With championship season looming, the women's track and field team headed to the MIT Spring Invitational last weekend hoping to work out all the kinks in its final tune-up before the most important competitions of the season. And despite the cold and rainy weather conditions, the Jumbos enjoyed a number of quality performances, earning eight victories and numerous high finishes at the event.
"The rain, cold weather and wind always make it a lot harder to perform, especially in sprints. It was obviously hard to warm up our muscles, so it hurt most people's performances," sophomore Kayley Pettoruto said. "Luckily, we saw the meet as just a way to work on our fitness and practice our events in preparation for the championship season."
Tufts struggled to overcome the inclement running conditions, with five of its eight victories coming from field events. First-year Kelly Allen, who already boasts an NCAA provisional qualifying mark for the season in the discus (141'9"), won the discus throw (132'06") and the shot put (39'05"). Senior Julia Feltus took the No. 2 spot in the shot put with a launch of 35'4 1/2," and junior Kelly Engelking finished off the throwing events for Tufts by winning the javelin with her toss of 108'05".
Meanwhile, junior Kanku Kabongo and senior Logan Crane grabbed wins in the triple jump and long jump, respectively, and sophomore Dayorsha Collins tied Emmanuel College's Irene Limlengco in the high jump for a first-place height of 5'1". Crane also blew past her competition in the 100-meter dash, finishing first with a time of 12.93 seconds to beat out 14 opponents, including Tufts teammates Kabongo and Collins.
The other two victories for the Jumbos came from their two competing relay teams. The 4x100-meter relay team, made up of senior co-captain Andrea Ferri, Collins, Kagongo and Crane, finished in 50.64 seconds, and the 4x400 relay team of Pettoruto, first-year Sam Bissonnette, sophomore Sarah Boudreau and Ferri earned the win with a time of 4:10.38.
The Jumbos were happy with their performance over the weekend, as they were preparing for the most important part of the outdoor season — the championship slate. However, the team members know that the level of competition they saw was not near where it will be in the coming weeks.
"[The MIT Invitational] was a really small meet for us," said junior Amy Wilfert, who earned two third-place finishes in her distance events at MIT. "Most of our other meets have been more competitive, so it wasn't a good meet to have right before the NESCACs. But at the same time, it was kind of nice to have a last low-key event where we could just focus on doing our best."
Tufts will kick off its championship season tomorrow when it hosts the NESCAC Championships, with events starting at 9 a.m. and lasting until 5 p.m. Since the 2001-02 season, Tufts has finished no worse than third at the event but has never managed to claim the top spot.
"We're definitely prepared and excited for the NESCACs. A lot of people have had confidence issues in the last two weeks, but that's over," Wilfert said. "We're in a good position to do well because we're competing at home, where we practice every day. That should definitely be to our advantage."
Unlike other championship meets, the NESCACs focus on team success as opposed to individual success, putting a larger emphasis on garnering points for the team total rather than on qualifying for Nationals.
"It is the biggest team meet. Since we have a great team bond and a lot of team pressure on us, everyone will be putting forth their best effort. And it's great that we don't have any major injuries," Pettoruto said. "We've been working for this since September. Hopefully, we'll do really well in the NESCACs and it will just continue for the rest of the outdoor championship."
