4x800 School Record Leads Onslaught of PRs at Open NEs

(2/27/2010) See more Photos     Full Results

The 4x800m relay team of Jason Hanrahan, Jeff Marvel, Billy Hale, and Dan Kirschner may have been the final race of the weekend for the Jumbos, but it was definitely the most memorable. The two seniors and two freshman teamed up to dominate their heat. After the running of the seeded section, UConn would be the only team strong enough to better the Jumbos mark of 7:42.67. Battling out of an early box, Hanrahan led off with negative split 1:56.5. From there, first year racer Jeff Marvel continued his strong freshman campaign with the fastest split of the day. His 1:53.5 put the Jumbos way out in front and left Hale and Kirschner completely alone to finish the race. After Hales 1:55.5 leg, freshman Dan Kirschner could have split a 2:03 and the team would have still reset the school record. Kirschner had other plans and his 1:56.9 shattered the 25-year-old record by over 6 seconds.

Although the 4x800 was the last race of the day, it was emblematic of squads performances all weekend long. The day before got off to a great start at senior, captain Jared Engelking ran a ‘1st race’ PR of 7.88 in the 55H to qualify for the semifinals. He would come back the next day and shatter that PR with another ‘1st race’ performance of 7.74. Engelkings 7.74 was faster than competitors in the finals, but he would miss out on the finals by an outdated technicality that advances the top 4 places from each heat.

Also on Friday, sophomores Connor Rose and Ben Crastnopol each posted PRs of their own. Roses 1:06.60 in the 500m was good enough for 5th on the Tufts All Time list. Crastnopols 50.58 in the quarter mile was an indoor PR and a season best race. Crastnopol is well ahead of last years progressions that saw him run 50.09 in the outdoor campaign.

Seeing their teammates put together some season best performances a number of mid-d Jumbos stepped up big in their events as well. The day before shattering the school record, Hale, Kirschner, and Marvel each competed in the open 800m. Hales 1:55.58 and Marvels 1:55.57 were each season bests, Marvels a lifetime best. Each missed out on the finals by a few tics of the clock; however, senior Matt Tirrell would do everything possible to qualify beyond his prelims in the 100m. His 2:30.92 advanced him to the finals in an amazingly even split race where Tirrels fastest lap of 29.7 was only 1 second off his fastest of 30.7. In an impressive performance, Tirrell dug even deeper the following day to negative split another PR performance grabbing the 3rd place spot with his 2:29.90 qualifying for the IC4A Championships.

In the face of all these amazing performances, freshman Matt Rand, may have had one of the more inspiring shows of the weekend. Rand snuck into the seeded section as the 16th; however he would shatter that time by more than 20 seconds to finish 8th overall. His time of 14:52.70 narrowly missed qualifying for the national championships by less than 3 seconds. According the national Track and Field Results Reporting System, Rand is now the fastest DIII freshman in the nation with that time.

Two other XC teammates of Rands also performed well in Saturdays competition. Senior Jesse Faller continued to gain strength as he looks ahead to the national championships with his 8:29.06 in the 3000m this weekend. Meanwhile, junior Jeff Ragazzini posted a lifetime PR in the mile with his time of 4:17.60. He ran a tactically brilliant race that had him negative split back from an opening 2:11 half mile. Not to be outdone, freshman triple jumper Gbola Ajayi added his own PR to the mix. Coming off a 7th place finish at the DIII NE Championships, Ajayi PRed to grab the 7th spot at the Open NE Championships as well. His jump of 13.72m was his first time over 45-0 - an amazing feat for an athlete who has only been triple jumping since January.

All in all, it was an amazing weekend for anyone in a Tufts uniform. Ever athlete suited up either ran a season best, PR, or school record. As the team looks ahead, their eyes are set on both the ECAC Championships at Smith College as well as the IC4A Championships hosted by Boston University. Both should be solid opportunities to keep the momentum rolling.


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