BOSTON - Senior Veer Bhalla and freshman Josh Etkind both qualified for the finals in their events on the first day of the New England Intercollegiate Amateur Athletic Association (NEICAAA) meet Friday at Boston Univeristy.
Etkind qualified in the 60-meter hurdles with a time of 8.42 seconds. He finished 13th of 31 in the race and was one of 16 qualfiers for the semi-finals. Bhalla ran 1:52.83 to qualify seventh in the 800 meters. The race had 31 entrants and eight qualfiers went to the final.
Etkind will run in the semi-finals on Saturday at 11:55 am. Bhalla's 800 meters final is on Saturday at 1:50 pm
The NEICAAA meet serves as the All-New England Championships for Division I, II and II teams.
Also on Friday, freshman Colin Raposo, senior Alex Kasemir, senior Alex Apostolides, and senior James Traester posted a 10:05.63 time in the distance medley relay. The Jumbos were ninth, just out of a scoring spot. Ran on BU's banked track, approximately eight seconds will be added to the time for national qualifying purposes. That puts the Tufts foursome in the Division III top 20 as of Friday night.
Freshman Anthony Kardonsky ran Tufts' fastest time of the season in the 200 meters (22.32). He was 19th at the meet. Freshman Hiroto Watanabe was in action in the 1,000 meters on Friday, timing 2:30.69 for 13th place. Sophomore Peter Clark also had a top-20 finish in the 60-meter dash with a time of 7.14 seconds, as did classmate Sam Little who was 18th in the 1,000 meters (2:32.28).
Tufts did not score any team points on Friday. The meet continues on Saturday at BU.
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