Despite winning more individual events than Williams, the Jumbos took second place behind the returning champions this weekend at the New England Div. III Indoor Championships, hosted at Tufts.
Tufts managed to rack up 108.5 points, but failed to keep pace with Williams, who earned 123.
Rounding out the top of a meet that included 24 Div. III teams, Bates followed Tufts in third place with 77 points, and MIT finished fourth with 67.
The Jumbos failed to earn many points in the sprinting events, and Williams jumped on the opportunity to gain an edge.
Williams junior sprinter John Symanski dominated the short-distance events, winning both the 55-meter dash (6.44 seconds) and the 200-meter dash (22.06). A Williams relay team also won the 4x400 meter relay (3:23.96).
"I think the events that really beat us were the 55 and 200," coach Connie Putnam said. "That was the primary chink in our armor, you might say. Marcus Boggis is a freshman, and he ran very well for an inexperienced freshman running the 55. But the truth of it is that Williams has a sprinter who is unparalleled in New England. [Symanski] is extremely fast and he just dominated in both of the events. They had three finalists in the 200 for a total of 16 points. That was unanswered by us."
Sophomore Nate Cleveland scored four points by placing fifth in the 600-meter run (1:23.37). Junior Pat Mahoney finished second in the 800-meter run and earned eight points (1:55.61).
Tufts made its presence known in the distance events, where senior Aaron Kaye won the 1,000-meter run (2:31.60), despite being unchallenged and having to set the pace ahead of the pack.
Senior Nate Brigham took first in the 5,000-meter run (14:59.12), an event in which he has provisionally qualified for Nationals and holds the Tufts school indoor record. In the meet, a first place finish was awarded with 10 points.
Sophomore Josh Kennedy placed second in the 5,000 and earned eight points (15:10.31). Junior Matt Fortin placed sixth in the 1,500-meter run and scored three (3:59.70).
The Jumbos' distance medley relay (DMR) team, which comprised Kaye in the 1,200 leg, sophomore Dustin Virgilio in the 400, Mahoney running the 800 and senior Brian McNamara running the mile, won the event in a time of 10:22.70. The time was significantly slower than the school record time the team of Kaye, Mahoney and juniors Matt Fortin and Trevor Williams ran last week (10:01.33), but the win earned Tufts 10 points. The Ephs were right behind in second place (10:26.16).
Sophomore Fred Jones scored more points for the Jumbos in the long jump and triple jump, both of which he won (7.24 meters and 14.33, respectively).
"We gave it all we had, we just got beat, fair and square," Jones said. "It was kind of disappointing because we can beat [Williams], but everyone would have to have a good meet. It was tough, some guys had a great meet but not everyone did. We didn't all click at one time."
Freshman Jeremy Arak placed fifth in the pentathlon and earned four points for the Jumbos. Arak also tied for third in the high jump (1.91), earning his team 5.5 points.
Junior Seth LaPierre placed third in the pole vault, earning six points. Scoring five points, junior Matt Lacey placed fourth in the 3,000 (8:37.25).
Sophomore Jamil Ludd finished fifth in the 55-meter hurdles (7.96), and Nate Thompson was eighth (8.07). Sophomore Ryan Byrne scored one point in the shot put with an eighth-place finish (14.23), but no other Jumbos scored in the weight throw or shot put.
Tufts placed third in the 4x400 (3:24.53), but didn't fare as well in the 4x800, in which it finished eighth (8:12.35).
"[Williams] out-talented us in one clearly-defined area of the meet," Putnam said regarding the Ephs' success in sprinting. "The rest of the way, we went head to head with them very, very well. Our guys did good jobs all day long."
The distribution for the meet was skewed, especially in the sprinting events, and as a result the scales were tipped in Williams' favor.
"Another thing that affected this meet was a lack of even distribution and other teams not taking their share of the scoring," Putnam said. "For example, Wheaton College didn't even show up, that's a team that does have good sprinters and would have offset Williams. If Wheaton was there, Williams would never have gotten four guys in the finals [for the 200]. They didn't take their appropriate points out of the meet."
Despite placing first in fewer events than Tufts, the Ephs emerged victorious once again. In the past thirteen years, including 2005, Williams has won the Div. III Championships 10 times.
"Williams has been a dominant force indoors New England for a long time," Putnam said. "It's always appropriate for us to be the primary challenger. We'll continue to play that role until we break through and beat them."
