GENEVA, Ohio - Senior Tim Nichols of the Tufts University men's outdoor track & field team earned the fifth All-American honor of his career with a fourth-place finish in the 10,000 meter run at the 2017 NCAA Division III Championships today.
Competing at the SPIRE Institute outside of Cleveland, Nichols timed 30:05.99 in his All-American 10K run this morning. His mark was one of seven in the race which broke the previous stadium record (30:17.31). The fourth-place finish scored five team points for the Jumbos.
Nichols finished seven seconds in front of Mount Union senior Alex Wilson, who was fifth with a 30:12.89 time. The Jumbo senior was 10 seconds behind third-place finisher Grant O'Connor from RPI (29:55.90). Senior Ian LaMere from Wisconson-Platteville won the 10K national title with a 29:15.12 mark.
The top eight finishers at the NCAA Track Championships earn the All-American honor. It was the third national track award for Nichols, who won the 5,000 meter run at the 2017 NCAA Indoor Championships and was sixth in the NCAA outdoor 10,000 meters last spring. He also earned two All-American awards (top 35) at NCAA Cross Country Championships, placing third individually at the 2016 meet last November and running 19th at the 2015 NCAA XC Race.
Nichols is entered in the NCAA 5,000 meters straight final on Saturday at 3:25 p.m. to conclude his outstanding Jumbo career.
Also on Thursday in Ohio, Tufts sophomore Christian Swenson continued a marvelous late-season surge by qualifying for the 1,500 meters final. His prelminary time of 3:50.39 was the fifth-fastest in the heats. The 12-man 1,500 final is slated for Saturday at 12:35 p.m.
Three Jumbos narrowly missed qualifying for finals on Thursday. The 4x100-meter relay of sophomore Tommy Miller, senior Blake Coolidge, sophomore Anthony Kardonsky and freshman Robert Jones tied the school record with a time of 41.43 seconds, but they were the last team left out of the finals. Nine foursomes advanced, and the Jumbos were 10th 0.13 behind Birmingham-Southern (41.30). The Jumbo 4x1 was the last (16th) team to qualify in the event and surpassed that with their 10th-place showing.
Junior Andrew DiMaiti missed qualifying for the 400-meter hurdles by an even closer margin. His preliminary time of 53.44 seconds was also 10th with nine moving on to the final. He was 0.02 behind the 53.42 mark run by Simpson sophomore Jordan Coughenour for the final qualifying spot.
Senior tri-captain Luke O'Connor also missed out on the 3,000-meter steeplechase final on Thursday. With 14 from the preliminaries making it to the final, O'Connor was 15th in the heats with a 9:23.70 mark. The final spot went to Hope junior Benjamin Pederson, who ran a 9:21.04 time.
Sophomore Henry Hintermeister was also in action for Tufts on Thursday in the javelin throw. His best of four throws was 177'6 1/2" (54.11m) twice for 19th place overall.
Tufts has junior Stefan Duvivier competing in the high jump and sophomore Josh Etkind entered in the 110-meter hurdles on Friday. The high jump prelminaries and final are set to start at 1:30 p.m. The 110 hurdles heats have a 2:30 p.m. start time.
The Jumbos are tied for 14th in the team standings with Nichols' five points after one day.
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