After boasting a young, deep squad last winter, the men's track and field team returns this season mostly intact and with a year of experience to build on its 2010?2011 successes.
Last year's indoor season concluded with a sixth?place finish at the NCAA Div. III New England championships and two individuals traveling to NCAAs to compete in the 800?meter race on the national scene. Many other athletes hit NCAA provisional qualifiers.
"We are definitely looking to improve on last year's finish at New Englands. Our team is deeper and stronger across the board in every event group so I think that's a very realistic goal," assistant coach Nick Welch (LA '10) said. "One thing we did well last year was being consistent throughout indoor and all the way through the outdoor season, and when you can do that, that's when you really progress as an athlete and as a program. I hope we can do that even better this year."
After finishing ninth at the NCAA Div. III cross country national championships this fall, the distance crew will look to bring that momentum onto the indoor track, where they will combine forces with the other event groups who have been preparing throughout the fall.
"[The fall training group] is in great shape. They've been champing at the bit to get into a meet and show what they can do," Welch said. "I've never seen the fall track guys be as organized and disciplined as they were this fall and for me that is a huge predictor of what we will see from them throughout this indoor season."
The team will be led this winter by senior tri?captains Adam Aronson, Connor Rose and Scott McArthur, along with a strong cast of coaches.
"We really have had great coaching this year, between Ethan Barron, Nick Welch and Dan Murner really holding it down with cross country and then Dan Kopcso holding it down in the weight room, along with some of our other coaches, Ed Arcaro, Jeremy Arak and Chris Combs," Aronson said. "They've really done a fantastic job for us."
The Jumbos did not graduate a single scorer at the Div. III New England Championships last winter, a promising note for this season. During the outdoor season, Tufts improved to a fifth?place finish in the region, a performance in which only four of 46.5 total points were scored by a graduating senior.
"With another year under everybody's belt, we're going to walk into the season with more maturity, more stamina, and hopefully we'll have strong finishes come April and May," Aronson said.
The Jumbos return Rose and junior Jeff Marvel, who competed in the 800?meter event at NCAAs last winter, along with junior Matt Rand, an All?American 10,000?meter runner during the 2011 outdoor season who also earned All?American honors at cross country nationals on Nov. 19.
"We also have returners in every other event group that are just a few steps away from being at nationals themselves - [junior] Mike Blair in the high jump, [junior] Brad Nakanishi in the pole vault, [junior] Gbola Ajayi, in the triple jump, Adam Aronson in the throws, and [sophomore] Graham Beutler in the 400," Welch said. "Those guys will be huge contributors for us, and that's not to mention our freshmen, who are easily one of the strongest incoming classes we've had."
Northeastern's Husky Invite on Saturday kicks off the 2011?2012 season for the squad, giving it an early chance to showcase its fall training. For many athletes, this will be their first competition since the outdoor season ended in May.
Most of the fall training group will suit up this weekend, along with a handful of varsity cross country athletes, looking to ride their peaks and get qualifiers for the championship season out of the way early.
"I'm just looking to see people run well. It's the first meet of the year, and it's December so we have to pace ourselves," Aronson said. "I'd like to see the freshmen have some fun in their first college meet. There should be a lot of good schools there, and I have a feeling that we're going to see some great times out of them. They're a great class and they work very hard."
Over a month later, the Dartmouth Relays will offer a chance for athletes to compete against top schools ranging across all divisions on Jan. 6 and 8, while the full team will return to campus for training in time for the first full?squad meet, Tufts Invitational I on Jan 14.
