The men's team traveled to Northeastern Saturday for the 2001 Huskie Indoor Carnival for its first meet of the season. Though a non-scoring meet, the Huskie Carnival gives coaches a glimpse of things to come in the winter season.
This year's talent comes as no surprise to veteran coach Connie Putnam, who returns for his 19th season as coach of the men's indoor track team. The Jumbos once again possess great depth, which has been a strong point for the team in the past, and is expected to be helpful again for the 2001-2002 season.
The team welcomes 15 new freshmen that hope to fill some of the spaces left by graduating seniors. The freshman talent is well diversified. Many distance runners with exceptional endurance and strength have joined the team like Nathan Brigham, a cross country standout, who finished the 3k race in under nine minutes. Brigham will be mostly a long distance runner this season, and his skills are expected to score points for the team.
In the area of jumping, freshman Nathan Thompson is expected to add much needed talent to the jumping events. Thompson will be trying to improve on their high jumping skills, which Putnam considers the team's weakest event.
"There are a lot of talented athletes on this team, but where we've fallen short in the past has been in the high jump. This season, we are going to work with the able freshmen to try to improve," Putnam said.
Thompson will also compete in the 55-meter hurdles, as he did at Northeastern. Freshman Thomas Tropea is another freshman that will race in the 55-hurdles, as well as compete in the long sprinting races. However, Tropea is injured and will not compete until January.
Most of the team's depth and talent is concentrated in the middle- and long-distance events. Putnam explains, "You have to expect that at a school like this. Bright minds equal strong disciplined athletes who make great distance runners."
Returning talent and leadership will be seen in tri-captain seniors Andrew Benedict, Ben Smith, and Greg Devine. Seniors Smith and Benedict performed well at Saturday's meet. Junior Devine also raced very well finishing the 400 in 50.04 seconds, the fourth best time at the meet.
The sprinters will be looking to juniors Bryant Coen and Yee-Haun Cheng to cover for senior Adam Barrer, one of the teams top sprinters who will unfortunately will not compete this winter season after tearing his ACL before the season began. Senior JR Cruz who finished first in the 3,000 with a time of 8:45.56 will be among the other high scorers in the distance events.
Freshman Isaiah Nelms-Osayande was expected to be among the faster freshmen sprinters, but after pulling his hamstring this weekend he will have to wait to show his true ability.
The overall performance of the Jumbos was considered very good for an early season performance by the coaching staff. "Everyone raced exceptionally," Putnam said. "We look to be in good shape."
This week the team will prepare for its first scored meet of the year, as it will play host at the Tufts Holiday Classic Saturday, Dec. 8.
