The men's track and field team put together several strong performances from the young members of the squad to wrap up the spring season.
Rising sophomore Ben Wallis led the way for the Jumbos at the New England Open Championships hosted at Southern Conn. State from May 12-14. The team brought a smaller squad to the meet, which pitted the Jumbos against the best teams of the region from Div. I, II and III schools.
Wallis earned a fifth-place finish in the 3,000-meter steeplechase, posting a personal record by five seconds and an NCAA provisionally qualifying time of 9:23.89.
"The race went as well as I think it could have. It was a competitive field and great conditions," Wallis said. "I didn't have much of a plan going in. I just wanted to go out and race. The best performances come when you don't try to force the time and instead just compete. All I focused on was working up through the field and trying to get the next runner."
Rising juniors Tyler Andrews and Brad Nakanishi both added a point to the Jumbos' score. Andrews finished eighth in the 10,000-meter with a new best time, 31:39, while Nakanishi tied for seventh in the pole vault, clearing 14-9.
Fellow rising junior Gbola Ajayi also had a strong day, earning 10th in the long jump with a leap of 22-4 1/4, narrowly missing his PR and advancing to the finals.
A big PR came from rising junior Curtis Yancy, throwing 144-10 in the discus, improving his previous best by six inches.
The 4x400 relay team also had a breakout meet, running a season-best 3:21.37. After an injury left the third leg unfilled, graduating senior co-captain Jeff Prunier stepped up to fill the spot. The foursome of Prunier, rising senior Ben Crastnopol, rising junior Lawrence Xia and rising sophomore Graham Beutler combined for the strong time, with PRs by Prunier and Xia.
Overall, the Jumbos combined for six points, which put Tufts in 26th place at the meet.
Though the bulk of the team headed to Connecticut, the performance of the weekend happened in New Jersey. On May 13, rising junior Matt Rand headed to the IC4A Championships at Princeton, looking to improve his NCAA provisionally qualifying time of 30:59.86 in the 10,000-meter race — a time that ranked him 34th nationally. With some top competition, Rand, the only Div. III athlete in the field, did just that, finishing seventh among 28 athletes in a time of 30:26.59.
"It was probably the best race of my life," Rand said. "The competition was great. I definitely could not have run that time without some really fast guys running with me. It was mostly Div. I guys, so they took it out fast, and I hung onto the lead pack as long as I could and they really pulled me through to the end."
Rand's time, a 33-second PR, moves him up to 13th in the national rankings, which he expects to be good enough to earn a spot at nationals.
Before traveling to Connecticut and Princeton, the Jumbos headed to MIT for the Div. III New England Championships on May 6.
Despite bringing only a limited squad, the Jumbos earned fifth place with 46.5 points, just one point out of fourth — an improvement on their sixth-place finish in the indoor tournament during the winter.
"The finish was really good," graduating senior co-captain Sam Read said. "We did better than we were expecting because we weren't trying for the team title, so we didn't throw out all our best guys in every event, so coming in fifth was pretty solid for us."
Rising junior Michael Blair earned the Div. III New England title in the high jump, clearing 6-6. On the track, rising sophomore Liam Cassidy also claimed a victory, crossing the line of the 5,000-meter run in 14:57.89 to earn his title.
"Liam ran an absolutely perfect 5K," Rand said. "He went out in the middle of the pack and just worked his way up and just dropped everyone with two laps to go. He closed with a 2:11 800 [meters], so that is really impressive for a freshman."
The pair of Nakanishi and Read continued their success in the pole vault, earning fourth and fifth, respectively, each clearing 14-11. Ajayi added two fifth-place finishes, launching himself 22-8 in the long jump and 45-3 1/2 in the triple jump.
Another impressive race by the 4x400 squad earned them third place. The team of Beutler, Xia, Crastnopol and rising sophomore Daniel Lange-Vagle crossed the line in 3:21.44.
Over the course of the two meets, Read provided the only points that will be lost to graduation, leaving a promising team itching to come back even stronger next year.
"It was a definitely a good season, and we definitely proved we're more of an outdoor team than our indoor team this year," Read said. "Considering this was supposed to be a rebuilding year, I think it was a step in the right direction, and everyone stepped up when they needed to."
Those that secure their sp-ots at NCAAs will travel to Ohio Wesleyan University to face off against the best competition the division has to offer on May 26-29.
