Despite missing important athletes due to injuries, it was still a weekend of personal bests and record-setting for the continually impressive men's track and field team.
In a four-way meet that also featured rivals MIT, Springfield College and Bowdoin, the Jumbos placed second with 163 points and MIT won with 184 points.
"We trained through the meet," coach Connie Putnam said. "And came pretty close. We only let them get away with 17 points. The outcome was good. I told the team it was a moral victory."
Midway through the season, the team isn't looking to score points at individual meets as much as it is attempting to qualify its competitors for Nationals. And a few Jumbos managed to move closer this weekend.
Sophomore Fred Jones won both the long jump and the triple jump and qualified provisionally in the long jump with a distance of 7.02m. Jones already qualified for the triple jump earlier in the season, an event that he competed in at Nationals last year and is now No. 1 in the nation in Div. III.
Junior Matt Lacey pounded out a personal record in the 3000 meter, finishing second in a time of 8:31.21, launching him to second place on the Tufts' all-time list. Lacey will attempt to qualify for Nationals in the 5K, and his performance on Saturday in the 3K suggests he is in good enough shape to do so.
A key event for the Jumbos was the 400, where junior Trevor Williams placed second in a time of 50.84. Tufts runners also placed third, fourth and fifth in the 400 and earned 20 points overall for their team.
Senior Aaron Kaye won the 800 with a time of 1:58.87.
Freshman Dave Bach was unable to compete in the 1000 due to an injury, but classmate Anyenda Inyagwa gave his strongest performance of the season, finishing third and setting a personal best with a time of 2:39.90. Throughout the race, he was consistently challenged by MIT runners, but with excellent maneuvering, held his ground.
Inyagwa continued to improve, running another personal best in the second leg of the 4x800 meter relay, an event which Tufts won.
"I was very happy," Inyagwa said. "It was the best I've run out of the three meets we've been to. I'd like to qualify for one of the big meets later on, but I'm not sure how realistic that is for me considering this is my first year in collegiate athletics."
As it has all season, the squad continued to outpace competitors in the 5000, with senior Nate Brigham taking first place.
The team did fail to place a runner in the top three for the 1 mile run. The absence of Bach made it difficult for Tufts to find points in that event.
Senior Nathan Thompson had a solid outing in the 55 meter hurdles, placing first in the finals and improving his preliminary time of 8.17 to 8.05.
Jamil Ludd, usually stong in the 55m hurdles, was out with an injury but is expected to return this weekend.
Tufts won both the 4x400 and 4x800 meter relays, an impressive feat considering many of the runners were also competing in various other races.
"All the guys were doubling after running other events," senior Brian McNamara said of the relay wins. "We've got a lot of depth on the team, so we have a lot of athletes we can run. Some of the other teams have their top, top athletes, but they're not as deep as us."
The fielding events showed the need for some improvement, but overall the team was pleased with its performance. Freshmen Jeremy Arak, recovering from a concussion, and Kenneth Kang are hoping to return to competition soon.
"MIT is obviously a good team," Inyagwa said. "And we kept right on their heels. We're looking forward to meeting up with them again so we can catch them."
The Jumbos plan to continue practicing hard to improve as the end of the season approaches.
"[Coach Putnam] knows we can run and jump and throw better," McNamara said. "And I know there's room for improvement, and all the guys do too."
On Friday, four runners also took a shorter trip downtown to Boston University to compete at the Terrier Invite.
McNamara, Williams, Mahoney and Fortin comprised a Distance Medley Relay team that faced off against tough Div. I programs including Duke and Boston College. The Jumbos finished sixth and set a new school record with a time of 10:07.02, while Duke University took first place.
The DMR team will next compete at the St. Valentine Invitational at Boston University on Feb. 12. In the meantime, the runners will work on fine-tuning the relay by practicing with short, fast intervals to improve their time.
Although hitting the Automatic Qualifying time of 10.01 would be ideal, the team feels confident they can reach nationals as long as they improve their time from Friday.
This Saturday, the Jumbos will host their third invite at Gantcher Center. McNamara feels optimistic that Tufts will qualify more competitors for Nationals.
"If you can send more than a couple of kids to the nationals, you're doing pretty well," McNamara said. "I think the team has a chance to do that this year."
