SOMERVILLE - With three wins and seven top-five finishes, the Tufts men's track & field team opened the outdoor season in impressive fashion at the non-scoring Snowflake Classic at Ellis Oval on Saturday.
The first half of the meet was plagued with cold and damp weather that made for slow racing conditions. Nonetheless, several Tufts athletes recorded stellar early-season performances.
Junior Jeff Marvel (Naples, FL) had the most impressive performance of the day. Fresh off his top-five finish in the 800 at the indoor NCAA Championships, he notched a time of 1:52.33 to win the event on Saturday. That time has a legitimate chance to be among the top 20 nationally by season's end, meaning Marvel would make another appearance at the national meet.
Junior Brad Nakanishi (Scarborough, ME) also notched a victory. His clearance of 15'0" (4.60m) in the pole vault was good enough to win the event. He was backed by sophomore Trevor Rothaus (Placentia, CA), who cleared 14'1" (4.30m) to place third.
The Jumbos recorded a 1-2-3 finish in the steeplechase. Senior co-captain Scott McArthur (Denver, CO) notched a victory in his first career attempt at the event with a time of 9:55.55. Only two seconds behind in the runner-up spot was freshman Marshall Pagano (Niskayuna, NY). Sophomore Bobby McShane (Mansfield, MA) recorded a time of 10:03.54 to place third despite face-planting into the water pit halfway through the race.
Senior co-captain Adam Aronson (Norwood, MA) led the throwers with his second-place finish in the hammer throw with a toss of 170'8" (52.02m). Freshman Ptah Osayande (Wallingford, PA) also notched an impressive performance. He placed third in the 110m hurdles with a time of 16.21 seconds.
The Jumbos tallied two fourth-place finishes. Junior Sam Haney's (Essex, CT) time of 15:21.35 in the 5,000 was good enough for fourth, while sophomore Andrew Shapero (Laguna Beach, CA) took fourth in the 10,000 with a time of 32:38.85.
The Jumbos established some impressive baseline performances on Saturday and will look to improve on these marks as the season progresses.
Next week, most of coach Ethan Barron's team will compete at the George Davis Invite at UMass Lowell, while a handful of mid-distance and distance runners will head south to Princeton to compete in the Sam Howell Invitational.
Meet results
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