Freshman Jones earns All-American status at NCAA's

Neither freshman Fred Jones nor junior Nate Brigham quite gave their best performance on Saturday at the NCAA Div. III national championship meet in Wisconsin.

Still, one All-American isn't too shabby.

Jones earned the distinction by finishing sixth in the nation in the triple jump, while Brigham finished ninth out of twelve competitors in the 5,000-meter race, missing the top eight finish required to achieve All-American status.

"It wasn't as close as you think," said Brigham, who finished the race in 15:00.1, over eight seconds out of eighth place and almost half a minute slower than his seed time of a converted 14:35.85. "I'm disappointed. I just didn't quite have it out there."

Jones didn't jump his furthest, falling short of his school record jump of 48 feet and a quarter inch, set at the end of February at All-New England's. But it was still his second best jump of the season, and it was good enough to make him a rare freshman All-American.

"Usually, you get there as you mature," coach Connie Putnam said. "But Fred is [already] mature. If you saw him at the meet you would have been proud to be from Tufts. He was serene, calm, and poised, and he just had a great time out there."

Jones' teammate echoed that thought.

"Fred's a great guy and he was great to travel with," Brigham said. "He had a decent day, not his best, but still good, and he didn't buckle under the pressure, he just went out there and had fun."

In the preliminaries, Jones won his heat with a leap of 46-9 1/2 (14.26m) to advance to the finals. There, his jump of 47-4 1/2 (14.44m) landed him sixth overall in the nation and gave Tufts three points, good for a 40th place tie out of 53 teams. Wisconsin La Crosse took first with 70 points.

"It takes an amazing mark to get out here, which both of our guys had, but it usually only takes your mean performance to place as an All-American," Putnam said. "You can't pop your best every day of the week. Fred was able to get beyond his mean but I think [Nate] went out there thinking he needed the race of a lifetime, which wasn't the case."

Brigham likened his race to his performance at cross country nationals this fall, where he started out strong before fading back to 94th overall.

"Again I started out near the front but fell back," he said. "But it was a tight pack, and I was in contention for most of the race until the end, but I didn't realize that and my confidence went down. I just got down on myself and didn't close well."

Wisconsin Oshkosh senior David Cisewski captured the 5,000 with a 14:30.58, the best Div. III time of the season.

"I ran well at nationals once," Brigham said, referring to his 11th place individual finish in the cross country nationals in the fall of 2002, which garnered him All-American honors. "I'm hoping to recapture some of that magic again. The meet never loses its luster for me. I still appreciate being here, and I still get very nervous, and maybe that's part of the problem."

Jones, meanwhile, said that he didn't feel such pressure.

"It was fun," Jones said. "It's been a long season and I haven't been in the weight room for awhile, so my legs weren't really under me. But I'm taking away from it a positive experience, and I just want to work towards having my best jump at nationals next year."

Brigham, although very disappointed, is also moving on and focusing on his favorite event, the 10,000 race in the outdoor season.

"We're looking past it and gearing up for the spring," Putnam said. "In every event, there are eight All-Americans, so four to six guys go home very disappointed, but they're still among the best 12 or 14 for that event in the nation in their division. Nate didn't have his best day, but it doesn't take away from the fact that he set a school record this year, went to nationals, and is the best 5000 meter run this institution has had."