Teams: Men's Track & Field: Press Releases

Monday, March 6, 2006

FIVE JUMBOS ON THEIR WAY TO NCAA MEN' S TRACK CHAMPIONSHIPS

MEDFORD – Tufts University Jumbos will compete in five events at this weekend' s (March 10-11) NCAA Division III Men's Track & Field Championships hosted by St. Olaf College in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Junior Fred Jones (Northfield, MA/Northfield Mount Hermon) qualified in two events. He' s ranked seventh in the long jump with a distance of 23 feet, 6 1/4 inches recorded at the Trinity Last Chance Meet this past Friday. The men's long jump is the first event of the weekend, with preliminaries followed by the finals beginning at 10:30 am. Jones is seeded fifth in the triple jump with a season' s best of 47' 5" from the New England Division III Championships on February 18. He was second in the long jump at the NCAA meet last season, and he was sixth in the triple jump at the 2004 NCAAs.

Sophomore Dan Marcy (Middletown, NY/St. Paul' s) will join Jones in the field for the triple jump. His qualifying mark of 46' 10" set at the New England Division III meet is seeded 11th. The triple jump preliminaries and finals are scheduled to start on Saturday at 10:00 am.

Adding to the jumps team, sophomore Jeremy Arak (Ipswich, MA/Ipswich) will compete in the high jump on Friday starting at 5:00 pm. He launched himself 6' 7 3/4" at the Dartmouth Relays on January 8 for the sixth-ranked performance in the nation.

Two members of the team' s stellar distance group will also be in action. Senior tri-captain Matt Lacey (Amherst, MA/Amherst) ran 14:41.28 in the 5,000 meters at the Terrier Invitational hosted by Boston University on January 27 and that qualified as 10th in the NCAA race. The Men's 5K begins at 6:15 pm on Saturday.

Fellow senior Matt Fortin (Raymond, ME/North Yarmouth Academy) has the country' s seventh-best mile among small college competitors with a 4:12.56 time run at BU' s Valentine Invitational on February 11. He' ll compete at the NCAA meet on Friday at 4:30 pm.

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