Athletes are timed, measured, pre-ranked and seeded, but track and field is far from predictable from year to year.
The Jumbos learned this the hard way, finishing second in a field of 25 as perennial champion Williams College won the 2006 Div. III New England Championship. Tufts' 131 points fell short of Williams' 153, but in most other years would have been more than enough for a victory, far surpassing the Ephs 123-point victory in the 2005 championship.
"Going into the meet, we set a goal to achieve between 135-145 points," coach Ethan Barron said. "We knew that this would be a reasonable amount to win the meet. But you never know quite how the rest of the region will step up, and how that will affect the point distribution. We still scored 25 more points than any Tufts team in history."
The statistics suggest a two-sided battle for the top spot between Tufts and Williams. Williams fielded five All-Americans, the eighth-ranked miler in the country, junior Mike Davitian and the seventh-ranked 800 meter runner, junior Tyler Gray. In addition, Williams is ranked second nationally in the Distance Medley Relay (DMR) and third in the 4x400 meter relay.
Tufts presented an equally strong team, with five All-Americans of its own - seniors Matt Fortin, tri-captain Trevor Williams and Patrick Mahoney, and juniors Josh Kennedy and Fred Jones. Fortin is ranked fourth nationally in the mile, followed by classmate Matt Lacey, who is 19th. Sophomore Jeremy Arak is the nation's eighth-ranked high jumper. Lacey, Kennedy, and sophomore Chris Kantos are all ranked in the 5,000 meters.
"Williams is always very strong," Barron said. "They have a talented senior class. The other teams had a bit of a down year, and that, coupled with Williams' own talent, contributed to their victory."
The Jumbos started strong on Friday with sophomore Nathan Scott's second-place finish in the pentathlon. His performance earned a school-record 3415 points, breaking Pat Dinino's 1993 record of 3,395. Scott finished ahead of Williams sophomore Joe Song, but fell to senior Chris Orr of Trinity (3,451 points).
The Jumbos were out in front when the Saturday portion of the meet began, but Williams quickly took the lead, as was expected by Barron. Senior tri-captain Jason Galvin earned one point with an eighth-place finish in the weight throw, and senior pole-vaulters Rob Lorie and Tim Bassell finished seventh and eighth, respectively.
Galvin commented on the Jumbos' mentality heading into Saturday's competition.
"We had good performances in the pent[athlon]," Galvin said. "And we had a lot of guys down on Friday supporting the athletes. The team support definitely set the stage for Saturday."
Jones came through much as he has all season, landing a first-place 6.99 m long jump that added a crucial 10 points for the Jumbos and provisionally qualified him for Nationals.
Despite these strong early performances, the Jumbos suffered in the next portion of the meet. Fortin, the top mile qualifier for New Englands, took second place with a time of 4:16.19. Despite improving to second place after running in fourth for the majority of the race, Fortin was unable to catch Davitian, who took first in 4:15.26.
The Jumbos also failed to score in the 55 and 200 meter dashes, and earned a disappointing one point from junior Jamil Ludd, who finished eighth in the 55 meter hurdles, running .09 seconds behind is preliminary time in the finals.
"In every meet, some athletes succeed and some stumble," Barron said. "But we really minimized the damage from the athletes that stumbled."
That minimizing began when Trevor Williams took second place in the 600 with a time of 1:22.90. Junior Nate Cleveland, stuck in the slow heat of the 800, won his heat to finish fifth overall and earn four points for the Jumbos.
Mahoney gave the team its second consecutive 1000 meter crown, finishing in 2:31.25. He was running comfortably in fourth place until he spotted Williams junior Bill Ference take the lead going into the final lap. Mahoney then pulled in front of Ference early in the last 200 meters and managed to hold onto the lead. He sprinted a 28-second final lap to finish 0.28 seconds ahead of Ference.
Fortin, following his grueling one-mile race, persevered to a fourth-place finish in the 1000, collapsing onto the ground after reaching the finish line.
At this point, with just three individual events - the 3k, the 5k and the triple jump - remaining, Tufts trailed the Ephs with limited opportunities to make up the difference.
Lacey led the Jumbo charge, taking second in the 3k in 8:40.27. In the 5k, Kennedy and Kantos provided a huge 18 points, taking first and second, respectively. Jones and sophomore Dan Marcy were also a one-two punch in the triple jump. Jones leapt to the Div. III New England triple jump title for the third year in a row and was accompanied by runner-up Marcy, who landed a season-best mark of 14.27 meters.
Tufts' dominance in these events gave the Jumbos a 36-9 swing over Williams going into the relays, and closed the point gap with the Ephs, setting the stage for a showdown in the final races.
However, the Jumbos' championship aspirations crumbled in the relays. After finishing fourth to Williams' first in the 4x400, the Tufts DMR team was disqualified because of a uniform technicality. Its fifth-place finish would have scored four points, but junior Dave McCleary's uniform did not match those of his teammates and the team forfeited the points. While not enough to make up the gap, the error was the final disappointment of the day for the Jumbos.
