In its final weekend to qualify for nationals, the men's track and field team's distance medley relay (DMR) did more than that: It set a new school record by running an impressive 14 seconds faster than it did last weekend to hit the automatic qualifier for the NCAA Championships.
The team ran 9:56.97 to place sixth out of 27 teams at the IC4A Indoor Track and Field Championships at Boston University on Saturday. At a meet predominantly attended by Div. I schools, the Tufts DMR was the only relay entered from a Div. III squad.
Senior Matt Tirrell led off the relay with a 1,200−meter run, followed by sophomore Ben Crastnopol in the 400, senior quad−captain Billy Hale in the 800 and finally senior Jesse Faller in the 1,600.
The relay entered the race hoping to hit the provisional qualifier of 10:10 for a chance to send the team to nationals, where Tufts' DMR placed third in 2009. Instead, the group's performance on the bank track converted to a time of 9:59.97, squeezing under the automatic qualifier of 10:00. The time is the fourth fastest run by a Div. III team this season. The original sub−9:57 time the Jumbos posted, which, as opposed to the adjusted time, counts towards team records, also broke the previous school mark of 9:59.33 ran last year by a team of Hale, Faller, current senior Scott Brinkman and Phil Rotella (LA '09).
"It was a lot of Div. I competition, so [the race] was a lot stiffer than normal," Crastnopol said.
Despite running a fast lead−off leg, the Jumbos were in last when Tirrell handed off to Crastnopol, who helped close the gap, but remained in last during his stretch. The competitive field kept Tufts at the back, but the Jumbos still had their sights on the runners ahead.
"My leg went pretty well; it was nice that there was nobody in my way, and I did what I needed to do," Crastnopol said. "Billy started passing people in his 800, and then Jesse took all but two of the [teams in our heat] in his leg … Jesse said when he got the baton he knew he was going to do it, and we were right on schedule. He looked great … Jesse had a lot of people to catch so it worked out well for us."
The Jumbos had also tried to qualify in the relay last weekend at All−New Englands, with a team of freshmen Sam Haney and Lomie Cunningham, senior Jason Hanrahan and Faller. That foursome fell short with a time of 10:11.40, coming in ninth overall but winning their heat without being challenged.
"They had nobody to run with last [weekend]," Crastnopol said. "By the time Lomie Cunningham got the baton for the 400 leg, Sam Haney smoked everybody in the 1,200, so Lomie was running by himself, and then Jason and Jesse ran by themselves. There was nobody for them to chase, and it's a lot harder to run like that."
The strong competition this weekend proved to be the missing component in the Jumbos' attempts to qualify earlier this season.
Tufts' 4x800−meter relay also competed at IC4As this weekend, taking 14th out of 23 teams, and running a time of 7:45.10. The team featured Hanrahan and freshmen Jeff Marvel and Dan Kirschner, who helped comprise the squad that broke the 25−year old school record last weekend with a 7:42.67 mark, with Haney taking the place of Hale to complete the team.
The Jumbos also sent athletes to compete at the ECAC Championships this weekend at Smith College. Senior quad−captain Jared Engelking represented Tufts well, winning the pentathlon on Friday with a score of 3,529 points. That mark improved his previous provisional NCAA qualifier of 3,525, ranking him as the 14th highest scoring pentathlete on the list for Nationals.
"It went pretty well; I [got a personal record] again," Engeking said. "But I didn't actually improve my standings for Nationals … so it wasn't that beneficial."
Engelking's victory makes him the third straight Tufts athlete to win the pentathlon at ECAC's. His highest−scoring event was the 55−meter hurdles, in which he earned 893 points with a time of 7.76, which placed him in first in the event.
"I was pleased with my hurdles race," Engelking said. "I've never run 7.7 off of just the trials or in my first hurdles race, so I was pretty happy with that.
"I wanted to run faster in the 1,000," he continued. "I didn't get out as fast as I wanted to, so I finished like two or three seconds behind what I had planned on doing, so I wasn't too pleased with that. I know I can run faster in the 1000, and I also didn't really throw as well as I was feeling in the shot−put."
Engelking's victory came out of an incredibly strong field of 11 athletes, many of whom ran their best races of the season at the ECAC meet.
"There were three guys that have all [gotten provisional qualifying scores] including me, so it was great competition," Engelking said. "I knew that they would be trying to get into the top 12 or top 13 to try to go to Nationals, so I knew I really had to hold them off essentially."
The only other Tufts scorer in the ECAC meet was freshman Michael Blair, who tied for sixth in the high jump with a height of 6−2 3/4. Tufts took home 24th place among 49 teams with a score of 12.5 points, although a portion of the team did not compete at ECACs.
The team now waits to see who will make the cut to compete at nationals next weekend at DePauw University in Indiana While the DMR will definitely be attending, Engelking is on the list of provisional qualifiers for the pentathlon and the 55−meter hurdles, and Faller is in a good position on the list for the 5,000−meter run.
