Jumbos storm to victory in men's track

The men's track team raced to a 73 point win over Williams on Saturday in its first home meet of the semester. The Jumbos put in strong performances across the board, improving on last weekend's rust-shaking meet at Brandeis University.

"It was a real good performance all day long," Coach Connie Putnam said. "Little by little we showed signs of improvement."

The meet was highlighted by several outstanding individual performances. Junior Jon Rosen notched the first win of his collegiate career in the 5000 meter run with a personal-best time of 5:31.22, followed by freshman Kyle Doran (5:40.13).

"It was a big personal record for me," Doran said. "[Alex Curry] from WPI took the lead for a while, but Doran and I worked together well to drop him in the last mile."

Senior tri-captain Greg Devine raced to first-place finishes in the 55 hurdles (7.75) and 200 dash (22.80). His hurdles time was just 0.01 seconds off the school record, shared by fellow senior tri-captain Brian Pitko (2001) and Marcus Pryor (1991).

Putnam made special note of sophomore high jumper Evan Blaser, who began track last season as a freshman, having never competed in high school. Blaser jumped over six feet for the first time in his career.

"Evan did a great job," Putnam said. "It was pretty neat, his first time over six feet."

Senior tri-captain Adam Sharp was strong in the 800 (2:01.64), and defeated Keene State's William Monahan by nearly two seconds. Putnam was also pleased with senior Bryant Coen's win in the 600 (1:23.17), which broke John McGuire's 1:23.37 Tufts record, set in 2000.

Trinity's Ryan Bak set a blistering pace from the start in the 3000, taking first place by 27 seconds (8:19.48). Junior Peter Bromka and sophomore Nate Brigham both put in strong performances, and finished fifth and seventh respectively, but Putnam wants to see his team more competitive against such dominating rivals.

"Bromka and Brigham ran two really great times," Putnam said. "But I would have really liked it if they had kept that pace for a while. They backed off into a duel with the rest of the field."

The relay teams, which Putnam described as "patched-together," claimed victory in the 4x200 (1:36.12) and 4x400 (3:29.40), and finished second to Conn College in the 4x800 (8:23.59).

While Williams' Matt Winkler stole the show in the 1500 run, winning by ten seconds (3:58.38), Tufts' sophomores Michael Don and Aaron Kaye finished second and third respectively.

"I ran a good time for me, but there's room for improvement," Don said. "There are a lot of really good freshman running, and some established runners too. We can win a lot of key points."

Rosen agreed, cautioning against overlooking the young squad.

"We've got a solid group, but young," Rosen said. "We had a pretty young cross country team in the fall, but a few guys are capable of qualifying nationally."

The day's most welcoming sign was freshman pole vaulter Seth LaPierre's return following a ten-week layoff due to a broken foot. LaPierre came second, vaulting 4.12 meters, eclipsed only by Northeastern's Dave Wilkes (4.27), but nonetheless thrilled with his result.

"I took it easy, because I'm not at 100 percent yet," LaPierre explained. "It felt great though, because for the past 10 weeks I couldn't do much of anything."

The throwing team had a quiet day, as sophomore Dan March finished sixth in the weight throw (12.69 meters), and junior Ryan McPherson (12.44) led the Jumbos in the shot put, also placing sixth overall.

Putnam was wary of his team's over-excitement following the convincing win, largely due to Williams' incomplete squad.

"By and large, taking the whole thing on face value, any time we can get points on Williams it's great," Coach Connie Putnam said. "But by the same token we shouldn't thump our chests, we should just look towards the next meet."

The Jumbos next meet will take place this Saturday, January 25 at 1pm at the Gantcher Center.