On Friday night, senior Fred Jones was honored in front of his teammates, his peers, his coaches and the entire Tufts athletics community for an out-of-sight r?©sum?© from the 2005-2006 year.
Chief among then was the highest honor an athlete can attain: a national championship.
At Nationals at Benedictine University this past May, Jones, then a junior, took first place in the triple jump with a leap of 49'7". The jump earned him his sixth All-American award and made him just the fourth Tufts track and field athlete to bring him a national title since the NCAA started Division III in 1973.
His achievement also landed him the Clarence "Pop" Houston Award as the school's best male athlete, awarded annually by the Athletics Department.
"It's truly an honor because I know that anybody could have won," Jones said. "It's just a blessing for me to go out there and compete at such a high level."
Jones broke his own school record with his third jump, which would hold up through the second round to give him the title.
"I could feel just having everything working for me," Jones said of the jump.
Jones's coach, Ethan Barron, was not surprised to see Jones achieve such an honor.
"Fred is a big-meet jumper," Barron said. "There's no other way around it. When the team needs him and the competition demands it, he's going to step it up and bring another level of competitiveness."
Jones is no stranger to the big stage, as this past trip was Jones' sixth to Nationals. He feels experience may have been the difference for him out at Benedictine.
"I have been very close to victory," Jones said. "I've tasted it, and I really wanted it and I think that was the only difference for me because we're all comparable in skill level. I really think eight people could have won it but I think my determination is what brought me that title."
"He's had the experience," Barron said. "He's gone through his trials and his successes and his failures at the national meet, so when he gets there he knows it is just another meet. When he gets there and steps on the runway, he knows there's nobody better than him.
"Sometimes it is that barrier-seeing it as just a track meet-that is the difference maker for many athletes between coming up short and doing well at the national level," Barron continued.
Jones saved his championship effort for a deserving meet, as he did not win a meet during the entire outdoor season. Teammate Dan Marcy mentioned that Jones' confidence was a little shaken early in the five-week championship season leading up to Nationals.
"He told me he thought his season was shot, and he didn't have anything in his legs," Marcy said. "It just came back to him as he moved on to the championship meets."
Jones will now have the blessing and the burden of defending his national title as he approaches this season. He believes that having other people targeting him will not be much trouble for him as he competes this season because he refuses to be complacent.
"I don't necessarily see it as mine," Jones said of the title. "I see it as somebody else's, and I have to take it. If I become complacent and believe that it's mine, I lose my edge and lose the chip on my shoulder."
Having missed out on national titles in the past two years by mere centimeters, Jones understands the long road ahead of him to repeat as a title winner.
"I don't think I'll be disappointed if I don't get a national championship [this year], as long as I know I tried my best," Jones said. "Right now, I see that I have a chance to repeat. My goal is always to win and be the best and I'm not going to put it past myself that I won't do it. Like anything else, you've got to risk losing it to win. It's hard to repeat, so that's the reason why I should work harder than everybody else."
Barron is happy to see that Jones succeeded not only because of the implications for the track program, but also for all of Tufts.
"He is the athlete who has put in the time and the effort not only for himself but also for the team and the University as a whole," Barron said. "He's definitely a great figurehead for Tufts."
