Jumbos 10th in Two Events at NCAA Men's Indoor Track & Field Meet

VIRGINIA BEACH, VA (March 8, 2024) – The Tufts University men's indoor track & field team produced two national top 10 finishes on the first day of the 2024 NCAA Division III Championships Friday at the Virginia Beach Sports Center.

Senior Luke Botsford was a part of both, finishing 10th individually in the 200 meters and anchoring Tufts' 4x400-meter relay that placed 10th today. Graduate student Carter Roswell is also 10th in the heptathlon through Friday's events and will continue tomorrow.

Running in the 200 preliminaries today, Botsford narrowly missed qualifying for the final for which the top eight from five heats advanced on time. After a false start by one of the other runners, Botsford ran 21.74 seconds to finish second in the first heat. He then had to wait through four other heats and was in 10th overall in the end. He was just 0.04 out of the top eight. Second among New England competitors, Botsford's 10th-place finish is his best-ever at an NCAA meet.

Competing in the third heat, the 4x4 of freshman Neil Chowdhury, junior Noah Turner, graduate student Alex Lemieux and Botsford were 10th in a 3:15.93 time. Botsford, who ran a 47.61 final leg, finished strong, but Tufts missed the top eight and a berth into the final by half a second. Still, Tufts was the #1 team in New England in the event.

Rosewell nearly hit a PR with an 11.02m shot put heave in his third attempt during the heptathlon, scoring 547 points. He earned 813 points for his finishing time of 7.20 seconds in the 60-meter dash. His long jump of 6.82m tied for third out of the 20 competitors overall. He also cleared 1.83m in the high jump for 653 points. With a 2784 score so far, Rosewell will return tomorrow for the 60-meter hurdles, the pole vault and the 1000 meters.

On a busy day for him, Botsford had been 13th in the 400 preliminaries earlier on Friday, where the top eight advanced on time. Running in the fourth of five heats, he led at the 200-meter mark (22.36) and then finished second in the four-man heat at 48.45 seconds.

Cross-country All-American Ivan Appleton also placed 20th in the 5000 meters today with a 14:42.68 time. He finished fourth amongst Division III runners in the nation today.

In addition to Rosewell completing the heptathlon, Tufts will have junior Harry Rienecker-Found in the high jump competition on Saturday starting at 10 AM.