Men's Track and Field | Pagel, Engelking return to pentathlon lineup

    With the aim of qualifying team members for championship events, the men's track and field team will host the Tufts Pentathlon at the Gantcher Center tomorrow. Of the roughly 16 to 20 men who will participate in the event, four will be representatives from Tufts' squad: senior quad-captain Skip Pagel and juniors Jared Engelking, Trevor Donadt and Bobby Bardin.
    "We returned two athletes that were injured last year," coach Ethan Barron said. "Skip Pagel is our school record-holder in the decathlon and he was an All-American [in the event]. Jared Engelking was a national qualifier in the decathlon as a freshman."
    "It will be a good, competitive field on both sides," he continued.
    Last season, Tufts' pentathletes were an instrumental part of the squad's postseason success. The trio of then-senior quad-captain Nate Scott (LA '08), Engelking's older brother Derek (LA '08) and Donadt took three of the first five spots in the pentathlon at the New England Div. III Championships, leading the way for the Jumbos to win the regional crown for the first time since 1991. During the event, Donadt recorded personal records in the hurdles and the shot put, while both he and Bardin cleared 6'0'' in the high jump.
    Tomorrow's meet will mark the first step for Tufts' new-look pentathlon lineup to replicate last season's success, with a bit of an added incentive: 2009 will mark the first time that the pentathlon will be featured in the NCAA Indoor Championships. To get to Terre Haute, Ind., a Jumbo would have to reach the qualifying mark of 3,400 points.
    At this stage of the season, however, that number may be a bit ambitious. As of this weekend, Tufts is focused more on reaching the New England qualifier of 2,900.
    "My goal is just to hit 2,900," Pagel said. "That's probably the goal for everyone else as well. I think Jared and Trevor could do really well this week."
    "I think we'll do pretty well," Engelking added. "We're all hoping to qualify for New Englands and then go from there. But obviously if we're in a position to do more, then we'll try to."
    While a national qualification may be a bit premature to hope for now, the squad definitely has aspirations to eventually reach the national mark and earn a trip to the NCAA Championships at the Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology in Terre Haute.
    "I am hoping to qualify for [NCAAs], if not at this meet, then definitely at New Englands," Engelking said.
    The weekend will also mark the returns of Pagel and Engelking to the pentathlon. After great success in the event in 2007 — the duo finished fourth and fifth at the Div. III New England Championships that year — each sat out the indoor season last season, Pagel with a leg injury and Engelking with a broken ankle.
    The pair is also accomplished in the decathlon, with Pagel earning an All-American honor and Engelking scoring a national qualification two
years ago.
    The pentathlon is a series of five events: the 55-meter hurdles, the long jump, the shot put, the high jump and the 1,000-meter run. To be successful in the pentathlon, an athlete must be well-rounded and able to perform well in all five events.
    "As pentathletes, their strength isn't necessarily in one specific event, but it's in not having a weak event," Barron said. "They're all good jumpers, they're all good hurdlers, they're all good throwers. They might not be national-caliber jumpers or national-caliber throwers, but they are national-caliber pentathletes when you put it all together."
    Both Engelking and Pagel said they preferred the decathlon, which incorporates all five of the pentathlon's events and is held during the outdoor season.
    "I'm not really great at any in particular event, so the decathlon is better for me," Pagel said. "Right now my weaknesses are probably the 55-meter hurdles, long jump and high jump because I haven't long-jumped or high-jumped since last year, and I haven't really had a good hurdles race this year."
    "I would say my strongest event is definitely the 55-meter hurdles," Engelking said.  "My weakest is probably the shot put."