Men's track shines in unscored meet

Fortunately for the Jumbos' opponents, Saturday's Tufts Stampede track meet at the Gantcher Center was a non-scoring meet.

Rather than focusing on points, the men's track and field team used the respite from team scoring to produce qualifying efforts and break personal records in almost every event as a warm-up for this weekend's upcoming Division III New England Championship at Bowdoin.

"We were rocking and rolling across the board," coach Connie Putnam said.

The Jumbos were sharp right off the bat, dominating the weight throw with three finishes among the top seven. Junior Dan March won with a 53-03.35 foot chuck, followed by fourth place finisher sophomore Jason Galvin, who set a personal record with a 48-02.75 throw, and freshman Vincent Galatro in seventh with a 43-05.25, also a PR.

Junior Evan Blaser won the high jump with a career best 6-01.25, while freshman Fred Jones and junior Nate Thompson both were successful in the long jump and triple jump. Jones garnered a third and a first place and Thompson took home a fourth and third place. Thompson also posted a first place 7.94 in the 55m hurdles, with fourth place finisher Jamil Ludd running a personal best 8.22.

In the shot put, the Jumbos were interspersed among the field, with Galvin (third place), freshman Ryan Byrne (fifth), senior Ryan McPherson (seventh), and Galatro (eighth) all placing in the top eight.

"We had some really great performances overall," Putnam said. "But long distance seemed to bear the most of the fruits of the day."

This was certainly true in the 1500 meter race, where the Jumbos landed the top six spots. Sophomore Kyle Doran prevailed with a time of 4:00.38, while fellow classmates Matt Lacey (4:01.96) and Matt Fortin (4:02.16), along with junior Mike Don (4:02.21), clocked in just behind him. Freshman Scott Merrick and junior Brian McNamara finished fifth and sixth, respectively, with times of 4:03.09 and 4:03.86. All six times were qualifiers and the top four were the four fastest run by Jumbos this year in that distance.

"Those guys ran the 1500 together better than any group I've ever had," Putnam said.

"It was a great race, but it's the kind of thing we expect by this point in the season," senior tri-captain Peter Jurczynski said. "We've had great workouts, and we ended up stocking the 1500 with some of our faster runners and it turned out great."

For the second week in the row, one of the highlights involved the 600, and again it involved freshman Nate Cleveland. One week after barely missing out on the school record broken by sophomore Pat Mahoney, Cleveland and junior Ray Carre both ran sensationally to top last week's mark in a photo-finish race.

Carre took an early lead and was ahead through 400 meters, but Cleveland made a move and the two came down the stretch together. The racers crossed the finish line at virtually undistinguishable times of 1:22.33, but Cleveland prevailed by 1/1000 of a second.

"That's basically the thickness of a shirt," Putnam said.

"It was probably the closest race I've ever been in," said Cleveland, who originally thought Carre had prevailed. "[The difference] could have been anything, even the size of your pecs."

"It was a fun race," Carre said. "I haven't been in a race that close since Div. III New England's my freshman year."

Pole vaulting was another bright spot as the Jumbos claimed the top three spots in the competition. Sophomore Seth LaPierre, who almost cleared 14-06.00 feet, claimed first with a vault of 13-06.25, followed by classmate Will Heitmann at 13-00.25 and freshman Justin Henneman at 12-6.00. Freshman Tom Stuart finished sixth overall for the Jumbos with an 11-06.25 vault.

"Personally, I wasn't happy with my own performance," LaPierre said. "But it's always good to place and finishing 1-2-3 is definitely good for the team."

Tufts also finished 1-2-3 in the 800, with Mahoney (1:58.22), freshman Dan Sullivan (1:59.45), and Fortin (1:59.53) finishing in those places, respectively.

Senior Michael Stanton-Geddes earned a win in the 1000 with his time of 2:37.41, while the 3000 and 5000 also proved highly successful for the home team.

In the 3000, junior Nate Brigham claimed first place (8:33.37) on his way to posting the second fastest time in that event in New England this year out of Division III schools. He was backed up by strong efforts from freshmen Josh Kennedy (third place) and Justin Chung (seventh), as well as a personal best from Jurczynski in the eight slot.

In the 5k, senior Jon Rosen finished second with a PR time of 15:49.64, while freshman Chad Uy finished fourth with a 16:17.13.

Putnam was encouraged by the performance of Mickey Ferri, who finished fifth in the 55 meter dash and eighth in the 200. Sophomore Trevor Williams also had a fine day, finishing third in the 400 and fourth in the 200, where he set a PR by running a 23.80. However, he was most proud of his part in the 4x400 relay team that finished first with a time of 3:27.15. In that same event, the sophomore class earned bragging rights by prevailing in the annual class relay war.