Record-Busting Season Continues at Open New Englands with 4x400

(3/5/2014 11:46 AM) Full Results

A few Jumbos headed five miles down the road to the Boston University Track and Tennis Center to the NEICAAA championship (otherwise known as Open New Englands) on Saturday in order to qualify for Div. III nationals, improve on their seed times, or, for many athletes, to run a final fast time on an indoor track before outdoor season begins.

The Jumbos had some electrifying performances, but the race of the day wasn’t until late in the meet. In this race, the 4x400 meter relay, the team of Mitch Black ’16, Graham Beutler ’14, Francis Goins ’16, and Alex Kasemir ’16 broke the former school record set by Beutler, Goins, and former runners Vinnie Lee and Ben Crastnopol in 2012. Their time of 3:15.35 put them in 4th place overall, a time that was second only to Southern Maine among Div. 3 teams, and a time that now ranks 4th in the nation. With one week to go for teams to qualify for NCAAs, the Jumbos, who sit comfortably in the top 12 4x400 teams in the nation, will most likely send this quartet to compete for a national title at Div. III Nationals.

In other action, Nick Usoff ’17 ran the 4th fastest Jumbo time ever in the 500 meter dash, as he ran 66.06 in the preliminaries. Usoff just missed qualifying for the final, as he placed 13th overall. Marshall Pagano ’15 set a PR in the 3000 meter run, as he ran 8:43.14 for 21st overall. In the mile, Luke O’Connor ’17 and James Traester ’16 concluded their indoor seasons in bright fashion, as O’Connor stamped himself as the second fastest Tufts freshman in the mile ever by running 4:18.05 for 21st. Traester was not too far behind as he placed seventh overall in 4:22.66, just over a second off of his PR which was also set at BU. In his quest to run national top 15 time, Veer Bhalla ’16 ran 1:53.16 for 9th overall in the 800 meter run, which left him one spot out of the finals and did not launch him into this exclusive group. Bhalla will make another attempt at grabbing a qualifying spot for nationals this week at the Tufts Last Chance meet.

The day was also the final competition for multi-eventers Allen Yau ’15 and Andrew Osborne ’14. Yau PRed in the heptathlon by scoring 4003 points, while Osborne jumped a 20’1.5” (6.13m) leap in the long jump.

The Jumbos will next return to action at Thursday’s Last Chance meet at the Gantcher Center, where they will attempt to both qualify more athletes and to improve their seed times for Div. III Nationals.


Full Results