Tufts Wins First Outright NESCAC Title Since 1991

(4/29/2013 2:56 PM) Full Results

On Saturday, the Tufts Men's Track & Field took home the NESCAC title for the first time since 1991. They didn't have to take it far, however, as they successfully defended their home track, Ellis Oval, with 213 points against strong performances from Bates (166) and Middlebury (140). Tufts came away with the highest team score since Williams put up 214 points for the title in 2006.

From top to bottom, the Jumbos outdid themselves in almost every event. The day got underway with the 10,000m, where Tufts had the top two seeds going into the meet. After early breakaway pack stayed away, seniors Matt Rand and Tyler Andrews had to settle for fourth and fifth, respectively. Bates, on the other hand, took the first victory of the day with Ken Whitney in the top spot. The battle had begun.

The Jumbos never let a stumble take the wind out of their sails. As the 10k unfolded on the track, the throws crew got started with the hammer, where sophomore Brian Williamson, seniors captain Curtis Yancy and Andre Figueroa, and fifth-year Adam Aronson stepped up in a big way to grab 19 points in a crucial event. This kicked off a huge day for the throwers. It started with the hammer, continued to the shot put where Yancy and Williamson got over 50 feet for third and fourth, and finished with a 3-5-6 finish in the discus and Matt Johnson in third in the javelin.

The distance squad wasted no time picking each other up. In the steeplechase, the Jumbos were three for three in impressive performances. Sophomore Joe Poupard grabbed the unseeded section by the horns and won in a PR of 9:56.89. Junior Ben Wallis and sophomore Marshall Pagano took notice. In third, Wallis recorded his highest NESCAC finish to date and equalled his 9:12 PR, while Pagano set a new best of 9:39.25 for ninth. When the 1500m saw Jamie Norton and Connor Rose, both seeded at 3:54, tally a lower-than-expected two points, Mitchell Black reset his own freshman record in the 800m with an electric runner-up finish in 1:52.23. Fellow rookie Veer Bhalla edged out an eighth-place point by .01. The Jumbos fought for every inch.

In the sprints, the Jumbos did more than PR. Junior Daniel Lange Vagle and senior Vinnie Lee could have PR'd and grabbed only a few points. That's how strong the field was in the 100m. But they chopped tenths off their lifetime bests to grab second and third in 11.07 and 11.13. In the 200m, they came back with PRs of 22.17 and 22.22 for third and fourth, behind champion Graham Beutler, whose nearly four-tenth PR of 21.80 now places him 15th in the nation. They joined frosh leadoff Bryson Hoover Hankerson for a runner-up finish in the 4x100m relay in a season-best 42.48. Beutler's impressive day didn't stop there, as he grabbed his second individual NESCAC title in the 400m with a PR of 48.30, the 13th-fastest time in the country.

Beutler wasn't the only Jumbo to notch two ten-point events. In the high jump, senior Mike Blair grabbed his third NESCAC victory. He followed it up with an unexpected first place in the long with a huge PR of 6.84m. He also scored in the triple jump with a 13.30m fourth-place mark and was backed up in all three events by two other scorers. Junior Andrew Osborne and frosh Alex Karys were fourth and eighth in the high jump, their 1.88m clearance a PR for Karys. Senior Gbola Ajayi was third in the long jump before grabbing the W in the triple with a 14.47m mark that is eighth nationally. Most impressively, Black came back from the 800m to add a second runner-up finish -- with a 13.39m leap in the triple jump. He is likely the first person ever to score at NESCACs in these two events, let alone totaling 16 points as a freshman. That was the kind of day the Jumbos had.

It ended in appropriate fashion, as Rand and Andrews doubled back from the 10k in the 5000m, closing hard to finish sixth and seventh in one of the fastest NESCACs 5k in recent memory. In an outdoor PR, senior Kyle Marks was third, his 14:39.59 fourth all-time for Tufts and his second time under 14:40. The 4x400m relay saw Black, freshman Woody Butler, Lee, and Beutler set a season best mark of 3:18.24, as Beutler concluded an extraordinary day by running down Williams anchor in the final 50 meters.

In winning the NESCAC Championship, not only did Tufts end a 22-year drought but the Jumbos secured the second NESCAC title of the 2012-13 campaign, as the TUXC squad took the top spot at Bowdoin College this fall.


Full Results