Jumbos Open Season at Springfield College

(4/3/2004) Full Results

Tufts returned from Spring Break this past week and opened their outdoor track season with a four team meet against Springfield, Bates, and Southern Maine. The Jumbos looked to hit the ground running this season with the NESCAC Championships only four short weeks away. Tufts put up some strong performances and the hard work that they had put in since the conclusion of their successful indoor season was evident.

Adjusting quickly to the 400m track Tufts had a cluster of solid 1500m and 800m times from their middle distance group. Leading the way were sophomore Pat Mahoney and freshman Nate Cleveland running smooth, even races they both started their season off well with 1:59s. Senior captain Peter Jurczynski returned to his NESCAC champion form winning the 3000m Steeplechase in 9:45.24 seconds. Freshman Josh Kennedy qualified for the Division I New England Championships in his first 10k ever with his time of 32:23.34. Classmates Dan Jones and Justin Chung rounded out the distance events with scoring performances in the 5000m.

Nate Thompson picked up right where he left off last season winning the 110HH with a time of 15.78 seconds. Freshman Dave McCleary and sophomore Will Heitmann closely trailed Thompson with great starts to their outdoor seasons. Tufts also boasted a slew of 400IH, as sophomore, Trevor Williams finish second with his 58.01 seconds. Freshman Mickey Ferri put up the fastest 100m time for the Jumbos while finishing just a fraction of a second slower than junior Ray Carre in the 200m. Finishing off the sprint events, Carre made up for some unfinished business with his 49.84 in the 400m dash.

Tufts strong performances were also not limited to the track. Sophomore, Brandon Udelhofen won the discus with his throw of 143-10. Junior, Dan March took fourth in the hammer throw with his heave of 159-00. And one of the strongest performances of the day came from freshman, Ryan Byrne as he scored in both the Shot Put and the Javelin with throws of 42-1.25 and 148-1 respectively.

Sophomore Seth LaPierre continued to roll in the pole vault as he cleared 14-0 just after leading of the 4x100m relay team. Junior All New England High Jumper Evan Blaser faired well in that event grabbing 6 points for the Jumbos with his 3rd place finish. In the end, the Jumbos headed back to Medford very pleased with their performances having not stepped foot on an outdoor track prior to this Saturday's meet. With a week of outdoor practice ahead of them, the Bo?s look to seriously better their performances next week at MIT.


Full Results