One week after taking first in the New England Div. III Championships, the men's track and field team looked to have an impact on the Open New England Championships at Boston University this past weekend.
The Championships at BU are an annual event that is open to any school, Div. I, II or III. Tufts sent some of its best athletes in an attempt to qualify provisionally for Nationals.
"New England is the only region in the United States with a meet like this," sophomore Andrew Longley said. "It's not like Div. I New England Champs or Div. III; it's open, so it has every division. You can compete against teams that are Div. I, II or III. It gives Div. III kids a lot of really good competition on a fast track. It's really competitive and hard to finish high."
Highlighting the Jumbos' performances this weekend was senior quad-captain Dave Sorsensen. On Saturday, Sorensen ran the mile in 4:12.43, finishing 10th for Tufts. He set a new personal record by almost four seconds. Sorensen's time is well within the provisional NCAA qualifying mark of 4:16, even after his time is adjusted for BU's track.
On Friday, sophomore Jesse Faller turned in one of the most impressive performances of the weekend in the 5,000-meter run. Faller finished in a time of 14:46.90, which is within the NCAA provisional qualifying mark of 14:55, even after the time is adjusted for the banked track at BU. He finished fourth - the highest finish at the meet for the Jumbos in any event - and earned the team five points.
"I think I learned a lot from the last 5k that I ran," Faller said. "I gained a lot of experience from that. I learned a lot from my teammates talking to them as well, and I think I was definitely more prepared for this race. I think I was just focused and I felt much stronger being in front of the race and being a little bit more in control. I guess I just pulled it out, and it turned out to be pretty good, so I was happy with it."
Tufts had other impressive performances on Friday, the first day of the meet, including ones from Longley and sophomore Billy Hale. Longley finished the 200-meter dash in 22.28, beating his own Tufts record by two tenths of a second. Unfortunately, the competition was so fierce that despite setting a new school record, Longley finished 11th and did not proceed to the finals. He did, however, make it to the finals in the 400-meter dash, coming in at a time of 49.44 seconds. Longley placed eighth in the finals of the event on Saturday with a time of 45.44 seconds, earning the Jumbos a point.
In the 800 meters, Hale set a new personal record on Friday, running 1:54.87 and qualifying for the finals. He also earned a point for Tufts, taking eighth place in Saturday's final with a time of 1:55.10.
"I was very pleased with my performance," Hale said. "I took two seconds off my personal record. It was nice to qualify for finals and to be able to take eighth and place."
Overall, Tufts placed 23rd out of 31 teams, but the significance of the meet does not lie in the team's finish.
"We didn't send many competitors, but individually we had great performances," Hale said. "We didn't score that many points because it's not really a team scoring event. Sorensen ran a great mile; Longley re-broke his own school record in the 200. We had a pretty good day."
"We did very, very well," Longley added. "Our goals were to keep people peaking and [setting personal records] and to see people try to qualify for Nationals. Almost everyone [set personal records], with a few exceptions. Even those that didn't may have gotten season bests. It was a very successful meet."
Next weekend, most of the team will be competing at the ECAC Championships at Harvard. Some might also be competing at the IC4A Championships next weekend at BU.
Though the Jumbos will do their best to finish high as a team at both meets, they will go into it with the same goal in mind as the Open New Englands: to qualify for Nationals. The NCAA Championships take place in two weeks, when the Jumbos hope to perform at their best.
