Women's track and field takes second place at Division III's

When the women's track and field team set a goal of a second place finish at the New England Div. III Championship meet, it had no idea that it would achieve its' goal in such commanding fashion. While the squad was able to safely secure second place, it was the accomplishments of many individuals that told the story of the meet.

Junior Jessica Trombly showed that not only can she break records, she can also shatter expectations. She went on to claim top billing in five events, far surpassing anything anyone expected. Trombly won the 200 meter, 400, and 55 hurdles races, as well as the long jump and filled in as the anchor leg on the victorious 4x400 squad.

"We thought Wheaton would be there and we'd get some good races out of her, but we never thought she'd be able to do what she did," coach Kristen Morwick said. "It wasn't a cakewalk. It came down to the wire in some events, but she's just so competitive that she was able to edge everyone else out."

While Trombly was seeded first in the three running events, she was not the favorite going into the long jump. However, when the top two seeds fouled all of their jumps, Trombly wanted to continue leaping even though the trials were taking longer than expected and giving her less time between events. On the last jump she catapulted to a PR of 17' 7.5'' to win by almost seven inches. Two minutes later she competed in the 55 hurdles final, winning in 8.61 which qualifies her provisionally for Nationals.

With never more than 45 minutes to relax, Trombly accounted for 42.5 of the team's 101.5 total points. Though Trombly's point total was a substantial amount of points for an individual to contribute; it was still the efforts of a host of others that sealed the second place finish.

"Even if Jess had only won two events we still would have come in second, there were a lot of people contributing," Morwick said. "It's just pretty impressive to score over 100 points at a championship meet like that."

In what was deemed the most exciting race of the day by coach Morwick, junior Lauren Caputo added to the list of Jumbos who stood on the top level of the podium when she took first place in the 3000. With her seed time putting her at second going into the event, Caputo had a good chance of winning. She hung back at third or fourth for the majority of the race, until there was about a mile and a half to go.

At that point, Caputo started to reel in Maya Kessler of Williams, and ran the last 300 of the race in a blistering 54 seconds to beat out Kessler, finishing a mere 0.29 seconds in front of the defeated Eph. Caputo's time was ten seconds faster than the 3000 she ran last week, when she ran a 15 second PR over her previous best time.

"We had people from the team spread all over the track, cheering her on to beat out the Williams girl," Morwick said. "When she came down that last straightaway we were all going crazy, it was the most exciting thing to watch."

In keeping with a stronger mid-long distance showing, sophomore Katie Sheedy and senior Danielle Perrin teamed up to finish fifth and sixth in the 1000. Their times of 3:04.46 and 3:04.80, respectively, qualified them through the Div. I Championship meet.

Others who qualified for the postseason were the three pentathletes -- sophomore Melissa Graveley, junior Amy Spiker, and freshman Megan Sears. Graveley finished fifth overall with 2792 points, and Spiker also scored points in her seventh place finish with 2605 points. Sears was one spot out of contention, finishing ninth with 2573 points, but the trio have qualified for the ECAC Championship meet.

In the sprints, freshman Rachel Bloom had a banner day, taking fifth in the 55 (7.52) and the 200 (26.35). She also ran the fastest split of the season in the 4x200 relay in 25.4 as the third leg, helping pull the squad from sixth place to third. Sophomore Sika Henry also ran a speedy leg of the 4x200, boding well for the squad's chances to qualify for Nationals. Junior Katie Higley added more points to the team total in her fourth place finish in the 600 race in 1:41.12.

By putting people in events where they could excel, the Jumbos were able to realize a second place finish at the Div. III New England meet. Though there were people who contributed more points than others, it was a team effort that led to the desired team finish.

"This is the one really big championship meet we go for as a team, we put everyone in events that they belong in and it worked out this year," Morwick said. "It's one, if not the, highest finish by a Tufts track team, and that really puts us on the map."