Jumbos Continue to Roll at Valentines Invite

(2/18/2011 9:26 AM) Full Results

Two days until Valentine’s Day. Are you thinking of the one you love? Not to be a cold-hearted person, but the Tufts University Track team sure wasn’t. They were too busy posting new PR’s at the Valentines Invitational hosted by Boston University. For the Jumbos, it was a split squad weekend with the bulk of the field event athletes defending the home turf at the Tufts Last Chance meet, while the majority of track runners were taking advantage of the competition and banked track at BU.

The performances began on Friday evening when the young DMR team of Jamie Norton (Fr), Graham Beutler (Fr), Jeff Marvel (So), and Sam Haney (So) clicked off a national qualifying time of 10:05. It was an impressive performance as Haney was forced to solo his entire anchor leg. The foursome is definitely capable of running much faster as it was Norton’s first 1200m ever and Beutler and Marvel were each battling sickness.

Marvel fought through his oncoming illness to run an indoor PR the next day in the open 800m as well. He and teammate Connor Rose clocked in at 1:54.9, narrowly missing the qualifying standard for nationals. Right on their heels was a threesome of 1:58 sophomore half milers as Dan Kirschner, Thiago Lima, and Adam Brosh each qualified for New Englands with their performance.

Haney and Norton were not about to let Marvel be the only DMR leg to come back and post PR’s. With heavy legs from the night before, both clocked in at lifetime PRs fro the mile. Haney’s 4:17 and Norton’s 4:19 each qualified them for the New England and ECAC Championships. Freshman Brian McLaughlin also added his only PR of 4:24 to the mix. McLaughlin is capable of so much more given his slightly flawed race plan of 600m at 4:08 pace, 800m at 4:45 pace, 200m in 28. Adjustments will be made.

The Jumbo sprinters also took andvantage of the heightened competition as Vinnie Lee, Dan Lange-Vagle, Jordan Dietrich, and Clint Porte all ran collegiate PRs in the 200m dash. Ben Crastnopol added his own NE qualifier to the mix with his 50.97 in the 400m dash and Lawrence Xia clocked in at 52.22, a lifetime best.

The PR performances continued to roll in as freshman Bobby McShane (2:32) and sophomore Jeff Prescott (2:35) each qualified for the New England championships. McShane moved up to the #3 spot on the freshman top 10 list with his race. His classmate, Liam Cassidy, moved up to the top spot on the freshman 3k list as he broke the old freshman record with his 8:34. Sophomore Matt Rand also PRed in the 3k with his 8:41.

This marks the final regular season meet for the Jumbos as the team will head into the DIII New England Championships next Friday at Springfield College. This weekend gave the Jumbos so good momentum going into the championship meets, but it also shows the squad that they’re capable of so much more.


Full Results