Though the men's track and field team took fourth at the Bowdoin Invitational in a field of five teams Saturday, the biggest story for Tufts came via senior quad-captain Jared Engelking, who took first in the 55-meter hurdles with a time of 7.71, which provisionally qualifies him for the NCAA Championships in March.
Engelking's first-place finish is the seventh-fastest posted in the 55-meter hurdles so far during the 2010 Div. III indoor season. The senior also placed fourth in the pole vault with a personal best height of 4.35 meters.
Freshman Michael Blair took home the other victory for the Jumbos on the day in the high jump, clearing a height of 1.87 meters. Senior teammate Isaiah Paramore cleared the same height to claim second, which was based on attempts.
'I think we did pretty well as a team,' Engelking said. 'That said, I think we can do a lot better. We had some good performances, but ... I know a lot of the guys are capable of doing a lot better. But then again, our team was split up.'
Freshmen Nick Ferrentino and Dan Kirschner also had strong performances for Tufts. Ferrentino claimed a second-place finish for the Jumbos, crossing the finish of the 5,000-meter run in 16:01.80, while Kirschner took third in the 800-meter run with a time of 1:59.34.
' MIT dominated the meet, scoring 264 to clinch the win, followed by Springfield and Bowdoin. Though Tufts held off Colby to avoid a last-place finish, the Jumbos will square off against the same teams it faced Saturday again in three weeks at the New England Div. III Championships.' ' ' ' ' '
' 'I don't really think our performance is like or indicative at all of what we can do at Div. IIIs,' Engelking said. 'Usually we step up pretty well in the championship meets 'hellip; I don't think the fourth-place finish says much about us, because I know we have a lot better performances in us basically across the board, so in terms of New Englands, I know we will place a lot better than that.'
The Jumbos also sent part of their squad to the Terrier Classic at Boston University (BU) Saturday. Senior Scott Brinkman had the highest finish among the Tufts athletes at the meet, placing 10th in a field of 34 athletes in the 500-meter dash. The meet featured athletes from all three divisions, and Brinkman was the second-place Div. III finisher in the 500-meter contest.
Senior quad-captain Billy Hale finished as the first Div. III runner in his race, posting a 2:31.13 time to place 15th in the 1,000-meter run. Classmate Matt Tirrell was close behind, finishing in 2:31.32 to claim 17th.
With the New England Div.-III Championships rapidly approaching in under three weeks, the Jumbos will next host the second Tufts Invitational on Saturday and the Tufts Pentathalon Friday in the Gantcher Center, the last home meet of the year for the squad.
