The Jumbos fielded a slimmed-down squad at this weekend's All New England Championships.
Only 16 Jumbos competed in the weekend's events, which brought the best of New England in all three Divisions to Boston University. Tufts earned an 11th-place finish with 21 points, falling 10 points short of seventh-place finisher and perennial rival Williams, the 2006 Div. III New England Champions.
Div. I University of Connecticut ran away with the meet, earning 161.50 points, 70.5 points ahead of runner-up Southern Connecticut State.
Last weekend at the Div. III New England's, the Jumbos were focused on a team-oriented attack, but this weekend the team had specific goals in mind.
"We were trying to qualify as many as we could for Nationals," senior Patrick Mahoney said. "The Div. III New England meet is our team meet, where we try to score as many points as possible. This was more focused on qualifying individual runners and four-man relay teams."
Freshman Will Forde represented Tufts in the 200 meters, facing off against strong Div. I and Div. III competition, including Williams freshman Devidas Seferis and Bates senior Joel Colony, both of whom bested Forde in the Feb. 18 Div. III New England Championship. Though Forde finished 28th out of 31, his time (22.99 seconds) improved upon his New England Championship mark by 0.32 seconds.
In the 400 meters, senior tri-captain and All-American Trevor Williams claimed 20th in a field of 30. He finished in 49.59 seconds, narrowly missing the provisional National qualification mark of 49.20.
Tufts was represented by two other Tufts All-Americans this weekend as Mahoney and senior Matt Fortin took the track. Fortin clocked in at 4:20.60 in the mile run for 19th place, while Williams junior Mike Davitian took third place. Both are currently provisionally qualified for Nationals in the mile, with the fifth- and seventh-fastest mile times amongst Div. III runners, respectively. The rivals took the top two spots in the Div. III New England Championship.
Mahoney fared well in the 800, qualifying for the finals in seventh with a time of 1:54.93 during his preliminary heat. He held on to seventh place during the final, dropping his time to 1:54.02. Juniors Daniel Sullivan and Nate Cleveland finished 18th and 24th, respectively, in a field of 32.
This weekend's meet was a good indication of the high-caliber competition the Tufts middle distance runners will face in the upcoming NCAA National Championship. Williams junior Tyler Gray, who out-sprinted Tufts' Trevor Williams for the 600 meter crown at New Englands, came in third this past weekend in a good time (1:52.79) enough for automatic qualification for Nationals.
Mahoney noted that the Nationals bids of many provisionally qualified Tufts athletes are far from secure.
"At this point, only [Matt] Lacey in the 5k, [junior Fred] Jones in the jumps, [sophomore Dan] Marcy in the triple, and [Matt] Fortin in the mile are in a comfortable position for qualification," Mahoney said. "All the other provisionally qualified guys probably won't go because they are too low on the list."
The familiar long distance trio of senior tri-captain Matt Lacey, junior All-American Josh Kennedy and sophomore Chris Kantos took to the track for the 5000. Kennedy finished sixth, followed by Kantos in ninth and Lacey in 17th. All three are currently provisionally qualified for Nationals. However, only the top 10 times on the qualification list are given bids to the competition. Currently, Lacey holds the 10th fastest 5000 time, barely making the cut, while Kennedy and Kantos are ranked 16th and 18th respectively.
The Jumbo relay teams had a mixed day. The 4x400 meter team finished seventh and provisionally qualified for Nationals, but the Distance Medley Relay (DMR) squad was not at full-strength and finished in 10:35.18.
"The only member of this weekend's team who's a part of the team that we're going to try to qualify for Nationals was [senior] Kyle [Doran], to try and give him experience running the leadoff leg," Mahoney said. "The DMR will try to hit a Nationals qualifying time this coming weekend [at the ECAC Championships]."
Junior All-American Fred Jones was a bright spot this weekend, placing second in the long jump with a National provisional qualification distance of 7.09 meters, surpassing his previous qualification mark of 6.99 meters set during the Div. III New England Championship.
Jones, who holds the third-longest triple jump in the country this season (14.45 meters), finished fourth in that event with a jump of 14.31 meters. Sophomore Dan Marcy, ranked sixth in the country, came in eighth.
NCAA-bound Jones will shift his practice regimen to be in peak condition for Nationals.
"I'll definitely switch my training," Jones said. "This is probably the last week I will be training hard. The following weeks I will be resting in order to peak at the right time. That's why you see a lot of jumpers with better distances as the season comes to an end. They rest up, and then they can bust out a good jump."
