The men’s and women’s track teams faced off against the best in New England at the Division III Championships last weekend. Despite only sending six athletes to Tufts, every woman scored points in her respective event, and the team placed ninth out of 22 teams with 39 points.
The women’s distance medley relay team highlighted the day winning with an NCAA provisional qualifying time of 12:18 to break the school record by nearly ten seconds. The distance medley relay, or the mile medley, as it is sometimes called, features a quarter, half, three-quarters, and full mile leg. On the relay, Anna Schindler ’09 led things off for the team running a strong 1,200-meter leg, passing the baton of to Steph O’Brien ’08 who sprinted a quick quarter mile before Cara Chebuske ’06 ran the 800-meter section. Anchoring the relay was standout Ellen Davis ’07 who ran a 5:04 final mile to give the Cardinals the victory.
“It was great to break the school record,” Schindler said. “But we’re going to need to cut off a few more seconds if we want to go to Nationals.
Currently, the team is ranked twelfth on the list for NCAAs, but the last 2005 qualifier in the relay ran 12:11, so the team has room for improvement.
Davis also won the 3,000-meters in 9:54, while Chebuske and O’Brien scored points in the 1,000-meters (3:03) and 600-meters (1:41), placing sixth and seventh respectively.
Erin Smith ’06 ran 18:14 to place fifth in the 5,000 meters, while Kristy Williams ’07 placed third in the shot-put with a throw of over 40 feet, and fifth in the weight throw with a toss of close to 46 feet.
Cross-town at MIT, the men’s distance squad brought home thirteen points as the team placed 13th of 25 teams. The team was led by Wes Fuhrman’s ’05 strong double, placing fourth in the 3,000 meters (8:48) and eighth in the mile (4:20). In the 5k, Jon King ’07 placed third (15:05) and Alex Battaglino ’07 (15:15) finished fifth as both ran personal best times.
”These two Tufts guys tried to string out the field and blow it out in the first mile,“ Battaglino said. ”The pace was pretty ridic, but Jon and I were able to hang on and run some pretty good times.“
While most runners are done for the season, the women’s distance medley will run again today at the New England Open Championships at Boston University in hopes of automatically qualifying for Nationals. Wes Fuhrman will also run the 5k, hoping to improve his time a few more seconds to guarantee himself a spot at NCAAs.
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