Men's track finally gets good weather, performs well in Wesleyan Invitational

The men's track and field team's outdoor season has been hindered due to inclement weather in its first two meets, but signs of spring lifted spirits at last weekend's Wesleyan University Invitational. A day that started with light rain ended up pretty nicely as the clouds cleared up by early afternoon. The meet was non-scoring, and the competition was not the greatest, but the squad had a nice day to run.

"The guys ran extremely well," senior tri-captain Greg Devine said. "We've been taught to always race the clock, whether or not good competition is present."

Since track has an indoor and outdoor component, making it a two-season sport, expectations for freshmen rise once the outdoor season begins. Freshman Patrick Mahoney, who is coming off a hamstring injury sustained during indoor track, lived up to these expectations over the weekend, claiming a first and fourth place finish in the 200 and 400-meter races respectively. Mahoney sprinted the 200 in a time of 23.72 and finished the 400 in 51.19.

"Going into the day, I was just looking for quality times to qualify for future meets," Mahoney said. "It's been tough with the weather. I was looking to go out there and run, but not get injured. I qualified for NESCAC's in both races. Afterwards, there wasn't any great celebration, but I was happy with the way I ran."

Placing one spot behind Mahoney in the 400 was teammate Ray Carre (50.71). Also in the 400, freshmen Shawn Hansberry (52.07) and Trevor Williams (52.30) placed seventh and ninth respectively.

Younger members of the team continued to impress by placing highly in distance events. Freshman Matt Lacey (15:35.67) captured the top spot in the 5000 with classmate Mike Cummings placing fourth after crossing the finish line in 16:00.70. Junior Jon Rosen also held his own, placing sixth with a time of 16:13.14.

"The freshmen have been pretty spectacular all year," senior tri-captain Bryan Pitko said. "This weekend was just an indication of how good they can be. We expect big things from them in the future."

Behind every good team are consistent performers. For the Jumbos, these achievers come in the forms of Devine and Pitko. Coach Connie Putnam races both Devine and Pitko in the 110 and 400-meter hurdles. The Wesleyan Invitational was no different as the two competitors were once again pitted against each other.

"It always adds another level of competition to the race," Pitko said of racing against Devine. "It's always a good competition. I look forward to running against him."

Devine claimed the top spot in the 400 hurdles after blowing by the competition in a time of 54.90. The second place finisher, Chris Orr of Trinity College, finished over a second behind him. Devine finished seventh in the 110 hurdles in a time of 17.17. Pitko placed second in the 110 hurdles with a time of 15.50. The winner, Pat Moffet of Wesleyan edged out Pitko for first place by .32 seconds. Pitko did not fair as well in the 400 hurdles, running it in a time of 1:02.10.

A loaded 4x100 team composed of Pitko, Devine, Williams, and Carre picked up a victory after the four combined for a 44.22 finish. In the 4x800 relay, Devine ran the event for the first time in his Tufts career. Carre, Mahoney, and Hansberry joined him and the team finished second with a time of 8:21.14, well behind first place finisher Quinnpiac who ran the race in 8:07.04.

"We were having a little fun!" Devine said. "The distance guys decided to have a race between classes. So they entered four 4x4 teams and the A 4x4 relay squad was bumped up to the 4x8. After finishing the 4x8, we all sat back and watched '03 run away with the victory in the 4x4."

Other good distance performances included junior Ian Joseph whose 2:00.22 in the 800 was good enough for fourth place. Sophomore Aaron Kaye placed fourth in the 1500 after running a 4:05.63 in the event.

The jumping and fielding component of the squad had another good day, grabbing high places in the non-scoring meet.

Although only three competitors participated in the high jump, sophomore Evan Blaser snatched first place after gliding over the bar set at a height of 1.83m.

Sophomore Nate Thompson and freshman Dave Clayton finished one and two in the long jump after Thompson bounded 6.34m and Clayton 6.09m. Clayton and Thompson also participated in the triple jump, this time with a slightly different outcome. Clayton (12.43m) finished third and Thompson (12.39m) finished fourth.

"It was kind of tough because we got there a few minutes late and we were rushed into it, but the judge was nice enough to give us our own flight with just the Tufts guys. This let us warm up a little bit," said Clayton, who is just learning the art of triple jumping. "It feels pretty good especially since I'm learning how to triple jump the right way. The coaches have really helped me out with my form."

Freshman Brandon Udelhofen put the technique he has learned throughout high school and his early college career to work by placing fourth in the shot put after hurling the shot 12.43m from the pit.

"We haven't really had a chance to practice that much with the weather," Udelhofen said. "But, we do a lot of footwork indoors and worked on our fundamentals a lot to get prepared. I was kind of surprised with my finish, but also excited. It was good and I will go from there."

The hammer throw event saw three Jumbos place in the top four slots. Sophomore Dan March finished first with a toss of 46.20m with seniors Adam Lukowski and Andy Dickerson placing third and fourth after lobbing the hammer 39.90m and 39.30m respectively.

This Saturday, the men's track and field team travels to New London, CT to participate in the Connecticut College Invitational and stiffer Div. III competition. The team hopes for good weather in this tune-up meet for the NESCAC Championships on Apr. 26 at Williams.

"Conn. College will be very similar to this last meet," Devine said. "Our team will be racing the clock and throwing against standards. If the weather is nice, look for some guys to just absolutely explode."