Tufts zips past Wheaton

It isn't too often you get the opportunity to dethrone a defending national champion, but last Saturday at the Gantcher Center, Tufts made the most of such an opportunity.

A week after facing little competition in a dual-meet at Bowdoin, the women's indoor track and field team hosted a stiffer field of 15 other teams, including the defending national indoor champion, Wheaton. With 150 total points, the Jumbos took first place in the meet, ahead of Wheaton with 118 points. Ithaca College was a distant third with 81.5 points.

"There were a lot of great performances," coach Kristen Morwick said. "We got a lot more people qualified this weekend, which was good. Overall, there were some ups and downs, but Wheaton won indoor nationals last year, and we beat them. It was a good meet."

The Jumbos were led by the 4x400 relay team of senior quad-captains Emily Bersin and Jess Trombly, junior Sika Henry and sophomore Rachel Bloom. The quartet dashed to victory with a sub-four minute time, 3:58.76, qualifying provisionally for nationals while edging Wheaton's foursome (4:00.15) by a second-and-a-half. Trombly outduelled Wheaton senior Amber James, a national 400 champ, in the anchor leg.

"It was really exciting to post a [provisional] time this early in the season because last year it came down to the very last meet before nationals to determine if we made it," Bloom said. "It's good to show us that we're back where we should be. That was also very exciting because [Wheaton] has incredible sprinters."

"Bigger than the time was that we beat Wheaton," Morwick added. "[Our runners] had all raced quite a bit during the day [in other events], so none of them were fresh. Considering that, they did really, really well. It was really exciting."

Bloom also placed third in the 200 dash (26.24 seconds), improving on her All-New England qualifying mark of 26.39 seconds recorded last week. Bloom placed behind Wheaton's speedy sister duo of senior Amber and sophomore Aspen James (25.31 and 26.08 respectively), who also reversed order and finished one-two in the 55 dash. The 200 result moves Bloom up in the Division III standings for All-New England's, held the last weekend of this month, and is the fifth-best Tufts mark ever.

"It was really good for me to have them in the race because they pulled me along," Bloom said. "I think just having really good competition makes you better."

Senior quad-captain Lauren Caputo added to her already-impressive indoor season with her third All-New England qualifying time in three weeks, this time in the 1500. Caputo finished fourth in the event in a career-best 4:49.18, edging Amherst's Alyson Venti by 0.16 of a second.

"There were so many fast girls that were running it. When you have to run against other fast people you'll probably run a fast time too," Caputo said. "I was able to hang in there and I was able to qualify. It was really great coming off of this cross country season [because] I'm in a lot better shape and it's my last season so I want to do really well."

Caputo has now qualified for All-New England's in the 1500, 3000 and 5000, but it remains a tossup as to which event she will run at the championship meet. According to Caputo, who also returned to the track an hour and a half later to place fourth in the 800 behind freshman teammate Samantha Moland (third with 2:25.66), it all comes down to the opposition.

"I'll probably have to pick one of [the three to run at All-New England's], I don't know which one yet," Caputo said. "We'll see the competition. It depends on what my best opportunity to score in is."

Trombly competed in three events on top of the 4x400. She placed second in the long jump (4.93 meters) and improved on her 8.64-second national provisional time in the 55 hurdles by clocking in at 8.58, good enough for the win. The Nashua, New Hampshire native also manned the reins in the 600 with an All-New England time of 1:34.13, finishing nearly four seconds ahead of the runner-up, Emily Maston of Ithaca. Trombly missed the Tufts 600 record by just a one-hundredth of a second.

Senior Shushanna Mignott continued her recent success by winning the triple jump (10.60m), nine centimeters better than WPI's Rebecca Hamel. The win was crucial for the Jumbos, according to Morwick, as Tufts was neck and neck with Wheaton until the event. Mignott also leapt to a third place finish in the long jump behind Trombly.

Junior Melissa Graveley competed in the pentathlon, faring well in all five of her events, while senior Lauren Dunn took third in the 5000 with a personal record of 18:54.05.

The throwing squad racked up some points of its own to add to Tufts' tally. Senior Gwen Campbell claimed sixth in the shot put with an 11.11 meter throw, followed by classmate Jess Gauthier (10.78 m) in eighth. Gauthier was also fifth in the weight throw with a hurl of 13.51 meters, a season best.

"We had a tremendous improvement last year from our new coach [Rebecca Brooks] and her coaching style," Campbell said. "This year we picked up pretty much right where we left off. We've had some really steady performances. We haven't blown anyone away with three-foot PR's, but the fact that we're all scoring and throwing really consistently is a significant improvement."

With only a week remaining in the regular season before championship meets begin, Tufts is focused on adding some last-minute qualifications to its already-long list. A handful of Jumbos will head to Boston University's competitive Division I Valentine Invite this Friday and Saturday, while the rest of the team will be at home for the Tufts Stampede on Saturday.

"Hopefully at BU [we'll] hit some national marks, which is why we take some of the better kids to that meet," Morwick said. "Stanford has shown up to that meet before, George Mason, Duke. That's a pretty competitive meet."