Tufts earns second straight first-place finish from two meets

On Sunday, the Jumbos hosted the annual Snowflake Classic at home on the Dussault Track, continuing their hot start to the season and dominating the competition at the meet. Tufts won eight of the 21 events and finished first overall, their second first-place finish in a row.

The 400-meter was completely controlled by Jumbos. Junior hurdler Andrew DiMaiti ran the 400-meter race in 48.54 seconds to win the race. DiMaiti’s time currently ranks sixth in the nation.

"[For the 400-meter], a lot of the general strategy is to get out hard, float the middle and accelerate at the end," DiMaiti said. "This weekend's race was interesting because the lane assignments were random. I got lane eight, which meant I couldn't see anyone behind or next to me. Usually I dislike being in the outside lane."

First-year long sprinter Jordan Abate was not far behind in second place, ranking 25th nationally with a time of 49.31. Sophomore mid-distance runner Thomas Doyle finished sixth with a time of 50.93, but did not earn a nationally-ranked time.

The relay teams dominated the meet as well. The 4x100 relay team, composed of senior sprinter Blake Coolidge, sophomore mid-distance runner Anthony Kardonsky, sophomore sprinter Brandon Levenstein and first-year short sprinter Robert Jones,placed first in the race with a time of 43.00.The 4x400 relay team, made up of Coolidge, Kardonsky, Abate and sophomore mid-distance runner Christian Swenson, also came out on top with a time of 3:21.90.

There were a slew of other stand-out individual performances. Senior tri-captain Nick Usoff placed first in both the 400-meter hurdles and the javelin throw. Usoff ran a time of 55.52 in the hurdles, ranking 24th nationally.He also threw a 54.40 meter heave in the javelin throw, a mark that is ranked 37th in the nation and earned the Jumbos 20 team points from his efforts alone.

“It was all about just getting a mark in this weekend, just getting something,” Usoff said. “Getting a qualifying spot for NESCACs and maybe beyond. It just so happened that I came away with a win and I’m pretty happy about that."

Sophomore hurdler/jumper Josh Etkind placed first in the 110-meter hurdles with a time of 14.93 seconds. Junior distance runner Sam Little earned a career-best time in the 5,000-meter race, winning with a time of 15:36.30.

Junior jumper Stefan Duvivier continued his strong form from the indoor track season into his debut at the Snowflake Classic, winning the high jump with a 1.98 meter jump and ranking 22nd in the nation.

Other Jumbos, while not winning their events, set some season-best times for the team. Sophomore distance runner Andrew Doherty Munro ran a 32:58.97 in the 10k for a seventh-place finish and the team’s best time for the season.

In the field events, sophomore pole vaulter Ben Wallace earned a 3.95 meter mark in the pole vault for a fourth-place finish.Senior Michael Paloian threw for 39.01 meters in the discus for an eighth-place finish and had a 46.13 meter mark in the hammer throw for a fourth-place finish.

By the end of the day, the Jumbos accumulated a team total of 153 points to come in first place, beating out second-place Worcester State by 50.5 points. It seems that despite the rigorous training that accompanies the start of a new season, the team has been doing very well.

“It’s kind of surprising actually to see a lot of fast times in this weekend because we have been training pretty hard the last couple of weeks,” Usoff said. “We’re not really doing anything different, we’re just at a point in the season where training takes priority over meets and it’s all about just trying to power through."

Usoff is confident that the success the Jumbos had during the indoor season will carry over onto the outdoor tracks.

“We’ve shown over the past two weeks that we can translate our success from indoors to outdoors,” he said. “It’s just been week after week of putting up good marks, so we’re really confident going into the season.”

The Jumbos compete in the Sam Howell Invitational at Princeton University tomorrow and a tri-meet at Bates College on Saturday.

DiMaiti, looking to build on his success from Sunday, has his eyes on the meet this weekend.

"I think this weekend will be big for some guys, in particular Luke O'Connor and Tim Nichols who are heading to Princeton to try and run some fast times," he said. "Otherwise, I think the rest of us are just trying to get in some good races and keep competing at a high level at the Bates meet."