One year later, same results. The men's track and field squad had a case of d?©j? vu this weekend, taking the top spot for the second year in a row at the Tufts Invitational II.
The team finished with 146.5 points, edging fellow NESCAC competitor Bates by four points. Other NESCAC squads in the 14-team field included Trinity, Wesleyan, Colby, and Amherst.
"This weekend was a solid performance," head coach Ethan Barron said. "There were no national-caliber performances, but we have athletes in all different events who are establishing new personal bests."
Junior Fred Jones led the way with a pair of excellent performances in the long and triple jumps. Jones finished first in the long jump, out-distancing the second place finisher by almost half a meter with a jump of 6.86 meters. He continued his dominance in the triple jump, leaping 14.04 meters, exceeding Bates sophomore Emmanuel Drabo's second-place jump by almost a full meter. Jones, a triple jump All-American during his freshman year and a long jump All-American last season, has already provisionally qualified in the triple jump for Nationals.
The Jumbos were successful in other field events, with senior tri-captain Jason Galvin finishing third in shot put with a throw of 13.70 meters.
On the track, the weekend brought several outstanding sprints, notably junior Dustin Virgilio's first-place finish in the 400 meter dash in a time of 52.44 seconds.
The Jumbos also faired well in the 55 hurdles. In preliminary heats, junior Jamil Ludd qualified for the finals in second place, finishing in 8.21 seconds, while junior David McCleary qualified in fourth before going on to finish third in the final with a sprint of 8.30 seconds, besting his qualifying time by 0.08 seconds.
Ludd, however, was unable to compete in finals. "In track and field, there is a rule called the 'honest effort rule'." Barron explained. "If an athlete is entered in an event, they must compete in the event or they are ineligible to continue in the competition. Jamil missed one of his other events and therefore couldn't run in the 55m finals."
The distance runners, traditionally the stronger side of Tufts' track squad, did not disappoint, dominating in the mile run this past weekend.
Senior tri-captain Matt Lacey won in a time of 4:21.37. Senior Matt Fortin, close on Lacey's heels, finished in second in a time of 4:22.80. Three other Tufts' runners finished in the top seven in the event, with senior Kyle Doran, classmate Pat Mahoney, and junior Joshua Kennedy finishing fourth, sixth and seventh, respectively.
The strong individual performances of the athletes carried over into success in the relay events. Tufts finished third in the 4x400 relay and second in the distance medley.
Although the team's distance runners are more experienced than the sprinters, Barron points out that there is room for improvement on all sides.
"It doesn't really matter which aspect is traditionally stronger," Barron said. "I don't expect to see greater or lesser improvement just because one side is more experienced. We want to see consistent improvement all across the board."
Given the consistently strong showings of the track and field team thus far, including the provisional qualification for Nationals by Jones and high jumper sophomore Jeremy Arak, Barron is optimistic about this season's prospects.
"There are no particular problem areas," Barron said. "We want to qualify as many for Nationals as we can. We're going to be creative with our lineup and see what we can produce."
