Tufts sent a small group of runners to the All-New England Championship this past weekend at the Reggie Lewis Center in Boston. This meet featured competitors from Div. I, Div. II and Div. III schools, making it one of the more competitive meets of the season for the Jumbos.
On Saturday, Tufts scored in two events, bringing its final score to nine points and earning the team a tie for 21st place at the meet. The scoring came largely at the hands of rookie runners as first-year Julia Gake ran a time of 1:17.13 seconds in the 500 meter to finish in sixth place, earning three points. That time for Gake is the fourth best time in Tufts' history, earning her All-New England honors for the meet.
Tufts also earned one point from the 4x800 meter relay, in a foursome composed of first-year Rhemi Toth, senior quad-captain Sam Cox, first-year Lauren Diaz and Gake anchoring the race.They finished in eighth place, earning All-New England honors as well.
Junior Brittany Bowman managed a tenth place finish in the 3000 meter run, just two places and roughly five seconds out of scoring position. However, her time of 10:17.84 over the weekend is 22.75 seconds off her personal record of 9:55.09, a time which would have placed her fourth at this meet.
Coach Kristen Morwick shed some light on why Bowman might not have had as good a race as anticipated.
“Brittany Bowman was battling flu-like symptoms, so unfortunately, she was unable to improve her 3k time," Morwick told the Daily in an email.
Sophomore Annalisa DeBari also tied her season best in the 60 meter hurdles with a time of 9.06 seconds, and the team hopes she will be able to break nine seconds next weekend in order to give her a chance to qualify for Nationals.
Friday produced similar results as the Jumbos scored in two other events. Sophomore Natalie Bettez ran a big PR in the 5000 meters, placing sixth to score three points for Tufts and earn All-New England honors.First-year Haley Barthel also competed in the 5000, placing in the top 10 and running a PR as well.
Tufts went with a different group for the distance medley relay (DMR) on Friday than they have in the past to try out a new combination of runners for the NCAAs in two weeks. Diaz led off in the 1200 leg, senior quad-captain Rita Donohoe following in the 400, Toth running the 800 and Cox anchoring in the mile leg. The group was without usual member Bowman running the mile leg, but they still finished seventh to score two points for the team and earn All-New England honors. Cox, subbing for Bowman, ran a huge PR in her mile anchor with a time of 5:03.
Bowman explained that testing out different groups in the relay is crucial to the team's postseason success.
“We’re racing the DMR again in our last-chance meet to hopefully qualify for Nationals, because the top 12 teams qualify, and we think we’re on the edge. So we’re going to try to run a fast team at our last-chance meet and qualify, [and] then maybe mix it up at Nationals,” Bowman said. “Especially for the DMR since there are four legs of different distances, it’s kind of hard to know who is the best person for which leg, so we’ve been trying to find alternatives if something goes wrong."
With just one more meet before Nationals on March 10 in Naperville, IL, athletes from all over New England will try to post their best times of the season next weekend at the Last Chance Qualifier meet hosted at Tufts in the Gantcher Center.
“[The] last-chance meet is definitely more of an individual meet; it’s not even scored," Bowman said. "So there will be a lot of people there trying to qualify for Nationals and sneak into that top 17."
Jumbos to host last-chance meet ahead of Nationals
