Six members of the men's track and field team traveled to Terre Haute, Ind. for the NCAA Div. III Championships on March 13 and 14. When they returned, five were All-Americans.
Scoring in three events, the Jumbos claimed 14th place overall with 13.5 points. Tufts' distance medley relay (DMR) team, junior Jesse Faller in the 5,000-meter run and senior quad-captain James Bradley in the high jump each claimed spots in the top six.
The DMR scored highest for Tufts, securing third place with a time of 10:04.25. Junior Billy Hale led off the relay, running the 1,200-meter stretch.
"The race was a lot different than any kind of other race I've ever run," Hale said. "Every other person in that race went in there with the exact same strategy as me -- stay with the group and then try to kick as hard as you can, so the race went out really slow and then finished really fast. I did not position myself very well; when I handed off, we were towards the back."
"Billy definitely had the most difficult leg in terms of strategy," Faller added. "Everyone running the 1,200 is just trying to hand off in front, and the time doesn't matter."
Hale was followed by senior Phil Rotella in the 400 and junior Scott Brinkman in the 800. Faller anchored the relay, running the 1,600-meter leg.
"Phil ran a nice 400 and did a good job of dodging one of the runners who had fallen," Faller said. "Brinkman got the baton and ran a very smart 800 and moved up in position at the end of his leg, which put the team in good position going into the last leg."
The last leg would be an important one for the Jumbos, as Faller moved up several spots en route to the third-place finish.
"We knew going into the race that our final leg was our strongest, so the game plan was to get the baton around to [Faller] in a position so that he would be able to pass people, and that's exactly what the first three legs did," Hale said. "Jesse ran an incredible leg. He got the baton in eighth with another runner behind him. That runner took off and opened a very fast first 400, which pulled Jesse along to the main pack of runners. [Faller] slowly worked his way up, and by 400 to go, [he] was in the middle of that pack; with 200 to go, he did what he's done in every other DMR we've run this year and just outkicked the rest of the field."
"I ran a 4:08 split, which is a PR for me, so it was a great race," Faller added. "Coming in third was very exciting for us, so I thought my leg went really well, and I got lucky in some ways when the field collapsed into a pack, and it was easier to pass all of them at once to finish third."
Faller returned to the track to race the 5,000 meters the following day, finishing fourth in 14:35.46 for his second All-American honor of the weekend.
"[The race] played out about how I expected, and for most of the beginning of the race, I just tucked in and just ran right along with everyone," Faller said. "The race started to get a little bit crazy with 12 laps to go when someone threw down a surge, and the race got a lot more mixed up after that. Fortunately, I was able to hold on long enough to still be able to outkick some of the runners."
"Jesse ran really well," Hale said. "No matter what race Jesse runs, he always closes very fast. He closed faster [in the 5k] than what most 800 runners close in, which is pretty ridiculous. Especially coming off the fastest anchor leg that he had ever run, to come back and run a very fast 5k was very impressive."
Junior quad-captain Nick Welch also ran the 5k, finishing 14th in 15:21.90.
Wisconsin Oshkosh senior William Kaul finished in 14:31.46 to win the race. Less than 10 seconds stood between the first- and 10th-place finishers.
On the field events side, Bradley tied for sixth in the high jump with a height of 6' 8 3/4".
"I was a little inconsistent, but in the end, I was pretty happy," Bradley said. "I was a little nervous at the opening height, but after I got over that, I felt better; [6'8 3/4"] is pretty high for me, and at that point, I was glad to get over it. You don't usually go into a meet that big expecting to PR, but I felt pretty good."
"The way that the high jump went was pretty ridiculous," Hale added. "All 14 competitors cleared their first two jumps, which is very amazing, and Bradley was able to shake off some first-height jitters and jumped what was almost a PR to become an All-American."
The winner of the high jump, junior Cody Stetzler of Whitworth University, was the only athlete to clear 6'11".
"The surface [for jumping] was great," Bradley said. "It was the same [surface] as Gantcher. [The high jump] was right during the 5k, so it was really loud; the environment and the atmosphere were really fun."
Overall, Nationals capped off the indoor season on a positive note -- one that the Jumbos see as a reflection of the entire team rather than its NCAA representatives.
"It was very exciting to leave Nationals with four first-time All-Americans and Jesse's first indoor track All-American," Hale said. "I think that says a lot about the strength of our track team right now. We were all very excited to become All-Americans. It had been a goal for a very long time, and it was a great end to a strong season."
