After claiming its fourth Div. III New England title at the end of last season, the men's indoor track and field team will kick off its new campaign Saturday at the Husky Carnival at Northeastern with hopes of emulating past achievements -- and of being seen as a legitimate contender throughout the winter.
"Last season for indoor was a big success," senior quad-captain Kevin Fitzgerald said. "We won Div. III New Englands, [and] for the first time in a while, we're not going to be the underdogs this year, so that may put a little bit of pressure on us, but we handled it well last year."
"It was a good year because all around the athletes improved," assistant coach Mark Carberry said. "It wasn't too senior-heavy. The sophomore class -- juniors now -- really stepped up and became pretty much the backbone of the team, so to have success last year for a young team was a pretty good feat."
Although Tufts graduated 15 seniors last spring, the runners are confident that they can fill the voids. Two of the most significant losses were Dan Marcy (LA '08), the 2008 NCAA Div. III runner-up in the indoor triple jump, and Dave Sorensen (E '08), the ninth-place finisher in the mile at NCAAs for indoor and the third-place runner in the 3,000 for outdoor.
"I don't think we're going to be hurt all that much [by the loss of the seniors]," Carberry said. "Leadership is something that we lose from those kinds of guys, but we've got plenty of guys to fill their shoes, both athletically as well as in those leadership roles, so I don't think we're going to be completely traumatized by their loss, though they will be missed."
This season, according to Carberry, junior Jesse Faller and junior quad-captain Nick Welch, who were anchors for the men's cross country team this fall, will be important parts in every event from the mile to the 5k. Faller competed in the 1,500 at Nationals during the 2008 outdoor season.
Other important returning Jumbos include senior quad-captains Fielding Pagel and James Bradley. Pagel, who was injured during the last indoor season, is an accomplished decathlete who earned All-American status in outdoor track his sophomore year, while Bradley competed at Nationals last year in the high jump. Sophomore Sam Read will also play an important role in the pole vault.
"We're also looking to see a lot of improvement from a lot of guys that were either relay legs last year or had really good cross country seasons, so those include [juniors] Billy Hale [and] Scott Brinkman and [sophomore] Frank DeSalvo," Carberry said.
Juniors Trevor Donadt, Jared Engelking and Ikenna Acholonu are all strong hurdlers who will also return this season, and the team will further look to benefit from other competitors rising to the occasion of a new indoor track season -- including the first years.
"The last two years, freshmen have played a huge role in our success," Fitzgerald said. "Even though the freshmen crew is smaller this year, they're very dedicated and talented, so were expecting big things from them."
"We're light on freshmen," Carberry added. "But between the middle-distance guys, we've got Connor Rose, Phil Grannan, and Ben Crastnopol, a sprinter, as well as the addition of a sophomore, James Wheeler. I think we can see improvement, and making them members of the Tufts track and field family will be some important goals for them this year."
Although it remains difficult to make any concrete predictions about how the season will play out before the first meet, the Jumbos hope to build on the triumphs they made last year.
"I think we can be as successful as last year as long as we perform to our potential in New Englands," Bradley said. "Outside New England, nationally I think we still have the quality of guys on the team that we can do just as well as we did last year if not better ... They put a new event into Nationals, the pentathlon, and we have a few good guys in that event."
The Jumbos' season opens with the Husky Carnival at Northeastern on Saturday. The team will then take a five-week hiatus from competition over winter break until the middle of January and the start of the second semester.
"A fair amount of guys will be running outside of events that they're used to," Bradley said. "It's definitely a good reference point for the younger guys in their first college meet, as well as for some of the older guys who know what to expect."
"In the grand scheme of things, [the first meet is] not very important," Fitzgerald added. "It's so early in the season, so its main point is to gauge where we are ... It's the only meet of the first semester, and the season doesn't really start until second semester."
