NEW LONDON, Conn. - Luke Botsford tied his school record in the 200 meters and Ben Stein (pictured) won the decathlon as the Tufts University men's outdoor track & field team placed first out of 20 teams at the Silfen Invitational hosted by Connecticut College.
The meet which began on Friday continued with several events on Saturday and Tufts scored well across the table. Botsford won both the 200 and the 400 on Saturday. His time of 21.62 seconds in the 200 meters matches his school record from the Aztec Invitational at San Diego State on March 24. It's the #19 mark in the nation. Botsford's 48.36 to win the 400 meters today is ranked 15th nationally. Andrii Campbell also had a nationally-ranked time of 49.05 (31st) in the 400, his PR. Noah Turner was fifth in the race (49.99) for another PR.
Stein had been third in the decathlon after five events on Friday, but surged into first place today finishing with a 5653 score. He was first out of the 11 contestants in the 1,500 meters with a 4:35.64 time for 708 points. He scored 549 points with 3.90m clearance (12'9 1/2") in the vault. It's the first decathlon victory of his career and it's the 13th-best DIII score in the country. Carter Rosewell finished third in the multi-event (5568 for 16th in the country).
Other Jumbo second-place finishes today at the Silfen event came from Willy White in the 110-meter hurdles (15.50) and Hunter Farrell in the pole vault (4.30m - 14'1 1/4"). Alex Zsikla's 13.67m triple jump (44'10 1/4") was third, an outdoor PR and also a top 50 national mark. Alex Lemieux was third in the 100-meter dash (10.94). Petey Lemmon was a strong fourth in the shot put (13.90m - 45'7 1/4"), as was Liam Garrison in the vault (4.00m - 13'1 1/2").
Tufts' final score of 125 was ahead of second-place Amherst College's 109.
