After a long cross-country trip, a small contingent from the mens track and field team arrived in Lincoln, Neb. on March 13 to compete in the Div. III National Championships. The next day Friday, March 14 marked the first of two days of competition, which saw the Jumbos get out to a fast and successful start.
The Tufts runners were a perfect four-of-four in qualification, as all individual participants advanced to the finals in their respective events, some in a particularly remarkable fashion.
Seeking to end his indoor career on a high note, senior Graham Beutler put up one of the best performances for the Jumbos in the opening qualifiers of competition. In the first 400-meter preliminary race, Beutler crossed the line in third place with the Tufts indoor record in hand, which was previously set in 1996 by All-American James Lavalle (LA 96), by a mere one-hundredth of a second.
Sophomore duo Mitchell Black and Veer Bhalla finished fourth and sixth, respectively, in the open 800-meter preliminary, together comprising one-fourth of the top eight runners in the event.
I was pretty nervous about the prelims going in, Bhalla told the Daily in an email. Making the final seemed like both a distant and doable possibility. Things went really well in the race. I managed to get out well and stay out of trouble on my way to a [personal record].
Senior tri-captain Jamie Norton, who ran first in the mile-run qualifier, squeezed into the final with a time of 4:13.63 good enough for ninth out of 10 qualifiers.
In the final round of competition, Tufts pressed on through to the end, as five athletes earned All-American honors: Beutler, Black, Bhalla and sophomores Francis Goins and Alex Kasemir.
We did pretty well as a team, Bhalla said. It was exciting to have seven total [All-American awards] in one Nationals.
The top seed in the 800-meter going into the meet, Black earned his third career All-American honor in the 800-meter final. Maintaining the lead for approximately the first 700 meters, he relinquished it over the closing stretch but held on to finish third. Bhalla, who finished 1.61 seconds behind his classmate, snagged the eighth and final All-American slot. No other university, including the powerhouse Wisconsin schools that consistently assemble dominant distance squads, boasted two All-Americans in the 800-meter.
I went into the final relatively stress free, just trying to see what I could do, Bhalla said. Unfortunately, I didnt have my usual kick, but Im ... pleased. Mitch [Black] did great and it was really nice to have two of us on that podium.
Though unable to replicate his record-breaking performance from the preliminary round, Beutler earned his third All-American honor in the 400-meter, despite running nearly six-hundredths of a second slower.
The meet ended just as successfully as it had begun for Tufts, this time in the 4x400-meter relay. The quartet of Beutler, Black, Goins and Kasemir fell milliseconds short of the school record it had established a few weeks prior at the Open New England Championships, but the strong performance ensured the group was rewarded with All-American honors. While the winning team from Mount Union pulled away from the rest of the field, the race was far tighter down the ranks; Tufts finished the race sandwiched between two Wisconsin teams, distinguishing itself by strides to finish sixth.
I think we took it to every team ... and left it all on the track, Goins said. We proved we could hold our own against some of the top dogs. We even changed our order an hour before our race and still managed to almost break the school record again.
With Nationals complete and spring break over, a memorable indoor season has also come to a close. Upon their return some back from San Diego, Calif., where team members in need of a change of pace elected to train over the spring recess the Jumbos will come out riding a wave of momentum into the outdoor season.
