Teams: Men's Track & Field: Press Releases

Monday, February 21, 2005

JUMBOS WIN FIVE TITLES, JONES BREAKS 55-YEAR OLD LONG JUMP MARK AT NEW ENGLAND MEET

MEDFORD – Led by double-champion Fred Jones (Northfield, MA), the Tufts men's indoor track & field team was the runner-up at the 2005 New England Division III Indoor Championships over the weekend at the Gantcher Center. Tufts scored 108.5 points, behind only the 123 scored by team champion Williams College.

Jones won both the long jump and triple jump titles. His 23-foot, 9-inch winning effort in the long jump was a Tufts record and a Gantcher facility record and fell just shy of the NCAA automatic qualifying mark of 23-10. The jump put Jones second in the nation in the event. It erased Bob Jones' 55-year old Tufts mark of 23'7 1/2" from the record book. Jones won the triple jump on Saturday with a 47-0 1/4 best effort. He is also ranked second nationally in the triple with his season' s best of 47-11 1/4 at Northeastern on December 4.

Tufts athletes won three other events. Senior Nate Brigham (Penacook, NH) won the 5,000 meters by more than 11 seconds, finishing ahead of teammate Joshua Kennedy (Guilford, CT) in second place with a 15:10.31 time. Senior Aaron Kaye (Los Altos, CA) ran 2:31.60 to win the 1,000 meter run by a hair. Kaye joined sophomore Dustin Virgilio, junior Pat Mahoney (Cranford, NJ) and senior Brian McNamara (Saratoga Springs, NY) to win the distance medley relay with a time of 10:22.70.

Mahoney himself was the runner-up in the 800 meters, finishing in 1:55.61, barely a half-second off the NCAA provisional mark and first place in the race. Freshman Jeremy Arak (Ipswich, MA) scored in two events for Tufts, taking third in the high jump at 6' 3 1/4" and fifth in the pentathlon (3,073 points). Junior Seth LaPierre' s (Auburn, NH) 14' 6" pole vault and the 4x400 meters relay time of 3:24.53 also garnered third-place points for Tufts. The 4x4 group was Nate Cleveland (Auburn, ME), Andrew Gordetsky, Nate Scott (East Harford, CT) and Trevor Williams (Clifton Park, NY).

The Jumbos had two competitors among the top eight in both the 3,000 meter run and the 55 meter hurdles. Junior Matt Lacey (Amherst, MA) was fourth and senior Michael Don (Clayton, MO) was eighth in the 3,000 with 8:37.25 and 8:44.34 times, respectively. In the hurdles, Jamil Ludd (Washington, DC) was fifth in 7.96 seconds, while Nate Thompson (South Portland, ME) was eighth in 8.07 seconds.

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