Jumbos Start 2010 with Home Meet Win

(1/16/2010) See more Photos     Full Results

The first of three home invites showcased the strengths of the Tufts track program: energy from start to finish, depth in every event group, leadership from the veterans and huge potential from our new faces. Amassing 239 points over second place UMASS Lowell, the Jumbos kicked off 2010 not only with a team victory but with eight event wins as well.

Senior captain Jared Engelking got things started with a PR 7.79 victory in the 55m hurdles, over two tenths faster than his mark at the 2009 meet. Always a strong event for TUTF, three Jumbos joined him in the finals, with senior Trevor Donadt just behind in 7.97, and freshmen Michael Blair and Brad Nakanishi adding 3 points. In the flat 55m, sophomore Ben Crastnopol lowered his best to 6.87, which bodes well for when he moves up to the longer sprints, his specialty.

Three more 10-point performances came in the 600m, 1000m, and mile from seniors Scott Brinkman, Jason Hanrahan, and captain Billy Hale, respectively. With a big kick that brought him from off the back of the pack to 2nd over the last lap, Brinkman won his first race since last year's NCAA Indoor Track Championships where he was part of the All-American Distance Medley Relay Squad. Likewise, Hale, the 1200m leg of that relay, picked up the win in the mile with a 6 second PR of 4:18.97. Hanrahan's 2:33.36 in the K was also a new lifetime best, almost two seconds ahead of what he ran at this meet last year.

Off the track, senior Isaiah Paramore won the high jump with a clearance of 1.91m, a great mark for just early January. Rookies Blair and Tobias Reeuwijk scored with heights of 1.81m and 1.71m, Reeuwijk's a 6 inch improvement on his mark from December. On the runways, junior Sam Read led three Jumbos to take first, second, and third in the pole vault with a win of 4.34m, three heights better than what he cleared in last year's debut. On top of his 55mH and a solid leg of the 4x400 later in the meet, Nakanishi's 4.19m in the vault was a college PR. The Jumbos also put multiple finalists in both throws, first year Curtis Yancy leading the way with a 12.20m in the shot.

As the meet wound down, two Jumbos put on a stellar performance in what was one of the smaller events of the day. Sophomore Scott McArthur and junior Chris Brunnquell went 1-2 in the 5k, both PRing by huge margins: Brunnquell by over 15 seconds, McArthur by an impressive 58. Continuing off what was a great freshman track campaign for McArthur and a breakthrough fall cross country season for Brunnquell, their times are just the start of many PRs to come.

As is commonplace at track meets in New England, some of the last athletes competing were the triple jumpers—fortunately so, because the team was able to witness freshman Gbola Ajayi leap 13.36m in the first triple jump competition of his life. In fact, all four entrants are long jumpers by trade and all four impressed in this less familiar event.

Perhaps nothing epitomizes Tufts Track better than what went down in the heated 4x800m relay. Despite being the only team to field a team for the event (or perhaps because of it) we entered three, and all 12 guys ran hard. This shows perfectly how excited this group is to put down on the track all the preparation and hard work of cross country and fall track. Next weekend Tufts heads to the Wheaton Invitational and Wheaton College in Norton, MA.


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