Jumbos Crack Century Mark For 4th Straight Year

(2/17/2007) Full Results

This weekend marked the 27th annual Division III New England Championships hosted by Bates College in Lewiston, ME. The meet proved to be very successful for the 2007 Jumbos. For the 4th consecutive year, the Jumbos took home 2nd place being outpaced only by Williams College. It was also the 4th time that both teams were the only two teams in the region to break the century mark for total team points. Tufts' 103 points was a solid showing for the Jumbos who graduated an impressive senior core last spring.

This weekend's meet was both an impressive showing of experience and youth for the Jumbos. This year's seniors paced the Jumbos with 35 points. Captain Fred Jones led the way grabbing 2nd place in both the Long and Triple Jump. Fellow captain, Nate Cleveland ran a 1:56.98 in the 800m, good enough for 3rd place. Cleveland's race again got out in a conservative 59, as the pack would be forced to negative split home to the finish. Next weekend's Open NE Championships should offer both Cleveland and Jones the competition and facility to improve a bit on their performances to date.

With one of the most impressive races of the day for the Jumbos, senior Dustin Virgilio came out of the slowest of three sections in the 400m to take 3rd place. His 51.00 would outpace all but two others this weekend. Virgilio also came back to anchor the Jumbos 4x400 relay with another impressive showing. It seems that Dustin has finally turned the corner on his early season injury and should be in solid position to PR in the upcoming races. Rounding out the senior class were a pair of Jumbo 5k runners. Josh Kennedy and Justin Chung fell prey to a lap-counting mishap that resulted in the field running and extra 200m. Due to a lacking kick thanks to the bonus lap, the Jumbos would fall to 5th and 6th places respectively, and be just outpaced by Harrison Lakehomer of Amherst College and Nathan Krah of Bowdoin College.

Rounding out the rest of the Jumbo's points on the track was the freshman class of 2010, who entered very strongly onto the New England scene. They had a great showing in their first NE championship scoring 32 points, outpacing the MIT freshman class by 9 points. All of the points coming on the track came from either the senior or the freshmen classes this past weekend, demonstrating both the experience and youth on the current Jumbo roster.

A trio of first-year hurdlers would claim three of the top five spots in the region. Jared Engelking, coming off his 5th place pentathlon from the previous night, would tack on a PR of 7.86 and a 2nd place finish. Engelking just out-leaned Ikenna Acholonu who was clocked in a PR of 7.87 seconds. Adding his own PR to the mix, Trevor Donadt came through with an 8.05 clocking, good enough for 5th place.

Fellow freshmen Andrew Longley and Nick Welch would round out the Jumbo first years on the oval. Longley would tie his flat track PR with his 22.86 in the finals of the 200m. Later that day Welch would grab a 5th place with his 8:51 in the 3000m. The track oval was not the only place the young Jumbos would perfrom well, as the field events proved to be another showcase for them and the team. Ikenna Acholonu would add to his hurdle time with a PR in the triple jump. His jump of 13.56m would just outreach junior, Nathan Scott's 13.52m. Finally, first year high jumper Isaiah Paramore and three other Jumbos would grab four of the eight scoring spots in the high jump. Junior, Jeremy Arak successfully defended his NE title with his jump of 1.97m. Sophomores James Bradley and Ted McMahan would add their own 4th and 6th place jumps respectively.

Finishing off the field events would be junior Joe Brown taking 8th place in the 35lb. weight throw. Adding in the previous day's performances by a threesome of Tufts pentathletes, Tufts would score in excess of 100 points for the fourth straight year. Nathan Scott, Skip Pagel, and Jared Engelking would each score in the top five. Scott recovered and was cleared from his fall MCL tear just in time to qualify for, and win, the pentathlon at this year's New England Championships - a truly impressive feat and a testament to his commitment and ability.

The Jumbos will return to Boston University this coming Friday and Saturday for the Open New England Championships where they will compete against the best of Division I, II, and III. Almost all who competed this past weekend can be expected to make appearances at one of the more competitive meets of the season. The Jumbos will look to come away with more than a few personal and school records in hand. It is in the upcoming weeks that the year's training will truly begin to show itself.



Full Results