They've outrun or outjumped teammates and opponents alike to prove that they are among the very best in Div. III, and this weekend, the members of the men's track and field team who qualified for the NCAA Championships during the regular season will see if their hard work has paid off.
Their skill will be tested in one final performance against fellow elite athletes in Div. III at Illinois Wesleyan this weekend.
Seniors Nate Brigham and Aaron Kaye, juniors Matt Fortin, Patrick Mahoney, and Trevor Williams, and sophomore Fred Jones will be making the trip to Nationals this year.
"This year's meet is going to be substantially more competitive than last year's meet," coach Connie Putnam said. "I've been going out there 21 years in a row, and each year we've gone, we've seen better and better competition."
"As a coach, you go out there with a realistic approach," Putnam added. "You don't go out there thinking you can win the meet, because that's not always possible."
The NCAA allows a specific amount of athletes to compete at Nationals every year. Anyone who posts an automatic qualifying mark is guaranteed a spot in their event. After all the automatic qualifiers are counted, the NCAA lets in the best provisional qualifying times, generally taking about 12 athletes or teams per event overall.
"The expectation is that we compete well, regardless of the outcome," Putnam said. "I'm hoping the guys will go out there and represent the school as fierce competitors and gentlemen. That's really my only expectation."
For Brigham and Jones, the NCAA Championships won't be a new experience. Both athletes competed at Nationals last year. Brigham placed ninth in the 5,000 meter event but had a sub-par performance, running with a time of 15:00.01 minutes, significantly slower than the qualifying time of 14:33.34 he ran earlier in the season (which wrote him into the Tufts indoor track record books and would have been fast enough to place second at Nationals).
Jones fared better, earning three points for Tufts with a sixth-place finish in the Triple Jump (47 feet, 4 1/2 inches). His preliminary leap of 46-9.50 placed him fifth heading into finals.
This year, Brigham will tackle the 5K again and will attempt to perform up to his potential against the other top Div. III distance runners. His qualifying time of 14:36.59 is the fastest of anyone in New England Div. III this season.
Jones will compete in both the triple jump and the long jump. For this season, Jones leads New England and has the fourth-best mark nationally heading into the NCAA Championships for the triple jump (47-11.25). He also holds the all-time indoor school record.
Jones is also the best in New England and second-best nationally in Div. III for the long jump (23-0.5). The only athlete with a better mark than Jones this year in the long jump is University of Wisconsin-Whitewater sophomore Derek Stanley (24-1.50), who is the top seed at Nationals.
In contrast to Jones and Brigham, the four athletes who comprise the Distance Medley Relay team will be making their first trips to nationals. Senior Aaron Kaye will be running the leadoff 1000 meter leg, junior Trevor Mahoney will follow in the 400 leg, junior Patrick Mahoney will run the 800, and junior Matt Fortin will finish in the mile leg.
According to Fortin, competing in a team event as opposed to an individual event requires a different mentality.
"It makes a really big difference [running a team event rather than an individual event]," Fortin said. "In the DMR, you have to rely on your other teammates to do well, and in the same regard you want to do well for your teammates. It's kind of an extra pressure, rather than just worrying about your own race. It's an added motivation. You want to run well for those guys, as well as just for yourself."
Their qualifying time of 10:01.33, only .33 seconds away from the automatic qualifying time, put them at first place for the Tufts indoor all-time list. The team, despite breaking the school record, will still see tough competition in the DMR at Nationals.
"The DMR competition is going to be a very strong competition," Putnam said. "This year, every team that's in the meet ran about 10:01 or better, last year it took 10:05 to get in. We're going to have to run as hard as we can and let the chips fall where they may."
New York University has the top seed in the event. A few strong New England schools, including Bowdoin, Keene, and Amherst, are seeded above Tufts.
According to Putnam, having athletes who have already made the trip to Nationals will help the team.
"I think one thing that's good with us, we're taking kids who have been out there before," Putnam said. "So when you have kids with you who have been out there before, they tend to calm the other kids down and tell them it's just another meet. Having veterans with you is important."
"The first time you go to the NCAAs, when all the lights come on and then all of the crowd stands to its feet and they play the national anthem, in front of the biggest crowd you'll ever compete in front of, things change," Putnam added. "Once you've gone out there and done well, there's a self-imposed pressure you need to do well again."
Putnam has been maintaining practice. He wants to reinforce the idea that their mentality needs to be that this is just like any other meet.
"We're conditioned, everyone's as ready as we can be," Putnam said. "The idea is to go out there well rested and relaxed, not afraid."
