The men's track and field team continued to progress in its march toward a championship season, gaining some valuable experience this past Saturday with a second-place finish at the annual Bowdoin Invitational.
Although the Jumbos placed first in only one event, they still accumulated several point-earning finishes, ending the day with a total of 107 points, second only to MIT who won the meet with a dominant 240-point performance. Springfield (86), Bowdoin (70) and Colby (51) rounded off the top five.
Sophomore distance runner Nick Welch was pleased with the way his team performed.
"It was a very solid meet overall," he said. "We had a lot of guys PR, and a lot of guys that didn't were close to doing that or making steps in the right direction. We had some of the guys take the week off, so we are going into next week either very well rested or also carrying a lot of momentum."
Welch's teammate, senior Jeremy Arak, shared similar sentiments about the team's overall performance, despite resting some key distance competitors.
"I thought everything went pretty well," he said. "Obviously we lost to MIT, and we don't like losing meets, but they were laying out for the meet more than we were. We had a lot of guys race really well even if their times weren't as strong as they liked."
The Jumbos displayed several impressive performances, but the high jump was the event of the day. Led by Arak, who placed 1st, the Jumbos boasted five of the top-six finishers in the event, including senior Nate Scott (1.87m), freshmen Frank DeSalvo (1.82m), and sophomore Isaiah Paramore (1.77m).
"It's nice to win," Arak said. "I was hoping to jump a little bit higher but anytime you can win an event, it's a great feeling."
The Jumbos also showed progress in the 55-meter hurdle event as sophomore Trevor Donadt (8.05) and senior Nate Scott (8.17) finished second and third, respectively.
While the Jumbos dominated in the jumping events, the team scored in only two middle or long distance events. Sophomore Billy Hale (1:58.66) finished second in the 800-meter dash with a time of 1:58.66, while freshman Chris Brunnquell took sixth in the 3000-meter race, clocking in at 9:19.68.
"Whenever you rest your top five, it's going to leave a hole, which is what happened," Welch said. "The aim of that is to be fresh and healthier so we can score a lot more points in the future. But the guys who participated stepped up big. Billy was great and [sophomore Alex] Landy PR'd, and we had a few freshmen who also PR'd like Brunnqeull."
The Jumbos also enjoyed impressive performances from the relay teams, with Tufts A team placing second in both the 400-meter and 800-meter relays, falling short of MIT's A teams in both events.
Other notable performances included sophomores Marc Soskin and Andrew Longley finishing 4th and 5th in the 55-meter dash as well as senior Joe Brown placing 3rd in the men's weight throw.
With New England Div. III Championships less than a month away, the Jumbos will now have to use the next two weeks to find the balance between fine tuning and resting key competitors, a balance that Welch says is very important.
"It varies athlete to athlete," Welch said. "We have two weekends of competitions until New England's. Certain guys will take one off to rest because they know they are qualified, but others might still be looking for the qualifying time. Other guys are looking just to get another one or two races under their belt for race experience."
Next weekend's intense competition at Boston University next weekend will be the perfect opportunity to gain some valuable big race experience.
"Most of it will be fine tuning, especially this weekend at BU," Arak sad. "We are looking to get people qualified and get people race experience. But at our home meet, we will probably rest a lot of people."
