The women's track and field team took first place in part two of the Tufts Invitational this Saturday at the Gantcher Center, placing ahead of 15 other teams with a score of 142 points.
Despite the absence of some of the team's key distance runners, including juniors Catherine Beck and Katy O'Brien, the Jumbos still managed to turn out a solid performance.
In their absence, it was the underclassmen crossing the finish line ahead of the pack. Freshman Logan Crane took first place in the 55-meter dash with a score of 7.59 seconds.
"We've got a really small freshmen class, but they're all really talented," senior Maggie Clary said. "They all just have great attitudes and they work really hard, so they've all been improving a lot. They'll definitely make a huge impact."
Other notable performances included second- and third-place finishes by sophomores Aubrey Wasser and Halsey Stebbins in the 200-meter dash, a top finish for junior Kaleigh Fitzpatrick in the 400-meter dash, and first- and second-place finishes by seniors Sarah Crispin and Kate Makai in the 800-meter run. Tufts also took first place in both the 4x200 relay and the 4x400 relay, events in which the Jumbos perennially contend at Nationals.
Senior Jenny Torpey and sophomores Katie Rizzolo and Kate Charyk all broke personal records in the 3000-meter run with times of 10:43.19, 10:55.96, and 11:39.92, respectively.
"The three of us that ran in the 3000 all set personal records, and I would definitely attribute that to the success we had during the cross country season," Torpey said. "Coming off a fifth-place finish in Nationals, we were all in pretty good shape, and that training is going to really help us with the track season."
The Jumbos also turned out several dominant efforts in field events. Crane won the long jump competition with a distance of 4.95 meters, followed by junior Jenna Weir and senior Jessica Mactas, finishing third and fourth, respectively. In addition, Fitzpatrick took the triple jump title with 10.49 meters, while sophomore Paula Dormon claimed first in the shot put with 11.67 meters.
The home-field advantage certainly was helpful for Tufts, as a sizable crowd, including several alumnae of Tufts' track and field teams, cheered on the Jumbos.
"It's great to have meets at home and have fans here to come out and support us," Clary said. "We're also really fortunate to have such great facilities, and it's really nice that we don't have to get up as early when we're at home."
"I think it's great running on our own track," Makai added. "We're all used to doing workouts there, so we're used to it and it just takes that edge off of the stress of competition."
Though the team is proud of its performance, the squad knows that the season is still young, and it must view this meet as a stepping stone on its way to postseason contention.
"We don't focus on winning this meet or any of the pre-championship meets," Makai said. "Even if we hadn't won, it doesn't mean we can't perform better later. We're always aiming to perform at our best and beat the competition, but we all know that the more important meets are at the end of the season."
"So far we've had several people already qualify for the postseason, but we're definitely looking to do better things," Torpey added. "We won the meet, which was great, but there weren't a large number of outstanding performances. We're looking to get used to the training and be ready to have some better races for the rest of the season. We're in a good place right now, but we're waiting to get better."
