Black's 800m is 4th All Time for DIII, Highlights Great Jumbo Day at BU

(2/16/2015 8:45 PM) Full Results

This Saturday, the Jumbos braved the blizzard conditions as they traveled to Boston University to compete in the David Hemery Valentine Invitational. The squad was eager to perform on arguably the fastest indoor track in America.

The highlight of the day came from junior stud Mitchell Black in the 800m. In a field that included some of Division I’s best and several professionals, Black was able to break 1:50 for the first time in his career, as he placed fifth overall in 1:49.16. Black’s performance earned him the top time in the nation among Division III athletes this season so far. Additionally, Mitchell’s time is the fourth fasted recorded 800m time in Divison III history.

Other Tufts athletes had tremendous days as well. Freshman Ty Enos ran a gusty 1000m race as he narrowly missed the freshman record held by assistant coach Jamie Norton. Enos’ time of 2:30.8 qualified him for next weeks New England Division III Championships. Two of Enos' rookie classmates also took advantage of the banks of BU to run personal bests, as Sam Little (also in the 1000m) and Tommy DePalma (in the 800m) crossed the line in their fastest times to date.

Almost all of the Tufts distance crew ran the mile. While there were a slew of PR’s across the board, sophomore Luke O’Connor and senior captain Marshall Pagano were Tufts’ top runners in the event running 4:19.30 and 4:20.34 respectively. Seniors Nick Guarnaccia and Colin McCrory improved the most off of their previous performances, both PR'ing by at least 5 seconds.

The 60 meter sophomore hurdle gang of Thomas Wang and Henry Zhou also had some solid marks as they finished back-to-back in the event running 9.0 and 9.01 and placing 46th and 47th.

Additionally, the jumps crew came out and gave some solid performances. Most notably, freshman Linus Gordon placed 31st overall in the long jump leaping 20'6 ½” and sophomore Pietro Possenti placed 30th overall in the pole vault clearing 13'5 ¼”.

The 4x400 team of Alex Kasemir, Mitchell Black, Nick Usoff, and Andrew DiMaiti also ran an impressive relay. Their time of 3:17.32 catapulted Tufts into the top 10 4x400’s in the nation so far this season.

Next week, the Jumbos will travel to Springfield College as they will compete in the New England Division III Championships. With a smaller crew, the team is excited to improve on their performances from BU and try to place highly as a team.



Full Results