Last weekend, the men's track and field team finished seventh out of a pool of 45 teams in the East Coast Athletic Conference (ECAC) Championships. With 39 total team points over the weekend, the Jumbos placed second among NESCAC squads, trailing only Williams.
"The outcome was great," junior quad-captain Greg Devine said. "It was a fabulous culmination of a great indoor season. The distance medley relay (DMR) broke the school record, we placed in the top eight, guys ran very well, and we provisionally qualified four individuals and a relay team for nationals."
Coach Connie Putnam was pleased with his squad's performance last weekend.
"I'm thrilled with how they did," he said. "We didn't set the team up in order to win the ECACs. We were basically trying to run some fast times in specific events... we weren't worried about placing as many individuals in specific events because wanted to keep people fresh."
However his runners posted quick times, placing high and contending for fifth place throughout the weekend.
"We were hanging with Wheaton [who finished fourth] all day," Putnam said. "But they had three good guys in the long jump, and our jumper wasn't there. We couldn't answer those points because of it, but we ended up hanging around fifth place, which was great."
The Jumbo-hosted event saw a large number of top-notch performances, including five provisional qualifications for the NCAA National Championship Meet. Junior Greg Devine qualified for the 55 meter hurdles, with a fifth place finish in 7.78 seconds. Unfortunately, Devine, who competed 400 hurdles in the Nationals last spring, missed the final national cut by hundredths of a second.
Junior Brian Pitko, who did not place in the 55 hurdles over the weekend, previously qualified for Nationals with a time of 7.67. The teammates seem to enjoy each others' competition, and fed off of each other's momentum.
"Me and Pit have a healthy form of competition going," Devine said of his rivalry and friendship with Pitko. " If I lose, I don't mind losing to him."
Tufts won a slew of points in the middle distance events, clearly its strongest area. Senior Jason Mann grabbed a point for the Jumbos with his eighth place finish in the 5,000-meter run with a time of 15:14.89. Senior quad-captain Ben Smith took third in the 3,000-meter run (8:33.59), while junior Peter Bromka scored three points in the event with his sixth place finish (8:45.87). Junior Adam Sharpe ran to a fourth place finish in the 1,000-meter event (2:32.41), scoring five points for the Jumbos.
In the 400-meter run, freshman Ray Carre nabbed third place and a provisional qualification for the NCAAs with a 49.95 finish. In the relays, the DMR team came up big with its second place finish, which also provisionally qualifies the quartet for the NCAA meet. With a time of 10:07.35, juniors Adam Sharpe, Devine, and Bryant Coen and sophomore Ian Joseph nearly made the cut for Nationals.
"It was a rough break for us," Devine said. "We had hoped to send Pitko, myself, JR, and the DMR, but well, what can you do?"
Despite five national qualifications, the squad will only send Pitko to the NCAA Championships. Carre, Devine, Mann, and senior quad-captain JR Cruz, who provisionally qualified for the 5,000, were edged out of the meet due to limitations on the overall field size of the meet.
As Putnam explained, the team has many seniors, who tend to compete in only one event. There are very few athletes who doubled up in events. Because the NCAA meet is limited to the number of actual athletes competing, and not the number of athletes in each event, the number of overall slots available narrowed.
Tonight, Putnam and Pitko are flying to Ohio Northern University in Ada, OH. "He should do very well," Putnam said.
"It's a little disappointing, but the fact of the matter is that we had a great season," Devine said. "We are all healthy and we now have a big surge of momentum and energy to carry us into the outdoor season where I think we will fare even better than we did indoors."
The team is currently in a state of "active rest" - athletes are not rigorously training, but are staying in shape for the spring season. Long distance runners are keeping up their mileage, while throwers and jumpers are lifting weights. The squad will take a week's rest over spring break, but will hit the pavement the weekend that it returns.
"They'll be a little rusty from the week off, but we'll tune it up again and be ready for spring," Putnam said. "They've done a magnificent job all season. Many are returning next year, and that's nice. It leaves us very enthusiastic for both the spring season, and next year."
