As championship season begins to heat up with athletes from around the country looking to qualify for the NCAA Championships, Tufts has recorded a slew of national-caliber performances and is poised to send a large contingent to Lincoln, Neb. come mid-March.
"Things can change with last chance meets popping up around the country to get those last national qualifiers, so nothing is certain," senior Max Levitin said. "But what is certain is that Tufts track and field is competitive at the national level and should be a formidable presence going forward."
In that spirit, the Jumbos posted some more strong showings at the Open New England Championships held at Boston University this past weekend.
The 4x400-meter relay team of senior Graham Beutler and sophomores Mitchell Black, Alex Kasemir, and Francis Goins, set a new school reocrd with a time of 3:15.35, breaking the old record established in 2012 by the quartet of Beutler, Goins, and graduates Vinnie Lee and Ben Crastnopol. The team currently sits in fourth place in the nation and will most likely qualify for nationals by season's end.
"It's been a career goal of mine to travel to Nationals with a four by four team, and it's looking likely that I'll get to cross off that goal this season," Beutler said. "[It's] definitely a race that I'll always remember."
Juniors Brian Williamson and Atticus Swett provided the only other scoring at the meet, as their three points and the five earned by the 4x400-meter relay team combined for 23rd place out of 37 scoring teams.
Williamson and Swett placed seventh and eighth respectively, garnering both All-New England honors, with throws of 51' 1 1/2" and 50' 5 1/4". Although Williamson failed to set a personal best, Swett finished on a high note and beat his personal best by nearly two feet.
"I was hoping to break the 15-meter mark today, and on my last throw of prelims I was able to get a big release," Swett said. "Overall [Brian and I] were really pleased with our performances - I for breaking through to a next level, and Brian for putting in another solid performance."
Back on the track, freshman Nick Usoff and sophomore Veer Bhalla came closest to adding to Tufts' point total.
Bhalla turned in yet another solid time in the 800-meter by running 1:53.16 but, given the depth of the field, was not among the eight to advance out of the preliminary round, crossing the line in ninth place. The same fate befell Usoff, who finished 13th in the 500-meter in a time of 1:06:06, eleven-hundredths of a second from qualifying for the finals. Although, on the bright side, his time was good enough to put him at number four all time for the Jumbos.
Also finishing ninth, with the second-highest individual placement on the day, was junior Allan Yau, who accumulated a personal-best 4,003 points in the heptathlon.
Junior Marshall Pagano and fresh- man Luke O'Connor both notched personal bests as well, joining the late-season surge that has witnessed Tufts rise in both the national and individual rankings. Pagano finished the 3,000 in a time of 8:43.14, good enough for 21st, and O'Connor fin- ished the mile in 4:18.05, also putting him in 21st place.
Backing O'Connor in the mile was sophomore James Traester, who finished 27th with a time of 4:22.66.
The day also came with a few surprises as well, as Pagano, O'Connor, senior Bobby McShane and junior Joe St. Pierre teamed up in the 4x800-meter to run 7:51.11. Despite the fact that these runners are not a part of Tufts' "A-team" 4x800-meter, they still set the sixth fastest 4x800-meter time ever run by four athletes in a Jumbo uniform, thus exemplifying Tufts' extreme depth across many events.
In further preparation for the NCAA Championships on March 14 and 15, the Jumbos will part ways this coming weekend to participate in three different meets in three days: Tufts' Last Chance meet, the Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference Championships and the Intercollegiate Association of Amateur Athletes of America Championship at Boston University.
"As of now, it looks like we will be sending a large number of Jumbos to Nationals in a couple of weeks," Levitin added.
Hopefully for Tufts, things stay the same.
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