Men's Track and Field | DMR squad breaks school record, hits provisional NCAA qualifier at BU

    With just two weeks to go before Nationals, the men's track and field team's distance medley relay (DMR) squad took the opportunity to put up an NCAA qualifier, taking third at the BU-hosted New England Open Championships.
    The squad, comprised of senior Phil Rotella and juniors Scott Brinkman, Jesse Faller and Billy Hale, clocked a school-record mark of 9:59.33 on Friday. The time, which was converted to 10:02.33 due to the banked track at BU, ranks the relay team as the sixth-best Div. III group in the nation. The previous school record was 10:00.05, set last year by the team of Hale, Faller, then-senior quad-captian Dave Sorenson (E '08) and junior Andrew Longley.
    "They did what we set out to do," coach Ethan Barron said. "We set the school record and qualified for Nationals. Especially with Billy Hale's leadoff leg, it was obvious that from the start, they were going to go for it. The other three guys followed in suit."
    "I couldn't be happier [with the race]," Brinkman added. "We all showed up and threw down and really showed each other that we can break 10:00 and get a school record. I got out well [in my 800 leg], and I ran as fast as I've run this season definitely, and we could definitely work on the handoff, but overall, I was happy with my performance in the DMR. I think we all had a great day. Three of the four times were PRs. We all ran all-out and left it all out on the track."
    Despite the excitement, an NCAA provisional qualifier does not guarantee the relay team a spot at Nationals, where only the top 10 times in the country will compete.
    "It's going to be tough," Brinkman said. "Sixth position is kind of a precarious position to be in. Hopefully we'll get another shot this weekend [at ECAC Championships] to secure a spot at Nationals because right now it's a little scary."
    The DMR scored six points for Tufts, which ended up being the Jumbos' entire point total. Still, the shorthanded Tufts came close to scoring in multiple events.
    "Between loading the relays and resting a lot of guys for ECACs or Nationals, we had a skeleton crew for the most part over at BU this weekend," Barron said. "We're not really too concerned with our end place, but I was pretty impressed with the noise and the performances that so few entries could put up."
    "I was very pleased with a lot of the individual performances, especially [senior quad captain] Colin Fitzgerald, nearly missing the school record [in the 200-meter dash] by two hundredths of a second and narrowly missing the finals by the same margin," Barron continued. "[Junior] Jason Hanrahan and [freshman] Connor Rose both also ran great 800s."
    Fitzgerald finished 11th in the 200-meter in 22.30, just missing the school record of 22.28 set by Longley last year. Hanrahan finished 16th in the 800-meter run with a time of 1:54.50, while Rose finished 20th in the event with a time of 1:55.22.
    "Jason Hanrahan and Connor Rose had absolutely breakout weekends," Brinkman said. "Those guys have absolutely been killing themselves in workouts, and this weekend they both dropped two-second PRs — both great times at the end of the season. I can't wait to see what they're going to do [during the] outdoor season. "
    Junior Ikenna Acholonu put forth a solid performance in the 55-meter hurdles, finishing ninth with a time of 8.00 seconds.
    Hanrahan returned on Saturday to join Brinkman, sophomore Corey Melnick and senior Marcelo Norsworthy on the 4x800-meter relay. The team took ninth in the event in 7:51.22, missing scoring by three hundredths of a second.
    "4x800 ran great," Barron said. "We had two athletes fresh and two athletes returning from open races, and the fact that they were still able to run the fourth fastest time in school history with guys like [Hale and Rose] not running on that relay says a lot about their depth and their talent."
    "I was ecstatic [with the 4x800 relay]," Brinkman added. "I think everyone ran really well. It was great to see both Marcelo and Corey come out and really throw down in Corey's last race of the season and Marcelo's second to last race of his indoor career. I felt that I could have run a little bit faster, and there's always room for improvement, but overall, I was ecstatic with the time."
    Fitzgerald, Rotella and Rose also returned Saturday for the 4x400-meter relay with freshman Ben Crastnopol, finishing in 3:23.15 and claiming 17th place.
    "They all ran really strong legs," Barron said. "There was some incidental contact in the leadoff leg that really slowed the race down, but we just have to keep our heads up and try not to get caught up in stuff like that."
    Next weekend, the Jumbos will host the ECAC Championships at the Gantcher Center before moving on to the NCAA Championships the following week at Rose-Hulman.