Jumbos ready to thrown down at DIII New Englands

(2/16/2008) See more Photos     Full Results

In addition to the jumpers competing at MIT, the Tufts University Jumbos hosted their third Tufts Invitational on Saturday. Even with a split squad, the team threw down the races, jumps, vaults, and throws they were looking for in this tune-up that brought the regular season to a close.

In the short dash, the trio of Andrew Longley, Marc Soskin, and Colin Fitzgerald showed the way in nearly identical times of 6.79, 6.81, and 6.81 for 55 meters respectively, out-nosing '07 Tufts Alum Mickey Ferri, running unattached in 6.82. Trevor Donadt and Jared Engelking represented the hurdles well, finishing 2-3 in the finals in 7.87 and 7.90. Soskin and freshman Jeremy Peterson doubled back in the 200 for top-10 finishes in 24.07 and 24.27. At 400 meters, freshman Matt Keefer made his 2008 track debut, running 51.79, followed closely by sophomore Alex Landy (52.82) and junior James Bradley (52.86).

The middle distance crew ran well in preparation for the upcoming championships as sophomores Josh Gordon and Jason Hanrahan finished in 1:27.95 and 1:28.07 in the 600. At 800 meters, Billy Hale continued to make his presence felt with a 1:57.54. Just minutes later, sophomore Mike Mangarella added a career PR of 2:11.94. Senior Matt Alander came back from injury just in time to drop a season best 2:36.13 to make the DIII New England Championships, just ahead of freshman Corey Melnick's 2:40.97.

The long distance team saw the fine-tuning they were looking for, even while resting 4 of the top 7 from cross country. Senior captain Dave Sorensen raced a PR 4:16.84 in the mile, just ahead of sophomore Jesse Faller, finishing in 4:18.09. Freshman Jerzy Eisenberg-Guyot finally pinned the sub-9 qualifying time he was looking for with a hard earned 8:56.03 at 3000 meters. Classmate Chris Brunnquell ran the race of his collegiate career in the 5000, loping the better part of a minute off his previous PR to run 15:56.08.

Off the track, freshman vaulter Sam Read jumped a new PR of 4.19m (13'9" ) for the overall win. Donadt came back in the triple jump to leap 41'5.25" against one of the top jumpers in the region. Senior Joe Brown led the way for the throwing squad in both shot and weight throw, with tosses of 11.83m in the shot and season farthest 16.22m in weight. The freshman trio of Cullan Riley, David Dorman, and Alex Gresham followed his lead and closed their seasons well with a slew of season bests.

At the end of the day, Tufts closed with the two relays, the 4x800 and the 4x400. In the latter, the race of the day to watch, Andrew Longley ran down the 4x400 anchors from Stonehill and Springfield in the final stretch to win by just 2 hundredths of a second. showing the hunger and fight the Jumbos will need this weekend at the Division III New England Championships on their home turf when EVERY INCH OF EVERY STEP COUNTS.


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