MEDFORD, MA (January 17, 2025) – A strong freshman class had an excellent debut today as the Tufts University men's indoor track & field team hosted the annual Branwen Smith-King Invitational. Four Jumbos making their collegiate debuts at the Gantcher Center won events.
Collett Kinobe was impressive in his first collegiate meet, winning the triple jump with a distance of 13.99m (45'10 ¾"). That already ranks him fifth at Tufts and is among the top 35 in Division III early in the indoor season.
In the high jump, freshman
Tieren Mead started his collegiate career with success at 1.97m (6'5 1'2") to tie for first place with senior teammate
Sami Witta. Witta cleared 1.98m in a jump-off, as both Jumbos rank in the national top 30. Freshman
Jonas Michael won the pole vault in his first collegiate meet, clearing 4.45m (14'7 ¼").
Tufts freshmen also went 1-2 in the 3,000 meters, where Christopher Hovet won in 8:43.25 and Benjamin Hester was runner-up in an 8:46.90 finish.
Jumbos won six events overall today. The 4x800-meter relay was made up of three-fourths freshmen and recorded a winning time of 8:12.03 produced by freshman
Charlie Jacques, freshman
Chris Barbato, freshman
Joey Papanicholas and sophomore
Liam Lucas. A 1,000 meters race dominated by Tufts runners had junior
Sam Kurian in front with a four-second PR of 2:30.93.
Senior
Sahr Matturi in the long jump posted a runner-up distance of 6.71m (22'0 ¼"). The Jumbos were also second in the 4x400-meter relay, where freshman
Jonathan Bailey, sophomore
Sebastian Cohen, senior
Cam McLeod and sophomore
Miles Sandoski ran a 3:26.80 mark.
In the 60-meter hurdles, senior
Josh Wilkie had the best time of 8.34 seconds in the preliminaries. The mark is in the top 30 nationally. He was fourth in today's final (8.45).
Freshman
Konstantinos Stamatakos debuted in the 60-meter dash with a time of 7.15 seconds in the preliminaries, then placed sixth in the final at a 7.19 finish. Sandoski led the team in the 400, where he was third finishing in a 51.28 time. The Jumbos had four in the top seven for the 600 meters, paced by junior
Ryan Regan's 1:23.96 for second place. Cohen notched a PR with his time of 22.65 seconds that was fourth in the 200 meters.
Leading the weight throw scoring for Tufts was senior
Martin Decker, who had a 14.93m (48'11 ¾") toss for third place. For the shot put, freshman
William Cipollone also placed third with his best mark of 14.31m (47'0 ¾").
--JUMBOS--
