DMR Moves to 3rd Nationally at Last Chance

(3/5/2013 7:59 PM) Full Results

This weekend the Tufts Last Chance meet hosted some of the best athletes in the northeast as competitors looked to punch their ticket to next week’s National Championships. The fields were small but quality, the meet action packed from the start.

The distance medley relay kicked things off. With a dozen teams vying for a national berth, the Jumbo quartet of Jeff Marvel, Graham Beutler, Mitch Black, and Jamie Norton put together a season-best 9:58.30 to move to third on the NCAA list. Norton battled down the stretch with Bates anchor Nick Barron, the two leaning at the tape only to come up with the same time. All four Jumbos ran strong legs, though there’s room for improvement across the board.

That set the tone for the day. Tufts also had strong performances from freshman Veer Bhalla in the 800m (1:57.95) as he doubled back from rabbit the 1200 of the DMR. In the 5000m, three Jumbos broke 15 minutes—a first in program history. Matt Rand (14:53.10) continued to get stronger, as junior Ben Wallis (14:55.46) set a new PR and senior Tyler Andrews (14:58.76) put up the second-fastest time of his life. Never before have even four athletes run under 15 minutes in one year. This year five have done it, and the team now has six with PRs under 15:00.

The field events were small in numbers but boasted impressive performances of their own. In the weight throw, nationals-bound senior captain Curtis Yancy had a best of 17.24m on the day. On the vault runway, senior captain Brad Nakanishi took another shot at an NCAA height with three solid opening jumps but couldn’t get over the bar.

As it stands now, seven Jumbos will travel to North Central College next weekend for the NCAA Championships, all of them poised for big things.


Full Results