The Jumbos could not seem to catch a break at the New England Div. III Indoor Championships, held at Southern Maine on Saturday. For the fifth-consecutive year, Tufts finished second behind Williams, this time by a score of 151-109.
The real story for the Jumbos, however, was the slew of individual races that led to a total of six Tufts victories on the day.
"We knew Williams was going to be really strong, so we weren't really focused on beating them," senior tri-captain Maggie Clary said. "We were more focused on putting forward the best performance that we could, and we definitely did that - we had a lot of amazing performances."
Leading the way once again, junior Cat Beck won the meet's mile race for the second year in a row while setting a meet record with a time of 4:57.88. After less than an hour and a half of rest, Beck again took the track, this time to set a personal record at 9:52.70 in the 3000-meter run.
"I definitely was hoping to come away with the 20 points for the team, so that was in the back of my head as I prepared for each race," Beck said. "I tried to go out there and get myself in a good position."
Beck was not the only Jumbo to break a record on Saturday. With a lap to go, senior tri-captain Sarah Crispin overtook Williams' Olga Kondratjeva to finish the 1000-meter race with a meet- and Tufts-best and 2:53.87, improving her first-place mark from last year's meet by over five seconds.
"It wasn't a specific goal of mine," Crispin said. "The goal was just to run as hard as I could and to run a smart race. The girl from Williams took it out at a really fast pace and I had to hang with her to win, so that's how we ended up going so fast."
Along with Beck and Crispin, junior Katy O'Brien captured a first-place title as she took the 800-meter run, with an NCAA provisional qualifying time of 2:16.89. Junior Kaleigh Fitzpatrick missed the Nationals mark by hundredths of a second while managing to secure second place and an indoor personal record in the 400-meter dash.
In addition, senior Jessica Mactas had a college PR in the 55-meter dash, placing seventh and scoring at New Englands for the first time; sophomore Susan Allegretti hit a college PR in the mile; sophomore Jackie Ferry broke her PR in the 600-meter; and junior Jenna Weir had a season best in the long jump.
Saturday was also a huge day for the Jumbo freshmen. The meet marked the return of freshman Logan Crane, who missed some time with pain in her hamstring. Crane saw season bests in the 55-meter, the 200-meter, and the long jump, while missing the NCAA mark by just 0.05 seconds.
"She had a great day," coach Kristen Morwick said. "That week of rest definitely paid off, and she looked strong. She hasn't run a 200 since that meet in January, and I give her a lot of credit for gutting that out. The two girls that beat her in the 55 were legit - they qualified for Nationals. She's only a freshman, and they were a junior and a senior. She'll continue to improve."
After placing in the 200-meter, freshman Andrea Ferri also came through for the Jumbos, anchoring two first-place relay teams. Ferri, Mactas, and sophomores Aubrey Wasser and Halsey Stebbins combined for 1:48.08 in the 4x200 to narrowly beat Springfield in the relay team's best race this season. In the 4x400, Fitzpatrick, Wasser, and Crispin joined Ferri, who held off Bowdoin to secure a 4:02.77 mark and the top spot in the event for the fifth year in a row.
Classmates Kerry Virgien and Julia Feltus also contributed solid performances, with Virgien setting PRs in the high jump, the 55-meter hurdles, and the pentathlon, and Feltus reaching her college PR and season-best in the shot put.
Despite falling second to the Ephs, the Jumbos were happy with their performance this weekend.
"On paper, they were way ahead of us," Morwick said. "We were going to need help from other teams in a big way, and have an incredible meet all the way across the board for us to beat them, and it just didn't work out that way. I think, overall, everyone [was] really pleased with the day. All the stars would have had to align for us to beat them."
"I think we were just really excited to go into the meet with a lot of positive energy and really try to come together as a team," Beck said. "I think that really happened. A lot of people had really strong performances, and a lot of people dug deep and turned things around. We knew it would be a challenge, but you have to aim high, and we're all really pleased with the outcome of yesterday's meet."
The Jumbos are excited for their next competition, as they travel to BU next Friday and Saturday for the 2007 Open New England Championships.
"I think we're entering the postseason with a lot of potential," Crispin said. "We could have some great things happen."
