Jumbos rally to edge MIT and Bowdoin

After the first several events on Saturday afternoon at Bowdoin, the men's track team found itself staring down an early deficit against both the MIT Engineers and the host Polar Bears.

But in a dramatic turn of events, juniors Ray Carre and Nate Thompson combined for five event wins, Tufts dominated the long distance runs, and 28 different Jumbos scored as the squad rallied to edge out both rivals in a back-and-forth meet.

Tufts finished with 133 total team points, MIT had 123, and Bowdoin ended with 118.

"It was a pretty good meet for us," senior tri-captain Adrian Clarke said. "We were down in points and we bucked up and pulled it out. Guys really got their act together just in time, and we pulled back a lot of points at the end."

Tufts was down early despite the efforts of sophomore Matt Lacey, who finished third in the mile, and junior Dan March, whose 15.63 meter heave was good for second place in the weight throw.

However, Tufts got things going when Carre captured back-to-back races, running the 200 meter sprint in 23.22 and the 400 in 50.27, just three-hundredths of a second in front of runner up Phil Webster of Bowdoin.

Despite being down, Carre said he didn't feel any pressure.

"You have to focus on your race and race every race the same," he said. "If you over-think it, you're just going to shoot yourself in the foot."

Carre's back-to-back wins kept Tufts in contention and got the proverbial ball rolling for the team. Sophomore classmates Patrick Mahoney and Trevor Williams finished second and fourth, respectively, in the 600, and freshman Nate Cleveland placed second in the 800.

The 600 and 800 races set the stage for the 1000 meter run, in which sophomore Matt Fortin placed first, freshman Scott Merritt finished second, senior Michael Stanton-Geddes finished fourth, and freshman Peter Orth landed sixth.

"That was the key race," coach Connie Putnam said. "We got our tiny lead in the 1000, and then the distance guys dug in and ground out a bigger lead."

Junior Mike Don won the 3000 with sophomore Kyle Doran (third), junior Brian McNamara (fourth), and senior Jon Rosen also scoring points for the Jumbos.

In the 5000, junior Nate Brigham claimed first place and was the only competitor to finish with a sub-fifteen minute time (14:58.71). Freshman Josh Kennedy and sophomore Neil Orfield finished third and fifth, respectively.

"We definitely put some hurt on them in the distance runs," Putnam said.

Meanwhile, Thompson took over his trifecta of events winning the triple jump, the long jump, and the 55 meter hurdles, where he set a personal record of 7.86 seconds in the finals.

"Rae and Nate had great days," Putnam said. "The pressure was on them to get the wins they got, particularly without [injured freshman] Freddie [Jones], and they got it done."

Despite the fact that Carre and Thompson accounted for over a quarter of the team's points, Putnam was most pleased with the depth his squad displayed, with 28 team members scoring points.

"In an average meet, you might have 18 [guys scoring]," he said. "That's the benchmark of a great team effort. All the guys threw their weight around."

The Jumbos had multiple point scorers in 11 of 15 events and reeled off a nice collection of second place finishes over the second half of the meet, courtesy of the 4x400 and 4x800 relay teams and junior Evan Blaser's 1.85 meter high jump.

"If you're behind at the beginning it's easy to let up," Putnam said. "We stayed serene and stuck with it and won."