Jumbos Return to Full Action at Snowflake Classic

(4/1/2009) See more Photos     Full Results

This weekend's Snowflake Classic marked the Jumbos first ‘full squad’ effort of the 2009 outdoor season. Yes, it’s true, the Jumbos host a meet that implies a frigid, windy, tough start to the outdoor season. It’s a meet that makes you 100% positive that Track & Field was not intended to exist in New England in March. That’s one way to look at it. Tufts prefers to think about it as a meet that makes you tougher than the rest of the nation. While some athletes compete in 85 degree weather and sun, we put up our own performances in 40 degrees and wind. Put everyone on neutral ground and it will be an exciting race.

And the Snowflake Classic had plenty of those of its own…exciting races that is. From the first race of the day, the 10,000m to the final 4x400 of the evening, it was a great first meet for the Jumbos. Kicking off his outdoor career at Tufts, Scott McArthur tackled his first 10k. Scott ended the indoor season with a landslide of PR’s and he picked up right where he left off. He narrowly missed a New England qualifier in his first ever 10k with a time of 34:00.05.

Moving down in distance, junior quad-captain Nick Welch went wire to wire in the 3000m steeplechase finishing in an ECAC qualifying time of 9:50.06. The majority of the Tufts distance and Mid D squad toed the line for the 1500m this weekend. In his first race since claiming two All American honors at indoor nationals, Jesse Faller took a page out of Welch's book as he led wire to wire in the 1500m. His 3:59.86 was four seconds in front of second place. Faller was followed closely by teammates Billy Hale (4:04.60), Matt Tirrell (4:09.81), Connor Rose (4:12.45), Jason Hanrahan (4:12.89), and Corey Melnick (4:12.89). All of which qualified for the NESCAC Championships. Faller would return in the 800m to negative split his 2:00.37 with splits of 61 and 59.

In the sprints, senior captain Colin Fitzgerald led the way for the Jumbos. His 11.48 / 22.81 double earned him two 6th place finishes. Fellow senior Phil Rotella raced in the 400m for the first time since finishing 3rd in the DMR at nationals. His 50.91 was good enough for 4th place.

In the field, it was the Tufts throwers that stole the show. Four Jumbos made the finals of the shot put, all of which threw outdoor PR’s. David Dorman won the competition with a throw of 13.31m for his first collegiate victory. Right on his heels were Matt Williams (2nd), Skip Pagel (5th), and Jared Engelking (7th).

Trading in their shot puts for the discus, it was rookie Chris Delany who continued his gains with a 7th place finish throw of 37.26m. Fellow rookie Jumbo, Luke Lamothe finished 2nd place in the javelin throw with a hurl of 52.51m, good enough for 10th All Time at Tufts.

Finishing off all competition were the Jumbo 4x400m teams. With an A, B, C, D, E, and F team suiting up this weekend for the Jumbos, it was a hotly contested relay. Eventually sophomore James Wheeler would bring it home for the victory to finish off the 2009 Snowflake Classic. This year’s weather seemed almost balmy compared to years past. Here’s hoping that the rest of spring follows suit with this weekend’s weather.


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