Sophomore Stephanie McNamara and freshman Nakeisha Jones may have been competing more than 300 miles and a day apart from each other, but both had weekends to remember.
The two members of the women's track and field team each had a standout performance, and both surpassed the automatic qualifying standards for the NCAA Div. III Championship in their respective events.
The lone female Jumbo at the Larry Ellis Invitational at Princeton on Friday night, McNamara had quite the evening. Competing against a slew of Div. 1 runners, she took second place in the 5,000-meter run with a time of 16:51.22.
"I've been preparing for this race for a while now," McNamara said. "It was a big race, so I was a little nervous, but I was really excited, and I knew I was ready from my training. It was a great race; I was really happy with it."
McNamara chose to run at the event to increase the level of competition around her, something she hasn't had much of during a dominant season.
"The first few meets I went through we didn't have much competition," McNamara said. "This meet is known to have good distance races, so I asked [Coach Kristen Morwick], 'If you don't mind me missing the Dartmouth Invitational this weekend, do you think I could race on Friday and try to run a really good 5k?' and she agreed, and I entered."
The personal-record time not only secured McNamara an automatic qualifier for Nationals, but it is also the fastest Div. III time of the season. Staying amidst a pack of Georgetown runners for much of the race, McNamara believes the quality of runners around her played a big role in the fast time.
"It's really hard to pace a sub-17-minute 5k on your own," she said. "[The competition] was really helpful the first couple miles, just chilling and relaxing and knowing you were going to run a fast enough pace, and you can just stick there and wait."
Jones, competing with the rest of the Jumbos at the Dartmouth Invitational on Saturday, took first place in the triple jump with a personal record effort of 39'6". Having already competed in two events prior to the triple jump, Jones felt good coming into the event.
"I was a little bit nervous and just trying to figure out if I should go from the 36' foot board or the 30', and I just decided to go with the 36'," Jones said. "I guess everything worked out well."
Jones' distance was nearly three feet ahead of the second-place performer, Middlebury senior Kelley Coughlan. With Middlebury figuring to be one of Tufts' biggest opponents at the NESCAC meet on Saturday, the dominant display was that much sweeter for Jones, who gave credit for her performance her work this week in practice.
"I learned a new approach in practice on Wednesday, and I built it into the jump, and it definitely helped me this weekend," Jones said.
Besides Jones, many Tufts jumpers had strong showings on Saturday. Sophomore Kanku Kabongo took fourth place in both the triple and the long jump, while junior Logan Crane had a sixth-place finish in the latter event. Freshman Dayorsha Collins also placed in multiple events, taking fifth in the high jump and eighth in the triple. The combination of freshmen Heather Theiss and Katherine Tang and senior Jennifer Johnson also took home places two through four in the pole vault. The solid jumping results were encouraging as the team looks towards next Saturday's NESCAC Championship, where the points scored in those events will be crucial.
"Getting big jumps in before NESCACs is definitely a confidence booster," Jones said.
Crane led the sprinters with a second-place finish in the 100 meters, with a time of 12.59. In the 200 meters, senior Halsey Stebbins secured fifth place, running 26.34.
Sophomore Amy Wilfert had a strong day in the distance events, finishing third in the 1,500 meters and 11th in the 800 meters. Right behind her in the 800, finishing 12th, was senior tri-captain Jackie Ferry.
In the hurdles, Jones managed to add an eighth-place finish in the 100-meter variety.
