NAKEISHA JONES, WOMEN'S TRACK AND FIELD
As the No. 1 seed in the triple jump, sophomore Nakeisha Jones was expected to deliver at this weekend's 2010 National Indoor Track and Field Championships at DePauw University in Greencastle, Ind. And deliver she did. With a 38-foot, 6 3/4-inch distance in the finals, Jones took second place in the event and earned the third All-American honor of her young indoor and outdoor career.
Jones recorded a qualifying mark of 39-2 1/2 at the All-New England Championships hosted by Boston University two weeks ago to receive the national top spot. Then, in the NCAA preliminaries Saturday morning, she again proved to be the best of the 14 qualifiers when her 38-foot, 5 1/2-inch jump surpassed all other competitors.
Later, in the finals, Jones improved on her preliminary mark jumping 38-6 3/4. However, Springfield senior Nikki Hay broke out a 39-foot, 3 3/4-inch distance in her second-to-last pass to upset Jones and take first place.
Jones' eight points helped Tufts tie for 27th place at the meet.
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JESSE FALLER AND JARED ENGELKING, MEN'S TRACK AND FIELD
Senior quad-captain Jared Engelking and classmate Jesse Faller capped their decorated indoor track careers over the weekend by garnering All-American honors at the 2010 NCAA Championships in Greencastle, Ind.
The final qualifier in the field of 12 in the pentathlon, Engelking finished seventh in the event on Friday to earn a place on the podium at indoor nationals for the first time. He achieved his final score of 3,491 points thanks, in part, to a 7.77-second run in the 55-meter hurdles, which was good enough for second place. Engelking's performance came nearly 10 months after he earned the first All-American award of his career at outdoor nationals, where he came in third in the decathlon.
Buoyed by a late charge in the 5,000-meter run, Faller secured the third top-five NCAA finish and the sixth All-American honor of his career on Saturday. Faller's time of 14:50.39 earned him third place and was six-tenths of a second faster than the top qualifier in the event, senior Daniel Murner of Amherst. Faller now heads into the outdoor track season with both an eighth-place finish at the NCAA cross country championships and a career-best showing at indoor nationals on his 2009-10 résumé.
The Burlington, Mass. native also anchored the distance medley relay team, which came in ninth place. For the weekend, coach Ethan Barron's Jumbos tied for 27th place overall.
