WATERVILLE, ME - The Jumbo men's track & field team notched scoring performances across all event groups to place third of 26 teams at the Division III New England Championships at Colby College on Thursday through Saturday.
Coach Ethan Barron's team used the positive momentum from last weekend's conference title to put together more impressive performances. The Jumbos' 71 points placed third behind Bates (144) and MIT (143). Williams and the Coast Guard Academy rounded out the top five with 60 and 46 points respectively.
Freshman Mitch Black (Brunswick, ME) recorded the only victory of the meet for Tufts, as he led start-to-finish and clocked a season-best time of 1:52.21 in the 800. He currently sits at 11th in the nation.
Junior Ben Wallis (Dover, NH) also notched a national-caliber performance, as he ran a personal-best time of 9:06.49 in the steeplechase to place second. That time currently ranks seventh nationally and will most likely qualify for the NCAA Championship.
In the shorter events, senior Vinnie Lee (Walpole, MA) and junior Graham Beutler (Weston, CT) continued their stellar seasons. Beutler clocked a time of 21.91 in the 200 to place second while Lee took sixth in the 100 with a time of 11.24.
Beutler and Lee were also members of the school-record setting 4x100 meter relay team along with junior Dan Lange Vagle (St. Paul, MN) and freshman Bryson Hoover Hankerson (Owings Mills, MD). The quartet clocked a time of 42.15 to place second and break the 18-year old school record of 42.43 set in 1995.
In the field, senior Gbola Ajayi (Lagos, Nigeria) placed third in the triple jump (46'8 ¼" / 14.23m) and seventh in the long jump (21'2 ½" / 6.46m).
The throwers were productive as usual for the Jumbos. Sophomore Brian Williamson (Prairie Village, KS) launched a school-record and personal-best throw of 52'4 ¾" (15.97m) in the shot put to place third at the meet and rank in the top 25 nationally. He erases the 33-year old previous record of 52'3 3/4" from the team record book. Williamson also placed fifth in the hammer with his toss of 173'5" (52.86m).
Senior tri-captain Curtis Yancy (St. Louis, MO) took sixth in the discus with a mark of 151'9" (46.26m), while junior Matt Johnson (Hanover, MA) threw the javelin a personal-best distance of 187'3" (57.07m).
The squad will look to notch more personal-bests as championship season rolls on. Next weekend, the Jumbos will compete in the Open New England Championship at Stonehill College and the IC4A Championship at Princeton.
Meet results
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