Men's Track and Field | Welch qualifies for Nationals in 5k run at BU track meet

     In the world of men's track and field, the actual results are often secondary to the improvement that they represent, as all roads generally lead to the end-of-season NCAA Championships. Normally, this improvement is seen individually in daily workouts and weekly events, slowly building throughout the season, but the 22 Jumbos who traveled to Boston University this weekend got an opportunity to see the team improve throughout the meet.
    After starting out slowly at Saturday's Terrier Invitational, Tufts built momentum throughout the day of competition, culminating in junior co-captain Nick Welch's Nationals-qualifying performance in the 5,000-meter run.
    "I thought Nick ran an excellent race," junior Jesse Faller said. "We're all very surprised in a good way and excited to see what he's going to be able to run in the future. He ran notably well."
    It was an up-and-down morning for the Jumbos as sophomore Sam Read, returning from a bout with mono, did not place in his attempt at the pole vault, while junior Ikenna Acholonu continued to get back into the swing of the track season, finishing 10th and 15th in the triple jump and 55-meter hurdles, respectively.
    From there, however, the Jumbos would see a number of positive results in ensuing racing events. With junior Andrew Longley, who holds the school record in the indoor 200-meter sprint, out for the season with a broken hip, senior Phil Rotella has stepped up to fill the void. On the surface, Rotella's 25th-place finish in the event seems average, but his time of 22.55 seconds is the second-fastest in school history and currently the second-fastest among Div. III competition in New England.
    Following the sprints, the Jumbos went on to perform their best in the middle- and long-distance races. Faller, a two-time All-American in cross country, won his heat and finished 24th overall with a personal record time of 4:15.29 in the mile run. The feat was more impressive in light of the fact that it came just one day after Faller ran the mile in a distance medley relay.
    "To come back the day after running the mile of the DMR and run a tactically smart race to win his heat in the mile was really solid," Welch said. "Last week at our invite here, it wasn't the greatest result for him in the 3k, so I know to get a solid performance like yesterday is a big confidence boost and a really good result."
    "It was exciting to run a [personal record]," Faller said. "My coach said it was one of the best races I had ever run in a tactical sense. I got out well, made the moves that I had to make and then kicked hard. It was encouraging to run well and kind of rebound off of last weekend's race."
    Later on in the 800-meter run, the Jumbos showcased their depth, as juniors Billy Hale, Scott Brinkman and Jason Hanrahan and senior Marcelo Norsworthy finished 20th, 22nd, 26th and 28th, respectively. All four finished within one second of each other.
    "For me, personally, it was a decent race," Hale said. "I think I can do better, but in terms of how the race developed, I was happy with the end result. I have a lot more that I can improve upon, but it's a solid foundation going forward.
    "With all of us finishing so closely, that was awesome," Hale continued. "Last year we didn't have nearly the depth and experience at middle distance that we do now. That speaks worlds for how we've improved in just a year. With people coming back from injuries and a new middle-distance coach, our program has just grown immensely in the past year, so it was great to see everyone finish how they did."
    Following this impressive display, sophomores Corey Melnick and Jeff Ragazzini both registered personal records in their events. Melnick finished the 1,000-meter race in 2:36.88, taking 34th place and qualifying in the event for the New England Championships. Ragazzini then finished the 3k with a time of 8:49.66, good for 63rd in the field of over 100.
    The highlight of the day, however, came from Welch in the 5,000-meter run. His time of 14:39.64 earned him 15th among 62 competitors and met the provisional qualification threshold for Nationals. Sophomores Jerzy Eisenberg-Guyot and Chris Brunnquell also performed well in the event, finishing 39th and 53rd, respectively.
    "It was probably a good ten seconds [faster] than I even thought was possible going into the race," Welch said. "In some ways it couldn't have played out much better. I got into a good pace, settled into a rhythm and managed to hang onto that pace better than all those previous 5ks I've done. Overall I'm happy with the result; that was a good cap to the meet."
    Tufts will host a pentathlon on Friday before taking part in the Bowdoin Invitational on Saturday, a meet more akin to the type of competition the Jumbos can expect to face down the stretch.
    "We'll have more of our team competing — definitely the bulk of our team will be traveling up there — so it's a good chance to square off against Bowdoin, MIT, Bates, teams that we're going to end up seeing at New Englands in a couple weeks," Welch said. "It's mostly a good chance to get people qualified for New Englands that haven't done so already. That'll be what we're looking to accomplish."