Men's Track & Field Wins Second Straight NESCAC Title

NEW LONDON, CT (April 29, 2023) - The Tufts University men's outdoor track & field team repeated as NESCAC champions on Saturday with a thorough performance that resulted in a 45-point victory at Connecticut College's Silfen Track & Field Complex.

Head coach Joel Williams' Jumbos totaled a team score of 171 points, well ahead of second-place Williams College (126) and third-place Amherst College (114.5). This is the seventh conference title overall for Tufts.

They had entered today with 24 points from two events on Friday, including Harry Rienecker-Found winning the conference title in the high jump for the second straight year. Today they piled on 147 points in 19 events, including victories by Luke Botsford in the 200 and 400, Ross Miller in the javelin throw and Carter Rosewell in the long jump.

Botsford became the back-to-back champion in the 200 and 400 meters, having won both events last year. Today he was first in the 400 with a time of 47.68 seconds that was his season-best and ranked #16 nationally. He later took the 200 with a 21.47 mark.

Tufts won the long jump for the third consecutive conference meet. Rosewell's winning effort of 6.84m (22'5 ¼") joined 2022 champion Drew Svoboda and 2019 title-winner Matt Manteiga as Jumbos to take the conference crown in the event.

Miller unleashed his PR in the javelin of 55.62m (182'5") to win and jump into the national top 40 early in Saturday's activities.

However, like has often been the case in the team's championship-season successes, Tufts won with its scoring depth. They tallied 10 or more points in six events, and did not score in only three. The top scoring groups for the Jumbos were the javelin (19) and the long and triple jumps (18).

Behind Miller in the jav was Milo Goode with a 51.73m (182'5") heave for fourth place, and then a 49.03m (160'10") season-best by Randy Hamilton for fifth place. Sahr Matturi's 6.62m (21'8 ¾") was fourth behind Rosewell in the long jump, where Svoboda was also sixth (6.51m - 21'4 ¼"). Matturi then led the triple jumpers as the runner-up with a 13.73m (45'0 ½") PR, followed by Casey Lambert's season-best of 13.31m (43'8") that was third. Svododa added a fifth at 13.01m (42'8 ¼").

Botsford was well supported in his two events. Tufts had three scorers in the 200 with Alex Lemieux adding a 21.99 for fourth and Noah Turner finishing in 22.31 for seventh. Turner had also been fifth in the 400 in 49.22 seconds, while also helping the Jumbos to a third in the 4x100 relay (42.02). That foursome also included Sam Nissen, Ethan Forde and Lemieux, who was also third in the 100-meter dash (10.99).

Three Jumbos qualified for the 110-meter hurdles finals, led by Josh Wilkie. He ran a season-best 15.04 in the final to finish as conference runner-up. Cam McLeod (15.66 season-best) and Nissen (15.93) were seventh and eighth, respectively. Ivan Appletop added another runner-up performance, finishing the 3000-meter steeplechase in 9:25.96 which was a national top 50 mark. Calvin Cumming was just outside of the scoring in ninth place with a season-best 9:46.87 time.

The throwers added 19 team points, with the top performance coming from Petey Lemmon. He was third in the shot put (14.33m - 47'0 ¼") and fifth in the discus with a PR of 40.67m (133'5"). Eric Meyer added a fifth in the hammer throw with 49.12m (161'2") distance along with a seventh for the discus (40.45m - 132'8"). Lous Tuccio sent the shot 13.58m (44'6 ¾") for sixth place. He had a 44.48m (145'11") PR in the hammer that was 11th, while Matthew Carey's 39.93m (131'0") PR in the discus narrowly missed scoring in ninth.

Tufts tacked on seven points in the late relay races. The 4x800 foursome of Colin Duhnoski, John Puka, Jackson O'Toole and Walter Wagude closed out the team's victory with fifth place in a 7:58.02 finish. The Jumbo 4x4 of Forde, Evan Ensslin, Wilkie and Brian Kwarteng was seventh (3:24.28).

Wagude had Tufts' top time of 1:56.85 in the 800, where Sawyer Wilson was ninth in 1:58.15. Jay Sharma contributed a point in the 400-meter hurdles with a time of 57.11 seconds.

Other top Tufts finishers were Amokrane Aouchiche in 32:10.60 for 10th in the 10,000 meters, Quinn Hampson 11th in the 1500 (4:02.36) and Appleton's 14th-place mark of 15:04.07 in the 5,000 meters. David Manning PR'd in the 1500 (4:02.63), as did Kwarteng in the 400 hurdles (58.24) and Karsten Kropp in the triple jump (12.21m - 40'0 ¾").

Tufts continues on into the championship season with the New England Division III meet at Springfield College starting on Thursday.