Three races into its indoor season, the men's track and field team captured its first top-place finish of the season, leading the pack of 12 teams at the annual Tufts Invitational this past Saturday in the Gantcher Center.
The Jumbos excelled on their home turf, amassing 201 points, well ahead of the 140 points logged by second place finishers UMass Lowell. The victory was buttressed by six first-place efforts in an array of events, coupled with a flurry of second-place finishes.
"It was a solid meet," sophomore Nick Welch said. "We had a lot of guys qualify for New England [Div. III Championships] as well as one national provisional mark. For our first real meet, it was definitely a good showing."
The Jumbos boasted several impressive performances throughout the meet, with the high jump and 3,000-meter race proving to be areas where they displayed exceptional dominance.
Junior James Bradley stole the show in the high jump, finishing in first place with a height of 2.01 meters, which qualified him for the NCAA Championships in March. Freshman Frank DeSalvo and senior quad-captain Jeremy Arak finished in a tie for second place, with both jumping heights of 1.91 meters.
The Jumbos also saw a number of impressive performances in the 3,000-meter race, with four Tufts competitors finishing in point-achieving positions. Sophomore Jesse Faller led the way, finishing first overall (8:36.13), followed by senior quad-captain Dave Sorensen (8:38.51) in second. Senior Chris Kantos (8:48.75) and Welch (8:54.84) also earned points for the team, finishing 6th and 7th, respectively.
Sorensen said he was extremely proud of the way his team performed, highlighted by the obvious success in both the high jump and 3,000-meter events.
"I think definitely the high of the day was James Bradley's jump," he said. "We have traditionally been very strong in high jump, so I think that's going to be the first of many. We have some other jumpers that can go to Nationals as well. The 3k also went really well. It's always good to have four runners run under nine minutes this early in the season. Personally, for me and Jesse, we ran faster than expected. It was a good feeling to know we are in this good shape this early in the season."
Other top performances included senior Dan Marcy winning the triple jump (13.61 meters), senior Joe Brown winning the men's weight throw with a distance of 15.58 meters, and both the 4x400 and 4x800 relay teams checking in at first place with times of 3:29.96 and 8:25.46, respectively. In all, the Jumbos placed second or better in 11 of the 20 events.
While the meet victory was considered a confidence booster for the team as a whole, many Jumbo competitors downplayed the importance of the event, emphasizing that the races that matter most are still to come, in late February and early March.
"It's nice to win at home," Welch said. "However, in all honesty, it means very little. So much of it is based on who decides to come and what athletes decide to go out there and compete. It's good in the sense that we had some good performances across the board, but anyone on the team would tell you the ones we care about are later in the season and those will be highly contested."
With about a month left until the perennially important New England Div. III Championships, the Jumbos hope to keep improving, starting next weekend with a visit to Boston University for the annual BU Terrier Invitational. The event will provide some strong Div. I and II competition for the Jumbos.
Sorensen, like many of his teammates, believes that the key to the Jumbos' success this season will be to build toward their maximum potential, while ensuring that they peak at just the right time.
"We definitely want to peak towards the end," Sorensen said. "We are in fairly good shape now. We came back early from break, so we definitely had a few weeks to get in shape and prepare."
