Teams: Men's Track & Field: Team Overview

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With outstanding talent, superior facilities and a rich tradition, the Tufts University men's track & field program is among the best in the nation. The program was successfully shepherded into a new era four years ago under Coach Ethan Barron and continues to maintain its status among the nation's elite.

The Tufts men achieve great team and individual success throughout both the indoor and outdoor seasons. Over the past six seasons, the Jumbos have finished first or second at the Indoor Regional Championships. In addition to last year's runner-up finish at the New England Championships, seven Jumbos competed at the NCAA Indoor Championships. The DMR of Billy Hale, Phil Rotella, Scott Brinkman and Jesse Faller finished third in the nation. Adding All-Americans in the 5k and high jump, the squad returned with six All Americans in the winter season.

The Jumbos only got stronger in the outdoor campaign. Faller's 3:51.08 (1,500m) and 14:26.01 (5k) were joined by two of the most dominant decathletes in the nation. Skip Pagel's 6,871 and Jared Engelking's 6,834 made them two of the top four decathletes in the nation last spring.

For the 2009-10 seasons, the indoor and outdoor track & field teams return nine national qualifiers including All-Americans Faller, Hale, Brinkman and Engelking.

On the coaching front, Barron is joined by several assistants dedicated to producing championship caliber athletes. Over the past four years, the Jumbo coaches have earned an impressive seven Coaching Staff of the Year awards. Mark Coogan is the most recent addition to the Jumbo coaching staff. He represented the United States in the marathon at the 1996 Summer Olympic Games. He earned a silver medal in the marathon at the 1995 Pan-American Games and is also a two-time bronze medalist at the USATF Championships. Ed Arcaro pilots the Jumbo throwers. He is a UMass Amherst graduate who competed in three Olympic trials. Kevin Bright was a three-time All-American in the 400m hurdles at Middlebury, and is now in his fourth year as an assistant coach with the Jumbos. Chris Combs, a tested pole vault coach, has instructed a number of regional and national caliber vaulters. Jeremy Arak, a recent Tufts graduate, specializes with the high jumpers after dominating the region for years. Mark Carberry was an All-Conference runner while attending Villanova University and has coached at the high school and club levels since graduating. Rounding out the coaching staff are Nate Cleveland (mid distance) and Dan Kopcso (strength/conditioning).

Barron was a captain, Academic All-American, school-record holder and All-American on the Middlebury College track team. He came to Tufts as a graduate assistant coach in the fall of 2002 and earned his Master's in Education. Since his promotion to head coach, he has worked to expand the coaching staff by a number of assistants to the team.

As members of the New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC), Tufts is part of the nation's most competitive small college conference academically and athletically. The NESCAC is a group of highly selective liberal arts colleges and universities that share an academics-first philosophy for intercollegiate athletics. The Tufts program has matched its competitive success with academic achievement. In 2009, Tufts was a U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) All-Academic Team. Eight Jumbos earned USTFCCCA Academic All-American honors. Additionally, recent alumni Trevor Williams, Fred Jones, Mickey Ferri, Scott Merrick, and Nate Scott have all received Tufts Alumni Association awards for their outstanding academic and athletic achievements.

Located right outside of Boston, a world-class city renowned for its academic institutions, Tufts offers a well-rounded collegiate experience to student-athletes. Within its picturesque small-college campus, Tufts is a major university with "an unprecedented diversity of programs, exceptional faculty and staff, and bright and talented students," according to President Lawrence S. Bacow. The Athletics Department sponsors a varsity program of 28 sports that is among the most competitive in the NCAA's Division III. Tufts finished 10th in the 2009 Learfield Sports Directors' Cup, which awards points based on NCAA performances.

The Gantcher Family Sports and Convocation Center opened in November 1999 and is one of the country's finest indoor facilities. Consistently referred to as the best flat-track in New England, the Gantcher Center was the site of the 2009 Indoor ECAC Championships. The Clarence "Ding" Dussault outdoor complex was resurfaced in 2004 and has returned to its status as one of the top outdoor ovals in New England. The track will play host to both the 2010 NESCAC and New England Outdoor Track & Field Championships.