BOSTON - The quartet of senior Graham Beutler (Weston, CT) and sophomores Mitch Black (Brunswick, ME), Francis Goins (Shaker Heights, OH) and Alex Kasemir (Highland Park, IL) broke the school record and qualified for NCAA's in the 4x400 relay at the Open New England Championship at Boston University on Saturday.
The group's time of 3:15.35 was good enough for fourth in the meet, ranks in the top-five nationally, and broke the school record of 3:16.36 set by Beutler, Goins, Vinnie Lee and Ben Crastnopol in 2012.
The 4x4 scored five of the Jumbos eight points in the meet, which landed Tufts in a tie for 23rd of 37 scoring teams. Southern Connecticut State (118), Rhode Island (99) and Northeastern (96) were the top-three squads.
The only other scoring performances for the Jumbos came from junior Brian Williamson (Prairie Village, KS) and sophomore Atticus Swett (Bow, NH). The duo placed seventh and eighth in the shot put with throws of 51' 1 ½" (15.58m) and 50' 5 ¼" (15.37m) respectively.
Sophomore Veer Bhalla (West Windsor, NJ) narrowly missed scoring and advancing to the eight-man final in the 800, as he took ninth in a time of 1:53.16. Also earning a ninth-place finish was junior Allan Yau (Andover, MA), as he tallied a personal-best 4,003 points in the heptathlon.
Junior Marshall Pagano (Niskayuna, NY) and freshman Luke O' Connor (Chicago, IL) were able to hit season-best marks on the track. Pagano recorded a time of 8:43.14 in the 3,000 to finish 21st, while O'Connor finished in the same position in the mile with a time of 4:18.05.
Freshman Nick Usoff (Acton, MA) placed 13th with a time of 1:06.06 in the 500. On the runway, senior Andrew Osborne (Andover, MA) leaped 20' 1 ½" (6.13m) for 23rd in the long jump.
Coach Ethan Barron's squad will have one more week to improve qualifying marks for the NCAA Championship, as the Jumbos will split up to compete in three meets over four days next week.
The action will start at the Gantcher Center on Thursday with the Tufts Last Chance Meet. Then over the weekend some members of the team will head back to Boston to compete in the ECAC Championship at the Reggie Lewis Center and the IC4A Championship at Boston University.
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