As the outdoor track and field season picks up speed, the Jumbos had an opportunity to shake off the cobwebs this past weekend with the annual Snowflake Classic at Ellis Oval.
Despite less-than-favorable weather, the Jumbos finished third out of a field of 17 with 107.5 points. Dartmouth won the meet with 116 points and Bates finished second with 111.5 points.
The meet, which was the first of the season, gave head coach Ethan Barron a chance to get some of his athletes more practice as the season begins to unfold.
"I was very pleased with the result," Barron said. "We have had a month off from the indoor track [season] and some athletes haven't run outdoor events since this time last year, so it was a good way to get some practice."
Barron also opted to give some of his high-scoring distance runners a day off. Senior tri-captain Matt Lacey underlined the importance of having a weekend to rest and enjoy the meet from the sidelines.
"It was definitely nice," Lacey said. "We are still trying to get more fit and more used to running outdoors, so we all were really happy when we were able to get an extra week of training before we would have to run in a competitive meet."
With a large majority of the Jumbos' main point-scorers not racing, the rest of the team was forced to fight through a patch of rough weather to grind out the third-place finish.
"It really started to get bad towards the end," Lacey said. "It was amazing weather earlier on, but once we started to get towards the latter half of the meet, it started to affect some events like discus and also some of the relays."
The athletes who did participate put in a solid effort and showed at least some of their potential for the season. The 4x400 meter relay team of freshman James Bradley, junior Mickey Ferri, senior Trevor Williams, and senior Pat Mahoney won in 3:26.37 to earn 10 points for the Jumbos.
Junior Dan Sullivan won the 800 in 1:58.96, and Mahoney, normally a middle distance runner, pulled double-duty to finish an impressive fourth in the 1,500 (4:08.01) as he continues to build his endurance.
With his move to the 1,500, Mahoney was one of several Jumbos in new events. Barron's weekend strategy put athletes in events in which they usually do not participate in order to build fitness.
"It was to get them more endurance and get them used to the outdoor track," Barron said. "We had Mahoney in the 1,500 instead of the 800, and [sophomore Dan] Marcy and [junior Fred] Jones did the triple jump to get them some practice from that event."
Barron's move paid off as Marcy and Jones finished third (13.29 m), and fourth (13.13 m) in the triple jump, followed directly by freshman Ted McMahan at 12.79 m. Sophomore Nathan Scott finished fourth (6.47 meters) in the long jump.
In other field events, senior tri-captain Jason Galvin complemented Sullivan's victory in the 800 with Tufts' only other individual first-place finish, winning the hammer throw. His 51.70 m throw qualified provisionally for Nationals, an impressive feat for the first meet of the season.
While the Snowflake Classic gave most members of the team a chance to stretch their legs, one major event left out of the meet was the decathlon. Scott is expected to be the Jumbos' top decathlete this year and Barron highlighted the diversity of talent required of the decathlon.
"It's a hard event," Barron said. "We are definitely only going to let Nate do three decathlons the whole year with [the Hillside Relays at Tufts] next weekend, Regionals, and Nationals being the three. It's nice to have an athlete with a great deal of versatility that can excel in several events."
