CAMBRIDGE - The Jumbo men's track & field team assembled six scoring performances to place 13th of 37 teams from all divisions at the Open New England Championship at MIT on Thursday, Friday and Saturday.
Rhode Island won the meet with 169 points. Southern Connecticut State and AIC rounded out the top three, both accumulating 60 points to tie for second. The Jumbos' 21 points were good enough for 13th. Bates was the only DIII team ahead of Tufts. The Bobcats placed 10th with 25 points.
The Jumbos' highest finish came from junior Brad Nakanishi (Scarborough, ME). He took third in the pole vault with his clearance of 16'0 3/4" (4.90m). That mark ties for 16th nationally and will likely be among the top 20 by season's end, meaning Nakanishi will qualify for the NCAA Championship.
Likewise, classmate Gbola Ajayi (Lagos, Nigeria) recorded a national-qualifying performance of his own on Saturday. He placed fourth in the triple jump with a leap of 48'4 3/4" (14.75m). That mark ranks in the top ten nationally which means Ajayi will return to the NCAA Championship after his sixth-place All-American finish at indoor NCAA's this past winter. On Friday, Ajayi was also able to place seventh in the long jump with his leap of 22'5" (6.83m).
On the track, sophomore Ben Wallis (Dover, NH) placed fourth in the steeplechase with a personal-best time of 9:14.69, which ranks 24th nationally. Wallis will have one more opportunity next weekend to record a top-20 national qualifying mark.
Junior Curtis Yancy (St. Louis, MO) notched the only scoring performance for Tufts in the throwing events. His toss of 151'8" (46.23m) in the discuss was good enough for sixth.
The Jumbos will look to build off these impressive performances in next weekend's ECAC Championship at RPI. That meet will be the last chance to improve national qualifying marks before the NCAA Championship on May 24-26.
Meet results
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