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Junior Atticus Swett won the javelin and was second in the discus
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WATERVILLE, ME - In a remarkable display of ability and depth, the Tufts University men's outdoor track & field team repeated as NESCAC champions on Saturday at Colby College. Head coach Ethan Barron's Jumbos scored 178.90 points to defeat second-place Middlebury (166.5).
Tufts won four events and had 13 top-three finishes at the meet. They scored in 20 of 21 events, including placing multiple finishers in the top eight for 12 of the 18 non-relay events. The Jumbos won again despite the graduation of several scorers from last year's team and without senior All-American Graham Beutler due to an injury.
Tufts swept the middle-distance events with sophomore Mitchell Black winning the 800 in 1:50.84 and senior Jamie Norton capturing the 1,500 with a 3:54.33 time. They were also impressive in the throws, where junior Brian Williamson topped the shot put field with a 53'0 1/4" (16.16m) best and classmate Atticus Swett was first in the javelin throw at 175'11" (53.62m). The conference titles are the first for each of the Jumbos.
Williamson's shot put broke his own school record of 52'6" (16.00m) from last year. It also improved his national ranking to 11th. Black, running in rainy conditions, shaved a few hundreths of a second off his #2 national qualifying time in the 800.
Williamson and Swett were also runner-ups in the throws. Williamson's 170'5" (51.94m) was second in the hammer and Swett sent the discus 140'10" (42.94m) to place second. They also scored a pair of fifths, Swett in the shot (46'0 3/4" / 14.04m) and Williamson in the discus (131'1" / 39.96m).
Norton added a third in the 5,000 meters to his 1,500 win, running 14:54.61. Senior Ben Wallis finished the 3,000-meter steeplechase in 9:10.23 for second place, and Tufts also received runner-up points from the 4x400-meter relay. The foursome of Woody Butler, Alex Kasemir, Nick Usoff and Francis Goins posted a 3:20.93 time.
Goins added a third in the 400 (49.28) and was seventh in the 200 (22.94). He also anchored the 4x100-meter relay that was third in 43.15 seconds, joining Blake Coolidge, Bryson Hoover-Hankerson and Andrew Osborne. Usoff placed fourth in the 400-meter hurdles (55.86) along with a fifth in the javelin (168'7" / 51.38m).
Freshman Jarad Asselin produced a strong double in the jumps, going 42'11" (13.08m) for third in the triple jump and clearing 6'0" (1.83m) to take fourth in the high jump. Osborne also scored in the high jump and long jump, in which he was fourth (21'7 1/4" / 6.58m). Coolidge had individual points in a pair, as he was fifth in the both the 100 (11.21) and 200 (22.78).
Four Jumbos scored in the pole vault, led by senior David Sutherland's third-place effort of 14'1 1/4" (4.30m). Senior Trevor Rothaus was successful at the same height and placed fourth. Norton led four scorers in the 5k, including freshman Luke O'Connor in the fourth position (14:56.70).
Senior Andrew Shapero ran 31:08.13 for fourth in the 10k, while sophomore Veer Bhalla supported Black in the 800 with a fourth-place finish (1:53.22).
The NESCAC title is the third outright for the Jumbos, who won in 1991 along with last year. They shared the crown with Williams in 2007.
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