Strong Finish at Terrier as Welch Qualifies in 5k

(1/24/2009) Full Results

This weekend's Terrier Invitational marked the first of three meets at BU's Track and Tennis Center this year for the Jumbos. After a slow start to Saturday's competition, the Jumbos closed incredibly strong with a string of PR's and qualifying marks. With only 22 athletes suiting up this weekend it seemed like the day's events continued to gain momentum eventually culminating with the evening 5k's and the unscheduled, post-meet 400m dash.

The morning left the Jumbos wanting more as sophomore Sam Read and junior Ikenna Acholonu continued to shake the rust off their events. Read continues to regain strength daily as he gets more removed from his bout with mono while this was Acholonu's first hard effort since the Alumni Invitational two weeks prior. Both look primed to seriously improve on their performances next weekend.

From there, the day really started to gain steam. With the loss of school record holder Andrew Longley to a broken hip, senior Phil Rotella has stepped up in his final season to become one of the top sprinters in the region. His 22.55 at this weekend's meet is the 2nd fastest indoor 200m in school history and is currently the 2nd fastest time in New England. Right on his heals was classmate Colin Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald is 0.80 seconds ahead of his time at this meet last year when he went on to claim All Region honors.

With the Jumbo sprinters finishing up early, the 2nd half of the day would be left to the mid-D and distance squads. Junior Jesse Faller returned from his DMR anchor leg the night before to run the open mile. Running one of the smartest races of his collegiate career, Faller won his heat going away in an indoor PR of 4:15.29.

Following the Faller, the quartet of half milers – Billy Hale, Jason Hanrahan, Marcelo Norsworthy, and Scott Brinkman – each took control of their respective races right from the gun. It quickly became evident that there were many athletes over-seeded as each heat went out in an opening 58-59 second 400m (http://gojumbos.com/cblog2/). This weekend was another solid test of their fitness as each runner was able to comfortably even-split a 1:57-58. With three 1:57's and a 1:58, this year's squad is one of the deepest in recent years. And as the quality of the competition continues to rise throughout the season, they should be an exciting leg of the team to watch. Freshman Connor Rose unsuccessfully battled sickness throughout his entire race. Held back by breathing difficulty, Connor looks to see some big improvements in the weeks to come. His weekly workouts say that he'll be right next to his teammates in future races.

Sophomore Corey Melnick quickly took notice of the 800m runner's effort and followed suit. His 1000m race went out almost as fast as the 800m opening 400's and he was able to hold pace for a 3 second PR. His 2:36.88 qualified him for this year's New England Championships.

Like Faller and Hale, sophomore Jeff Ragazzini also doubled back from Friday's DMR to post a season best, PR performance in the 3k. His 8:49.66 was a seven second PR and his first time under the 8:50 mark. Although Ragazzini was the top 3k finisher for the Jumbos, he did not post the fastest 3k of the weekend for Tufts. Junior, captain Nick Welch put himself in great position as he came through the 3k in 8:44 en route to his nationally qualifying 14:39.64 in the 5k.

"I felt strong today," said Welch after his race. "My morning run wasn't great and we had to rush through our warm-up to be ready. To be honest, I really didn’t know what to expect from today's race. My coaches knew that I had this race in me, it was just a matter of going out and doing it. Mainly it was just great to see so many PRs. Jerzy, Rags, Brunk, Jesse, Jason, everyone ran great today."

However, the Jumbos would truly save the best for last. The friendly wager of whether Coach Bright could run sub-51 completely cold after an eleven hour track meet was put to the test. Borrowing shorts and spikes and permitted three warm-up strides – the race was on. Bright would come through in a very impressive 51.4 in front of the remaining fans as the track cleared out. A very impressive showing from an old has been of generations past.


Full Results