Sophomore Jeff Marvel and junior Connor Rose will compete today and tomorrow at the Div. III NCAA Championships hosted by Capital University in Columbus, Ohio, hoping to return to Tufts will their first All-American honors.
They are the only male Jumbos traveling to the indoor nationals for track and field this year and are among 12 athletes to qualify in the 800-meter race, making their first appearances on the national scene.
Marvel and Rose ran their qualifying times of, respectively, 1:52.72 and 1:53.04 — both converted to account for the banked track — two weekends ago at the All-New England Championships at Boston University. Their times broke a 19-year-old school record and marked huge personal bests for the athletes.
Marvel's time is seventh on the list of entries, while Rose is just behind in ninth, but both will be in contention in a field separated by under three seconds, with the exception of the favorite going into the race, Amherst junior Ben Scheetz. The Lord Jeff runner posted a time of 1:48.68 — a time that, pre-conversion, is the second-best in Div. III history. Scheetz also goes into the weekend as the top-ranked 400-meter runner, a member of the top-seeded Distance Medley Relay and a leg of the ninth-ranked 4x400 meter relay.
"The only reason [Scheetz] wouldn't win is because he is going for a team title and he is running a lot of events," Marvel said. "He might not be in the best shape going into the 800-meter finals, but he's definitely the most talented in the field and he's been running the best all season."
The 12 competitors in the 800 will be split between two heats this evening, all with the goal of earning a spot in the finals on Saturday. The top two from each heat plus the four next-best times will combine for the eight spots in the coveted final race. Since the top eight finishers in each event earn All-American honors, a spot in Saturday's race will guarantee the esteemed title.
"Since it's my first time at nationals, I'm just going to sort of go with the flow," Marvel said. "I don't really know how it's going to play out and I'm not really going to try to think about [a race strategy] too much beforehand just so, in case things don't go according to plan, I don't let that go to my head."
Marvel and Rose share the common goal of advancing to Saturday's finals, but understand that Friday's heats will be more about tactic than time. Both are confident that they will have the right strategy to excel.
"I think that type of race suits my running style pretty well," Marvel said. "I like to take ... the race easier at the beginning and see how I am feeling before I make my moves so I think that type of race will play to my advantage."
Rose, who is also a senior staff writer for the Daily, believes he will react well to what might be a slower race, with his closing speed setting him apart from his competitors on the track.
"Basically I just want to stay on my toes and be ready to adapt to whatever the situation is… making a move when I have to move and staying aggressive," Rose said.
NCAAs will be a very different meet than what Rose and Marvel have experienced before, but they don't see this as a disadvantage.
"Looking at the performance list, there are only two or three guys who have been in this race before, so they might feel like they have an advantage," Rose said. "But at the same time everyone here knows how to race and knows how to run hard and everyone is confident about what they can do,."
Both athletes take comfort in stepping onto the national stage with a teammate beside them. Tufts is one of only two schools in the race with two competitors.
"It definitely helps to have a teammate there in terms of support and familiarity and getting adjusted to the new atmosphere, so I definitely think it's a good thing that [Connor is] coming along," Marvel said.
