Men’s track and field continues success heading into end of indoor season

Timothy Valk

The Wraparound Rebrand needed for NHL All-Star Game

If you didn’t tune into the 2023 NHL All-Star Weekend, hosted Friday and Saturday in Sunrise, Fla., you missed seeing Maple Leafs forward Mitch Marner dress up as Miami Vice’s Sonny Crockett on a breakaway challenge, the hard-nosed Tkachuk brothers perform a beach-themed on-ice skit and the “Great 8” Alex Ovechkin’s 4-yearold son, Sergei, offer a glimpse into his hockey future.

Other than that, you did not miss much.

Yes, as the above snapshot depicts, All-Star Weekend — once a fun way to showcase the top athletes on skates to viewers who don’t normally get to watch them play — has turned into a gimmicky weekend of activities with zero buy-in from players. Despite the chance to promote the game on a rare non-football weekend, the NHL failed to captivate a new audience.

Friday’s skills competition was creative but goofy. Meaningful contests like “hardest shot” and “fastest skater” were lost in the shuffle of the breakaway skit circustry and other thematic acts that felt like time fillers. Sponsors and fans left their seats in under an hour.

by Keila McCabe Senior Staff Writer

Men’s track and field took first place out of nine teams at the Tufts Cupid Challenge hosted in Gantcher this past weekend. The team has tallied two other first place finishes in its indoor track season thus far. Coming off a strong 2022 season, junior thrower Petey Lemmon spoke to high standards for Tufts track and field.

“We won NESCAC last year, so we’re trying to keep up that sort of standard of success,” Lemmon said. “So we have a lot of high expectations, but I think we’ve been meeting them pretty well. At least on the thrower side of things, a lot of people have been progressing in the right way. Most of our PRs are better than they were last year.”

Lemmon’s sentiments could be clearly seen this past weekend, with many members of the team grabbing first place finishes and personal bests. Highlights from the Cupid Challenge include firstyear Cullen McCaleb’s personal best of 8:33.37 in the 3,000-meter race. Junior Luke Botsford took first in the 200-meter dash with a time of 22.59 and second in the 400 with a time of 50.76. Junior Jackson O’Toole added another victory to the tally for the Jumbos in the 1,000meter race with a personal-best time of

2:32.39. The Tufts “A” team, composed of McCaleb, O’Toole, first-year Will Cusato and junior Ryan Proulx ran a 8:08.47 for a first-place finish in the 4×800 relay. One more top finish came from senior Drew Svoboda, who recorded a season-best 6.92 meters in the long jump. These top finishes, along with a handful of high finishes for the men’s team, earned them 158 total points. Amherst College trailed close behind with 147.50 points, and MIT came in third with 120.

Successes across the board can in part be attributed to the remarkable focus and drive from the entire team, Lemmon shared.

“The track team is, I would say, a very large body of people,” Lemmon said. “And it’s usually pretty hard to have everyone moving toward the same direction with the same sort of vigor. But everyone who you talk to, … almost everyone from top to bottom, they take track as seriously as they can, and they do everything they can to get better [and] do their best.”

Given the size of the team, which currently has a roster of 75 for the men, junior mid-distance and distance runner David Manning shared the importance of supporting each other.

“It’s a big team across both the men’s and women’s side, so it’s just important to make sure that we get to know every- one and that while we’re at the meet, we cheer for all events,” Manning said. “We’re constantly involved in making sure that every event group knows that they play an important part [in] scoring, so we can win every meet.”

As the team reaches the homestretch of the indoor season, eyes are set on the Division III New England Championships and the National Qualifying Meet. Lemmon talked about the steps taken to ready themselves for the upcoming competitions.

“A lot of the event groups right now are in the peak of their lifting or just work schedule,” Lemmon said. “At least for throwers, our lifting program is really heavy this week, and then next week, we start getting lighter. From what I’ve been hearing from a lot of the sprint team, their workouts have been pretty hard during these last two weeks. But I think they’re about to have a lighter load as well in preparation for New Englands.”

Specifically in reference to Division III New Englands, one of the team’s biggest indoor meets of the season, Manning shared the team’s aspirations.

“Hopefully we can show the other New England teams that we’re one of the best, if not the best. [It’s] definitely gonna be tough to beat MIT.”

The team travels a short distance into the city this weekend for a meet full of

Saturday’s All-Star Game consisted of, yes, hockey, but hockey unlike any that’s played in actual NHL games. Whether it was botched 2-on-0s or sloppy passing across the rink, it was blatantly obvious that the players would rather be spending the week off at home with their families rather than traveling to Florida to exert themselves or risk injury.

It doesn’t have to be this way. The AllStar Game used to be fun for fans and players, after all. Could we see a switch back to the “captain” format, where mini all-star teams are drafted? What about something so ludicrous that it’s a laugh, like goaltenders as skaters and skaters in net? If the NHL wants to save the tradition of All-Star Weekend, they must improve the current format.

A few thoughts from around the league as the break comes to a close:

1. Release the Kraken! How about the NHL’s newest franchise? After a disappointing inaugural season (with expectations absurdly high due to the success of the Vegas Golden Knights), Seattle is sitting pretty in second place in the Pacific Division.

2. While most teams were hibernating during the off-week, the New York Islanders and GM Lou Lamiorello were not, executing a trade for Canucks captain Bo Horvat. The Isles needed more scoring, and Horvat — who signed an eight-year extension shortly after the trade — gives them that.

3. The loser’s race for Connor Bedard is on. If Commissioner Gary Bettman claims that teams don’t tank, he must not be watching the Blue Jackets, Blackhawks and Ducks who all have sub-.400 point win percentages. It’s hard to blame them. Bedard is the best prospect since McDavid, and he may be even better.

Enjoy this week’s slate of games!