4x400 runs second at nationals

Standing on an unfamiliar track surrounded by the top Division III athletes in the country can be a nerve-wracking position, especially when you enter an event seeded second in the nation.

"It's pretty intimidating," sophomore Rachel Bloom said. "You're standing in the gym in groups of four, you can see who all the relays are and everybody's looking at each other. Everybody's trying to figure out who's going to come out on top."

But the women's 4x400 meter relay team of Bloom, senior quad-captains Jess Trombly and Emily Bersin and junior Sika Henry lived up to its ranking, running a personal record (PR) of 3:53.45 to place second in the NCAA Division III Women's Indoor Track and Field Championships at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater on Saturday.

Illinois Wesleyan's team (3:52.36) of Gianina Taylor, Katie O'Rourke, Nicole Williams and Gena Rawlins took first. Tufts' time was short of the school record of 3:52.82 set earlier this season, but bettered the school record's converted time of 3:53.62.

"We ended up fifth going into the final which put us into the slow heat with Illinois Wesleyan, [whose] top two got third and fifth in the 400," coach Kristen Morwick said. "We thought, 'well, maybe we'll get higher than fifth because we have this team to run with.'"

The top two teams ended up coming from that slower heat, as Bersin set a PR by running 59 seconds flat in the leadoff leg and Henry broke the 59-second barrier for the first time in her career with a 58.70.

"Wheaton and Illinois Wesleyan had a big lead on us [at the first hand-off] and Rachel closed the gap a bit," Morwick said. "Sika walked down Wheaton. Illinois Wesleyan literally had a 50 meter lead on us, and we almost handed off even going into Trombo's [closing] leg. The race was awesome."

Tufts dramatically improved on last year's national performance in the same event, when it placed ninth in 3:55.68, missing the final by .67 seconds with the same four runners. But Bloom said that last season's result was part of the lead up to Saturday's race and the culmination of two years of training and bonding between the quartet.

"The four of us worked so well together because we're so close anyway," Bloom said. "We just pulled it together at the right time. We had two years of practicing the 4x4 together. We went in with much more confidence [this year]. We knew what we were doing and we were more ready for it."

That bond, however, will soon come to an end -- at least on the track -- with just the upcoming outdoor spring season separating Trombly and Bersin from graduation, and the indoor chapter of their Jumbo careers now closed.

Tufts will be hard-pressed to replace that dynamic when Trombly and Bersin depart, but Bloom is confident the Jumbos will be able to restock from either incoming freshmen or their current team, which she says has the potential to step up.

"It's going to be tough, we're definitely going to have to find some new people," Bloom said. "But you can't replace those two. We have a great dynamic and it'll be really tough to replace that."

The weekend was not all highlight-filled, however. In the meet's first event on Friday, Henry tied for ninth in high jump with Frostburg State freshman Anna Routzahn with a 5-03.25 foot jump, finishing one place out of All-American status. The result was disappointing for Henry, who, despite competing in the event on the national level for the first time in her career, was shooting for a top eight finish.

"I was obviously disappointed," Henry said. "It's very different there, girls that beat me every week this season placed behind me. Everybody's staring at you and there are cameras there. It's very nerve-wracking and you don't always perform as well as you want to."

Henry did, however, place ahead of New England rivals Karima Ummah of Colby and Katherine Wallace of Wheaton, who both cleared the same height as the Jumbo but placed below her based on earlier failed attempts. Wilmington's Emily Herring (5-07.25) won the event by an inch with a facility record.

"Sika made her first two heights easily. She missed her first attempt at 5-03 and then sailed over her second attempt, so on misses she was in good shape," Morwick said. "[NYU's Lauren Henkel] who got eighth had the same amount of misses but she didn't miss at 5-03, and Sika did miss one at 5-03. That's what determined it."

Trombly also competed in two individual events, the 55-meter hurdles and 400 dash, but missed finals in both. The hurdles saw her run an 8.46 in preliminaries, just a hundredth of a second short of a place in finals behind Rachel Hutchins of Iowa's Loras College. The event was paced by sophomore Sheana Grigsby of Carthage College, WI, who ran an 8.10 to win.

"Jess was in there with a bunch of really speedy kids," Morwick said. "It was probably the best hurdle race I've seen her run all year. She was right in the middle of her heat, and that's just the luck of the draw."

Trombly was stuck in a slow preliminary heat in the 400, finishing in 58.30 seconds, well off her qualifying mark of 56.46 that had seeded her fourth overall. Trombly's time placed her tenth in the event, which was won by Wheaton's Amber James (55.62), and far short of her expectations.

"She was heartbroken, because pretty much the exact same thing happened to her last year," Morwick said. "She didn't have anyone fast to run with, and often times when that happens, the people that run slower tend to go out harder and die. She's a heptathlete so she can run a fast 400 because she's such a good athlete, but it's not her event. She doesn't have a lot of experience in a lot of different racing situations."

But overall, the team can be proud of the fact that Tufts was represented in four national events while recording national provisional times in two others, the distance medley relay and the 800. Three school records also fell during the season, including the 4x400 (3:52.82) and Trombly's double in the 200 (25.59) and 400 (56.26).

The squad will look to carry that momentum through to the spring.

"Knowing how Nationals panned out for our team, I think a lot of people on our team have a lot of confidence that we can go into outdoor season and do even better," Morwick said. "A lot of people were just getting going in indoors, so at the end they were on the verge of doing some pretty big things. I think that bodes pretty well for outdoor season."