In its last home meet of 2010, the women's track and field team defended its home facility comfortably, garnering wins in five events. And while last weekend's second and final Tufts Invitational was non−scoring, the Jumbos' performance was just as impressive.
Senior co−captain Andrea Ferri kicked off the weekend successfully, winning the pentathlon on Friday night, placing first in the shot put portion of the event and finishing as the runner−up in both the 60−meter hurdles and the 800−meter dash. Ferri, who finished second in last year's pentathlon at Tufts, posted an overall score of 3,023 points, which bested the national provisional standard of 3,000, while sophomore runner−up Nakeisha Jones finished a shade under, with 2,915.
Later in the meet, Ferri, along with freshman Sandra Peprah, sophomore Heather Theiss and senior co−captain Kerry Virgien, came in a close second in the 4x200−meter relay, losing to Ithaca College's unit by less than two−tenths of a second. Theiss, who usually participates in jump and pole vault events, was impressive in this event despite being out of her comfort zone.
"It was frustrating to be so close, but it was exciting to see Andrea try to catch up at the end. It wasn't our normal relay team, so I was proud of how well we did. We made up a lot of ground," Virgien said.
Senior Logan Crane, who set the Tufts record in the 55−meter dash in 2008 with a time of 7.18 seconds, won the event on Saturday, beating out UMass−Dartmouth freshman Jillian Van Ness by eight tenths of a second. Later in the meet, Crane finished second to Brandeis junior Lucia Capano in the long jump event.
But perhaps Tufts' most dominant showing came in the pole vault, as the Jumbos grabbed the top three spots in the event. The team was led by Theiss, who cleared 10'6", while sophomore Katherine Tang and freshman Elizabeth Landers followed up in the standings.
Despite being just a sophomore, Theiss has already proven her value many times over to the Jumbos, as last year she broke the Tufts record for pole vaulting with a mark of 11'2.5". This winter, her goal is to raise that record.
"I'm pretty happy that I got the win [on Saturday], but I'm still frustrated because it's about personal bests for me and I haven't had the greatest season. I think I'll get there, though; I peaked early last season and I'm just going to be peaking later this season," Theiss said.
Senior Julia Feltus and freshman Kelly Allen displayed their throwing prowess by achieving personal bests in their respective events on Saturday. While Feltus won the weight throw with a toss of 44'5", Allen took the shot put event title with a launch of 40'6", an even more remarkable feat given that none her previous launches have reached 40 feet.
Freshman Lilly Fisher ran a 19:08.47 in the 5,000−meter race to finish second in the event, and junior Rosanna Xia reached 34'4" in her triple jump, which was also good for the runner−up slot.
The Tufts Invitational II was the last home meet of the season and marked the last time the team's five seniors would showcase their abilities in Gantcher Center. The Jumbos will now look toward competing in their final invitational tournaments this coming weekend, at Boston University on Friday and MIT on Saturday, where they hope to qualify as many athletes as possible for the upcoming championship season.
