A region that has been dominated by Williams and MIT for the last 16 years made way for the Tufts men's track and field team this weekend.
The Jumbos broke through in a big way, taking the New England Div. III title for the first time since 1991 at their home Gantcher Center. Tufts tallied 118 points, trumping Williams' 106 and MIT's 101.
"It was an amazing feeling to finally win," senior quad-captain Dave Sorensen said. "It's been a long time coming. We've been second to Williams all my years up to this point, except when we tied last year. It's exciting to win outright and show we're champions."
Having the meet at home proved to be a key advantage for the Jumbos, who had fans and teammates supporting them throughout the day.
"The energy that the team brought, and even the fans or people who don't run or didn't make New Englands, that definitely made a huge difference," senior quad-captain Nate Scott said.
"It was home my freshman year and Williams won," Sorensen added. "It wasn't a fun experience, so as a senior class, we didn't want that to happen again and we knew what we needed to do."
To win, the Jumbos needed a number of exceptional performances, but nobody stood out more than Scott. Taking part in one of the first events, the pentathlon, on Friday, Scott set the tone for the Jumbos for the entire meet. Not only did he win his second straight New England Div. III pentathlon, but he also broke school, facility and meet records in the process.
Scott's score of 3,583 points surpassed the old Gantcher mark of 3,503, set by Robert Ames of St. Lawrence in 2003, as well as the old New England Championships mark of 3,572, recorded by Craig Mielcarz of MIT in 2001. Scott also improved upon his own Tufts record of 3,415 points, which he scored in 2006.
"When you have guys getting PRs all around you, you have to up your game in all respects," Scott said. "Everyone had amazing days, and I think I just carried off of them. But to set those records, it's pretty cool."
The Jumbos had other notable performances in the pentathlon, as senior Derek Engelking, overcoming an injury that has plagued him all season, finished third with a score of 3,376 points. Sophomore Trevor Donadt also scored for the Jumbos, taking fifth place with 3,353 points.
On Saturday, the Jumbos continued their success, winning three more events. Junior James Bradley won the high jump with a personal record of six feet, 7.5 inches, while sophomore Jesse Faller took the 3,000-meter run in a time of 8:39.50.
The final win for Tufts came in the distance medley relay. The Jumbos' four man team - composed of Sorensen, sophomore Billy Hale and freshmen Greg Pallotta and Jeremy Peterson - finished in a time of 10:23.32, just four tenths of a second ahead of Williams' foursome.
"Going into the mile, I didn't think I had a chance at winning," Sorensen said. "It wasn't really until the last lap or two that the gap started to close. It was nice because it was the first of three relays on the day to set the tone and get the win."
Tufts also saw quality performances from senior quad-captain Dan Marcy and sophomore Andrew Longley, both of whom were runner-ups at their respective events.
Marcy recorded a mark of 46 feet, 11.5 inches in the triple jump, while Longley ran the 400-meter dash in 50.64 seconds.
"My coach said it was the best race he'd ever seen me run," Longley said. "Two legs I ran easily, but in the finals, I didn't run as well as I wanted to. The important thing is that [juniors] Phil Rotella and Kevin Fitzgerald both qualified for the finals in the 200-meter and placed."
In the 200-meter dash, Longley, Rotella and Fitzgerald made it to the finals, finishing sixth, seventh and eighth, respectively. Though those finishes only totaled five points for Tufts, it was more than the squad thought was possible.
"Last year, we were happy to have even one person place," Longley said. "The last time Tufts had three people race in and place top eight overall in the 200 was - I don't even know. A long time ago. Even though I didn't do as well as I wanted to personally, the team points were more than we thought we'd get."
As in the 200-meter dash, Tufts had three people place in the 55-meter hurdles, totaling 10 points in the event despite not having a winner. Sophomore Ikenna Acholonu finished second, with Donadt and Scott finishing sixth and eighth, respectively.
In the high jump, Scott and fellow senior quad-captain Jeremy Arak tied for fourth with a height of six feet, 1.5 inches, tallying nine points for the team.
Having checked off one of the biggest goals of the season, the team hopes to have similar success at Nationals.
"We're looking towards qualifying people for Nationals and having a good showing there," Longley said. "We want as many people as possible to be All-Americans - and that will all start on Monday."
