January 27, 2001
The MIT Engineers and Williams College Ephmen once again did battle on the track and the field to see who the best Division III men's team was in New England. The two schools have won all but 5 of the New England Division III Indoor Championships since the inception of the league in 1980. This battle was won by Williams by the close score of 204.5 to 201. RPI was third with 118, Westfield State was fourth with 43.5, and Colby fifth with 36.
Once the coaches had submitted their entries, Williams was the clear favorite with a 33 point edge. The MIT team they would have to make up those points in the 55HH and Long Jump where they had not performed very well this season. In addition, the 400-1000 meter events where Williams was so deep, would have to be countered if success was to come to the Engineers.
MIT took the lead in the first event and did not relinquish that lead for 13 events. Williams finally took the lead with an excellent showing in the 200. MIT, without their top 200 runner who missed the meet for academic reasons, only scored 1 point in the event when Yuval Mazor came back from his second place finish in the 400 to run a fine 23.72 season best. However, Williams scored 13 points to take a 160.5 to 154 lead.
MIT came right back to deliver a solid thrashing in the 3000, led by Dan Feldman's 8:45.48 first place finish. Dan's run was particularly impressive since he had run a 4:04.56 1500 a little over an hour earlier. Tech's 21 points outscored Williams 12 points and retook the lead 177 to 172.5.
Tech Coach Halston Taylor, figuring his team had to win both relays to win the meet, balanced them by moving 1600 relay anchor man Sean Montgomery to the anchor leg of the DMR. Williams took the 1600 Relay with an excellent 50 flat anchor to lead their team to a 3:26.80 to 3:28.79 victory and spoil MIT's hopes of sweeping the relays. The 9 to 7 point victory brought the Ephs to within 2.5 points. The DMR, led by freshman Brian Anderson's 3:09 leadoff 1200 (after his 4:05 1500 and 2:00 800 in the non-relay events), and Mark Jeunnette's 2:00 800 leg to make up for his fall in the 600 when he tried to pass on the inside, pulled out a 10:36.81 to 10:39.01 victory to extend the lead back to 4.5 points.
The meet would once again come down to the final event. This time it was the triple jump that was extending the length of the meet. With both teams crowding the infield, inspiring their jumpers to do their best, Williams was able to secure 2nd and 3rd places with NCAA provisionally qualifying performances of 46-2 and 46-1. They also placed 6th, which was more than enough to defeat MIT, who were only able to place 4th and 5th in the event. The 16 points Williams garnered compared to MIT's 9, gave the men from Williamstown the 204.5 to 201 hard fought victory.
Highlights for the Engineers were many. Sean Montgomery won both his events with easy victories in the 1500 (4:03.12) and 1000 (2:34.71). Brian Hoying has quickly become a multi event threat by tieing for first place in the High Jump (6-4), placing third in the Long Jump (21-1 1/4), and third in the 400 with a 51.72 performance. Brian also ran a 51 leg in the 1600 Relay. Rick Rajter won the 55HH with another 7.87 time, placed 7th in his first ever 55 dash, running 6.87, placed 3rd in the High Jump with a PR of 6-4, and jumped to a 5th place in the Triple Jump. Other victories by MIT were earned by Brian Wong in the 35lb. Weight Throw (51-01), Craig Mielcarz in the High Jump (6-4), and Dan Opila with a PR of 14-0 in the Pole Vault.
Next week, MIT takes their 5-1 record on the road to Tufts to do battle with 7 other schools. The meet should be a close meet between MIT, College of New Jersey, Tufts, and Springfield College. Others in the meet are Amherst College, Ithaca and Wesleyan.