It was a long-time coming, but the Jumbos finally did it.
After seasons and seasons of dominance, the Ephs were finally ousted from their lone position of perennial NESCAC supremacy - relatively speaking, that is.
Both Williams and Tufts left Saturday's NESCAC Championships with 197.5 points, awarding them co-champion titles. Bates finished in a distant third with 95 points, while Bowdoin and host Middlebury rounded out the top five, with scores of 62 and 53, respectively.
For a team that has had their eye set on a NESCAC title, Saturday marked the fruition of a goal months in the making.
"I have never experienced anything like what happened this weekend in any way, as an athlete or a coach," coach Ethan Barron said in an e-mail to the Daily. "It was truly a team effort with every athlete present stepping up big and getting the job done."
Barron knew the Jumbos would have their work cut out for them if they were to dethrone the defending champions. Although the two squads will have to share the gold, the victory is just as sweet.
"Considering Williams beat us by almost 100 points last year and we were seeded to finish about 30 points back this year, the first-place finish was amazing," Barron said. "Nothing short of amazing."
For a senior class rounding out its career, the championship was especially rewarding.
"Winning NESCACs is something we have been working towards since I showed up as a freshman," senior tri-captain Nate Cleveland said in an e-mail to the Daily. "I can't even begin to describe how excited everyone was about it and all the energy that surrounded the final few events as we were sealing up the win. It was a really emotional win for us and the coaches as well."
Needless to say, the Jumbos recorded strong performances across the board, finishing in the top five in all but six events and scoring points in all but two. A slew of dominant performances led the team, most notably senior Joshua Kennedy's finishing first in the 5000-meter run with a time of 15:04.03. Other strong performances included freshman Andrew Longley (55.52) and junior Nathan Scott's (56.75) finishing second and third in the 400-meter hurdles.
"Josh stepped up big for us this weekend," Barron said. "It was the final open event before the relays and it gave us the six-point cushion that we needed going into the relays. However, it is impossible to separate out any one athlete's points and make it seem any more critical than anyone else."
While the Jumbos found consistency from all corners of the team, they found specific success in the hurdles and jumping events. Tufts held a monopoly on the 110 meter hurdles, boasting four out of the top five finishers. Freshman star Ikenna Acholonu (15.30) finished first while freshmen Jared Engelking (15.37) and Trevor Donadt (15.83), and senior tri-captain Dave McCleary (15.93) finished third, fourth and fifth respectively.
In the jumping events, junior Jeremy Arak won the high jump with a 1.92-meter performance, while senior tri-captain Fred Jones finishing second in both the triple and long jumps, with distances of 14.19m and 6.98m, respectively.
"We have been traditionally strong in the jumping events and yesterday was no exception," Cleveland said. "It was one of our strong events and those guys came up big for us again when it mattered most."
The Jumbos will now turn their attention to next weekend's New England Div. III Championships, looking to qualify as many competitors as possible for Nationals.
"Div. III New England is a much different beast for us than NESCACs," Barron said. "We will rest a few more of our distance runners who have been going hard for the last few weeks."
While imminent competitions are more centered on individual performances, the Jumbos still believe a team effort is necessary for the success of one individual.
"The meets we will be going to now are all team meets as well," Cleveland said. "But they will begin to be more individually focused as we get deeper into the season and fewer guys have qualified for these meets. Obviously, each meet we go to we want everyone to perform well so the team does well, but as we get towards the end of the season the focus shifts from team results to individual results."
