The men's track and field team exceeded expectations and won five titles at the NESCAC Championships on Saturday at the Ding Dussault track, where the team finished second overall.
Tufts put up a strong fight from start to finish at home, scoring a total of 155.5 points, 12 points behind first-place Williams. Bates took third in the championship with a total of 129 points. The Jumbos after the meet were thrilled to have finished ahead of Bates, one of the stronger teams in the league this season.
"We did awesome. There were so many different events that people performed so well in," senior quad-captain Jared Engelking said. "It was a really great day. We were projected to finish in fourth, just based strictly on seeds, but we ended up five points down [to Williams] with one event to go. As a team, we performed really well."
The Ephs' victory marks their 17th conference championship in the past 18 years.
"We knew Williams and Bates would be battling it out for number one, and we sort of thought we might be battling it out for a two or a three spot since we were seeded fourth," Engelking said. "But the cards ended up falling a different way, and a lot of guys really performed well, so we ended up in contention at the end of the meet, which was great.
"I think we performed just about as good as we could have," Engelking continued. "It's unfortunate that we had to lose by so few points, but I don't think there was really anything else we could have really done. Williams just has a great team."
Tufts claimed five NESCAC titles in the meet. Engelking and classmate Trevor Donadt demonstrated the Jumbos' dominance in the hurdle events, taking first and second in the 110-meter hurdles, respectively. Engelking's time of 14.62 seconds was a NCAA provisional qualifier and just four-thousandths of a second away from the conference record.
In the 400-meter hurdles, Donadt claimed first in a time of 53.97 seconds, sneaking under the provisional national qualifier of 54.30.
The Jumbos' 4x100-meter relay was the other running event to grab a NESCAC title. The relay of freshmen Vinnie Lee, Gbola Ajayi and Lomie Cunningham and senior Marc Soskin ran a time of 42.95.
Soskin and Lee also contributed two runner-up finishes in the sprints. Soskin ran a time of 11.27 seconds to claim second in the 100-meter dash, while Lee claimed third in the 100-meter dash and second in the 200-meter dash in 22.58 seconds.
Tufts' jumpers got the team's momentum going with three scorers in the long jump, all of whom surpassed their seeds. Senior Isaiah Paramore took second with a jump of 22'4.5", and senior Jonathan Pak and junior Frank DeSalvo took fourth and eighth place, respectively.
In the high jump, freshman Michael Blair claimed victory at a height of 6'3.25", while Paramore chipped in with a fourth-place finish at a height of 6'1.25".
"We went in there understanding that we were an underdog and that we would have to have a good meet to contend for one of the top places," senior quad-captain Billy Hale said. "But it was pretty hard to anticipate how well we would do as a team. It started early with massive PR's in the long jump, and that really set the tone for the rest of the meet."
Freshman Brad Nakanishi took home a NESCAC title in the pole vault, clearing a height of 15'2.75" — a personal best. Junior Sam Read also registered points in the event, finishing in fifth.
"[My performance] exceeded my expectations. I still can't believe it," Nakanishi said. "It feels really good because I've been putting a lot of hard work in all year long and it's just nice to have it all pay off.
"I had a great string of practices leading up to this meet, probably starting from two weeks ago," he continued. "Every practice I was just getting better and better."
Senior Jesse Faller contributed a second place finish in the 5,000-meter run, during which he was edged out of victory by 71 hundredths of a second by Amherst senior Daniel Murner with a time of 14:53.20. Freshman Kyle Marks, additionally, took fourth in the event, running a 15:02.61.
Tufts also had two third-place finishes: freshman Jeff Marvel in the 800-meter dash and junior Alex Gresham in the hammer throw.
"I think [the meet] shows that we perform when we need to perform," Hale said. "That we were able to get such a good all-around performance in really every event, from the throwers, the jumpers, the sprinters to the distance, shows that we have a really well rounded team … We scored in just about every event, and that is something that most teams cannot say."
With the season continuing on Saturday at home in the New England Div. III Championships, Tufts has little time to rest on its performance this weekend. For now, though, the good weather at NESCACs seemed to help the Jumbos, and the excitement and support that come with hosting a championship meet boosted the team to success as well.
"I think for everyone that was competing, that sort of elevated us to a whole other level. People were dropping [personal records] all over the place … The support from the rest of the team was huge," Nakanishi said. "It was really awesome to be a part of that day."
"When you are home, you're a lot more relaxed," Hale added. "We practice there every day, so the feeling of going into a foreign track or a different environment sorts of melts away. I think you're a lot more comfortable going into the meet. Also, we get the feeling that we're defending our track, that this is our home territory, and I think that really motivates and excites people and brings out their best."
