Tufts may boast one of the best track programs in the region, but the team just can't manage to catch the Williams Ephs.
With last year's New England Div. III Indoor Championship meet culminating in a second-place finish to Williams for the fourth-consecutive year, the Jumbos are even more hungry to capture a first-place finish at this year's competition, which will take place tomorrow at Southern Maine.
Despite a largely successful competition in which Tufts captured five titles and left several marks in the record books last year, the Jumbos could only muster 122.33 points to Williams' 154.
Though the Jumbos will all be working individually to secure qualifying times for later meets, topping Williams will no doubt be in the back of the runners' minds.
"They kind of go hand-in-hand," freshman Kerry Virgien said. "I know we have a big rivalry with Williams, and in the past we've lost to them. That's pretty much our focus as a team. Everyone has their own individual goals also, but everyone is definitely going to try to show how well we can do this year."
"We definitely think about it," senior tri-captain Kate Makai said. "We know that they're a really strong contender, but we try to compete to the best of our ability. We're just going to go out there and run, jump, and throw the best that we can. If that's good enough to beat them, that's great, and if not we'll know we gave it our best shot."
With the team's best efforts aside, the small size of the Jumbo squad may hurt it down the stretch.
"At the end of the day when the points add up, we have a lot of really talented people who could hypothetically win events, but we have a pretty small team," Makai said. "While we could win many of the events, they might have the third, fourth, and fifth finishers, so in that sense they have an advantage over us."
Despite its size, the presence of a strong freshman class entering its first championship meet will help propel the Jumbos tomorrow.
"A lot of the freshmen have competed at BU, which has a lot of Division I athletes, so I think that definitely prepared them for this type of meet," junior Katy O'Brien said. "People will be nervous going in, but I'm sure they'll do the best that they can."
"I'm confident that we're all ready," Virgien said. "We've been training with this in mind, and I feel really prepared for it. I think the competition will make us get [personal records] and do really well - I'm pretty much just excited for it."
Virgien especially has a lot to look forward to, as she has been training for the past several weeks to compete in the pentathlon for the first time in her career, along with senior tri-captain Maggie Clary.
"In addition to the regular running workouts, we have extra practices to learn the events," Virgien said. "We'll either stay after or we'll practice in the middle of the day. I didn't really know how to do the high jump, long jump, or shot put part of the pentathlon.
It's a little challenging to learn them all at once, but it's really fun and kind of breaks up the whole running thing. We have fun doing it."
Having been plagued by illness and injury in recent weeks, the team is anxious to get back out on the track.
"We definitely feel we're ready," Makai said. "We've been tapering and put in a lot of training earlier in the season. People are recovering from injuries, but everyone is taking care of their bodies. I think we're going be in great shape to compete this weekend."
"Everyone has been working really hard, so I think we're in good shape to do well this weekend," O'Brien said. "I'm excited to watch everyone do their best."
