Fred Jones Places 4th in Long Jump at NCAA's

(3/10/2006) Full Results

Five Jumbos were able to continue their stellar indoor seasons by earning spots in the NCAA Division III National Championships hosted by St. Olaf College.

Matt Fortin, Matt Lacey and Fred Jones all previously have some NCAA championship experience. Fortin was a memeber of last year's All-American DMR team. Matt Lacey competed in the 5K at outdoor Nationals last spring. Fred has competed in every indoor and outdoor Nationals Championship since coming to Tufts as a Freshman. He comes into the meet with five All-American awards already under his belt. The two newcomers to the national scene are Jeremy Arak and Dan Marcy. Both sophomores had breakout seasons by qualifying in the high jump and triple jump respectively.

Fred Jones competed alone in the first event of the meet, the long jump. He leaped to 4th in the long jump with a performance of 23'6.25" (7.17m). His finish made him a six time All-American.

After the long jump, nothing seemed to go as planned. Jeremy Arak was the next Tufts athlete to get into the mix of things. Arak looked pretty good in warm ups but had difficulty once competition started. Jeremy was unable to clear opening height, bringing his season to an abrubt end. Despite a dissapointing performance, the sophomore has much to be proud of.

The Mile run was underway not too long after the high jump. Matt Fortin was competing in the first section. Fortin began the race sitting confortably in the pack. However, when most of the runners made a move, Matt was unable to respond, and ultimately did not qualify for the final.

On Saturday morning, Fred Jones was back in competiton but not alone this time. He was joined by sophomore Dan Marcy. Fred competed in the first flight and ran into much difficulty. Fred's best preliminary jump was over two feet under his season best, but had an off chance of making finals. Due to the relatively short jumps of the first flight, Dan Marcy had a golden opportunity to make finals. The chance slipped away as he struggled through his three jumps. Unfortunately, both Fred and Dan missed making finals.

Matt Lacey was the last Jumbo to compete at Nationals. The other four athletes and coaches were hoping that Matt could turn Tufts' luck around. After shaking hands with his competitors Matt began his final indoor 5K. He placed himself well in the pack and let other runners do the work. Matt was in good position with 800 meters to go when he unfortunately shut down and could not finish in the top eight.

While the Jumbos were dissapointed with their perfomances this weekend, they all had remarkable indoor seasons. Look for each of these athletes to rebound in the outdoor season.



for complete results from the meet click here.


Full Results