Men's Track and Field | Jumbos take third at Bowdoin Invitational

    Thanks to a number of personal bests, the men's track and field team took third place in the Bowdoin Invitational on Saturday. The Jumbos scored 121 points, trailing MIT (181 points) and Bowdoin (155) while trumping Springfield (89) and Colby (3).
    "It was a really strong meet," junior quad-captain Nick Welch said. "Lots of guys hit the qualifiers that they needed to, and some guys had some huge PRs that are really encouraging just a few weeks out from New Englands ... Across the board the intensity was good, and again that is encouraging, because we need to build the momentum up for the meet in a couple weeks at New Englands."
    Junior Scott Brinkman won the 600-meter run in 1:23.74 — one of Tufts' four first-place finishes in the meet — while freshman Connor Rose placed second in the event with a time of 1:23.90 despite running in a slower heat.
    "Connor's race in the 600 was really good to see," Welch said. "He has a lot of potential, and I'm sure we won't even see all of it this year since it's his first time running indoor track, but that was the start of it since he's getting more workouts under his belt and coming off of sickness."
    Juniors Jesse Faller and Welch took first and second in the 3,000-meter run, respectively. Faller finished in 8:31.72 and Welch followed in 8:37.05, 12 seconds ahead of the third-place runner. Both posted personal records.
    "We both PRed so I can't complain with that," Welch said. "I think both of us probably felt afterwards that we both still have a better race in us at that distance, but it went really well. I think it's a really good setup for Jesse for Div. III's because he is going to run the 3k there ... Jesse's 3k was a five second PR and looking like he could break 8:30 the next time out, maybe with more competition."
    Junior Ikenna Acholonu tallied Tufts' third first-place finish on the day with a time of 7.87 seconds in the 55-meter hurdles, just 0.15 seconds short of the provisional mark, while the final Jumbo victory came from sophomore Alex Gresham, who posted a distance of 15.65 meters in the weight throw.
    "Gresham's throw was a huge PR, and the throwers in general have just been improving week to week," Welch said.
    The Jumbos boasted four other runner-up finishers along with Rose and Welch. Senior quad-captain Colin Fitzgerald took second in the 200-meter dash with 23.04 seconds, while sophomore Jeff Ragazzini ran 2:33.23 in the 1,000-meter run to claim second in the event. The distance medley relay team of juniors Ryan Lena, Alex Landy,Jason Hanrahan and sophomore Corey Melnick ran 11:12.97 to finish second, and junior Isaiah Paramore recorded 1.95 meters in the high jump for second.
    "I thought it was the best team performance we've seen all season," Fitzgerald said. "The intensity was really high, and there were more PRs than I had seen all season. One just kept following another. It was a great meet to watch and to be a part of."
    Each event group performed well, and there were very few weak performances on a day when many athletes met the qualifying marks for Div. III Championships, Fitzgerald said.
    Sophomore Frank DeSalvo made his season debut and was the first Jumbo of the season to qualify in the triple jump with a mark of 13.18 meters, good for third place.
    "One of the strongest points of our team in the past has been our [depth]," Fitzgerald said. "We've always had a lot of qualifying marks, and we're starting to see them there. We had some athletes who didn't run this week, which is why the point standing was lower, but we don't worry too much about that during the regular season meets. What is important is that we get more and more athletes qualifying for the championship meets.
    "We competed against MIT, which is a major competitor of ours at the Div. III championships," Fitzgerald continued.
    "A lot of the matchups we saw on the track on Saturday, we will probably see again at [that meet]. We also saw Springfield, which has a strong sprint crew, so it was good for our sprinters to see them. We saw a lot of teams that we will see again in three weeks, so it was good to see them this weekend."
    The team will host the third Tufts Invitational of the season this weekend before closing out the regular season at BU for the Valentine Invitational. Although it has two more competitions left before the New England Div. III Championships, Tufts is ultimately focused on its postseason aspirations.
    "I think we have a great team," Fitzgerald said. "We won [New England Div. IIIs] last year, and we're starting to see our potential. We saw glimpses of it this weekend, and hopefully will keep on improving in the next few weeks."