The Husky Winter Carnival on Saturday was a day for the Tufts women's track and field to discover just what type of team it can expect this year. Held at the Reggie Lewis Center at Northeastern, the field featured a competitive sampling of New England teams, including Boston University, UMass Lowell, Bryant, and host Northeastern. The meet was not scored but served as a good benchmark for the remainder of the season.
"The meet this weekend was a chance to test out the indoor track and set a starting place for the rest of the season," senior distance runner Jenny Torpey said. "The meet was unscored, so it was just an opportunity for athletes to see what they could run versus some good competition and get used to racing indoors again."
Torpey finished in 12th place in the 5,000-meter run with a time of 19:10.51. In the 4x400 meter relay, the B squad of sophomore Kathleen Rutecki, freshman Andrea Ferri, senior Kate Makai and sophomore Jacquelyn Ferry finished ninth with a time of 4:15.49, followed immediately by the A squad of sophomore Halsey Stebbins, freshman Kerry Virgien, senior Maggie Clary and sophomore Aubrey Wasser with a time of 4:16.12.
It was a good day for the team's youngsters as well, with freshman Crane Logan finishing in 10th in the 55-meter dash with a time of 7.54 in the preliminaries, while in the 200 meter dash finals, Ferri took 11th place with a time of 27.41.
"We did show this weekend that we have some great freshmen who will be playing a major role this coming season," Torpey said. "We also have many runners coming back from great cross-country seasons who will improve dramatically from last year."
BU and Northeastern dominated the day, with BU capturing the 200- and 800-meter dash, the one mile run and the long jump, while Northeastern took the 55- and 500-meter events, the 4x400-meter relay and both the high jump and the pole vault.
With several top-10 finishers, the Jumbos now have a clearer understanding of where they stand in the field and what they will need to work on over winter break before competition begins again in January with the Dartmouth Relays on Jan. 5, followed by the Tufts Invitational on Jan. 13.
- by Andrew Bauld
