Teams: Men's Track & Field: Schedule & Results

TUFTS TRACK & FIELD TAKES SIX ALL-AMERICAN HONORS HOME FROM NATIONALS

COLLEGE MEN'S TRACK & FIELD RESULTS
NCAA Division III Indoor Championshps
At Shirk Center (Bloomington, IL)
Friday-Saturday, March 11-12, 2005

Championship Results

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – The NCAA Division III Men's Indoor Track & Field Championships were held this past weekend at Illinois Wesleyan University, and several members of the Tufts' Men's Indoor Track and Field team were among the competitors in the national event. Competitive in every event that they appeared in, the Jumbos had a strong showing with six All-American performances.

Tufts finished the meet tied for 15th place with 10 points, the highest finish of any NESCAC school. Veteran head coach Connie Putnam was named NCAA New England Coach of the Year during the weekend. The team from Wisconsin La Crosse took the meet handily, amassing 53 points for the win.

Sophomore All-American Fred Jones (Northfield, MA) had the Jumbos' top finish of the weekend, taking second in the long jump on Friday. His jump of 23 feet, 9 inches (7.26 meters) was just one inch behind first-place finisher Andre Brown of SUNY-Farmingdale's 23'10" leap. Jones scored eight points for Tufts with the runner-up effort. The 23-9 mark tied the school record Jones set earlier this year at the All New England Championships on February 19. Jones also competed in the triple jump at the NCAA meet, where his best jump of 46-6 just missed qualifying for the final round. He was recognized as the NCAA New England Athlete of the Year at the meet.

Senior Nate Brigham (Penacook, NJ) was Tufts' only other individual competitor at the meet, as a ninth seeded entrant in the 5,000 meter run. The senior improved on his seed to finish the race in eighth place, with an All-American time of 14 minutes, 46.76 seconds.

In addition to the individual performances, Tufts' Distance Medley Relay Team improved upon their ninth-place seed to finish eighth in the event in a very close finish. The team of Aaron Kaye (Los Altos, CA), Trevor Williams (Clifton Park, NY), Patrick Mahoney (Cranford, NJ) and Matt Fortin (Raymond, ME) came across the line in 10:12.34 to garner All-American recognition.

The University of Wisconsin-LaCrosse scored points in every event on Saturday and won its fifth straight NCAA Division III men's indoor championship and the 12th in school history. The Eagles had 53 points to top Lincoln University with 38 points and Wisconsin-Platteville finished third with 33 points.

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