Jumbos repeat as New England Div. III champions

The Tufts men's track and field team traveled to Middlebury, Vt. over the weekend for the New England Div. III Indoor Championships, where it brought home its second consecutive title.The Jumbos posted an overall score of 110 points to beat out the second-place MIT Engineers (97 points). The result marked Tufts' sixth New England indoor championship in its history and the first time it has won in back-to-back years.

The Jumbos' successful campaign was buoyed by victories in four events, along with three second place finishes and two third-place results.The team also managed to break three facility records at Middlebury's Virtue Field House. Trailing Tufts and MIT in the overall standings were Williams (92.5 points), Middlebury (83) and WPI (72.5).

Senior co-captain Drew DiMaiti, the returning New England Div. III 600-meter champion, was one of the four Jumbos to win an event over the weekend. The Medford native again won the 600 meters, setting both a personal-best time and a facility record with a mark of 1:20.60. DiMaiti deflected praise for his individual success at the meet to the Jumbos' effort as a team, stressing the odds that they were up against.

"Repeating our victory at the New England meet was very special," DiMaiti said. "I think this year's win was particularly sweet because of the uphill battle we faced in getting there. We were not expected to win the championship, and it took breakout performances to get us there."

The 600-meter race was the Jumbo's highest scoring event, as they came away with 17 points in all. Junior Nico Agosti finished fourth (five points) with a personal-best time of 1:23.43, and sophomore Jackson Mihm finished in seventh (two points) with a time of 1:24.83.

A pair of other Tufts victories came via juniors Hiroto Watanabe and Josh Etkind.Watanabe won the 800 meters for the second consecutive year, breaking the facility record in a time of 1:54.81.Etkind took victory in the 60-meter hurdles, finishing two-thousandths of a second faster than WPI first-year Oliver Thomas, with a time of 8.233 seconds, which ties him for fourteenth on the Div. III leaderboard.

The final individual victory for the Jumbos came from junior Anthony Kardonsky, who won the 200-meter dash in a new facility record of 22.26 seconds.The Tenafly, N.J. native also finished fourth in the 60 meters with a time of 6.96 seconds, matching his career best. Like DiMaiti, Kardonsky was pleased with his individual performance but was more concerned with the team's achievements.

"It felt really great to contribute a bunch of points to our team's victory, but [it was] even better seeing our entire squad step up to the challenge and outperform the other teams in the championship meet," Kardonsky said. "It feels amazing to know that the Tufts track and field program is the strongest it's ever been. I'm very thankful for our outstanding coaching staff and the opportunity to be a part of this team."

Many others Jumbos contributed to the team's success, including sophomore Robert Jones who finished eighth in the 60 meters (7.04 seconds), first-year OJ Armstrong who finished sixth in the 200 meters (22.70 seconds) and sophomore Matt D'Anieri, who ran a season-best in the 1,000 meters, earning third place with a time of 2:30.93.

The Jumbos also performed well in the relay events, earning 15 total points.Sophomore Roman Lovell, senior co-captain Tom DePalma, D'Anieri and Watanabe finished second in the 4x800 meters, with a time of 7:54.08.DiMaiti, Agosti, Mihm and junior Thomas Doyle took fifth place in the 4x400-meter relay, crossing the line in 3:25.22.The Jumbos also finished sixth in the distance medley relay, with first-year Joseph Berrafati, first-year Vincent Avallone, Lovell, and sophomore Dylan McEniry laying down a time of 10:34.76.

The team also scored in the field events, with breakout performances by junior Ben Wallace and sophomore Kevin Quisumbing.Wallace finished second out of 20 competitors in the pole vault, clearing a height of 4.61 meters, which set a personal best by eight inches. With his new mark, Wallace currently ranks 32nd on the Div. III leaderboard.Quisumbing finished in third place in the shot put, with a season-best throw of 15.40 meters. Senior Stefan Duvivier finished second in the high jump, leaping 2.04 meters — also a season-best mark.Finally, first-year Matthew Manteiga placed seventh in the long jump with a distance of 6.51 meters.

Tufts also had two top finishers in the heptathlon: Junior Henry Hintermeister finished fourth with a score of 4,404, and junior James Gregoire took seventh with a personal-best of 4,125 points.

After winning the New England Div. III Championship in back-to-back years, the Jumbos are ready to tackle the rest of their indoor season. DiMaiti expects great things from the team going forward.

"Going into the national qualifying week, we are hoping to secure spots at nationals for a few more members of our team," DiMaiti said. "I'm confident this will happen, and I'm excited for us to compete at the [Boston University] and Tufts 'Last Chance' meets over the next two weeks."

The team will make the short trip to Boston University this weekend for the first of those two national qualifying meets.