Tamara Brown, Field Hockey
Sophomore Tamara Brown scored three goals within the first 8:23 of the field hockey team's season opener on Saturday to lead her team to a 10-1 romp over Wesleyan at Bello Field.
Brown's hat trick was part of a record-breaking effort in which the team broke its previous mark for goals in a game. For Brown, an Annandale, Va. native, the contest was her first since suffering a torn ACL last October. Brown's performance was a triumphant return to the promise she showed as a freshman, when she notched 11 points in 13 games.
Impressively efficient in her attack, Brown capitalized on three of her four shot attempts on goal in attaining her first career hat trick. Following the graduation of last year's leading scorer Ileana Casellas-Katz (LA '08), the Jumbos will look to Brown, among others, to help fill Casellas-Katz's shoes.
Next up, Brown will try to continue her hot start to the season against Wellesley, a team that has defeated Tufts two years running, on Wednesday.
Jesse Faller, Cross Country
For the men's cross country team, the first meet of the fall is often little more than a tune-up race for the rest of the season, as new and old runners alike work to reacquaint themselves with competitive running.
Junior Jesse Faller, however, was already perfectly well acquainted. In his first cross country race since finishing 18th in the nation in last November's NCAA title meet, Faller showed little rust, finishing fourth at the Trinity College Invitational on Saturday afternoon. The Jumbos as a team also finished fourth, 30 points back from champion UMass Lowell.
Faller, who finished 14 seconds ahead of junior teammate and co-captain Nick Welch, was among the Jumbos' top five finishers for the 14th time in his college career. In addition to pacing the Jumbos at Nationals last fall, he was also the team's top finisher at New England Regionals, finishing in third just nine seconds away from a regional title.
Faller and the rest of the Jumbos will play host for their next meet this coming weekend, the Tufts Invitational, held on the veterinary school campus in Grafton.
