Teams: Men's Track & Field: Press Releases

Monday, March 5, 2007

JONES TO MAKE SEVENTH TRIP TO NCAA TRACK & FIELD CHAMPIONSHIPS

MEDFORD -- Senior Fred Jones (Northfield, MA/Northfield Mt. Hermon) of the Tufts University men's track and field team will make his seventh consecutive trip to the NCAA Championship meet this weekend. Jones is the Jumbos' lone representative at the 2007 indoor national championships to be hosted by Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology in Terre Haute, Indiana this weekend (March 9-10).

Jones qualified to compete in both the long jump and triple jump. He is seeded fourth entering the meet for the long jump with a season's best of 23 feet, 8 1/4 inches at the MIT Invitational on February 10. He is the #9 seed in the triple jump with his 47' 3 3/4 mark at the Open New England Championships hosted by Boston University on February 24.

The senior tri-captain is a seven-time All-American indoors and outdoors. At last year's NCAA indoor championships, Jones was fourth in the long jump with 23' 6 1/4" distance. He also qualified in the triple jump, but did not make the final. At the 2005 indoor nationals, Jones was the runner-up in the long jump with a school-record 23' 9" mark. He also competed in the triple jump that year and did not make the final. As a freshman in 2004, Jones was sixth in the triple at the NCAA indoor meet with a 47' 4 1/2" leap. He did not qualify to compete in the long jump at the NCAA meet that year.

Jones won the NCAA outdoor triple jump national title last spring with a 49' 7" school record. He second in the triple (49' 1 3/4") and seventh in the long jump (23' 6") at the 2005 outdoor meet. In 2004, he was third in the triple jump (48'11") at the Outdoor NCAA's.

This weekend, he will look to match his 2005 outdoor performance that netted double All-American honors. He is scheduled to compete in the long jump on Friday at 3:00 pm (EST), and the triple jump competition is slated for Saturday at 2:30 pm.

The Tufts University Athletic Department's Clarence "Pop" Houston Award recipient as the best male athlete for 2005-06, Jones is looking to add to his already well-established spot as one of the most accomplished track & field competitors in Tufts' long history of success in the sport.

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