Men's track starts season off strong

Following a hot start to the season, there seems to be a different mentality on the Tufts men's track and field team this year. The Jumbos opened the season at home with the Tufts Invitational on Jan. 16 and came away with the win, placing first out of nine teams. At Bowdoin on Saturday, the team placed third out of 10 teams.

New head coach Joel Williams helms one of the strongest teams that Tufts has had in a long time. With all that talent, the expectations have been set high this season for the Jumbos, though they did not disappoint in their first two meets.

The Jumbos most recently traveled to Brunswick, Maine for the annual Bowdoin Invitational this past weekend. Senior tri-captain sprinter, Alex Kasemir, who is dealing with an injury, did not run in the meet. His fellow tri-captains, seniors Atticus Swett and Mitch Black, both won their events and helped propel the team to the third-place finish.

But the Jumbos are more excited about their impressive victory in their season opener at home.

"Especially early in the season, we really focus on individual performances," Kasemir said. "Because there were so many great performances the team score ended up being in our favor, but we weren't thinking about it the whole time. We were more excited about people that stood out, and winning a meet is great, but the individual performances are definitely the highlight of the day."

"Winning the first meet at home was a huge morale booster for us," Drew DiMaiti, a sophomore, said. "I think we were all really excited. We've been training a long time. We started practicing in the fall, so we were really fired up to come out on our own track and get the win."

DiMaiti was a major point scorer for the Jumbos at the Tufts Invitational. He was part of the squad that placed first in the 4x400 meter race, and he finished first as an individual in the 600 meter.

"That was my first time running the 600, and that was the farthest distance I've run while in college," DiMaiti said. "I was a little nervous for how it would go because I usually run the 400. It actually went really well, I went out at a good pace."

It appears that Williams' coaching has been another factor in Tufts' success.

"Joel has been great for this team," DiMaiti said. "He's brought a lot of new intensity and a different workout style from what some of us are used to, but everyone's really adjusting to it well."

Williams has been equally pleased with his team's performance and has settled into his new position well, in his first season with the Jumbos.

"The last several weeks were a transition period from training to competing plus me being new to the Jumbo family," Williams told the Daily in an email. "The team was really ready to start competing, and I could feel the energy in the building, and the guys built off of each other's performances. The upperclassmen set the tone, and the new guys fell right into line."

Those "new guys" have been stellar to start the season. Many of the first-year athletes have been performing quite well in the first meets of their college careers. First-year Josh Etkind, who competes in both the hurdles and the triple jump, has been one of the squad's rookie standouts.

"All of the freshmen really did well," Kasemir said. "A lot of them stepped up. Josh Etkind did a great job. He set a freshman record in the hurdles and got us in the top ten in a few events."

Coach Williams also had high praise for Etkind, as the coach named him the athlete of the week for his efforts, citing his first-place finish in the triple jump, his fourth-place finish in the 60 meter hurdles and his contribution to the all-freshman 4x200 relay that placed second. Along the way he picked up two Tufts freshman top 10 marks, two Div. III New England marks and one Tufts all-time top 10 mark.

Coach Williams feels that during the team's early success, the athletes have been supportive of each other, and they must continue to do so if they want to keep up that success.

"We have to continue to rally for each other," Williams told the Daily in an email. "Circling the track to cheer, lining up along the jumps runways and throwing circles to make sure our teammates know we are there for each other. Each guy from the national level guys to the guys learning how to be a jumper. Each one needs to know that every teammate has their back and vice versa."

The Jumbos next compete on Friday night, sending part of their team athletes to the John Thomas Invitational at Boston University. Most of the team, however, will compete at Saturday's Tufts Stampede Invitational, held at the Gantcher Center, where the team will look to continue its strong opening.