Men's track finishes third out of four teams at Springfield

In track and field there is a balance that exists between the individual and the team, and this was clearly seen on Saturday as the Tufts men's track team opened up its season at Springfield College.

Tufts finished third out of a small field of four teams. Springfield College won the quad meet, compiling 216 points, followed by Bates with 206, Tufts with 184, and Southern Maine with 68.

While the team may not have won the meet, it qualified several individual competitors for national competition. This, claims coach Connie Putnam, was the team's primary goal entering Saturday's meet.

"We were not going into this meet trying to set up guys to beat Springfield College or Bates," Putnam said. "With a short qualifying season of only three weeks, we were going into this one looking for people to get early season qualifying times."

Along with the short qualifying season, the rainy weather was a factor in Putnam's strategy, which included keeping All-American freshman Fred Jones out of the triple jump and long jump.

"Unless the weather was really excellent, we were planning on keeping him out of those events." Putnam said. "He had gotten a knee pinch [earlier that day] in the 4x100 relay, and we're letting him train through."

The Jumbos did succeed in their goal of qualifying competitors for national competition. Junior Ray Carre, the team's top sprinter qualified in both the 200 and the 400 meter dashes, finishing second in the 400 at the meet.

A slew of distance runners qualified for Division III nationals in the 1500, including junior Nate Brigham, sophomores Matt Fortin and Matt Lacey, and junior Brian McNamara. The group finished second through fifth at the meet.

Brigham is the Tufts record holder in the 10,000, which he did not run in on Saturday. Still recovering from a long indoor season which stretched through the NCAA championships, Brigham will first run the 10,000 at the Penn Relays on April 22.

Nonetheless, a Jumbo did dominate the 10,000. Freshman Josh Kennedy cruised through the 10,000 with a time of 32:23.10, winning the race and qualifying for nationals. Coach Putnam was impressed with the young distance runner's performance.

"He has stood up and made himself be counted," Putnam said. "He's pretty close to the most talented athlete we brought in this year. He is very relaxed at the 10,000, and easily qualified for nationals."

Putnam hopes that Kennedy's season may even surpass Division III nationals.

"If he runs a great time towards the end of the season, I can see him qualifying for NCAA's [including Divisions I, II, and III]. If not, he'll be darn close, which you never see with freshmen," Putnam said.

In the 110 hurdles, junior Nate Thompson qualified for nationals, winning the meet handily. In the 400 hurdles, sophomore Trevor Williams came in second, also qualifying for nationals. Senior tri-captain Peter Jurczynski won the 3000 steeplechase by almost a full minute with a time of 9:45.00 en route to a national qualification. Jurczynski echoed Coach Putnam's remarks on the short qualifying season.

"It makes us have to be real efficient," the captain said. "Guys may want to qualify in multiple events, and to do that, we need to focus and not waste time. So far we've really been good about that."

In the field, sophomore Seth LaPierre performed strongly in the pole vault despite a strong wind, usually a difficult factor for vaulters. He finished second and qualified for nationals. Sophomore Brandon Udelhofen won the discus, qualifying for nationals. Junior Dan March also did well at the hammer throw, missing a qualifying distance by a hair, as did sophomore Jason Galvin in the discus.

Putnam plans on using a similar strategy for earning qualifying times for as many individual competitors as possible in this Saturday's quad meet at MIT, and he thinks his squad is starting to come into top form.

"I'm thrilled right now," Putnam said. "The guys are coming in mornings to work out, watching tape, really putting in the extra time."