Teams: Men's Track & Field: Press Releases

Friday, February 20, 2004
Written by Elliott Wiley, Jr.

MEN LOOK FOR USUAL HIGH FINISH AT NEW ENGLAND DIV. III CHAMPIONSHIPS

This weekend (Feb 20-21), the Tufts men's indoor track and field team travels to Bowdoin College to participate in the Division III New England Championships. Once again reloaded, the Jumbos look to finish in the top three.

One event where Tufts is looking to score big points is in the 600 meter run. The duo of freshman Nate Cleveland (Auburn, MA/Auburn) and junior Ray Carre (Middletown, CT/Xavier) are seeded second and third, respectively. Both hold the Tufts record in the event at 1 minute, 22.33 seconds.

In the 55 hurdles, junior Nate Thompson (South Portland, ME/South Portland) is .09 seconds off the seeded top spot with a qualifying time of 7.86 seconds. He' s also a good candidate to score in the long jump. Freshman phenom Fred Jones (Northfield, MA/) looks to contend for the title in both the long and triple jumps. He is seeded second in the long jump with a bound of 22 feet, 2 1/4 inches and first in the triple jump at 46-8.

In the longer distances, Tufts' cross country glory has translated into indoor track success. Mostly led by junior Nate Brigham (Penacook, NH/Merrimack Valley), the Jumbos should score a good amount of points from their distance runners.

In the 1500 race, sophomore Kyle Doran (North Attleborough, MA/Bishop Feeham) holds the third seed at 4:00.38. Brigham should place for Tufts in the 5,000. Ranked third in the 5000 (14:47.04), the junior will be joined by freshman Joshua Kennedy (Guilford, CT/Hopkins School). In the 3000, senior Peter Bromka (Portland, OR/Caitlin Gabel), sophomore Matt Lacey (Amherst, MA/Amherst), and junior Michael Don (Clayton, MO/Clayton) all have a shot at scoring in the event.

With solid pole vaults, sophomore Seth LaPierre (Auburn, NH/Memorial), ranked sixth entering this weekend's event, could place. Tufts has a good chance of scoring in one throwing event as junior Dan March (Bethesda, MD/Walt Whitman) should place in the top five of the weight throw competition.

After this weekend's competition, the Jumbos travel to the All-New England Championships at Boston University (Feb 27-28) where the team can test itself against New England teams from Division I, II, and III.

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