Buoyed by some impressive finishes, the Tufts women's track team took an impressive 12th place (20 team points), out of 30 teams, at the New England Championships this weekend. The meet was held at Tufts' own Gantcher Center on Friday and Saturday afternoon. Team spirit abounded as the entire team showed up to cheer on the qualifiers in the last home meet of the season.
"It pretty much went as well as could be expected," assistant coach Pete Loeb said. "Nearly everyone PR-ed for the season."
Almost all of the team members who participated in the weekend's events were pleased with their performances, especially considering the level of competition. With competitors from Divisions I and II joining Tufts' usual slate of Division III opponents, the team was able to step up and prove to all of New England that it is a force to be reckoned with.
"With good competition, you can knock off little bits of time," Claudio said.
The women from the University of Connecticut took the team title racking up 152 points and finishing 59 points ahead of second-place Northeastern (92). UMass-Lowell (62), Wheaton (55), and Boston College (52) rounded out the top five finishers.
Tufts finished eight points behind 11th place Providence College, and edged out the NESCAC duo of Amherst and Middlebury by two points.
Senior tri-captain Leslie Crofton did not post a personal record, but she proved once again why she is among the top runners in the nation, making the automatic qualifying time for Nationals with her second-place finish in the mile on Saturday, finishing in 4:59.83. The senior distance runner had been hoping to break 5:02 to make the qualifying time, but with the fierce competition, Crofton was able to push herself further to break the five-minute mark and take second place.
Her race was a nail biter. Crofton came in only .02 ahead of UMass-Amherst's Melissa Henderson (third, 4:59.85), and Providence College's Francine Darroch (fourth, 4:59.91) was a mere .06 behind her. The Tufts senior kept pace with her competition for the bulk of the race and used her always-impressive backup energy to burst through during the last 100 and push into second.
"I'm so excited for her," sophomore Kristen Munson said. "You just get excited for people when you know they accomplished something they wanted to do."
"I want to be her," sophomore Ashley Peterson said.
For senior tri-captain Sarah Deeb, the 800 proved to be an interesting race. The contest was marred by a couple of unfortunate events. Some of the other school's runners tripped halfway through the race, one runner lost her shoe and finished up with only a sock on one foot. In addition, Providence College sophomore Roisin McGettigan tugged on Deeb's uniform during one of the final laps in order to pass her. McGettigan was disqualified, and Deeb beat out most of the field on the way to a second-place finish with a time of 2:17.33. Although the race was not her season best, Deeb is still among the fastest in the nation in the 800, particularly impressive given that she just started running the race this year.
"I thought it was a messy race, but that happens at these meets sometimes," Loeb said. "She would've run a faster time... Sarah did as well as she could."
Senior Folake Aaron ran her personal best (8.37 seconds) in the 55 high hurdles on Saturday, in a fifth-place effort. With 30 women starting out in the preliminaries of the 55 hurdles, Aaron had her fiercest competition yet, and her top finish prepares her well for Nationals in two weeks.
"I'm still unsatisfied - I want to run faster than that," Aaron said. "It was good, but there's still work to be done."
The senior hurdler has been training hard throughout season, and continues to improve. She is currently eighth in the nation in the event.
"When she puts it all together, she'll run even faster," Loeb said.
On Friday, senior Jenn Edelmann had her season's best run in the 5,000, and qualified for next week's ECAC meet with her 20th-place finish (18:58.59). The senior distance runner was pleased with her performance, yet believes she can do better.
"I still feel like I can run a lot faster," Edelmann said. "It pushes up your pace when you see people ahead of you - you know you have to catch them."
Senior Nadia Samadani continues to jump well. Her 34' 6.75" bound in the triple jump on Saturday was good for 14th out of 26 jumpers on the field.
Also performing well was the team of juniors Lauren Esposito and Colleen Burns, sophomore Jess Trombly, and freshman Emily Bersin, who worked together for 13th (12:44.56) out of 19 teams running in the Distance Medley Relay on Friday. Burns, Munson, sophomore Mary Nodine, and freshman Lauren Caputo ran the 4x800 on Saturday with a 15th-place finish (9:54.40) in another strong relay effort for the Jumbos.
A group of girls will travel to Boston University next weekend for the last local meet of the season, the ECAC championships. The following week, Deeb, Crofton, and Aaron will travel to Oshkosh, Wisconsin for this year's National Championships to compete against the best in the nation.
"When you're looking at all these good people, you can't help but want to be better," said sophomore Myriam Claudio.
