BOSTON (December 2, 2023) -- The Tufts University men's track and field squad opened its defense of its 2023 New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) outdoor title Saturday, starting the 2023-24 indoor season at the Sharon Colyear-Danville Season Opener at Boston University in the Track and Tennis Center on the campus of BU.
Tufts did not compete a full squad, but had a handful of competitors starting first with first-year Charlie Fitzpatrick finishing ninth in the 60 meter dash with a 7.19 second time to qualify for the finals. In the finals, Fitzpatrick was just a hundredth off his prelim time while posting a 7.20 for ninth place overall. He then later finished 19th in the 300 meter run with a time of 36.10.
Senior Alex Lemiuex was 14th in the 60 meter dash for the Jumbos, running a 7.29, and then took home seventh place overall in the 200 meter dash after racing to a time of 22.54.
Junior
Noah Turner ran a strong race in the 400 meter run, as he took seventh place with a time of 49.83, a strong start to the season as his personal-best in the event was 48.98. Fellow junior
Ethan Forde was 10th with a time of 50.34.
The 4x400 meter relay was very solid for the Jumbos, as the quartet of Fitzpatrick, Forde, Turner and Lemieux was the top Division III squad with a time of 3:21.22.
The final race of the evening on Saturday was late, as
Ivan Appleton had to wait until nearly 10 p.m. to get on the track, but he had a stellar race for the Jumbos against a nearly full Division I field. Appleton posted the second-fasted 5000 meter run time in Tufts history on Saturday, racing to a time of 14:20.51.
Tufts is off for the Winter holiday, but returns to full team action on Saturday, January 13 at 10 a.m. in the Gantcher Family Sports and Convocation Center for the Tufts University Home Invitational.
--JUMBOS--
