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| Sophomore Luke O'Connor is the top collegiate performer in the 3,000 steeplechase |
CAMBRIDGE - Junior Mitch Black clocked the nation's second-fastest 800-meter time and broke his own school record en route to winning the event at the All-New England Championship at MIT on Saturday.
Black's mark of 1:49.83 improved on his previous best of 1:50.00 and was easily the fastest time of the day in the 32-man event. Buffalo State's Austin Backer is the only Division III athlete in the nation to record a faster time this season (1:49.74).
The Jumbos' other victory came from sophomore Luke O'Connor, whose time of 9:11.96 in the 3,000-meter steeplechase was the best of the day and the 12th fastest in the country so far this season. Freshman Ty Enos (9:33.08) and senior Marshall Pagano (9:42.00) backed O'Connor in ninth and 15th place, respectively.
In the 4x400 meter relay, the quartet of Black, juniors Alex Kasemir and Francis Goins and freshman Andrew DiMaiti notched a third-place finish in a time of 3:15.22, which ranks 17th nationally.
In the field, freshman Stefan Duvivier cleared a season-best 6'4 ¼" (1.94m) in the high jump for 14th place.
On Friday, junior Alex Karys recorded a sixth-place finish in the decathlon with a season-best 5,634 points. Meanwhile, sophomore Tim Nichols was the runner-up in the 10,000 meters in a time of 30:55.23, which ranks in the top 30 nationally.
Coach Ethan Barron's team tallied 37 points over the course of the three-day meet, good enough for seventh place of 37 teams from all divisions. Rhode Island won the New England title with 104.5 points. Williams (39 points) was the only D3 squad ahead of the Jumbos.
Next weekend, Tufts will compete in the ECAC Championship, the final meet before the NCAA Championship on May 21-23.
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