Teams: Men's Track & Field: Press Releases

Tuesday, June 20, 2006

BARRON PROMOTED FROM INTERIM TO MEN' S TRACK & FIELD COACH

MEDFORD – Ethan Barron, the interim coach of the Tufts University men's cross country/track & field program for the 2005-06 academic year, has been hired as the Jumbos' new head coach. Following a national search to fill the position, the announcement was made by Tufts Athletic Director Bill Gehling.

Barron, a 2001 graduate of Middlebury College, had previously worked as a graduate assistant and volunteer coach under Connie Putnam at Tufts from 2002-05. When Putnam retired during the summer 2005, Barron was named the interim coach.

The Tufts program maintained its level of national achievement during Barron's first year of leadership. The cross country team posted its best-ever finish with a fifth place at the NCAA Championships. The Jumbos won their third straight New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) championship and Barron was named NESCAC Co-Coach of the Year.

During the track & field season, the indoor team was New England runner-up and sent five competitors to the NCAA Championship meet. Outdoors, junior Fred Jones (Northfield, MA/Northfield Mt. Hermon) won the NCAA triple jump title. Senior tri-captain Trevor Williams (Clifton Park, NJ/Shenendehowa) was selected to receive a $7,500 NCAA post-graduate scholarship. Barron was again voted by his peers as NESCAC Coach of the Year.

Barron was an All-American academically and athletically at Middlebury College. A chemistry and math major, he was second in the NCAA 55-meter hurdles indoors and third in the 110-meter hurdles outdoors in 2001. After a year of coaching at a high school in his home state of Vermont, Barron primarily coached the hurdlers, sprinters and horizontal jumpers as an assistant at Tufts. In his first year (2002-03), he worked with indoor All-Americans Greg Devine and Bryan Pitko.

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