Track Season Starts out Strong at Home

(1/23/2014 3:26 PM) Full Results

The men’s track team opened up its season with the annual Tufts Invitational. Though the meet might have been considered a “rust-buster” before the competition had even started, many performances by the Jumbos proved otherwise.

Coming off of a strong XC season, the distance runners started right where they left off. In the men’s 3k, Andrew Shapero ‘14 and James Traester ‘16 officially joined the sub 9 club with huge PRs of 8:49.33 and 8:50.95, respectively, qualifying both of them for the Division 3 New England meet. The mid-distance stars broke open big time in a tactical race as they went 1-2-3-7 in the 1000-meter competition. Sophomore phenom Mitch Black ’16 returned from his stellar freshman campaign on the track last year and ran a tactical 2:35.04 time in the 1000 meter run by closing in 26.9 following a 2:08 first 800 meters. Jamie Norton ’14 finished right behind Black in 2:35.79, followed by Veer Bhalla in 2:36.56. Joe St. Pierre ’15 ran sub 2:40 as he ran 2:39.94: a solid time on a flat track. The men’s 4x800 team also ran to a strong early season 8:16.59 time for a 2nd place finish, less than a second behind Amherst. Sam Garfield ’15 also ran a nice season-opening 4:31.26 in the mile.

In the sprints, Graham Beutler ’14 dominated the event, as he posted a sub-50 400 meters very early in the year, clocking a 49.86. Bryson Hoover-Hankerson ’16 posted the fastest 60 meter time for the Jumbos on the day with his 7.30 clocking, good enough for 3rd in his heat. Tom Wang ’17 ran to an impressive finish in his first meet of his college career as his time of 9.11 in the 60 meter hurdles was good enough for 3rd in his heat. The Jumbo quartet of Black, Beutler, Alex Kasimir ’16, and Bhalla also teamed up to win the 4x400 by over 4 seconds in a time of 3:25.02.

In the jumps, Pietro Possenti ’17 and Mitch Stallman ’16 both vaulted to 3rd and 4th place finishes in the pole vault, respectively, with jumps of 3.85 and 3.70 meters. Hoover-Hankerson, coming off of a strong 60 meter dash run, also leapt to a 3rd place finish with his 6.34 meter jump in the long jump.

The Jumbo throwers also got off to a solid start to the season, as Brian Williamson ’15, who holds the freshman shot put record, won the shot put with a 15.20 meter heave. Atticus Swett ’16 also had himself a nice day in the circle, as he threw 13.98 meters for a 4th place finish. Williamson and Swett took 7th and 8th place honors in the hammer throw competition, with throws of 13.73 meters and 13.56 meters respectively.

After a strong first competition, the Jumbos will look to continue the momentum in the weeks ahead. They will compete next weekend on January 25, where the team will be represented both at the BU Terrier Invite and the Bowdoin Invite.


Full Results