Track and Field | Jumbos hope BU will be theirs at Valentine Invitational tomorrow

    The track and field regular season for Tufts features a number of low-key meets. But with the Valentine Invitational at BU kicking off this weekend for both the men's and women's teams, one thing is clear: It's time to gun it.
    As the last meet before the championship season, which commences Feb. 20 with the New England Div. III Championships, the Valentine Invitational serves as an opportunity for teams to improve times and position themselves for upcoming meets.
    "We really go out there and whether you're the top guy or the last guy, you're really just trying to run a PR," men's coach Ethan Barron said. "In some cases, that's a qualifier, in some cases it's a better seed time, and in some cases it's just a personal record for yourself, but we always just go out after that."
    "Once you're in the heat of the championship season, you're getting the best competition in New England," women's coach Kristen Morwick added. "If you make a top heat, you're pretty much going to have a good performance. This is more just like to position ourselves better for the championships, and if NCAA qualifiers come out of it, it's a nice bonus. We're more looking at ‘how do we configure things over the next couple of weeks?' This is the last week to better our performances."
    The Valentine meet has historically featured solid showings from the Jumbos, who last year alone produced five NCAA provisional qualifiers and broke a 15-year-old school record between the men's and women's teams at the event.
    "It's kind of developed into one of the premier meets on the East Coast," Barron said. "You get a lot of top-end [Div. I, Div. II, Div. III] talent, and just the combination of all that gives the meet an atmosphere that really helps people step it up."
    "It's just better competition," Morwick added. "People fly in from all over the country to compete at this meet."
    For the women, who took home a national championship in the distance medley relay (DMR) last winter, the meet will mark the debut of two relay teams that the Jumbos hope will qualify for Nationals in the 4x400 and the DMR. The 4x400 team will be made up of senior Halsey Stebbins, junior Logan Crane and sophomores Kaylee Maykranz and Andrea Caruth, while the DMR squad will likely include Stebbins, senior tri-captain Jackie Ferry and sophomores Stephanie McNamara and Amy Wilfert. For Morwick's team, the emphasis will be on performing well in these two events.
    "We're not racing some people in open events so that if they're in relays, they come in fresh for relays," Morwick said. "I think we're trying to focus on relays to get better qualifying times. I think both those relays could hit [an NCAA provisional qualifier] this weekend."
    The men, on the other hand, will head into the meet with a different outlook, with emphasis placed on succeeding in open events rather than on the relays.
    "We'll hopefully try to run a couple of relays this weekend, but I don't think our relay teams are finalized in any way yet," Barron said. "There's so much left to the season as is. I mean, guys can earn a relay spot or lose a relay spot depending on how they run from this point on.
    "A lot of our relay legs will be coming back off of other events and not running them fresh," Barron continued. "We hope to run some season bests, but the national qualifier is a tough mark to hit."
    And while BU may be the perfect place to compete for some of the Jumbo runners, for others, it is less than ideal; the combination of the Terriers' facilities and the sheer size of the meet can prove problematic for athletes in certain events.
    "It's not great for the field events," Morwick said. "With a lot of Div. I schools, our kids will only get three jumps or three throws … [Freshman high jumper Dayorsha Collins] last time sat around a lot between jumps."
    Instead of partaking in the Valentine Invitational, several members of both the men's and women's teams will head down the Red Line to Cambridge to compete at MIT, as the Engineers boast a setup considerably more conducive to success for the field event specialists and sprinters.
    "[MIT is] a far superior facility if you're a sprinter or a jumper or a thrower," Barron said. "Our [field events specialists] and our sprinters are getting a great opportunity at MIT as well. We've had a lot of school records and qualifiers in the field events come out of the MIT track."