Track and field update

The men's and women's track and field teams began to ease into the spring outdoor season over spring break as a number of athletes from both teams competed at various meets across the country. Less than two weeks after the NCAA Div. III Indoor Track and Field Championships on March 11 to 12, the women's team took a spring break trip to Texas and competed in a non-scoring tri-meet on Wednesday at Trinity University along with St. Benedict. Senior quad-captains and NCAA indoor veterans Alexis Harrison, Sydney Smith and Marilyn Allen led the team in Texas and all three made themselves strong candidates for the NCAA outdoor championships by posting top ten times nationally.

Harrison, who was second in the 60-meter dash at the NCAA indoor championships earlier this month, won the 100 meters in 12.10 seconds, a mark that places her third on the NCAA qualifying list at this point in the season. Smith, fresh off her eighth place in the mile at NCAA indoors, won the 1500 meter in 4:45.60, the seventh-fastest time nationally at the time. Allen won the 100-meter hurdles with a 14.81 second mark, which is fourth nationally, and also came in second in the 100 meters behind Harrison. Tufts also took home wins in both the 4x100 and 4x400 meter relays, with junior Rita Donohoe, first-year Sydney Ladner, Allen and Harrison making up the 4x100 team and Donohoe, Smith, Allen and sophomore Julia Prusaczyk comprising the 4x400 team. Sophomore Jennifer Sherwill dominated the throwing events, winning the discus, hammer and javelin throws for the Jumbos.

Meanwhile, the men's team officially kicked off its outdoor season in San Diego with a limited squad competing at the Point Loma Nazarene University Invitational on Saturday, placing ninth out of 21 teams on the backs of several top 30 national marks posted by the Jumbos. The same day, a squad of Jumbo throwers traveled down to Bridgewater State University to compete in the non-scoring Bears Track and Field Invitational. Tufts put up strong showings in San Diego as the team competed against tough NESCAC opponents Williams, Middlebury and Colby. Sophomore Andrew DiMaiti and junior Nick Usoff headlined a strong 400-meter hurdles race for the Jumbos, with DiMaiti's 54.37 second time good enough for fourth at the meet and fifth nationally while Usoff's 55.76 second time earned him eighth in the race and 21st nationally. Like the women's team, the men's team turned in top finishes in the relays. The 4x400 team of DiMaiti, Usoff, senior Alex Kasemir and first-year Nico Agosti placed third out of 18 with a time that is fifth on the national list, while the 4x100 team of first-years Thomas Miller and Anthony Kardonsky, sophomore Peter Clark and first-year Brandon Levenstein placed sixth with a time that also got them a top-10 national mark.

For the throwers, senior Corey Burns, junior James Aronson and first-year Jeffrey Brown represented the Jumbos at Bridgewater State, with Burns leading the team with a fifth place in the hammer throw, a sixth in the shot put and an eighth in the discus throw.

The outdoor season gets fully underway this weekend as the men's and women's teams host the Snowflake Classic at the Ellis Oval on Saturday starting at 10 a.m., while the men's team will also send a limited squad to Florida for the Pepsi Florida Relays on Friday.