On a Patriot's Day weekend that featured Tufts students struggling against asphalt on the streets of Boston, the men's track and field team had its own struggle on Saturday at the George Davis Invitational at UMass-Lowell. This was the second-to-last qualifying meet for the team.
Coach Connie Putnam was pleased with how his team performed.
"It was a good, solid, developmental meet," he said. "Everyone seemed to make decent progress."
In the 3000 meter steeplechase, sophomore Josh Kennedy ran well, securing a qualifying time for the Div. III New England championship meet in a time of 9:32.54. The mark was a nine-second improvement from last week. If Kennedy can continue to improve, he will be on track to provisionally qualifying for Nationals.
In the 400 meter dash, senior Ray Carre ran a time of 50.54 seconds, a New England Championships qualifying time. Putnam called the time "very impressive."
During the 110 meter hurdles race, sophomore Jamil Ludd ran a solid time of 15.57, despite interference from the runner in the next lane.
Ludd was running side by side with a tall runner in the next lane, and at each hurdle the other runner would flank his arm out wide and tap Ludd in the air.
"It threw off my steps. I felt like I ran a worse race than I actually did," Ludd said. He added that running such a solid time despite the interference says a lot about his conditioning.
Ludd's next goal is to qualify for the National meet.
"I'm feeling great about next week," he said. "One of these weeks, we're all going to break out. Every time I'm on the track, I say to myself 'Just get faster.'"
In the throwing events, Tufts had some solid efforts to propel some athletes into championship meets. In the javelin throw event, sophomore Ryan Byrne qualified for the Div. III New England championship meet with a mark of 166 feet, nine inches. Byrne also had a good day at the shot put event, qualifying for New Englands with a 44 feet, 10.5 inches mark.
In the jump events, sophomore Fred Jones continued his dominance, placing first in both the triple and long jump, besting his jumps from the previous week in both instances. Jones has now provisionally qualified for Nationals in both events.
In the 4 x 100 meter relays, the lead Tufts team ran together for the first time, and finished well despite a botched relay of the baton. The squad finished in fifth place even though it was Carre's first time competing in the event due to an injury to freshman Marcus Boggis.
"If we start getting exchanges, things should come together nicely," Putnam said. Ludd said that next week the team should return to the normal relay squad, including Boggis. The past two weeks, Tufts has had issues with the handoff of the baton in both races.
This week Tufts shifts its focus to its upcoming meet at the Dartmouth Invitational, where the Jumbos will make a last attempt to secure NESCAC qualifying times before moving on to the NESCAC championship meet in Springfield, Mass. This week the coaching staff will sit down and figure out where to place their athletes to maximize the qualifying potential for the upcoming meet.
At the NESCAC meet in two weeks, Putnam expects his athletes to come out hard and strong, due to the added stakes.
"You're adding the element of emotion to good conditioning," he said.
With one more qualifying meet left before the championship leg of the season begins, Putnam is happy with the progress of his team. "Things are going very well right now," he said.
