With the NCAA Championships just two weeks away, the women's track and field team's goal at this weekend's All−New England Championships at Boston University (BU) was to qualify as many athletes as possible for the national meet.
So far, the Jumbos are off to a good start.
Two members of the Tufts team came into the meet holding NCAA qualifying marks: senior co−captain Andrea Ferri and sophomore Nakeisha Jones. While both Ferri and Jones boosted their NCAA−qualifying marks with strong performances at BU, junior Amy Wilfert was also able to join her teammates as an NCAA qualifier with her performance in the mile this weekend.
Ferri improved on her NCAA−qualifying score by more than 100 points in the indoor pentathlon, earning 3,128 points overall — over 100 points better than her previous best score earned at the Tufts Invitational II on Feb. 5 — en route to a fifth−place finish. She placed second in both the shot put (34−6 3/4) and the 800−meter run (2 minutes, 23.01 seconds) portions of the event as well.
"I think we had a lot of really encouraging performances on our team, a lot of personal records," Wilfert said. "I think overall it was a good day for the relay teams and the jumpers, so it was a great meet."
Jones also garnered substantial success at the meet, placing third in the triple jump with a mark of 39−2 1/2 while only finishing behind two Div. I opponents. Jones' previous high mark this season was 39−01 1/4, set at the Valentine Invitational at BU on Feb. 12 and she continues to hold the longest Div. III triple−jump in the nation.
"I'm happy to be back where I was last semester in terms of measurements," said Jones, whose performance at this year's New England Championships was half a foot better than her fourth place finish at last year's tournament. "I did want to win, but I'll leave that for the final championships, hopefully."
Jones also competed in the pentathlon this weekend and tied for third place in the high jump portion with a leap of 5−1 1/4.
Wilfert placed ninth in the mile run with a time of 4:58.55, easily under the NCAA qualifying time of 5:05 and just one−hundredth of a second shy of University of Connecticut first−year Shauna McNiff for a scoring spot.
"It's different people," said Wilfert of competing against Div. I and Div. II runners. "A lot of the [Div. I] people go out really fast because they train differently and run differently. It's a completely different race because we're used to running with people who are the same pace. You do what you have to do to stay in the competition. If we did what we normally would do at a normal invitational you'll probably end up falling off the back."
As a result of BU's banked track, seconds were added to each time to adjust to the change from a flat track. The banked track adjustment led to some Tufts runners falling short of qualifying times.
The 4x400−meter relay team's time of 3:59.16 was adjusted by 1.6 seconds, for instance, which brought the unit's time above the four−minute qualifying barrier. The relay team — made up of Ferri, junior Andrea Caruth, sophomore Kayley Pettoruto, and junior Kaylee Maykranz — came in ninth place overall, and second for Div. III squads. Caruth's personal−record time of 58.58 in the 400−meter dash also had four−tenths of a second added to it, which took her beyond the 58.64 provisional time.
Tufts earned 10 points overall in the team−scoring portion and finished fourth among Div. III schools and 16th out of the 34 teams participating in the tournament. The University of Connecticut dominated the weekend and finished at the top with 202 points, which was 112 points ahead of second−place Northeastern. Tufts' finish this weekend was slightly lower than its 11th−place finish at last year's New England meet, where the Jumbos tied Sacred Heart with a score of 25 points.
"Having the extra competition of the [Div. I] and [Div. II] schools also helped," Wilfert said. "I think it's motivation for people who just missed out to keep training so they'll have that chance to qualify. For those who have qualified, it's better than seeing them posting a great time back in January and then flat−lining."
The meet marked the lead−up to the final championships for the Jumbos before the NCAA meet. Next weekend, the team will compete at the ECAC Championships at Smith College in an effort to qualify for the NCAA Championships the following weekend (March 12−13) at DePauw University.
"Everyone is very focused on qualifying for the NCAA Championships. It all leads to that," Jones said. "The meet this weekend was good to see how much more we all have to improve." Alex Prewitt contributed reporting to this article.
