On a team renowned for its great middle distance runners, the Tufts sprinters are often overlooked. That wasn't the case on Saturday for the women's track and field team when it took on Bowdoin, Gordon, and Springfield.
Junior Rachel Bloom won the 400 meters (1:00.52) and sophomore Jill Warner took second in the 55 dash (7.59).
But the 200 was where the Jumbos shined, taking first, second and third, led by Bloom (26.56), Warner (26.77), and freshman Kaleigh Fitzpatrick (27.22). Warner and Bloom finished neck and neck, well ahead of other competition, which is unusual for such a short race.
"Most of the time coach usually puts Rachel and me in different races," Warner said. "So it was fun to be able to run against her during the week. It's always nice to have someone on the team who motivates me to try harder and push myself to be a better athlete."
The performances turned in by the sprinters paced the Jumbos to a crushing 270 points to win an invitational for the second week in a row. The next closest team was Bowdoin with 173.5.
In the middle distance events, however, Tufts was without sophomore Sarah Crispin, who did not run due to health issues and whose return date is unclear.
The other Jumbos didn't miss a beat. Senior Claudia Clarke (1:41.50) gunned the final 100 meters in the 600, edging out teammate sophomore Kate Makai (2nd - 1:41.93) and taking first. Senior Katie Sheedy (1:42.54) took fourth.
"The 600 is a tricky race because you are forced to pace what's otherwise a sprint event," Clarke said. "After a good first lap we all relaxed on that second one. It made the final lap more difficult to get through."
Freshman Laura Walls continued a stellar season by taking second in the 800 (2:19.38) and qualifying for the All-New England Championships (All-NE's) at the end of February. Walls had already qualified for All-NE's in the 1,000. Sophomore Maggie Clary took also took fifth (2:28.20) in the 800.
Freshman Katy O'Brien (3:04.72) and sophomore Sam Moland (3:13.45) took first and fourth, respectively, in the 1,000.
Freshman Anna Shih (5:20.86) kicked hard in the final lap to finish first in the mile with senior Emily Pfiel (5:47.63) taking fifth for the Jumbos.
"It was the first time I had run something longer than the 1000 this season," Shih said."[So] it was a bit of an experiment,"
Freshman Catherine Beck (10:21.94), sophomore Raquel Morgan (10:44.41), and sophomore Jenny Torpey (11:08.95) took first, second and fourth in the 3,000. The race was Morgan's first for Tufts since before winter break. Beck qualified for Div. III New England's with the performance and beat her best time in the event by 17 seconds.
In the field, sophomore MacKenzie Rawcliffe took first in the 55 hurdles (9.04), good enough to qualify for the ECAC Championships, and fifth in the triple jump (9.86m). Sophomore Sade Campbell (1.52m) and junior Daniela Fairchild (1.47) led the Jumbos to first and third in the high jump.
Tufts dominated the triple jump and long jump, taking six of the top seven spots, including the first five in the long jump and five of the top six in the triple jump. Fitzpatrick (5.04), freshman Ashley Lowe (4.78), Fairchild (4.68), freshman Jenna Weir (4.66), and freshman Catherine Greenlee (4.53) swept the first five spots in the long jump with freshman Katherine Barksdale (4.35) finishing seventh. In the triple jump, it was Fitzpatrick (10.82) in first, Weir in second (10.78), and then Greenlee (10.06), Rawcliffe (9.86), and Lowe (9.80) finishing fourth through sixth.
Freshman Sarah Martin finished third in the weight throw (13.40) with senior Jessica Colby (13.24) in fourth. In the shotput, Colby took fourth (11.13) with fellow senior Katie Antle (10.46) in sixth.
The 4x800 relay team of Pfeil, Shih, O'Brien, and Walls took first (9:51.20) as did the 4x400 relay team (4:08.04) of Clarke, Bloom, Makai and Warner. While the 4x200 relay team (senior Ayako Sawanobori, Makai, freshman Marisa Mann, Clarke - 1:53.76) only placed second in a comparatively small field, coach Kristen Morwick is not worried.
"We raced the 600 crew in the 4x200 this week. The only 'true' sprinter was Sawanobori," Morwick said. "[It was] not a true sprint relay crew, but they did a nice job against Springfield's A team."
The women will come back to Tufts next Saturday for the third Tufts Invitational this winter. Coach Morwick is very happy with what she has seen from her team up to this point.
"We haven't posted our top performances yet this season, but we've been competitive," Morwick said. "We have plenty of time to run fast, jump high and far, and throw far. Right now, we're just hoping to end our regular season healthy, happy, and ready for championships."
