With championship season one week away, the women's track and field team brought a competitive mentality to the MIT Spring Invitational on Saturday. And though they weren't running marathons this weekend, the Jumbos still showed a sense of pride and accomplishment in their running.
Tufts enjoyed five first-place finishes, along with 15 other top-five finishes spread across various events. The Jumbos piled up three NCAA qualifying times over the course of the day - sophomore Logan Crane, senior Katy O'Brien and freshman Stephanie McNamara each finished races within the NCAA standard.
Crane won the 100-meter dash with a time of 12.29 seconds, not far off from Vera Stenhouse's (LA '91) program record of 12.24. Crane's time Saturday was well within the provisional NCAA time of 12.35 seconds. Though she is not yet guaranteed a spot in the 100 at Nationals, the qualifying season is not over yet.
"I still have four more meets to go before Nationals, so hopefully I'll get [my 100 time] down," Crane said. "I am trying [to qualify] for the long jump and the 200. They're in reach."
Crane added that she also has a legitimate chance at the Tufts record books in outdoor track.
"I'm very close [to Stenhouse's record in] the 100; I definitely think I can take that," she said. "The 200 is a stretch, though."
O'Brien's and McNamara's performances in the 1,500-meter run earned them a 1-2 finish, and both were within the automatic qualifying time for Nationals. O'Brien finished with a time of 4:38.50, while McNamara came right behind her in 4:39.33, both under the 4:40 NCAA mark. Junior Susan Allegretti also enjoyed a top-10 finish, ending up in eighth place with a time of 4:58.86.
The three qualifying Jumbos will be joining senior co-captain Cat Beck, who not only qualified in the 1,500 but broke a school record in the 800-meter run a week ago at Northeastern. Beck had no idea she was even close to besting the record.
"I was completely stunned when it happened," she said. "We had to check to make sure I had really beaten it after the meet."
This week, Beck will be the sole competitor from Tufts to run in the Penn Relays before she goes to NESCACs.
"It didn't make sense to tire out a ton of people for NESCACs this weekend," said Beck, who will be running the 5k in Philadelphia.
The Jumbos also posted victories in both the 4x100 and 4x400 meter relays on Saturday. Though these relays have been successful for the team in the small invitational meets, the NCAA relay teams are extremely competitive. The 4x100 team will have to shed about two seconds off its time, while the 4x400 will have to cut off a monumental 14 seconds in order to qualify.
Nevertheless, this was the second meet in a row that both relays finished in first place. The 4x100 team, consisting of senior Jenna Weir, senior co-captain Kaleigh Fitzpatrick, sophomore Andrea Ferri and Crane, bested the field with a time of 50.36 seconds. Freshman Andrea Caruth, O'Brien, McNamara and junior Aubrey Wasser made up the 4x400 team, whose time of 4:10.05 won the event.
Fitzpatrick, Ferri and Wasser all competed in the 200-meter dash as well. Fitzpatrick's time of 25.74 seconds, which put her in second place, was just .17 seconds off the winning time recorded by UMass Lowell sophomore Shanika Pitts. Ferri and Wasser also finished in the top 10, earning fifth and sixth places respectively.
In throwing events, junior Paula Dormon consistently dominated. In the discus throw, she earned fourth place, and in the javelin, in which she competed for the first time on Saturday, she came in third. Her toss of 39.82 meters got her another third place finish in the hammer throw, with senior Sarah Martin right behind her in fourth place. Her best placing of the day was in the shot put, where she finished second, launching the ball 11.27 meters.
Next week, the Jumbos head to Hamilton for NESCACs, their first championship meet of the spring season. With the meet set to begin Saturday, the Jumbos are busy preparing themselves physically.
"I'll try to get as much sleep as possible," said Crane, who will be running the 100, 200, long jump, 4x100 and perhaps the 4x400. "I don't usually try to psych myself up because my nerves usually can take care of it. That sounds kind of funny, but it works for me."
The meet will allow Tufts to face rival Williams for the first time this season. After their victory over the Ephs last winter, the Jumbos are ready to challenge them again.
"We're going to go after Williams," Beck said. "It's hard to judge where we stand because we haven't seen NESCAC teams in outdoor yet. I guess both [Williams and Tufts] will have that disadvantage, so it kind of levels the playing field. It's a really exciting team meet, and we're going to lay it all out this weekend."
