The Tufts men's track and field squad launched a three-pronged attack on the New England region this weekend, finding success in its trio of ventures.
The squad split its members up between the Larry Ellis Invitational at Princeton, the Dartmouth Invitational and the Tufts Last Second Decathlon, qualifying an athlete for NCAAs at every meet but the one at Dartmouth.
At the Princeton meet on Friday, junior Jesse Faller made plans for a return trip to Nationals, hitting an NCAA automatic qualifier with a blazing 14:26.01 in the 5,000, good enough for second-fastest in all of Div. III this year. Faller, who took fourth at the NCAA indoor 5k last month, finished 13th on Friday, besting the qualifying time by two seconds. Accompanying Faller at the meet was junior quad-captain Nick Welch, who competed in the 3,000-meter steeplechase, placing 30th with a time of 9:37.83.
The Jumbos' other qualifier on the weekend came at home on Dussault Track, where Tufts saw some of its best success of the weekend. With four total athletes competing, Tufts' senior quad-captain Skip Pagel took a commanding victory, scoring 6,332 points to vault him past Williams sophomore Isaac Nicholson, who tallied 5,634. The outstanding performances garnered Pagel a qualifying spot for Nationals, simultaneously springing him from 12th to sixth in the national rankings.
Of Pagel's points, the most came from his wins in the 100- and 400-meter races, which netted him 759 and 756 points, respectively. He nearly broke the 700-point threshold again with his time of 4:37.15 in the 1,500, just missing out with 698 points.
Tufts' other competitor in the event, sophomore James Wheeler, also performed well in his first-ever collegiate decathlon. Finishing third with 5,374 points, Wheeler qualified himself for New Englands.
Wheeler had a particularly dominating first day, scoring 3,242 points with outstanding results in the 100 meters, where he ran an 11.26, and the high jump, where he cleared 6'2 1/4". In fact, his 804 points in the 100-meter dash was the highest mark of any athlete at the event.
"It was the first collegiate decathlon for Wheeler," coach Ethan Barron said. "For his first one, he definitely exceeded expectations for day one, and day two was pretty much right on pace. Day two is the more technical of the days, and it's the one where experience proves to be a big advantage, so he'll be in a good position for his next decathlon, which probably won't be until next year."
The majority of the team, however, traveled to New Hampshire for the Dartmouth Invitational on Saturday, where they claimed fifth among a group of six Div. I and III schools, along the way defeating Middlebury, the only other NESCAC school present.
Senior Phil Rotella was Tufts' best performer at the meet, taking the top spot by any Tufts athlete to finish second in the 100-meter dash in 11.20. He also crossed the line third in the 200-meter dash with a 22.23, making him the highest-placing Div. III competitor in both events.
The closest the Jumbos came to qualifying an athlete for NCAAs was with junior Billy Hale, who missed the provisional qualifying mark by just half a second in the 800-meter run. Still, his time of 1:53.49 was good for fifth place and set a new PR by five seconds.
"I was very happy with how my race went," Hale said. "I feel like I hadn't had a great 800 all year, and it just felt really good to finally PR this year. I knew that there'd be very strong competition, so I went in with the mindset of just going with the pack. I knew that it would go out really fast, and so if I was just able to stick towards the front, I would get pulled toward a really fast time."
Also contributing to the Jumbos' effort were juniors Ryan Lena and Isaiah Paramore, who took fourth in the 3,000-meter steeplechase and high jump, respectively, and sophomore Sam Read, who took third in the pole vault. With so many athletes placing high in the ladder, especially against Div. I schools, the Jumbos felt the meet was a success.
"At Dartmouth, everyone PRed: the sprinters, middle distance runners, throwers and jumpers," Barron said. "There wasn't one event group that didn't come away with some big PRs."
"It was the best competition we've faced all year," Hale added. "There were a lot of Div. I schools like Dartmouth, Vermont and New Hampshire. In just about every race there were some really fast people, so it was great to be able to toe the line with some Div. I competition."
The weekend's competitions mark the end of the regular season for the Jumbo squad as it gears up for NESCACs at Conn. College this Saturday. And posting numerous PRs over the weekend, according to Barron, definitely boosts the Jumbos' confidence.
"I think next weekend is gong to be a fight," Barron said. "Bowdoin and Bates were very close up at the Maine state meet, and Williams is a as strong as ever coming out of the Little Three championships, so I think the conference as a whole has really gotten a lot stronger compared to last year, and this weekend could be very exciting. I think the guys did a great job building some momentum with this weekend, and it falls 100 percent on our shoulders to keep that momentum going into NESCACs."
Lauren Flament contributed reporting to this article.
