Team fails to produce additional qualifiers at ECAC's

The men's track and field team finished fourth at the ECAC Championship over the weekend, and still didn't get the kind of results it was hoping for.

With one last chance to send individuals on to the upcoming NCAA National Championships at University of Wisconsin at Whitewater, the Jumbos failed to produce any new qualifying times at the ECAC's on Friday and Saturday at Bowdoin.

Despite running tired, not competing in eight events, and approaching the meet from an individual rather than a team outlook, Tufts still placed fourth out of 36 schools. Only Cortland (92), Bates (82) and Springfield (59) finished ahead of Tufts (56.5).

Despite the impressive team result, the Jumbos were still disappointed with their failure to qualify runners.

"Unfortunately, we just couldn't get anyone in," coach Connie Putnam said. "Nothing really went as well as we would have liked."

The closest the Jumbos got was in the 55 meter hurdles, where junior Nate Thompson placed second in the finals, finishing in a career best 7.77 seconds and just missing the provisional qualifying time of 7.74.

Thompson was disqualified in the long jump due to a foul, but teammate freshman Fred Jones finished second with a jump of 22 feet, 7.75 inches, and also captured first in the triple jump with a 46-02.5. Still, neither was his best leap.

"He was basically warming up for next week," Putnam said.

Junior Ray Carre ran to a fifth place finish time of 50.68 in the 400m and sophomore Pat Mahoney placed sixth in the 800m with a time of 1:57.12, but both fell short of qualifying.

"Pat still ran a pretty good race," Putnam said. "It was really busy with everyone making moves, but he did a good job navigating traffic."

In the 1500m, sophomore Matt Fortin finished third with a time 3:59.33, which was a career best, but "nowhere near what we had hoped he would run," Putnam said. Further down, junior Nate Brigham (4:04.88), sophomore Kyle Doran (4:06.27), and junior Brian McNamara (4:08.51) finished 13th, 15th, and 16th, respectively.

Doran's race was particularly disappointing, as he had hoped to improve upon his provisional qualifying time of 3:54.91.

"He never got involved in the competitive part of the race," Putnam said. "He got stuck back at the beginning and then he didn't have anything left."

"I wasn't feeling too good going up to the line, and then I got caught in the second and third lane for a lot of the race," Doran said. "It was rough, but I'll be ready to go next weekend if I make it."

In the 5000m, sophomore Matt Lacey finished sixth in 15:05.98, freshman Josh Kennedy placed seventh in 15:25.66, and junior Mike Don, battling a cold, placed tenth in 15:58.17.

The Jumbos did not quite get the race they had hoped in the 4 x 400 meter relay, where the squad of freshman Nate Cleveland, sophomores Trevor Williams and Pat Mahoney, and junior Ray Carre finished fifth (3:23.89) but failed to improve upon their provisional qualifying time of 3:18.7.

The distance-medley relay team of McNamara, Carre, junior Aaron Kaye, and Fortin were the only Jumbos the entire day to produce a qualifying time, locking up third place with a 10:11.6. However, it was not as fast as the 10:09.5 qualifying time produced last week with McNamara, Carre, Cleveland and Fortin, and Putnam will apply to NCAA's with the latter foursome's time in order to heighten the Jumbos chances of qualifying.

In the weight throw, junior Dan March failed to improve his qualifying time, throwing 51-10.5. In the pole vault, sophomore Seth LaPierre tied for sixth with a 14-05.5. He cleared at 15-1, but his hand knocked the bar as it left the pole.

Freshmen Dan Jones, Scott Merrick, Dan Sullivan, and anchor Kaye finished eleventh in the 4 x 800 (8:05.5), while Merrick and Jones also competed in the 1000.

"We were so fired up last weekend," Putnam said. "This weekend, we were digging from the start. We fell into a hole and we just looked tired and had trouble getting going. Everyone has a day like that; it just seemed like a lot of the guys had that day this weekend."

As a result, there are no new qualifiers. Provisional qualifiers Brigham in the 5000m, Doran in the 1500m, Jones in the jumps, March in the weight throw, and the DRM and 4x400m relay squads will have to wait until tonight to find out if they will move on to Wisconsin on March 12th and 13th.

Jones seems a near lock in the triple jump, with Brigham having the second best chance.

"But right now, all we can do is wait," Putnam said.