MEDFORD - With three victories and nine top-three performances, the Tufts men's track & field team placed first of 22 teams at the Tufts Invitational Stampede in the Gantcher Center on Friday and Saturday.
The Jumbos accumulated 125 points to best second place UMass Dartmouth by 37.5. WPI came in third with 68 points. Bridgewater State and Worcester State rounded out the top five with 53 and 49.5 points respectively.
The action got started on Friday evening with the heptathlon. Sophomore Andrew Osborne (Andover, MA) and freshman Allen Yau (Andover, MA) competed in four events on Friday and three events on Saturday. Osborne placed sixth with 3,820 points and Yau came in eighth with 2,822 points in his first career attempt at the event. Their finishes combined to score four points for Tufts.
On the track, six Jumbos combined to score 32 points in the 3,000 meter event. Junior Matt Rand (Cape Elizabeth, ME) and sophomores Liam Cassidy (Brunswick, ME) and Brian McLaughlin (Barrington, RI) led the way. Rand won the event with a time of 8:35.54, Cassidy placed second in 8:41.63 and McLaughlin clocked a time of 8:44.77 to come in third.
Senior Jeff Prescott (Wilton, CT) was able to score ten points for Tufts with his victory in the 1,000. He clocked a personal-best time of 2:32.26. Also tallying ten first-place points for the Jumbos was junior Brad Nakanishi (Scarborough, ME). He won the pole vault with his clearance of 14'7 1/4" (4.45m).
Runner-up performances were recorded by junior Gbola Ajayi (Lagos, Nigeria) and freshman Ptah Osayande (Wallingford, PA). Ajayi leaped 22'3" (6.78m) in the long jump for second place and Osayande clocked a time of 8.60 in the 60m hurdles to take second.
In the throwing events, the Jumbos notched two third-place finishes. Freshman Brian Williamson (Prairie Village, KS) hurled the shot put 48'0 3/4" (14.65m) for third and junior Curtis Yancy (St. Louis, MO) tossed the weight 52'10 1/4" (16.11m) to finish in the top three.
The home victory should give the Jumbos solid momentum heading into the championship season, which begins in two weeks.
Next weekend, Coach Ethan Barron's team will split up and compete at Tufts' third and final home invitational of the season and at Boston University's Valentine Invitational.
Meet results
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Written by Matt Rand
