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

WELCH QUALIFIES PROVISIONALLY IN 5K AT BU'S TERRIER INVITATIONAL

COLLEGE MEN'S INDOOR TRACK & FIELD RESULTS
Terrier Invitational
Friday-Saturday, January 23-24, 2009
At Boston, MA

Meet Results

Junior quad-captain Nick Welch qualified for Nationals in the 5K

BOSTON -- Junior quad-captain Nick Welch (Seattle, WA) provisionally qualified for the NCAA Championships in the 5,000 meter run and senior Phil Rotella (Louisville, KY) ran the second-fastest indoor 200 in team history when the Tufts men's track & field squad competed at Boston University's Terrier Invitational over the weekend.

The meet was run on the fast banked track at BU and featured collegiate athletes from all levels and amateur competitors as well. Welch put down a 5K time of 14:39.64 that when converted due to the banked track was still well within the 14:53 NCAA provisional mark. He was 15th out of 62 in the 5K field at BU.

Rotella crossed the finish line in the 200 with a time of 22.55 seconds for 25th place at the meet. That pace stands behind only the school record of 22.28 seconds ran by teammate Andrew Longley (Short Hills, NJ) last season.

The top Tufts finish was a second-place in the 13-team distance medley relay with a 10:12.43 time. The Jumbos finished behind Duke University in the race. Sophomore Jeff Ragazzini (Wilton, CT), freshman Ben Crastnopol (Doylestown, PA), junior Billy Hale (Menlo, CA) and junior Jesse Faller (Burlington, MA) composed the Tufts team.

Faller just missed the NCAA provisional qualifying time of 4:16 in the mile run with his 4:15.29 on the banked track. When converted, it was barely a quarter of a second off the NCAA requirement. He was 24th out of 132 in the BU field.

Junior Ikenna Acholonu (Shoreline, WA) reached the final in the 55-meter hurdles. His preliminary time of 8.02 seconds was the 12th of 16 qualifiers and he ran 8.18 seconds in the final for 15th place. Acholonu was also 10th in the triple jump with 42'1 �� distance (12.84m). The Jumbos had a pair of top 25 finishes in the 800 meters, with Hale timing 1:57.34 for 20th and junior Scott Brinkman (Alamo, CA) running 1:57.55 for 22nd.

Next weekend, the Jumbos host a pentathlon event at the Gantcher Center on Friday (Jan. 30) and travel to the Bowdoin Invitational on Saturday (Jan. 31).

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