Tufts Finishes 2nd in New England

(5/5/2007) Full Results

The Jumbos returned to the campus of Springfield College on Saturday morning for the finale of the New England Division III Championships. After the first two days of competition, With four athletes already having bettered the NCAA provisional standard at this meet, the Jumbos hoped to build on the success of Thursday and Friday.

The High Jumpers were the first to get into the competition mix on Saturday. Ted McMahan, James Bradley and Jeremy went to battle against a tough field. McMahan showed that his minor injuries were behind him as he cleared 1.87/6'01.50" for seventh place. Arak and Bradley, were not on the top of their game but still cleared a respectable height of 1.92/6'03.50" for fifth and sixth place.

The first running contest of the day was the 110 High Hurdles. Tufts fielded another three Jumbos in this event in the form of Senior Dave McCleary, and freshmen Ikenna Acholonu and Trevor Donadt. McCleary ran his second fastest race ever however it was not enough to qualify for the finals. Acholonu and Donadt both were a bit shaky in the their first race, but still made it out of the prelims. In the final, Trevor Donadt lowered his PR to 15.52 second to earn an eighth place finish. Acholonu got out of the block well and his second half of the race looked strong. Ikenna dropped a massive PR in running 15.08 for fourth place.

The 100 Meter Dash trials followed, and a problem with the timing system that flashed in and out during the day reared its ugly head. Colin Fitzgerald and Phil Rotella were clocked at 12.00 along with everyone else in the 1st heat. To make amends for the timing error, the games committee made the changed the format of the event to a two-heat final. In the first section of the final, Colin ran 11.28 to place ninth overall--just one place out of scoring.

Chad Uy and Dave Sorensen were the next Jumbos on the track in the Steeplechase. Chad ran a strong race out of the slow section to set a PR of 9:47.10. In the fast section, Dave Sorensen was running his third steeplechase in as many weeks. Dave ran 9:19.36 at the Larry Ellis invitational, then followed up that performance with a 9:17.52 clocking at NESCACs. Despite these strong races, Dave would need a faster time to guarantee a spot at the NCAA Championships. Sorensen went out with the leaders in the fast section. Eventually, Sorensen along with Stephen Wills and Chris Ellis-Ferrara of Williams broke away from the rest of the field. Sorensen maintained contact throughout the race and finished third in a time of 9:14.30. After this performance, Dave will finally get some time off to rest his legs before Nationals.

The 400 Meter Relay followed and the Jumbos were on the track to make another assault on the school record. Mickey Ferri, Colin Fitzgerald, Fred Jones and Andrew Longley were looking to make Tufts History. After a strong three legs, Fred passed the baton to Longley in second place. Eddie Bynum of Salem State made up serious ground on the entire field during the anchor leg to win the race, relegating Tufts to third place. The foursome ran another fast time of 42.69. While short of the record, they will have more opportunities to break it for the season is out.

In the 400, where finals were done on time, Scott Brinkman, James Bradley and Dustin Virgilio ran together in the third of four section. Dustin Virgilio ran an excellent race, breaking the stagger on his nearest competitor early. Dustin won the heat in a PR of 50.52, while Brinkman finished in 50.63. Bradley was not too far behind in 50.83. Dustin's time stood up well through the last section of the 400, as he ended up fifth overall.

The Triple Jump saw four Jumbos in competition. Coming off the High Hurdle final, Ikenna jumped 13.13/43'01". Fred Jones was having major difficulties and could only muster a jump of 13.30/43'07.75". Jake Fromer performed well and landed his best collegiate jump to date. On his final preliminary jump, Jake recorded a mark of 13.33/43'09". Dan Marcy was having similar difficulties as Fred, but made the final round with a jump in the middle 44' range. In the 6th round, Dan found himself in seventh place as a number of athletes passed him. Dan attacked his last jump to reach 14.16/46'05.50" to move into third place. That mark is also an NCAA Provisional Qualifier.

Dave McCleary, Nate Scott and Andrew Longley took to the track for the 400 Intermediate Hurdles. McCleary ran beautifully out of one of the slow sections to place sixth. In the fast heat, Nate started well, but some difficulty with the final hurdles prevented him from placing. Longley ran a more solid race and found himself in contention for the victory during the final straightaway. The runner in the lead from Coast Guard tripped over a hurdle, and Longley took advantage of the mistake to earn the win. The problem with the timing system flared up again as hand times had to be used for the remainder of the meet.

In the 200, Phil Rotella, Colin Fitzgerald and Mickey Ferri competed in the half-lapper. Phil ran the best race, clocking 22.5h. Phil missed the enitre indoor season and much of the outdoor season because of a foot injury. However, he has returned running faster times than he did his freshman year. We hope that Phil can remain in good health and really impress next season.

In the final individual event, Senior Justin Chung ran in the 5K. JC arguably ran the strongest track race of his career. Justin remained in solid contact with the leaders throughout the race and closed in a time of 15:05.

As the team scores were announced just before the 1600 relay, the Tufts athletes had a bit of deja-vu. Last year, the Jumbos were down by 3.5 points to MIT, and needed to score 4 points to takeover second place. This time around, Tufts needed 1.5 points to take 2nd place from Springfield. Just like last year, the Jumbo relay squad performed well and scored the necessary points. Bradley, Scott, Virgilio and Longley won the race in 3.22.1h while Springfield finished third.

Williams College won the meet with a scored of 137.5 points, while Tufts tallied 91.5 for second. Springfield College claimed 3rd place with 79 points. Next week, the Jumbos will travel to Dartmouth College to compete in the All-New England Championships.


Full Results