Following one of the more dominant performances of the season at the annual BU Invitational, the men's track and field team continued its march towards the postseason with a slew of impressive performances this past weekend at both the Tufts Invitational and the MIT Invitational.
Since both competitions were non-scoring meets, coach Ethan Barron used the weekend as an opportunity to fine-tune his squad for next weekend's All-New England Championships, while also giving some key competitors the weekend off.
Splitting the team into two groups, Barron sent the jumpers to MIT while the rest stayed home to participate in the Tufts Invitational, held in the Gantcher Center.
Senior quad-captain and distance runner Dave Sorensen said he was pleased with the way the Jumbos performed Saturday.
"It was a good meet," he said. "We sent all of our jumpers to MIT, but we still had some success at Gantcher. The biggest thing was since it was the last meet, we had to get a few more qualifiers. So it was good to qualify more people, which well help us at Nationals."
Senior quad-captain and jumper Jeremy Arak, shared similar sentiments about the team's performance at MIT.
"It was all our high, long and triple jumpers who competed," Arak said. "We had a pretty solid day. We didn't have any spectacular finishes or stand-outs, but [sophomore] Isaiah Paramore qualified for Nationals and that was really nice."
At the Tufts Invite, the Jumbos boasted several impressive performances, even though several varsity competitors, including sophomore distance runner Nick Welch, took the weekend off. Against stiff competition like Div. I Boston College and fellow NESCAC rival Williams, the Jumbos once again saw impressive performances from all corners of the team.
The lone Jumbo first-place finish came from freshman Sam Read, who won the pole vault with a height of 4.19 meters. Along with Sorensen, who placed fifth in the mile with a time of 4:16.84, Tufts also enjoyed contributions from sophomores Trevor Donadt and Jared Engelking who finished second and third in the 55-meter hurdles with times of 7.87 and 7.90, respectively.
"It was a pretty competitive meet," Sorensen said. "We ran almost everyone. Some people who are injured and sick didn't run like [freshman] Greg Pallotta and [senior] Chris Kantos. We wanted to get some fast times and use the race as a tune up."
Sorensen also pointed out the importance of racing against conference rivals such as Bates and Williams.
"We'll be seeing a lot of NESCAC schools this week," Sorensen said. "It's a preview of some of the competition we are going to be getting next week. It was good to see where their teams were at."
On top of his second place in the hurdles, Donadt further contributed in the triple jump event, finishing fourth with a distance of 12.63 meters.
At MIT, the Jumbos were led by Arak, who finished second (1.91 meters) in the high jump, and fellow senior-quad captain Dan Marcy, who captured second place for Tufts in the triple jump with a distance of 14.18m.
Despite his second-place effort, Arak said he was not wholly pleased with his own performance.
"I was disappointed with how I jumped," he said. "I was coming off of a good performance at BU. I just couldn't put a good jump together this weekend. Hopefully that will come together for me this week."
With the beginning of the championship season less than a week away, the Jumbos will now have to hope that all their preparation and effort will translate into an impressive performance at New England Div. III Championships, hosted at the Gantcher center this weekend.
"The whole team feels very confident," Arak said. "We are all very fired up. Especially having the meet at home makes a big difference; having a home crowd will be really nice. We'll just come out here and work our tails off and try to come out on top."
The Jumbos have now done all they can to prepare for the championship portion of the season, and they are hoping the home track will provide an extra impetus to compete.
"It has a big effect," Sorensen said. "It's our track and we want to defend it. MIT and Williams are really strong so the three of us are the three powerhouses. It's a tough challenge but it's an advantage because we want to compete well. It gives us the extra the motivation to do well."
