Hoover-Hankerson and O'Connor notch school records at MIT and BU

(2/15/2016 9:14 PM) Full Results

This past weekend the squad competed at both the David Hemery Valentine Invitational at Boston University and also at the Gordon Kelly Invitational at MIT. Although the team was not all together, there were some exceptionally impressive performances by Jumbo athletes at both meets.

One of the major highlights out of MIT was the performance of junior Bryson Hoover-Hankerson. Bryson’s time of 7.14 seconds in the 60m dash, broke his own school record which he set last year. While Bryson’s previous record of 7.15 seconds was tied with Daniel Lange Vagle’s 2013 performance in the event, it was exciting to see Bryson run a speedy time this weekend and solidify himself as the fastest 60m sprinter in Tufts track and field history outright.

Also at MIT, junior Nick Usoff got the win the 600m dash with a time of 1:26.80 and freshman Josh Etkind had a collegiate PR in the triple jump with a leap of 13.43 meters. Sophomore Linus Gordon and first-year Charlie Pennington both placed third in their respective events as Linus jumped 21'8 3/4" in the long jump and Charlie cleared 6’0" in the high jump.

The Jumbos also did quite well at BU. Junior Luke O’Connor broke the school record in the 5000m, with a time of 14:28.68. The previous record of 14:30.47 was held by multiple time All-American Jesse Faller. What made Luke’s record-breaking performance even more special was that in his race he was competing against NESCAC foes as well as some fast runners from all NCAA Divisions. Senior tri-captain Mitchell Black won the 800m with a time 1:49.32, out of 246 competitors. Though Mitch has won his fair share of races as a 2x DIII champion, his victory on Saturday was particularly awesome due to the large number of professional runners that were in his race.

Additionally, the 4x400m squad of sophomore Andrew DiMaiti, freshman Nico Agosti, senior tri-captain Alex Kasemir, and junior Nick Usoff ran a blistering time of 3:17.64. With the banked track to flat track conversion time, this mark is top 10 in the nation among DIII 4x4 relays.

Both the meet at BU and at MIT yielded some of the best performances ever by Jumbo track athletes. Overall, many team members broke all-time marks this weekend. Aside from Bryson’s record in the 60m and Luke’s record in the 5k, there was a lot of fantastic stuff from athletes across all event groups. At MIT, Tommy Miller got the freshman record in the 60m dash with a time of 7.31. Also at the meet, junior Michael Paloian and senior Ife Adebayo were #7 and #10 all-time in the weight throw with throws of 15.90m and 15.73m. Over at BU, the rookie duo of Christian Swenson and Colin Raposo each earned spots on the freshman all-time list for the mile. Christian and Colin’s times of 4:18.01 and 4:18.34 put them at spots #2 and #4.

Next week the team will be competing at the New England Division III Championships held at MIT. The squad is eager to go toe to toe with the best of the region. The Jumbos are super excited to give it their all this weekend and improve upon last year's 6th-place finish.



Full Results