Six athletes from the men's track and field team competed at the NCAA Championships at Illinois Wesleyan this weekend in the program's most successful outing at Nationals to date. All six returned to Tufts as All-Americans, and sophomore Fred Jones placed second in the long jump competition with a career-best tying performance, as the team placed 15th among the 52 competing schools.
"It was a fantastic trip," coach Connie Putnam said. "We've never had such a successful trip in the history of the program. Absolutely the best trip, every guy went out and made All-American. That's a very rare occasion and I'm very pleased."
Jones renewed his All-American status with a stellar performance in the long jump. He posted a mark of 7.09 meters in the preliminaries and was placed sixth heading into the finals.
In his final long jump of the indoor season, Jones gave it all he had and placed second in the finals, tying his career best - which is also the Tufts indoor record - and coming only two cm. short of first place with a 7.24 mark.
"I knew I could jump that distance because I had done it at Div. III's at Tufts," Jones said. "I was just hoping I could at least repeat what I did there. I tied my personal record, and I'm glad I came around and hit a big jump at Nationals when I needed it the most."
"Usually my nerves don't [get to me]," Jones added. "I was very calm last year. For some reason or another, I walked into this meet a little more nervous to what I'm accustomed to. But I wouldn't say they got the best of me. I think it kind of helped me, because when I let it go and realized it was just another meet, I started jumping better."
On Saturday, Jones competed in the triple jump. His preliminary jump of 14.17 placed him fifth in the preliminaries, but was three fourths of an inch short of the cut for finals. Jones' qualifying jump for the event was 14.61, which would have been good enough to tie for second in the finals.
Jones' success at Nationals comes off another recent achievement awarded to him by the coaches in New England. Last week, he was named Regional Athlete of the Year for New England, and was honored at a banquet on Thursday.
Senior Nate Brigham is also a two-time All American now thanks to his performance in the 5,000 meter event. Brigham held back in the beginning of the race to conserve energy, but then couldn't manage a move to the lead.
Although it appeared Brigham might have a repeat of his last National appearance, in which he ran a 15:00.01, he made a final push with a few laps to go. He began to pass runners, and with 400 meters left, he used the last of his energy and sprinted past two runners, finishing in eighth place (14:46.76).
The Distance Medley Relay was the last event Tufts competed in on Friday. The four-man team, comprised of senior Aaron Kaye and juniors Trevor Williams, Patrick Mahoney and Matt Fortin, were all making their first trips to Nationals, and all four walked away as All-Americans.
Kaye ran into trouble in the leadoff 1200 leg, with runners jostling each other to get into position. Kaye shifted between lanes 2 and 3 during his race, trying to get free.
"Envision 10 athletes, all very equal, on a track with very tight turns, and the athletes are being thrown from the lane with centrifugal force," Putnam said. "The larger guys are able to hold their position, and [Kaye] was not able to get the position he wanted. No one would have run faster than him, but we just couldn't get him free."
Coming off his leg in eighth place, Kaye passed the baton off to Williams, who ran a spectacular 400, moving up to fourth place. Mahoney raced a fast first half of his 800 leg, then slowed a little bit but maintained fourth place before passing the baton on to Fortin.
Fortin initially tried to pace himself behind Amherst senior Mike Page, but couldn't keep up as Wisconsin Oshkosh freshman William Kaul passed them both. Fortin fell back with Keene State senior Dave Bridgewater and Bowdoin junior Andrew Combs. Fortin was unable to surpass the two New England distance runners at the last minute, and finished in eighth place, giving the team a respectable time of 10:12.34.
"The competition was so strong that they were running so fast in the initial stages that they were losing ground at the end because they were starting to run out of gas," Putnam said. "It was such a voracious competition, it didn't matter what the splits were. It mattered that you were competing."
All the teams competing in the DMR had seeded around 10:01, but Nebraska Wesleyan, who placed first, ran a 10:06.42, reflecting the difficulty of this race. New York University, the top seed entering the race, finished behind Tufts in 10th (10:31.92).
Matt Fortin commented on the intensity of the race and Tufts' 15th-place finish.
"Coming in, we thought that if everything went perfectly, we could finish in the top 10, maybe even top five," he said. "But I think a lot of the guys really stepped it up and overall, we're very pleased with how we did."
"We had a great time," Jones said. "We all become All-Americans and it was a very positive trip. I got to know my teammates and coaches more, it was fun. It was a fun trip outside of track as well as on the track."
