After a 2008-09 campaign in which the team took second at the New England Championships and brought home five All-Americans from the NCAAs, the men's indoor track and field team is gearing up for the new year and looking to build on last season's triumphs.
"As a whole [last year], we continued to be more and more complete as a team," senior quad-captain Billy Hale said. "We had people contribute in every single event, and that is something that doesn't happen at most schools. That has been a theme of Tufts track and field for my four years — our completeness as a team — and it's something that I really appreciate about our team."
The Jumbos will look to strengthen an already deep program with the addition of a large freshman class. But the returning members should lead the way
"Our team is definitely better than we were last year," Hale said. "We're more experienced, and we added a lot of new freshmen. For most of the people that we [graduated], the people that are on the team now have stepped up and filled those holes already, and the season hasn't really started."
Coming off of a cross country season in which Tufts placed eighth out of 48 teams at the NCAA New England Championship, the distance squad will look to continue its success into the indoor season.
"[The distance team] is looking really strong," Hale said. "Even though we didn't in the end make it to nationals [as a team in cross country], there is not a single guy on the distance team that doubts our strength. We have depth at every single event, and we're looking really strong across the board. From 800 [meters] up, we have one or two guys that could make it to nationals and really only a select few New England teams could say that they have national-caliber athletes in nearly every event."
Despite some major losses on both the sprint and field sides due to graduation, Tufts looks to have a strong sprinting squad with the addition of many new athletes and the return of many key athletes from injuries.
"We had a lot of people who were injured last year, including myself and [junior] James Wheeler, so we have a lot of people coming back from injuries," senior quad-captain Andrew Longley said. "So we'll have a pretty strong sprinting crew. Also, we have a pretty strong freshman class coming in."
Longley has optimistic hopes for his field team as well.
"The multis, led by [senior quad-captain] Jared Engelking, are looking pretty strong this year," Longley said. "Multis are always pretty good because they can also help the team score points in a lot of events when it comes to championship meets, and it looks like we have a pretty strong group of them this year.
"[Junior] Alex Gresham had a breakout year last year in the hammer throw and weight throw," he continued. "We're going to look to him as well as to a new thrower, [freshman] Adam Aronson, and to [junior] David Dormon to have pretty strong years."
Senior Jesse Faller and senior quad-captain Nick Welch, both of whom went to nationals last year, lead the distance unit. Freshmen Matt Rand and Kyle Marks, who was the NESCAC Rookie of the Year in cross country, will hope to transfer their fall success onto the track.
The Jumbos return the top four middle distance runners from last year: seniors Jason Hanrahan, Scott Brinkman and Hale, as well as sophomore Connor Rose. The addition of freshman Dan Kirschner could serve to fortify the squad.
According to Longley, other returning athletes to watch out for include seniors Jon Pak and Isaiah Paramore in the jumps, senior Trevor Donadt in the hurdles and senior Marc Soskin in the sprints.
"Our biggest team goal as usual is to have our best performances as a team during championship season," Longley said. "We know that if we're able to train the right way and peak at the right time, we'll be able to win the New England Championships in indoor and NESCACs in outdoor. The biggest obstacles in our way in meeting these goals are injuries, so we hope that the team will be able to stay healthy."
The Jumbos will open their season with the Alumni Meet at Gantcher on Saturday.
"I'm excited to get the whole team together and compete as a team for the first time," Hale said. "It will be a fun kind of relaxed atmosphere where guys can throw down some solid times."
