Lace up your spikes and take your marks: tomorrow the men's track and field team kicks off its 2006-07 season.
The Jumbos bring a full squad to the Reggie Lewis Center at Northeastern University tomorrow for the annual Husky Winter Carnival meet, featuring over 20 colleges and universities.
The competition is a non-scoring meet, meaning that athletes will not earn points for events. But their times can qualify them for National events, offering Tufts an opportunity to gauge where they stand against the competition before getting into the thick of the season.
"Everyone is in great shape," said coach Ethan Barron, last year's NESCAC track and field coach of the year. "No one is near peak form, but many people are still in the best shape of their life. Everyone put in a lot of work this fall and is anxious to put it into effect this year at some meets."
The team's numbers have swelled this year, with over 20 freshmen joining the ranks.
"The underclassmen need to adjust to collegiate track and field and give us everything they can," Barron said. "There is an amazing amount of talent in the class of 2010. What they choose to do with that talent is up to them."
Traditionally weaker in the sprints, the Jumbos made a concerted effort to bring the quality of sprinting up the level of distance running last season and plan to build on that foundation in the coming season.
"We have a lot of strength and youth in every event group," Barron said. "Last year we were the only team to have an athlete qualified in every event on the track [in New England]. We still have that same depth and versatility. The key is going to be clawing our way up the ladder a few more notches to grab a few more points in the big meets."
Injury issues are inevitable, and they have already troubled the Jumbos early on, with an ACL injury possibly leaving junior sprinter Nate Scott on the sidelines for the remainder of the indoor season. However, the ability to bounce back from injury will prove crucial.
"With a team this size, there are always some injury concerns," Barron said. "The key is to develop a program that can absorb most injuries without making a noticeable dip in competitiveness. Every team in the nation will deal with the injury bug at some point in their season; we'll do our best to avoid that this year."
The long distance side of the equation will have to overcome the loss of former national championship contenders Matt Fortin, ranked seventh nationally in the mile, and Matt Lacey, ranked 12th in the 5,000. The team will look to senior cross country All-American Josh Kennedy, seeded 18th nationally in the 5,000 at the end of the 2006 season, to carry the torch this year, along with junior Chris Kantos, who is returning from abroad at the end of this semester.
The majority of the cross country runners transfer to indoor track, and while the cross country team's fifth-place finish at New Englands and lack of a Nationals appearance was a step down from last year's first place finish, the season gave the distance team an opportunity to improve upon its depth as a squad.
"We had a great cross country season this fall given the situation," Barron said. "There are many New England cross country teams that only ran five-deep. We have talent that goes far deeper than our fifth man. When you move a cross country team to the track, you need more than five runners to succeed. I like the combination of youth and experience that our distance squad brings to the track."
For middle distance, senior tri-captain Nate Cleveland will have to step into void left by the graduation of Pat Mahoney. Although sprinting has not traditionally served as the Jumbos' strong suit, the majority of last season's sprint core returns more experienced and a bit faster. Seniors Mickey Ferri and Dustin Virgilio, Scott, assuming he is healthy, and sophomore Will Forde look to carry this year's sprint squad.
"Sprinters are looking very good," senior tri-captain Dave McCleary said. "We have a lot of quick freshmen and a lot of guys who are returning who are looking fast."
McCleary sees sprints as having the most room for improvement.
"In recent years we haven't really scored too many points in the New England meet in the 55 or the 200," McCleary said. "If we can get some points in the sprints, that'll take some points away from other strong competitors like Williams."
Although Tufts will have entirely new relay combinations this year, as the majority of members of the relays graduated, the lineup is far from concrete.
"I haven't concerned myself with thinking about potential relay spots yet," Barron said. "We have many talented potential legs this year. Everything will come together later in the season."
Jumping events will be some of the strongest for the Jumbos, thanks to the return of a three-time indoor track All-American, senior tri-captain Fred Jones, last season's outdoor track and field national champion in the triple jump.
Jones's fellow outdoor track and field All-American, junior Dan Marcy, a 2006 indoor Nationals competitor in the triple jump, only adds to Tufts' strength in the horizontal jumps. Junior Jeremy Arak, who finished 14th in the high jump at last year's Nationals, also returns.
While the jumpers receive the most accolades on the team, there is room for improvement on all fronts.
"Every event group needs to work as hard as everyone else," Barron. "Fred Jones may be a national champion, but he doesn't use that as an excuse to work less than the rest of the team. Everyone has an equal responsibility to improve."
