Last season, the women's indoor track team placed 23rd at the NCAA Championships, mainly because of its second-place finish in the 4x400 relay with a 3:53.45.
Three of the four members of that team, Emily Bersin, Jess Trombly and Sika Henry, will not be back this season. Bersin and Trombly graduated, and Henry has decided not to run this season.
The lone returnee from that relay, Rachel Bloom, and the rest of the team will have to compensate for the losses, which also include distance runner Lauren Caputo to graduation and high jumper Melissa Graveley, who also chose not to run track this season.
Trombly, who also competed nationally in the 55-meter hurdles and the 400-meter dash, was a huge part of the team's success last season. Trombly finished ninth in the hurdles and 10th in the 400.
"It's definitely going to be a big loss, but since we have a lot of people, I'm hoping we'll be able to fill her shoes," sophomore Jillian Warner said.
Henry also competed nationally in the high jump, finishing ninth.
Bloom, along with sophomores Warner, Mackenzie Rawcliffe and Jess Mactas, will be called upon to lead the young sprinting core. All three sophomores were members of the 4x200-meter relay team last season and will comprise a key contingent of the sprinting squad and team as a whole.
Bloom, an All-American, will mainly run the 200 and 400 for the Jumbos in addition to her work on the relay teams.
"Rachel is a really good role model for the younger girls," Mactas said. "She's really positive, a hard worker and she shows younger girls how that hard work can pay off."
Classmate Megan Sears will join Bloom to provide some leadership for the young team. Sears will participate in multiple events, including some sprints. Sears demonstrated her versatility last winter when she took ninth place in the pentathlon at the Div. III New England Championships.
The performance of the sophomore and junior sprinters will be especially important due to the influx of talented but inexperienced freshmen. While the team is young, runners are optimistic about the new talent. Several freshmen, such as Jenna Weir, Kaleigh Fitzpatrick and Katie Barksdale, have been impressive thus far, and should contribute most in the 55-meter dash, where the lineup is least set as of now.
"We're definitely going to be a young squad," Bloom said. "But the freshmen seem pretty excited. They're hard workers, and many showed up for preseason and captains' practices. They're doing all the off-day work and taking things seriously."
Mactas echoed her optimism.
"Training's been going really well. The majority of us have been training since we got here, and it will be exciting to see where we stand this weekend."
The Jumbos may be strongest in the middle distance events. Sophomore Sarah Crispin, who won the NESCAC outdoor 800 last season, and senior Katie Sheedy will be joined by some of the new freshmen who led the Jumbos during the cross country season - Catherine Beck, Katy O'Brien, Anna Shih and Laura Walls - to form a competitive group.
Other key returnees for the Jumbos will be sophomore Samantha Moland and junior Daniela Fairchild, who competed last season on the Jumbos' 4x800 along with Crispin and Sheedy.
"There [are] a lot of strong runners returning from last year," junior Becca Ades said. "Sarah Crispin and Katie Sheedy look really good in the 800, and I think they'll do really good things in the [distance medley relay] and the 4x800."
Ades will be studying in Spain next semester, which will hurt the Tufts distance squad. Ades was an All-American in outdoor track last season, placing 13th in the 3,000-meter steeplechase.
The runners will face their first test this Saturday, at the Husky Invitational at Northeastern University.
"We haven't had a lot of time to do [starting] block work and stick passing," Bloom said. "But this meet will be a good indicator of the little things we'll each have to work on."
