In five career seasons of track and field preceding Saturday's Skyhawk Invitational, hosted by Stonehill, junior Logan Crane had hit plenty of NCAA provisional qualifiers. Saturday's, however, was different.
With a leap of 18'2 1/4", Crane surpassed the NCAA mark in the long jump for her first time ever, nailing down second place at the meet in the process.
"It was really exciting," Crane said. "This is a really big step for me. I pretty much expect myself to run fast enough to qualify in my other events, but the long jump has been quite a struggle for me."
For Crane, Saturday's results were a long time coming, as she was able to implement some of the mechanics adjustments she has been working on this year. Her qualifier marked the progress of the jumping squad on the whole, following NCAA-caliber performances from freshmen jumpers Nakeisha Jones and Dayosha Collins during the indoor season. The pair became the first Tufts jumpers to compete on the national stage since 2004.
"We have a jumping coach that comes in during the week, and he has just been drilling us with bounds, making sure we have an elevated knee, just really trying to push off that board, instead of going straight out, just reaching out," Crane said. "That's going to give us the most lift so that we can travel the furthest, and we've been working on that several weeks."
"Indoors, we were doing a lot of jumping stuff and telling her she should be over 18 feet," coach Kristen Morwick said. "It's there -- it's just taken a little while because she had such little technical coaching in high school ... [but] little things in the technique are starting to click for her."
Crane was more than happy to get the first qualifier out of the way in the team's second meet of the season, as she was unable to post the sprint times necessary to make the final cut for indoor Nationals.
"It was just really nice to get that early opening mark," she said. "I have several weeks before Nationals to improve it."
"I think getting that qualifier is a big confidence booster," Morwick added. "It's only going to be sort of an upwards swing from here. I think she could jump another foot further in the long jump if she wants to."
Crane led a field of Tufts jumpers that was strong all around on Saturday. Sophomore Kanku Kabongo finished 12th in the long jump, fouling a leap that would have hit the provisional qualifier, and also jumped a personal best in the triple jump. Jones, Collins, sophomore Rosanna Xia and junior Andrea Ferri also hit their best marks in the long jump, while Xia and freshman Heather Theiss each qualified for Div. III New England Championships in their first meet jumping all year.
"They're getting through some really hard workouts," Morwick said. "I think that gives them confidence. It's going to pay dividends more later in the season, but now, it's giving them confidence to say 'I'm not that sore; I'm not that tired.'"
Sophomore Stephanie McNamara turned out the team's other provisional qualifier on the day, running a 17:16.73 in the 5,000-meter run to easily pass the NCAA standard just a few weeks after placing second at the event at indoor Nationals. Her time also came right on the heels of her qualifier in the 1,500 meters at last weekend's Tufts-hosted Snowflake Classic. While McNamara will likely run the 1,500 again before championship season, she will be opting for longer distances as Nationals approaches.
"This season I'll be focusing more on the longer stuff -- the 5k and the 10k," McNamara said. "Last weekend with the [1,500 meters], I used it more as a speed work day. I still want to run it maybe next weekend to try to PR ... but I'll probably end up going for the 10k for Nationals."
McNamara led from the get-go, finishing well ahead of the rest of the field. Her closest competitor, University of Rhode Island sophomore Mary Najarian, finished nearly a minute and a half behind her.
"From the gun, I was out front," McNamara said. "I saw the seeds, and I saw the person behind me was seeded a minute behind me. I talked to my coach, and I was like, 'Maybe I should just try for splits and not worry about the actual race' ... It wasn't a great day for competition ... but it wasn't a big deal. I was still able to run a decent time, so I was happy with it.
"[Boston College] put 90 percent of their girls in the 1,500," McNamara continued. "I don't regret running the 5k over the 1,500, I just wish they had put some of their girls in the 5k. It's OK -- it's good practice for me to learn how to pace things on my own."
The 5k served as the team's running highlight, as most of the sprinters were shut down due to poor weather conditions. Still, after pulling people from the meet, Tufts managed a fourth-place team finish over Div. I schools.
"A lot of people had to start dropping out because of the weather and also just from injuries," Crane said. "It wasn't a great meet -- for some personally, it was -- but overall, I would say we're going to have better ones to come."
"There's four scholarship teams out there that should be well ahead of us," Morwick added. "We had some real bright spots despite the competition."
