Jumbos cast gaze on Williams

A week removed from rewriting the names at the top of two events in the Tufts record books, the women's track and field team now turns sets sights on the next prize, tomorrow's New England Division III Championships.

The Jumbos have never won the event and will face strong opposition from Williams, with Bowdoin, Bates, Mount Holyoke and Brandeis also posing threats. The Williams Ephs have been a recent Division III powerhouse, dominating the championship event with three titles in the last eight years, including two under current Tufts coach Kristen Morwick, then the Eph coach. But it will be no cakewalk for Williams, who will face a serious challenge at the MIT-hosted event from what has been a frequently locked and loaded Jumbo team this season.

"We definitely could get a solid second and maybe try and beat Williams for first place," senior quad-captain Jess Trombly said. "It might be tough because we don't have people in every event, but we're going to try to go after them and maybe we can beat them."

The Jumbos have over 70 qualifications in 22 Division III events, and while not every athlete will compete in every event for which she has qualified, it goes to show the depth of this Jumbos squad.

"We're really deep this year," Trombly said. "In the past we had a couple of upperclassmen who were really good but this year the underclassmen have really proved themselves. We just have a lot of very strong people in every event, which is why I think we're better this year than any other."

Morwick will make the most of those qualifications to score as highly as possible in every event and try to dethrone Williams.

"A lot of it has to do with where I think they can score most," Morwick said. "We're just spying around and knowing what other people are putting their kids in around the league. We'll put people in the best position to be successful."

At the same time, however, Tufts will also use tomorrow's meet to try to gain some last-minute national qualifying times -- with just three meets including Div. III's remaining until nationals, tomorrow's competitive field could spark some fast races. While this may jeopardize valuable team points, Morwick says the team is also looking beyond this weekend's results at the upcoming All-New England's at BU and ECAC's at Bowdoin.

"For the most part we'll put people in events that we think they can score in," Morwick said. "The only reason that might change is if we're trying to go for a national qualifier, [and if] we can get a more competitive race and a faster time that we might not get later in the season. But we're not going to abuse our kids and go after [Div. III's] if we don't think it's [reachable]. We have goals beyond this weekend as well."

Williams will prove tough, particularly in the throwing and jumping events. The Ephs have three competitors in the pole vault, an event in which Tufts is not represented, and has two high jumpers to challenge Tufts' duo of junior Sika Henry and freshman Sade Campbell. The shot put, though, is the event with the biggest Eph guns.

Six Williams throwers are qualified in the shot, three of whom have hurls of over 12 meters. Tufts is represented by seniors Gwen Campbell (11.28m) and Jess Gauthier (11.19m), and juniors Katie Antle (11.16m) and Jessica Colby (10.70m). Gauthier (13.51m) is the lone Jumbo in the weight throw, facing two Ephs and two Bates throwers, including sophomore Kelly Godsey, who this season broke the school record with a throw of 17.88 meters.

"Williams just has people in areas we don't," Morwick explained. "In the shot put they're going to score at least three places. We just get killed in some events where we're not quite close to them."

But Campbell is not counting her teammates out just yet.

"If any one of us has a really good day, we could definitely score really high," Campbell said. "One or several of us could just pull it out and make some huge additions to the team."

The Jumbos are more than capable of doing some damage of their own on the track. The 4x400 team of Trombly, senior quad-captain Emily Bersin, Henry and sophomore Rachel Bloom is currently the top Division III foursome in the nation and broke the school record last weekend at BU. The women sit 11 seconds clear of Brandeis (4:04.83), the second fastest team, and will be looking for an automatic national qualification.

Senior quad-captain Lauren Caputo will run the 3000, an event that is not in the national competition, but will also race in the distance medley relay. The DMR team missed national qualification last weekend by one second, and will try to qualify again tomorrow.

Both the distance and sprint events are loaded with strong Tufts lineups. Trombly is qualified in seven individual events but will compete in the 55 hurdles, 800 and long jump, while freshman Sarah Crispin will run the 1000, an event she has also qualified for All-New England's in. Quad-captain Katie Higley will run the 600, one of four events for which she qualified, and sophomore Megan Sears is top seed in the pentathlon, one of three Jumbos in the event.

While Morwick thinks it unlikely Tufts can upset Williams, she is not ready to concede yet.

"If Williams had a horrible meet and we did unbelievably we could probably beat them, but chances are it's not going to happen," Morwick said. "It'll be a good meet, it always is, there are always some surprises. You never know."