Sophomore Mike Blair returned from the 2011 men's track and field NESCAC Championships on Saturday with his second career title in the high jump, though the team as a whole slipped to fourth in the final standings.
While 6-3 was good enough for Blair's win last spring, the top three of this year's field all cleared that height, and a personal best of 6-7 earned the 2011 title for Blair.
"That was a height I've been trying to get since high school, so it was pretty exciting for me," Blair said. "[Leading up to the PR], it was a culmination of resting the last couple weeks, some beautiful weather and it was the first time I've jumped with fresh legs in a while."
Junior teammate Alex Orchowski, with an especially impressive performance given that he started jumping for the team this semester, earned the runner-up spot in the event with a clearance of 6-5. The pair earned a combined 18 points for the Jumbos Saturday, making the high jump Tufts' best event.
"I am pretty ecstatic," Blair said. "I really went in there wanting to go 1-2 with my teammate Alex, and obviously I wanted to bring home the title again, but ultimately as long as we got 18 points it didn't matter to me … I think I deserved it more this year with a much higher jump.
Despite several other strong performances on the part of the Jumbos, the team did not meet their goal of finishing top three in the conference; 99.5 total points earned Tufts a fourth-place finish behind Williams, Bates and Middlebury.
"It wasn't exactly what we wanted, but you can't expect to have a NESCACs like we did last year where every single event is going better than great," Blair said. "Middlebury had one of those days, so they beat us."
Williams asserted its dominance once again with 188.5 points, earning its 21st title in the event's 26-year history. It was the Ephs' 11th consecutive championship, including when they shared the crown with Tufts in 2007.
The Jumbos earned second at the event in 2010, but were unable to repeat such a performance on Saturday. Instead, Bates came in second with 122.5 points, earning 74 points and three titles in the four throwing events alone. A strong day from Middlebury improved the Panthers' fifth-place finish last spring to a third on Saturday.
"We were happy with the effort we put it in, but it's tough with such strong competitors to finish highly," freshman Liam Cassidy said. "This is just even more motivation for next year to come back and do better."
The pole vault proved to be a big event for the Jumbos, with sophomore Brad Nakanishi earning second and senior co-captain Sam Read in third. For the second year in a row, the event came down to Nakanishi battling it out with Colby's Trent Wiseman. Nakanishi won last year, but this year the Tufts sophomore settled for second place, clearing the same height as Wiseman (15-1), but doing so on a later attempt. Read was close behind, with a clearance of 14-7 1/4.
Sophomore jumper Gbola Ayaji brought home two third-place finishes for the Jumbos, launching himself 21-11 3/4 in the long jump and a new personal best of 46-1 1/4 in the triple jump. Blair supported Ayaji in the triple jump, adding a sixth-place finish for Tufts with another PR.
Depth on the distance side also played an important role in the Jumbos' finish. In the first event on the track, sophomore Matt Rand took third in the 10,000-meter run, crossing the line in a time of 31:45.75. Classmate Tyler Andrews added another point in the event with an eighth-place finish in 32.29.51.
"Matt Rand really set the tone for the meet in the 10K," Cassidy said. "He outkicked a guy from Wesleyan [by 0.14 seconds] and it really showed that he put all of his effort into his race."
In the 5,000-meter run, Cassidy came in third in 14:59.85 — his first time under 15 minutes. Junior Scott McArthur and sophomore Kyle Marks also added points for Tufts, finishing in sixth and seventh, respectively.
"My plan going into it was to stick back during the first two miles and then really push the last one," Cassidy said. "The race went out faster than I thought it would, but luckily my teammates really kept the pace up and I was able to stick with them."
Freshman Dan Lange-Vagle added another third-place finish, with an 11.17 showing in the 100-meter dash, while sophomore Jeff Marvel contributed a fifth-place finish in the 800-meter run in 1:55.02.
Despite Bates' dominance in the throws, the Jumbos still managed to have two scorers in each of the discus, shot put and hammer events, led by fifth- and sixth-place finishes in the hammer by senior Alex Gresham with a throw of 164-1 and sophomore Curtis Yancy with 161-1. Freshman Atticus Swett added another sixth place in the discus with 147-2.
The team now looks ahead to the New England Div. III Championships, hosted by MIT on Friday and Saturday, where it will face off once again against the rest of the NESCAC, with added competition from the rest of New England.
With Div. IIIs, Open New Englands, IC4A's and ECACs remaining, the Jumbos will look to improve on the marks of this weekend and hit national qualifiers for the NCAA meet steadily approaching on May 26.
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