Men's Track and Field | Jumbos enter Regionals today hoping to bring home title

                The men's track and field team will enter the New England Div. III Championships at MIT this weekend as defending champions, looking to match its performance from last year.
    "Our goal is to put forth the best team effort we can because that's all we are able to control, and what the other teams do is out of our hands," junior quad-captain Nick Welch said. "I think we're all pretty confident that if we succeed in doing that individually and all together, putting our best effort forward, we'll be able to defend that New England title we got last year."
    The Jumbos won the meet with 118 points last year, beating out Williams in second with 106 and MIT in third with 101.
    "Williams and MIT have been strong in the past — which is an understatement, to say the least, in the case of Williams — since they've won it [several] times in the last 20 years," Welch said. "But Williams and MIT are always strong, and they're very strong this year. It has always been Tufts, Williams and MIT scoring the majority of the points, but I think there will be a lot of other teams putting up a lot of points. They might have the depth to really shoot for the overall team title, but a lot of these programs are stronger than they've been in recent years, which will make the whole meet overall more competitive."
    With increased competition, it is clear to the Jumbos that no one athlete will be able to earn the win on his own.
    "When it comes down to meets like NESCACs and New Englands, we have one entry, Tufts University, and that's really the way we all look at it, coaches and athletes," coach Ethan Barron said. "We're going there with one entry, and we're looking to see how well it can fight."
    The Jumbos should have no problem focusing on the team, which is deeper and more evenly distributed than it has been in years past.
    "I think we actually are more well-rounded going into this meet than at least the last two years," Welch said. "In the places where we've had events with only one guy, now we have three, or events that we didn't even run anyone, now we have someone who is looking to maybe be in the top three.
    "Across the board, we are really well-rounded, and in the end that's what it really takes," Welch continued.  "You can't win this meet with just a few studs. It really ends up being the guys who scrape up eighth place, seventh place, one or two points here or there, and in the end that's what really adds up."
    While the Jumbos graduated a number of key contributors from last year's victory, the team is confident that it will be able to make up for lost ground.
    "Guys like Dan Marcy [LA '08] in the triple jump and Nate Scott [LA '08], who has won the pentathlon to kick off the meet the previous two years, those guys are hard to replace, but I think we've tried to fill their shoes in two ways," Welch said. "One is the guys … who had the opportunity to watch [alumni] and see them compete and learn from them, have now stepped up to fill their shoes."
    "The other way is that I think we've gotten stronger in the event groups that weren't necessary our strongest, a good example being the throwers who have PRed repeatedly thus far in the season and are looking to put up more points for us than they have, at least in the time that I've been here," Welch continued.
    One of the top entries for the Jumbos is junior Jared Engelking, ranked first in New England in the pentathlon that kicks off the meet today. Others include junior Jesse Faller, who holds the top seed in the 3,000-meter run, while Welch is the top seed in the 5,000-meter run. Senior quad-captain James Bradley also occupies the top seed in the high jump with his 6'9" mark.
    "I'm looking for across-the-board, no-fear, tenacious attacks of everyone's events," Barron said. "That's the only expectation we have going into this championship. I'm not looking for any athlete to step up, because to do well at a meet like this you just have to do what you've been doing. If you just get your seed time, you are almost guaranteed to move up in the standings. The one thing I'm really excited to see is the energies we brought to two venues last weekend. Bringing that together this weekend, I think we could make a lot of noise."