The men's and women's track and field teams will cross the Charles today and tomorrow for the Open New England Championships at Boston University, a meet that annually hosts over 30 participating schools.
The BU competition is one of the toughest meets to qualify for and is organized differently than most regular season competitions.
"[The organizers] just take the top 32 athletes in New England for the track events and the top 24 in field events," men's coach Ethan Barron said. "[Tufts has] about 25 athletes competing."
Although the meet is a scoring competition - the men finished 11th in 2006 and the women came in 17th - neither team is focused on group accolades.
"We don't really expect to contend for a win in this race," Barron said. "Usually Division I Programs like UConn and URI duke it out for the overall win. UMass Lowell and Southern Connecticut should also be right there. If we can crack the top 10, it's usually a good meet for us."
Rather, the men are pushing for national-caliber individual times, as the only athletes who are currently qualified for Nationals are sophomore James Bradley, ranked 17th in the high jump, and senior tri-captain Fred Jones, first in the long jump and eighth in the triple jump.
"Every guy toeing the line this weekend should be shooting for a PR," Barron said. "We have lots of guys going into this meet trying to qualify for Nationals."
Tufts should benefit from BU's banked track, which lends itself to faster times. Senior tri-captain Nate Cleveland, running in the 800-meter, and the 4x400 team of Cleveland, freshmen Jared Engelking and Andrew Longley, and senior Dustin Virgilio are among those Jumbos on the verge of national qualification, and the hope is that this weekend's combination of a fast track and strong competition will provide the necessary push.
"Nate Cleveland has been working really hard all season," senior tri-captain Dave McCleary said. "I'm definitely excited to see how this race goes for him. Also, [the 4x400 team] has the potential to run a very, very fast time. Dustin's been getting faster and faster every time he steps on the track, so we don't even know what to expect from him."
The women have had more success with national qualifications this season. Junior Katy O'Brien hit qualifying times in the 800-meter, while classmate Catherine Beck qualified for the 5000-meter. O'Brien, Beck and senior tri-captain Sarah Crispin have also made Nationals in the mile, as has the Distance Medley Relay. The Jumbos view the BU event as an opportunity to fine-tune individual performances.
"We have a lot of people who have hit those [nationally qualifying] times," Beck said. "It's basically just a chance to make run times as fast as possible. I think we're in a good position for the postseason."
At press time, coach Kristen Morwick was still deliberating on the exact line-up for the BU competition, while also thinking ahead to which runners she will showcase at the ECAC Championships, to be held at Wesleyan March 2-3.
"There's just a lot to talk to [the athletes] about," Morwick said. "We have to see where we want to go in the next two meets. There are a lot of different combinations [of runners] that would work."
With the NCAA Tournament approaching in two weeks, the Jumbos must decide whether to begin a taper to Nationals or to squeeze in that last bit of race-day practice for the runners.
"We'll probably just focus on relays and a couple individual events," Morwick said. "We won't have a lot of people in open events. Crispin will run the DMR and 4x4, which will make it an easier week for her. Cat will run the DMR and maybe come back in an open race on Saturday."
Will Herberich and Carly Helfand contributed reporting to this article.
