Senior Nate Brigham and junior Matt Lacey used perfect distance running conditions Friday night to shatter Tufts records and qualify for NCAA National Championships (Nationals). Sophomore Fred Jones beat his competitors by a full meter en route to his qualifying triple jump mark.
For the first time in five years, Tufts hosted an outdoor track meet this weekend. A three-day long event, the meet started with decathlon events on Thursday, distance events on Friday, and every event shorter than the 3,000 meter Steeplechase on Saturday. Tufts had 44 times or marks qualify for the NESCAC Championship meet, as well as several others that qualified for the New England Div. III Championships (New England's), the ECAC Championship meet, and Nationals. All seven of Tufts' 5K runners ran personal records on Friday night.
Brigham won the 5K race, finishing in a time of 14:31.39. Lacey took second with a time of 14:34.04. Both Brigham and Lacey's times provisionally qualified for Nationals, but their times need to hold up as a top 10 time in the country. Currently the times are the fastest in the nation, as well as personal records for the two runners.
"[The time was] not something we planned on," Brigham said. "Both [Lacey] and I didn't think we could run that fast."
On Friday night, the 5K runners were greeted by "perfect conditions," according to Brigham. Runners from UMass Lowell and Keene State formed a pace group with Brigham and Lacey, but the Tufts runners soon emerged from the pack to beat the rest of the field. Brigham obliterated the previous Tufts record for the outdoor 5K race by nearly 20 seconds.
Lacey improved his own personal best in the 5,000m by almost nine seconds and likely solidified a spot for himself at Nationals. During the indoor season, Lacey was fifteenth in the 5,000m on a qualifying list where the top 12 runners made Nationals. He will join Brigham in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to compete for his first time at the historic Penn Relays on Apr. 28, where he is likely to improve on his time in the competitive field expected.
Junior Matt Fortin (fifth) and senior Michael Don (eighth) also ran well in the 5K, finishing fast enough to qualify for New Englands with times of 15:00.20 and 15:15.05, respectively.
In Saturday's events, Jones and junior Jason Galvin both made a splash in the Tufts record books and in the track and field community. Jones qualified for Nationals in both the long jump and the triple jump. Jones jumped 7.15 meters in the long jump, .78 meters ahead of the second-place finisher. Jones' long jump mark was the second-best mark during coach Connie Putnam's 21-year career at Tufts. The school record in the long jump was set by Jeff Soderquist in 1996 (7.35).
In the triple jump, Jones finished on top of a leader board crowded with Tufts athletes. Jones took first with a mark of 13.97, more than a meter ahead of freshmen Dan Marcy (second place in a time of 12.96) and Kenny Kang (third place in a time of 12.71).
In the hammer event, Galvin finished a little more than a half meter short of the provisional qualifying mark of 51 meters for Nationals, throwing 50.48 meters. Galvin qualified for New Englands with his mark.
Freshman Nate Scott also did well in his decathlon event, placing third in his first collegiate decathlon. Scott won all of the running events, and hopes to improve on his pole vault by the time he competes in the New England Decathlon in a few weeks.
The 4x100 meter relay team finished in last place but dropped the baton on their run. According to assistant coach Ethan Barron, it was still impressive that the team finished sub-48 seconds despite the drop.
Now the team turns its attention towards the next two qualifying meets at UMass Lowell and Dartmouth. After the next two meets the championship meet season begins, when the meets will be scored by overall team performance. The athletes who qualified for the higher-level championship meets this week will still compete in their best events but, according to Barron, will also "mix it up a little."
"The more you do it, the better you get at it," Barron said.
