Women's Track and Field | Field events, freshmen lead the way at Northeastern Invitational

    In her first time competing in the triple jump during the indoor season, freshman Nakeisha Jones of the women's track and field team qualified provisionally for Nationals. At the Bernard Solomon Invitational in Dedham, Mass. on Thursday, Jones showed that the outdoor season was no different.
    Jones, who placed fourth at Nationals in the triple jump for the indoor season, won the event with a jump of 37'5 1/4", 15 inches further than any of her competitors. The distance also surpassed the NCAA provisional mark for the event.
    Jones' was one of many strong showings in the field events, as Tufts placed at least one person in the top three in all events except the javelin and the hammer throw. As the squad looks to beat out Williams for a NESCAC championship later in the outdoor season, success in the field is just as crucial as on the track. 
    "Williams has really strong distance and mid-distance runners, so if we can hit them pretty hard in the field events, it will only help us," sophomore Stephanie McNamara said. We're looking really strong in the field events."
     Senior tri-captain Paula Dorman led the Jumbos' throwers, taking second in the shot put and fifth in the hammer throw. In the long jump, sophomores Kanku Kabongo and Rosanna Xia took third and fourth.
    First-year Heather Theiss took first place in the pole vault, clearing 10'3". In the high jump, freshman Dayorsha Collins and sophomore Sarah Nolet finished in a five-way tie for second place after each clearing 4'10 1/4".
    "I've been so impressed with the freshman class," McNamara said. "They're going to be critical when it comes to NESCACs. They're giving us a lot of depth, and I see a lot of good things coming out of that class."
    "The freshman class is fantastic," junior Logan Crane added. "They show a lot of diversity and will be a crucial factor for years to come."
    On the running side, very little has slowed down the Jumbos' distance squad this spring, and the trend continued on Saturday. McNamara won the 1,500-meter run with a time of 4:34.24, over six seconds ahead of the runner-up.
    "The competition wasn't great yesterday, so from the go, I was all alone, but I feel like I've been getting better at learning how to pace things on my own, push the race myself," McNamara said. "The time was only two seconds off my personal record from last year, so I was happy about that. I felt really good during the race, and I felt like I had more in me, so if I get into a race where I have people who can push, I really feel like I can do much better time-wise." 
    The Jumbos also took first and second in the 800-meters, with sophomore Amy Wilfert and freshman Kayley Pettoruto finishing in 2:20.58 and 2:21.77, respectively. With the impressive time, Wilfert, who has been running the 5,000- and 1,500-meter races this season, demonstrated her versatility in running a shorter, faster event. Such flexibility will be useful to the team as the Jumbos look toward building relays for the championship meets.
    More than any other event, the 100-meter race was highly affected by poor weather conditions that held the field back. Crane took second in the event with 13.16, but times across the board were notably slower than normal. Crane had better success in the 200-meter, where she won the event in 26.93, outpacing Wheaton senior Christine Moreau by over one second. Tufts senior Jennifer Johnson took third place with a time of 28.28. 
    The Jumbos will now prepare for next Saturday's meet at MIT, which will serve as a final tune-up before the conference meet, which will be held on April 25 at Conn. College.
    "We've had a rough couple of weeks where it hasn't been so nice out, but I think we're going to have great weekends to come and everyone will get a big confidence boost as we head into the Championships," Crane said.
    "If we have a nice day, I think that people can go well beyond what they think their potential is now, so I'm looking forward to it," McNamara added.