Men's track and field claims first victory of season

On Friday and Saturday, the Tufts men’s track and field team emerged victorious at the second annual Branwen Smith-King Invitational held at the Gantcher Center. In their second scoring meet of the season, the Jumbos competed against 18 other teams, putting up a total of 121 team points, improving on their second-place finish in last year's inaugural Branwen Smith-King Invitational. The Stonehill Skyhawks finished second with 107 points, while the Amherst Mammoths put up 100 points to round out the top three.

The Jumbos put forth a particularly strong performance in the field events, claiming three wins off of the track. Senior Benji Wallace won the pole vault by clearing 14' 11''.This mark was good for 23rd in the NCAA Division III national collegiate rankings, as of 12 p.m. on Wednesday.

Sophomore Kevin Quisumbing also came in first in the shot put. He threw a whopping 49' 8½'', which placed him at 32nd in the country and beat the record for the Branwen Smith-King Invitational, which he also set last year with a mark of 49' 7¼". Although he was recovering from a injury riddled football season, Quisumbing was pleased with his performance.

“This has definitely been a much slower start to the track year since I’ve been battling injuries from football,” the dual athlete said. “I had a pretty underwhelming day, but before I threw, one of my track rivals told me that I had the Branwen meet record. It reminded me that I had the skill to achieve my goal of throwing far. There were well over 60 throwers and most stayed to watch the final flight of throwers. Once you get that feeling that everyone is watching you, you start to feel like nothing can stop you.”

First-year Tommy Bhangdia was among four Jumbos to win an event, recording a leap of 21' 11½'' in the long jump. The impressive display from the first-year jumper spoke to the strength of the team’s rookie class.

“I was especially excited to see an outstanding performance from Tommy Bhangdia,” Quisumbing said. “It’s always hard to adjust to the intensity of collegiate competitions and to earn a victory in the long jump at such a big meet is an awesome accomplishment that shows that we are talented across all years.”

Another notable performance came from first-year Ben Stein in the heptathlon. His score of 4,255 granted him a third-place finish at the meet, along with a No. 30 national ranking.Additionally, first-year Nicholas Delaney placed second in the 1,000-meter run with a time of 2:34.89. He spearheaded a remarkable joint effort by the Jumbos, whom together finished second, third, fourth and fifth in the event.

The upperclassmen also held their weight; Senior Josh Etkind came in second in the 60-meter hurdles.His time of 8.36 seconds was good enough for No. 23 in the nation. Senior Thomas Doyle also finished as the runner-up in the 600 meters with a personal record time of 1:21.80. Senior Tommy Miller placed second in the 60-meter dash with a mark of 7.10 seconds in the final round of sprints, and finally, senior James Gregoire finished second behind Bhangdia in the long jump, covering a distance of 21’ 7¼”. Tufts put on a show in the long jump, recording four of the five highest scores.

The Jumbos will have a chance to build on this success when they compete this weekend at the All-New England Championships, held at the Reggie Lewis Center in Roxbury Crossing, Mass. Athletes not competing at the All-New England Championships compete at the Cupid Challenge held on Saturday at the Gantcher Center. Gregoire said he sees the All-New England event as a pivotal moment in the Jumbos’ season.

“I’m thinking that this is the point of the season where there starts to be more of an emphasis on strong performances,” he said. “The previous meets were sort of a trial run: just getting back into competing. Now everyone is looking stronger every day. And at this upcoming meet, I think we can potentially have the most people qualify for Division III New England’s."

Quisumbing echoed these sentiments but emphasized the need to see the bigger picture.

“The All-New England Championships is a great competition for individuals to compete against some of the best talents of the area,” he said. "But our sights are definitely set on winning New England Div. III Championships. I look forward to seeing how my teammates perform, but we are in a pretty heavy portion of our training and it won’t be until we taper off that we will start performing to our full potential.”

Clearly, the Jumbos are keeping their ultimate goal in mind as they progress through the early successes of their season.