Jumbos train through meet at Trinity

After a lengthy break following the indoor season, the women's track and field team returned to action, this time outdoors, on Saturday at the Bantam Invitational Meet at fellow NESCAC competitor and host, Trinity. While no team placement was awarded at the informal meet, it was an opportunity for the athletes to ease back into the competitive atmosphere.

Even thought it's April, and the outdoor season is supposed to be well-underway, the weather felt like winter and did not provide the spring-like conditions ideal for outdoor events. Wind, rain, and cold had a negative impact on individual performances and made for a rough reentry into competition.

"It was a pretty miserable day at Trinity," coach Kristin Morwick said. "Given the weather, and the meet running considerably later than normal, the performances were pretty standard for this time of year."

For the Jumbos, the highest individual placements were found in the field events. In the shot put, senior Kate Gluckman earned one of Tufts' two first place finishes on the day. Her victory came off of a throw of 12.01 meters and beat out second place finisher Lily Zepeda of Coast Guard's throw by .28.

Gluckman threw about a half meter further than she did at the Springfield Invitational last year, which also occurred on the first weekend of April. Fellow senior Jessica Gauthier placed fifth in the event with a 10.81 throw, edging out junior Jessica Colby's sixth place throw of 10.80.

"I threw a personal best, around 40 feet, in Arizona, so my goal for this meet was to get close to that, which I sort of did," Gluckman said.

According to Gluckman, the weather was a hindering factor in performance, particularly since the entire team had just spent time in 90 degree Arizona.

"It was really hard to stay warm, particularly in a non aerobic sport like throwing," Gluckman said. "[But] I'm confident right now because I am throwing where I need to be at this point in the season."

Gluckman and Zepeda would battle again in the discus, but the results were not the same. Zepeda took first this time around, with a throw of 36.32 meters while Gluckman's throw of 34.72 fell to third place behind Leah Sullivan of Springfield's 35.30. Gauthier took sixth place, hurling for a distance of 32.08, and was also Tufts' top finisher in the hammer throw, finishing fifth with a 36.67 throw.

Tufts' only other first place finish on the day came from junior Sika Henry, who took the high jump over second place finisher Sarah Bengston of Trinity with a leap of 1.57 meters.

Henry, one of the Jumbos' top jumpers, is in a position to consistently contribute points in this event, as she did in the indoor New England Div. III championships this past February, where she tied for third place with a jump of 3.75. Henry was also the top Tufts performer in the 800 on Saturday, taking sixth place in 2:22.92.

In track events, Tufts had its strongest showings in the sprints and long distance runs. Sophomore Rachel Bloom had her strongest performance in the 100, taking second place with a time of 12.90, .25 seconds off of the first place time set by Anike Orimogonje of the University of Hartford. Orimogonje also bested Bloom by almost a second in the 200m dash, as Bloom took fourth in 26.76s, also finishing behind two competitors from New Jersey City.

Moving from seconds to minutes, a pair of Jumbos earned a pair of third places in the both the 1500 and the 10,000. Unfortunately, each runner was bested by a rival from Trinity. Freshman Sarah Crispin took third place in 1500 with a time of 4:48.93, a few seconds behind winner Mary Proulx (4:42.32 unaffiliated) and second place Kristin Miner of Trinity (4:43.19). Senior Lauren Dunn took third in the 10,000 (39:19.69), about a minute off Trinity's Kristina Depeau's mark of 8:16.84.

The overall tone for this meet was not as high pressure as it will be at the end of April when the championships begin. Currently, the team is training hard through the meets, which puts a limit on performance.

"Most of our meets right now are rather informal considering the fact that we are training through them," Gluckman said. "However, they are still important because we can use them to qualify for championships."

At the invitational, the Jumbos got a taste of four other NESCAC teams (Trinity, Amherst, Wesleyan, and Connecticut College), and the only team to compete across the board with the Jumbos at this early stage in the season was the Bantams.

Notably absent was returning NESCAC champion Williams. It is one of the team's goals this year to take first place at NESCAC's, which will be held at Trinity on April 24, and Williams will be the team to beat in order to do so.