Ten members of the men's and women's track and field teams achieved All-American status this past weekend at the NCAA Div. III National Championships, including six Tufts men who earned a total of seven All-Amercan awards, more than Tufts has seen in years.
Senior tri-captain Connor Rose, juniors Jeff Marvel, Bobby McShane, Matt Rand and Gbola Ajayi and sophomore Graham Beutler were the six to receive the honors, which are given to the top eight finishers in each event.
"We had a very successful weekend. We are happy with it all around," Marvel said. "Across the board - Connor, the DMR, Gbola and me - coming back with six All-Americans, when last year we didn't have any - it was a big step forward for the program, and we are very happy with how things went."
The men finished 17th as a team, earning 11 points on Friday and Saturday at the event hosted by Grinnell College in Grinnell, Iowa.
The team's first All-American finish of the weekend came in the Distance Medley Relay (DMR) on Friday evening. McShane, Beutler, Rose and Rand combined for an eighth-place finish in a time of 10:18.59. McShane led off the foursome in the 1,200-meter leg, handing off to Beutler for the 400 leg in eighth, the Jumbos' finishing position. Rose, in his second race of the day, just a few hours after the mile preliminaries, then took the baton for the 800 leg, with Rand anchoring in the 1,600 leg.
"Bobby ran a good leg. He was up there battling at the front half for most of it, he faded off a little bit at the end but he handed off in eighth in good position, right off the lead pack, and then Graham ran well - he moved up one spot to seventh," Rand said. "Connor had just run the mile so he was pretty tired and he had some trouble holding onto the front pack.
"I got the baton by myself basically - well off the lead pack and well ahead of the ninth and tenth place guys," Rand continued. "I went out fast to try to demoralize the two guys behind me, basically make them think they didn't have a chance to catch me, and then I slowed down quite a bit and just tried to hang on."
Tufts' eighth-place finish was just enough for All-American honors - the first for McShane, Beutler and Rose and the third career honor for Rand.
"We were going for All-American, and we got that, so we were satisfied with that," Rand said. "The time was slow, but it really doesn't matter at nationals. It was a tough, narrow track, Connor was going off the mile, and then I ran the whole mile leg by myself, so I think we just threw the time out the window and we were all happy with the All-American finish."
Marvel was the top finisher for the Jumbos, earning fifth in the 800-meter run to mark his first career All-American performance. After not reaching the finals last indoor season in the event, Marvel was determined to move on this year. On Friday evening, he did just that, crossing the line in 1:53.52 for second in his preliminary heat - the fourth-fastest of the day - to earn one of eight spots in Saturday's finals.
"In the trials, we were in the second heat, so we were able to see that the first heat went out fairly quickly, so that put more pressure on us to either run a fast time or get a top-two finish to automatically qualify [for the finals]," Marvel said. "That changed my strategy a little bit. I stayed up towards the front and kicked to get that second automatic spot."
Saturday's race was a much slower and more tactical one, and Marvel's 1:54.32 was enough for fifth place.
"In the finals, it was a very strategic race. It went out very slowly and then about 400 meters in, everyone started kicking, and it was whoever was in the best position near the leaders, basically it finished in that order," Marvel said. "Obviously I am very happy with it. It was an All-American finish, which was the goal going into the meet."
In addition to his DMR effort, Rose notched a second All-American finish on Saturday. Rose had Friday's fifth best mark in the mile preliminaries, crossing the line in 4:13.59 to advance to the 10-man final. The next day, Rose pulled off another strong performance in his third race of the weekend, with a big final kick to move up from 10th to sixth and earn a time of 4:15.85, good enough for sixth.
"Connor had an interesting race," Marvel said. "He found himself in the back early on and I don't think he felt that great, but I think it is a testament to his training that he was able to kick in the last 600 and catch a few people and get that sixth spot."
On Saturday, Ajayi added yet another impressive effort to the team's weekend. Ajayi notched a personal best of 48-4 in the triple jump, nearly a foot better than his qualifying jump of 47-5 3/4. The leap earned Ajayi sixth place - a six-spot improvement from his initial seed - and All-American honors in his first trip to nationals.
"Gbola had a huge PR [by 30 centimeters] in the first jump in the final, and that was enough to lock up the All-American place," Marvel said. "He was really happy with it. He outperformed his seed by a lot and that's always fun to do."
Junior Curtis Yancy competed for Tufts in the weight throw on Friday, but came up short this weekend, fouling on each of his attempts to place 13th.
"Curtis had a tough day. He had some good throws that probably would have made finals, but he was just outside of the triangle," Rand said. "It was a good experience for him and he will certainly be back at nationals and get another chance at it."
After a successful conclusion to the indoor season, the Jumbos now look ahead to the outdoor competitions in the spring.
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