The men's track and field team continued to impress over the weekend, capturing first place at the Skyhawk Invitational at Stonehill College. Coming off of an indoor season in which the team took first at the NESCAC Championships, the Jumbos have now kicked off the outdoor season with second- and first-place showings.
Despite facing Div. I and Div. II competition at the meet, Tufts still managed to better the 12-team field.
"We had a really good day," senior quad-captain Jeremy Arak said. "The weather wasn't bad and the rain held off. A lot of guys had some good performances, so we were all pretty happy."
"Our goal in the non-championship meets is not necessarily to win," sophomore Andrew Longley added. "However, winning against Div. I and Div. II teams was pretty fun. We beat BC, Northeastern and Stonehill, which are some pretty solid teams. Winning's obviously a secondary goal to running fast times, but it was still a good feeling."
The Jumbos amassed 171.50 points, followed by host Stonehill's 140.50. Boston College (135), UMass Lowell (77) and Wheaton (65) rounded out the top five.
Tufts received impressive performances from a number of different competitors, including several first-place finishers. Sophomore Scott Brinkman won the 400-meter dash with a time of 50.64 seconds. Brinkman then joined the four-man team of Longley, sophomore Trevor Donadt and senior quad-captain Nate Scott that took first in the 400-meter relay.
Meanwhile senior quad-captain Dave Sorensen took first in the 3,000-meter steeplechase handily, as his time of 9:14.76 was almost 30 seconds ahead of the next finisher. His time provisionally qualifies him for Nationals.
"I was definitely happy with the race being my first steeple of the season and it still being early in the outdoor season," Sorensen said. "I was 15 seconds faster than at the start of last year. I definitely still have to improve, but it was a good race, and I'm excited."
Senior Joe Brown delivered a dominant performance in the hammer throw, earning first with a distance of 47.32 meters. The second-place finisher was close behind at 46.74 meters, but the rest of the competition was left in the dust, as the third-place throw was only 41.24 meters.
The best team performance of the day came in the triple jump. Senior quad-captain Dan Marcy finished first with a distance of 14.03 meters as Tufts swept the top three places. Senior Jacob Fromer took second with 13.50 meters and sophomore Ikenna Acholonu was not far behind at 13.28 meters.
Tufts did not always have to take first to score points, however. In the 100-meter dash, Longley took fourth, followed immediately in fifth and sixth by juniors Phillip Rotella and Kevin Fitzgerald. Rotella also finished fifth in the 200-meter dash.
"I got a [personal record] in the 100-meter dash," Longley said. "That was fun because I hadn't PRed in that event since high school."
Tufts also fared well in the hurdle events. In the 110-meter hurdles, sophomore Jared Engelking finished second, while Donadt took third. Acholonu and Scott rounded out the group by taking fifth and sixth, respectively. In the 400-meter hurdles, Donadt took third while Longley took fourth.
In the high jump, Tufts junior James Bradley led the way with a fourth-place finish, followed by freshman Frank DeSalvo, while Arak tied for fifth. The competition was Arak's first of the outdoor season.
"I wasn't especially happy with the way I jumped," Arak said. "I'm just coming back from an injury, so it was my first time jumping in a few weeks. It was good to get back out there but I wasn't ecstatic about the results."
Next week, Tufts will hope to keep its momentum going in the Bernard Solomon Invitational at Northeastern.
"We're just trying to hit some qualifying times and get ourselves into NESCACs and Div. III Championships," Arak said. "We're trying to get better and put ourselves in a position to compete in the NESCAC."
