It was a painful weekend for the men's track and field team at the NESCAC championship meet, but despite broken arms, bruised knees, and mono-like symptoms, the team finished second in the event. The team finished 9.5 points ahead of third-place Middlebury, and 53 points behind first-place Williams, which won both the men's and women's championships.
"It was four teams going full tilt at the meet," assistant coach Ethan Barron said. "Best NESCAC meet I've been a part of on the coaching side."
The win came just days after record-setting performances by two runners at the Penn Relays. Junior Matt Lacey and senior Nate Brigham automatically qualified for the National championship meet with their runs on Thursday night at Penn Relays. Lacey ran a time of 14:19.37 seconds in the 5000 meters, shattering the school record in the event by 12 seconds. Brigham also broke a Tufts record in the 10,000, albeit a young one. After setting the school record three weeks ago at the Hillside Relays, Brigham beat his own mark Thursday, running a 30:14.09 second race. Brigham and Lacey will run at the National Championship meet in Iowa on May 26.
Both runners competed at NESCAC championships as well, and played a large role in Tufts' second place finish. Lacey, in addition to his automatic qualifying run on Thursday in the 5000, came back Saturday to provisionally qualify for Nationals in the 10,000 meter event, finishing in 31:12.94 to finish first in the race and earning Tufts 10 points.
Lacey also was a huge help to his teammate, senior Michael Don in the 10,000 meter event. Lacey ran so well that he nearly lapped the entire field, and eventually pulled up along side of Don, running in his first 10,000 meter race. When Lacey pulled up next to him, he slowed up to give his teammate some encouragement, maybe costing himself an automatic qualifying time for Nationals.
"I had two laps to go in the race, and I was coming up on Mike in a pack of fourth to sixth place," Lacey said. "I said, 'Come on, let's go, let's try to beat these guys.' It wasn't about time for me out there. I just wanted to win."
"Lacey just started screaming at him," assistant coach Ethan Barron said. "Lacey pulled Don along the track."
According to Barron, Lacey slowed down to boost Don from a probable sixth place finish to a time of 32:25.47, good enough for fourth place and five points, two more than Tufts would have gotten if Don finished in sixth.
Tufts overcame injuries to gut its way through several events. Sophomore Jamil Ludd came down with mono-like symptoms on Thursday, and was almost held out of competition by Health Services. But Ludd refused to watch from the sidelines, and finished third in the 110 meter hurdles with a time of 15.97 seconds.
In that same event, junior Matt Engler was running in the front of the pack when he approached the last hurdle. He didn't clear it, and fell to the track, bracing his fall with his arms, breaking them both.
Freshman Nate Scott also hit the second hurdle during the 110 meter hurdles, bruising his knee and preventing him from finishing in his preliminary heat. He refused to sit, however, and went on to place sixth in the high jump and triple jump events, racking up five points for Tufts' total. Scott also ran the third leg of the 4x400 meter relay, finishing with a season-best time.
Outside of the hurdles, junior Matt Fortin placed third in the Steeplechase 3000 meter event. Fortin was a wild-card entry in the event, and was seeded in the slow heat based on his previous times in the event this season, but blew his closest competition out by nearly 30 seconds. According to Barron, if Fortin had run in the fast heat, he might have won it.
"It's hard to run a race by yourself," Barron said. "It's easier to stay behind the pack and make your move."
Sophomore Josh Kennedy also placed in the event, finishing fourth. Both Fortin and Kennedy also placed in the 5000 meter event, which Barron called "an obscene double."
In the field events, sophomore Justin Henneman jumped fourth in the pole vault event and jumped 3.82 meters with a heavily taped ankle despite being on crutches for the last two weeks.
Sophomore David McCleary threw a personal record 50.41 meters in the javelin event, good enough for fifth place and a qualifying distance for the Division III New Englands meet. Junior Brandon Udelhofen also threw for a personal record in the discus, beating his previous record by nearly 10 feet and finishing third in the event.
Next weekend, some of Tufts' runners will travel to Springfield, MA for the Division III New England championships.
