Landslide of PRs at Bowdoin Invite

(1/31/2009) Full Results

The Jumbos traveled to Brunswick, Maine, this past weekend and returned with a whole host of PRs, new qualifiers for the Division III New England Championships, and a rising sense of the great potential for the weeks to come.

In truth, the momentum began to build right here in Medford at the Gantcher Center when three Tufts multis qualified for the New England champs in the pentathlon. Jared Engelking's 3400 points matched the provisional mark for the new NCAA Nationals pent, while Trevor Donadt and quad-captain Skip Pagel both met the ECAC standard with 3115 and 3059 points, respectively.

Up in Maine, things got kicked off as senior quad-captain Colin Fitzgerald PR'd in the 55m dash with a time of 6.78, good for 4th place. He returned in the 200m to take second in a season-best 23.04. With several key sprinters looking to return from injury in the next few weeks, including James Wheeler, owner of the top Tufts 55m time of the year, the sprint crew is getting stronger each week. After dipping under seven seconds in the flat 55, junior Ikenna Acholonu put 10 points up for Tufts with a win in the hurdles in 7.87, his second sub-7.9 second time of the season.

The 600m gave the Jumbos 18 points in the team battle, as junior Scott Brinkman and freshman Connor Rose went 1-2, both dipping under 1:24. It was a big step up for Rose in just the second indoor race of his career. Sophomore Corey Melnick made an aggressive run at the sub-2:00 barrier in the 800m in a crowded heat, but came up short. There is no doubt that with the impressive workouts of the mid-D squad and Corey's solid mileage as of late that he will be under that barrier in no time.

Dropping down in distance, sophomore Jeff Ragazzini threw down a big time in his first collegiate 1000m, getting up for second place in 2:33.23. His range of speed and stamina makes him formidable from everything from 800 to 5k. His teammates, junior Jesse Faller and quad-captain Nick Welch, posted another 1-2 finish for the Jumbos, this one in the 3k. With the help of sophomore Jerzy Eisenberg-Guyot rabbiting them out in 4:34 for the mile, Faller and Welch had the rest of the field struggling to hold on. Both PRed in 8:31.72 and 8:37.05, respectively, and now look to turn their recent PRs into valuable points at New Englands in three weeks. Sophomore Chris Brunnquell creeped ever closer to that 9-minute mark with his solid 9:06.86 PR, and classmate Sam Hutchinson dropped his own best time all the way down to 9:22.64.

Perhaps the most impressive distance race of the afternoon, however, came out of the 5k, where the freshmen duo of Scott McArthur and Erik Antokal dropped big lifetime-best times of 16:20.80 and 16:49.95, McArthur's a PR of over 40 seconds. These two Jumbos are emblematic of the kind of improvement that is coming out of the class of 2012. Their times capped a perfect 8 for 8 in distance PRs in the 3k and 5k this weekend.

But the PRs didn't stop on the track--they were even bigger in the field events. Junior Isaiah Paramore tacked on another centimeter in the high jump to raise his best to 1.95m, and had good looks at the NCAA provisional mark of 2.02m. Sophomore Sam Read took third in the vault with a season-best 4.20m. A trio of Jumbos scored in the long jump, junior Jon Pak leading with an over-20 foot jump of 6.14m, while sophomore Frank DeSalvo hit the runway for a 13.18m leap in the triple, the Jumbos first New England qualifier in the event.

Continuing a seemingly endless streak of PRs the TUTF throwers posted huge marks in the shot and weight. Sophomore Alex Gresham hurled 15.65m in the weight throw, putting over a meter on his previous PR of 14.62m. Following in style, freshman Matt Williams put up an impressive 13.49m/13.61m double in the shot and weight. The TUTF throwing core is stronger than ever--and looks only to be improving.

In the end, it was MIT who took the team battle with 181 points, many of their athletes posting impressive doubles as they proved how deep a squad they have this year. Host Bowdoin was second with 155, the Jumbos third with 121. There is no doubt, however, that the momentum is building for a formidable team battle at the New England Championships on February 20-21. If the TUTF train keeps chugging along, it is going to be another exciting post-season for the Jumbos.


Full Results