks in every event.


Full Results