Tufts Track Relay Team National Champs

Women Earn National Title for 2nd Straight Year

The Tufts University women’s indoor track & field team’s distance medley relay is the NCAA Division 3 national champion for the second straight year.

Jumbos’ sophomore Amy Wilfert (Westborough, MA), senior Halsey Stebbins (Chicago, IL), senior tri-captain Jackie Ferry (Studio City, CA) and sophomore Stephanie McNamara (North Attleborough, MA) put away the competition with time of 11:46.88 time at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology on Friday night.

Tufts beat the closest competition, the University of St. Thomas, at the finish line by mere fractions of a second.  The Jumbos were the NCAA’s top seed going into the meet after  running an automatic qualifying time of 11:47.96, which was good enough to win the ECAC Division III Indoor Championships title at home last Friday. The Jumbos bested their time by over a second at the national championships, winning Tufts women’s track & field’s 15th individual or relay national championship.

“It’s kind of indescribable. When Steph first crossed the finish line, we weren’t positive we had won …When the officials told us that we were No. 1, it was just a surge of emotions in all of us. We all started crying and got so excited,” Ferry told the Tufts Daily.

“When we walked up to the top of the podium, there’s nothing like that – having our trophies handed to us by [coach Kristen Morwick], knowing we’re No. 1 in the nation. We not only won Nationals, we had the fastest time in the country for the season … It was just an amazing experience,” Ferry continued in her interview with the school paper.

Last year in Ohio, McNamara ran the 1,200-meter lead-off leg of a Tufts DMR including Kaleigh Fitzpatrick, Katy O’Brien and Catherine Beck that captured the 2008 NCAA title with an 11:46.79 time. At the 2007 NCAA Indoor Championships, the Tufts DMR ran a school-record 11:35.54 to finish as the national runner-up. This year’s foursome established the team’s recent dominance in the event.

The back-to-back DMR (distance medley relay) titles continue the legacy of national champions established by Tufts women’s track. Dating back to Vera Stenhouse’s eight national titles from 1989-91, Jumbos have now won 15 titles at NCAA Championship indoor and outdoor events.

Coach Kristen Morwick’s team had two other outstanding performances at the 2009 national championship meet. McNamara came back on Saturday to finish as the runner-up in the 5,000 meters for All-American honors. Her 17:02.76 time was second only to Elise Tropiano from Amherst, who won the national championship with a 16:58.84 finish. McNamara shaved off an impressive 24 seconds of her qualifying time of 17:26.91, which has her seeded 13th.

Also on Saturday, Tufts first-year Nakeisha Jones (Boston, MA) had the best triple jump during the preliminary round with a 39’3 1/4″ (11.97m). The leap was Jones’ personal best and tied the season-best for NCAA Division 3. Though Jones matched that distance in the final, three other competitors went beyond it and Jones took fourth place for All-America, finishing behind event champion Akeye Aimable from Wartburg (39’6″/12.04m), Caitlin Schetter of Wisconsin LaCrosse (39’5″/12.01m) and Mickey Jusme from Wheaton (39’3 3/4″/11.98m).

With their first, second and fourth place finishes, Tufts scored 23 points at the meet, good enough for fifth place out of 68 teams and the best finish by a New England or Northeast team. It’s the second straight top 10 finish for the Jumbos, following last season’s sixth-place effort. The two All-American performances give McNamara six in her young career (three indoor, two cross country, one outdoor). Wilfert, Stebbins, Ferry and Jones earned the first All-American awards of their careers.

On Friday, Tufts first-year high jumper Dayorsha Collins (Boston, MA) tied for 11th place. She cleared 5’1 1/4″ (1.56m) in her first national championship appearance.

Photo and information courtesy Tufts University.