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The Tufts Daily
Where you read it first | Thursday, March 28, 2024

Women's Track and Field | Tufts to defend title at Regionals this weekend

                And so it comes down to this: The nationally ranked No. 4 women's track and field team will compete in its most important meet of the season — apart from NCAAs — this weekend when it travels to Bowdoin for the England Div. III Championships.
    "This is a really big meet. We won last year, so it's all or nothing this year, pretty much," senior tri-captain Paula Dormon said. "We've been training all year for Div. IIIs. We're excited but still preparing to defend our title."
    After finishing second to Williams at the meet for five straight years, the Jumbos finally broke through last year to take home the New England Championship. The team hopes to repeat its success this year but will again have to fend off the nationally ranked No. 11 Ephs, who finished second at the meet last year, in addition to No. 12 MIT, which came in third last season.
    "Winning last year was incredible," sophomore Stephanie McNamara said. "We hadn't won for a while before last year, so everyone was totally ecstatic. Everything just came together at the right time. I think this year in terms of comparing us against Williams or MIT, we're going to have a run for the money again to defend our title, but I think we can do it. We're just as strong in the jumps now — we've got some really good jumpers this year — and right now our running events look good too. I have high expectations for this weekend."
    "Last year was just unbelievable," Dormon added. "Everybody was crying. We all did it together — it was a big moment for us. We just really want the same thing to happen this year. We've been training, working hard. We hope it happens again; it was so big for us last year."
    This weekend in particular, the team will be counting on Dormon, who has been putting together the best year of her four-year career. Just one week ago she approached the Tufts record in the weight throw with a heave of 45' 7 3/4", less than a foot short of the school mark of 46' 4 3/4" set in 2007. Dormon just hopes she can repeat that level of performance on a bigger stage this weekend.
    "Last year at Div. IIIs I didn't do as well as I wanted, but I'm just hoping I can bring everything and perform at my best ability this weekend," Dormon said.
    The Jumbos will also be counting on McNamara, who won the 1,000-meter run as a freshman last year.
    "This weekend is kind of interesting for me," McNamara said. "Obviously, the main thing that we're focusing on is trying to maximize our points in every event. You can only put people in so many events, especially when it comes to runs over 1,000 [meters]. You can only usually do two or maybe three. I'll be in 5k, the 1,000 and potentially a relay, but it depends on what happens as the meet goes along. I'm excited to run a 5k — I haven't done one in over two months. I'm looking to get in a good race. I feel I'm in better shape, and then I think I can defend my title in the 1,000."
    Tufts will have one other returning individual champion competing for the team this weekend in junior Logan Crane, who last week missed out on the Tufts record in the 200-meter dash by just one-tenth of a second. Last year at New Englands, Crane won the 55-meter dash by setting a school record with a time of 7.18 seconds and took home the long jump crown with a jump of 17'6".
    "It felt amazing to be the New England champion in two events," Crane, who is also a columnist for the Daily, said. "And there's a lot of pressure coming back as a defending champion. I have that weight on my shoulders, but it's also great to have that motivation to be No. 1."
    The team will also be hoping for big performances from several freshmen, including Nakeisha Jones, Dayorsha Collins and Heather Theiss. Jones currently owns the best triple jump in Div. III with the 39'3" mark set at the BU Terrier Invitational in January, which was well above the automatic qualifier for NCAAs. Collins has qualified provisionally for Nationals with her high jump of 5'5", while Theiss has broken the school record in the pole vault twice this year, culminating in her reaching a height of 11' 2 1/2" at the final Tufts Invitational two weeks ago.
    "I feel very excited to actually make Div. IIIs and be able to compete there," Theiss said. "I'm pretty confident that our team can bring home the championship; I also think that I'll be able to perform pretty well, just because I'm sort of on a roll with how I've been jumping."
    This weekend's trip to Bowdoin will be the team's first since it participated in an invitational held there on Jan. 27, 2007. For Crane, it will be a return to her home state and a track that she's competed on many times before.
    "It's actually the town next to my high school, so I'm very comfortable with it," Crane said. "I ran there all of high school. It's a great track, good surface — it's a good track for sprinters — and the pits have a little downward slope, so good to jump in."
    Despite being the favorite for the first time in years, the team has not lost sight of its goals and is certainly not discounting its competition.
    "This is the most important meet of the indoor season," Crane said. "It felt great to beat Williams last year; that was our main goal. We're just going to try to do our best to do that again this year."