SOMERVILLE - Although no members of the Jumbo men's track & field team recorded an individual victory, the squad assembled several top-five finishes across all event groups to place second in the Snowflake Classic at Dussault Track/Ellis Oval on Saturday.
The Jumbos tallied 104 points, only six behind first-place Northeastern. Bridgewater State took third with 85.25, while Harvard and Brown rounded out the top five with 56.5 and 49 points respectively.
The Tufts competitors took advantage of mild and dry conditions to post several solid early-season performances.
Four Tufts runners combined to score 23 points in the 10,000. Junior Andrew Shapero (Laguna Beach, CA) led the way with a time of 32:40.85 to take second, while sophomore Nick Guarnaccia (Reston, VA) was less than second behind to finish third. Freshman Mike Curley (Attleboro, MA) and sophomore Joe Poupard (Northbrook, IL) placed fourth and fifth with times of 33:01.97 and 33:09.27 respectively.
The Jumbos fared well in the shorter events as well, as freshman Veer Bhalla (Windsor, NJ) took fourth in the 800 with a time of 1:54.64. In the 1,500, junior Ben Wallis (Dover, NH) clocked a time of 4:03.05 to place fifth. Also notching a fifth-place finish was senior Vinnie Lee (Walpole, MA), as he recorded a time of 23.11 in the 200.
In the field, senior tri-captain Curtis Yancy (St. Louis, MO) paced the throwers, as he took third in the discus with a heave of 152'1" (46.37m) and fifth in the hammer with a toss of 168'3" (51.28m).
In the shot put, sophomore Brian Williamson (Prairie Village, KS) recorded a distance of 50'3 ½" (15.33m) to place third, while junior Matt Johnson (Hanover, MA) made his season debut in the javelin, placing fourth with a throw of 175'7" (53.53m).
The Jumbos notched two top-five finishes in the jumps, as senior Gbola Ajayi (Lagos, Nigeria) placed third in the long jump with a leap of 22'5 ¼" (6.84m) and freshman Mitch Black (Brunswick, ME) leaped 42'2 ¾" (12.87m) in the triple jump for fifth.
These athletes will use their performances on Saturday as a springboard for the rest of the season.
The bulk of coach Ethan Barron's team will compete in the George Davis Invitational at UMass Lowell on Saturday, while a small contingent of runners will head south to Princeton to compete in the Sam Howell Invitational on Friday night.
Meet results
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