With the sun shining brightly upon Medford, the men's varsity track and field team was able to kick its 2007 outdoor season off with ease, as the Jumbos competed in the annual Snowflake Classic, held right here at Tufts.
The meet provided an opportunity for the Jumbos to get themselves back into competition mode, without necessarily having to worry about winning the meet itself, as overall team scores are not calculated.
The meet also provided a great opportunity for Tufts to compete against some extremely stiff competition, including NESCAC rival Bates, in addition to Div. I schools like BU, Dartmouth and Northeastern. Senior tri-captain Dave McCleary was satisfied with his team's performance but believes there is still room for improvement.
"Overall, I think it went pretty well," McCleary said. "There were no groundshaking performances, but we had a lot of displays that were very solid. It's basically what we expected."
Coach Ethan Barron was also fairly happy with the way his team opened up the spring season, as well as with the competition the other schools provided.
"It was a solid afternoon," Barron said. "Competition is competition. There were some solid D3 athletes at the meet as well, but having Dartmouth, BU, and NU fill out the fields definitely made the meet more competitive."
While the Jumbos' solid performances came from across the board, the especially strong ones came from a select group of freshmen, who were making their Tufts outdoor debuts. The 1500-meter run proved to be a bright spot for the Jumbos, as they had six runners in the top 20, including freshmen Nick Welch (4:10.75), Billy Hale (4:10.83), and Jesse Faller (4:13.38), who finished ninth, 10th and 13th respectively. Senior tri-captain Nate Cleveland (4:18.12) and senior Justin Chung (4:18.49) rounded out the Jumbos' top six, placing 17th and 18th.
"The freshmen really did great," McCleary said. "They continue to impress us and overall, I'm very impressed with the how they did in their first outdoor meet. From warm-ups to the race themselves, they seem to have no problems."
Other notable events included the 400-meter hurdles, where another freshman, Andrew Longley, finished fourth overall with a time of 56.53. The only first-place finish for the Jumbos came from junior Dave Sorensen, who won the 3000-meter steeplechase, while the javelin throw provided reason for excitement as the Jumbos had two competitors finish in the top three, with junior Derek Engelking and senior tri-captain Dave McCleary finishing second and third respectively.
Barron was happy with his team's performance in the 1500-meter race and the javelin, among other events.
"We had good balance and solid performances across the board," Barron said. "The javelin and 1500 were just two of those events. It was nice to see Faller back in uniform - he is a very talented runner that we missed for the indoor season."
However, the Jumbos experienced a few problems throughout the day, the most notable being freshman Ikenna Acholonu's performance in the 110-meter hurdles final. Acholonu won his preliminary race; however, he finished last place in the finals after bumping into another competitor and falling to the ground.
"Ikenna fell, which obviously hurt his time a lot," McCleary said. "But his preliminary time was awesome, and honestly, our three hurdlers are very strong and should be competing at NESCACs later on in the season."
The Jumbos will now look ahead to a somewhat condensed outdoor season, with the Coast Guard Invitational being their next competition. While the Jumbos impressed in their debut, both McCleary and Barron feel there is a lot of room for improvement.
"We are going at full strength every meet," McCleary said. "But Coach is doing a good job of not pushing us too hard or putting us in too many events. This way, we can round out to our top form right around the end of the season."
"This team is nowhere near its complete potential," Barron added. "It's so early in the season, I wouldn't want us firing on all cylinders yet."
While the Jumbos still have a way to go before they reach the climax of their season, they hope that their intense training along with cool spring weather well help make their outdoor season more enjoyable.
"Usually, it's rainy around this time of year," McCleary said. "But with this weather, everyone gets really excited. It makes our morale very high, and as a result, we are more excited for our events."
