The first few meets of the indoor track and field season are traditionally used to get a bearing on the fitness of team members. For the Jumbos, the Jay Carisella Track and Field Invitational, hosted by Northeastern University at the Reggie Lewis Center in Boston, turned out to be an opportunity to set high marks and fast times too.
The only meet that the Jumbos attend before winter break was a success, which bodes well for the rest of the season.
The top individual efforts were junior Dayorsha Collins' victory in the high jump and senior Amy Wilfert's third-place finish in the 5000m. Collins' jump of 5'5.75" beat the NCAA Championship provisional qualifying mark by a half-inch. The junior also competed in the 200m, finishing 12th out of 73 in a time of 26.89 seconds.
In addition to finishing third in her race, Wilfert provisionally qualified for the NCAA Championship meet with a time of 17:37.46. Coming off a successful cross country season, in which she was Tufts' lone female representative at the National meet in Iowa, Wilfert extended her peak in an effort to put together a quality race in this meet.
Sophomore Kelly Allen finished sixth in the shot put with a distance of 40'8.75" and eighth in the weight throw with a 44'8" throw, good for two top-10 finishes. After a tremendous season last year as a freshman, Allen started off strong and looks to be ready to take another step forward.
Fellow thrower junior Ronke Oyenkule also had a strong day with a throw of 39'1.25" in the shot put to put her in seventh place.
A main point of this early-season meet was just to help the athletes get their jitters out and get experience in their events.
"We have a lot of good freshmen this year, so a lot of them were excited and a little nervous for their first meet," Collins said. "It was especially true since we were up against a wide range of competitors from Division I through Division III schools."
Athletes stayed relaxed by keeping expectations for this meet low.
"I didn't really think about the qualifying marks prior to the meet," Allen said. "Being the first meet, I didn't want to stress myself out with specific distances already, although it was a relief getting a few of them done with already."
The success the Jumbos had on Saturday is hardly indicative of where they can go as a team.
Most of the distance runners took the meet off, leaving only seniors and those who are going abroad in the spring to carry the weight for the distance squad.
Junior Anya Price, who ran unattached to save eligibility, is one such runner who will be abroad in the spring. Price finished second in the 3000m, running a personal best time of 10:24.53.
The rest of the team will have to fill the void that Price and other athletes going abroad will leave.
Using the time off effectively is crucial in order to have a successful season for the long distance runners coming off of their cross country seasons.
"I'm looking forward to training with some of my teammates," Collins said. "When I come back and compete, all the work I've put in will hopefully show."
Since competition has officially started for the women, it is hard not to look to the future.
"For the team, I hope we all work hard to qualify for Division IIIs and perform well there," Allen said. "There is a lot of young talent on the team, and even more potential for success, so hopefully it shows as the season progresses."
With over a month off before their next competition, the Jumbos have plenty of time to work on their weaknesses and get ready for the important meets later in the season.
