Jumbos Take 5th at DIII New Englands

(5/8/2011 4:21 PM) See more Photos     Full Results

It’s an annual rite of passage for all Tufts Track and Field athletes to battle through both academic finals and the DIII New England Championships at the same time. Even still, a number of Jumbos rose to the occasion as a youthful team of Jumbos finished 5th at this year’s meet. Competitors had to wait out two separate lightning delays, but still kept their composure to elevate their competition.

The two days of competition started off strong as both Curtis Yancy and Atticus Swett heaved PR performances in the discus. Swett’s toss of 149-8 broke his own Freshman Record and moved him up to 4th on the Tufts All Time list. Additionally, Yancy’s 144-4 PR moved him up on the list to 7th overall. Meanwhile, across the track, sophomore Gbola Ajayi grabbed 5th place in the long jump competition with a jump of 22-8. Rounding out the first day of competition would be senior Andrew Bellet who posted a 30 second PR in the 10k, narrowly missing the sub-33:00 club with his 33:02.

Day two picked up right where Day one left off. Freshman Dan Lange-Vagle ran his 2nd fastest time of the year in the 100m with his 11.18, but just missed advancing to finals. He brought that speed to the 4x1 as he, Ajayi, Jordan Dietrich and Vinnie finished 7th with their 43.59. Between cheering on the 100m and 4x1, Sam Read and Brad Nakanishi each cleared 14-11 in the vault, good enough for 4th and 5th place.

From there, the day became a blur of rain delays and staggered warm ups. Most notably, Mike Blair had the HJ competition suspended seconds before his first attempt at 6-6. Only after a 2 hour delay would the jumpers be allowed back on the apron. Blair showed no signs of being flustered and immediately resumed his warm ups. Moments later, Blair soared over 6-6 on his first attempt to take home the HJ title.

Similarly, a trio of Jumbo 5k runners had to battle through a second rain delay as the meet was suspended moments before they toed the line. Shrugging off the potential problem, Liam Cassidy dropped the field with 1k to go. Cassidy soloed the final 1000m in 2:46 to take home his first New England title in 14:57, a new PR.

With the final event of the day, the Tufts 4x4 put an exclamation point on the meet for the Jumbos. After sitting around for nearly 10 hours, they final got the opportunity to compete. With a strong lead off and 2nd leg, junior Ben Crastnopol (50.3) and sophomore Lawrence Xia (51.0) handed off to a pair of freshmen in strong position. Dan Lange-Vagle (49.9) moved the baton up further handing off to Graham Beutler (49.5) in fourth. Beutler edged up one another spot as their 3:21.44 was strong enough for 3rd overall.

In the end, it was a good display of youth for the Jumbos and an excellent showing for the Tufts field events. Senior, captain Sam Read’s points in the PV will be the only ones lost to graduation for the young Jumbo squad. Even still, the team will need to find a way to put up more points on the track in order to move up in the ranks. Cassidy’s 5k and the relays were the only events where the Jumbos were able to battle into the scoring numbers on the oval. That will definitely need to change for the Jumbos to make moves in the future. Next weekend the Tufts squad heads south to the University of Southern Connecticut for the Open New England Championships and Princeton University for the IC4A Championships.


See more Photos   Full Results