Jumbos Take 6th at New England Champs

(2/25/2011 7:50 AM) See more Photos     Full Results

The Jumbos used the momentum created by sophomore Mike Blair’s PR performance in the pentathlon on Day 1 to jumpstart their showing on Day 2 at the Division III New England Championships. Blair would continue his solid weekend on Saturday with a sixth place finish in the high jump, despite heavy legs from the day before. In addition, a number of other Jumbos stepped up on Day 2 as well, helping Tufts take sixth overall.

Sophomore Brad Nakanishi was Tufts highest finisher of the weekend, vaulting nearly 15 feet to finish second in the pole vault. Nakanishi hopes to carry his great performance into next week’s Open New England Championships. Fellow sophomore Sam Haney continued the trend of young scorers with a third place finish in the mile. His impressive negative split yielded a time of 4:19 as no one in the field took out the race. Haney showed his versatility when he doubled as the 1200m leg of the DMR. Sophomores Lawrence Xia, Adam Brosh, and freshman Brian McLaughlin ran the 400, 800, and mile legs, respectively, helping the relay capture third place.

Despite exhibiting some inexperience by getting boxed in a couple of times, freshman Jamie Norton continued to improve during his first ever track season. His fifth place performance in the 1000 bodes well for next weekend as he makes another bid at the freshman record in the event.

In the day’s distance races, grad Nick Welch and sophomore Matt Rand fought off tactical if not hesitant fields to finish with some solid performances. Welch ended up beating his seed time, while Rand battled a hurt foot to finish fourth. Freshman Ben Wallis also picked up a couple of points with his excellent seventh place finish alongside Rand in the 5k.

In case you couldn’t tell, the day was really stolen by the freshmen and sophomores. All the Jumbos’ points were scored by the classes of 2013 and 2014, proving yet again how young and talented this team is.
Tufts will take on all of New England this week at BU for the Open New England Championships.


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