February 23-24, 2001

The NEICAAA Men's Track and Field Championships, which is the combined annual indoor championship for Division I, II, and III institutions, were held at Boston University this weekend. MIT had a strong showing at the end of the first day of competition with a 2nd place in the 5000 and a victory from the Distance Medley Relay to put the team into 4th place at the end of the day.

Division III schools generally use this meet as an opportunity to qualify for nationals since the competition is so good and the likelihood of placing among the top 5 teams would be a rare occurrence. MIT's team, originally thinking they would have the opportunity to place in the top 5, had to back off that stance due to late season injuries. Nevertheless, with 17 entries, the Engineers figured they could accomplish the goal of qualifying a few more for nationals and score enough points to break into the top 10 teams.

Things began with the Pole Vault, in which both Sam Thibault and Dan Opila were jumping. With the opening height at 13-6 1/4, both were a little anxious. Both cleared that height and 13-9 1/4. Thibault made 14-3 1/4 but was unable to break into the scoring. Both jumped better than the week before at the NE Div. III Championships, which should make for a good transition to outdoor track.

In the High Jump, the two national qualifiers, Brian Hoying and Craig Mielcarz, were also a bit concerned about the 6-5 opening height. However, both cleared it, although Mielcarz did so on his final attempt. Hoying's ankle was bothering him, preventing him from maintaining his lean on the turn, and ultimately preventing him from making 6-7. Mielcarz made 6-7 and nearly cleared 6-9. Craig missed placing by 1 place due to his two misses at 6-5.

Brian Wong threw 50-4 1/2 in the weight, which considering the very slick circle and the requirement to use a bagged weight, was quite good. Brian has provisionally qualified for nationals but probably needs another two and a half feet to make the national field. He, along with a few of his teammates will get one final opportunity next weekend.

On the track, freshman record holder, Andrew Francis was hoping to improve his dash performance. Unfortunately, he did not get his recently much improved start, which caused him to play catch-up. Andrew still ran a very respectable 6.66, but it was not good enough to make the next round.

In the 1000, John Biesiadecki was seeded 10th. John ran a very smart race, pacing himself well and staying out of trouble by not running with the lead pack. With one lap to go, John unleashed a fantastic kick to move into 2nd place at the finish with a personal best of 2:32.69, good enough to make the finals.

Dan Feldman and Sean Nolan were seeded to run in the fast section of the 5000 while Ed Keehr was seeded to run in the slower section. Keehr did not have a good run, falling back after 2400 meters and finishing with a 15:38.98. The faster section went out fast with Feldman coming through the mile in 4:36 and Nolan 4:39. When the pace slowed a half mile later, Feldman jumped in front. Leading took its toll as Feldman began to tighten up, particularly in the shoulders. Just in time, Wilson Perez from Keene State took the lead for good, allowing Dan to relax and get back into the flow. With three laps to go, Dan took control of 2nd place and started closing in Perez. Kicking a little late, Dan finished a second behind Perez with a 14:42.89 to set a varsity record and improve his provisional national qualifying mark. Sean also ran a personal best, posting a 15:03.50.

Finishing off the first night, the distance medley relay (DMR) was next. MIT squeeked into the fast section based on their early season 10:36 time. MIT elected to hold relay members out of their individual events with hopes of qualifying for nationals. The time necessary for automatic qualifying on a banked track is 10:05.07. A confident foursome representing the Engineers began the 4000 meter event with Brian Anderson in the 1200. Brian ran comfortably through early splits of 59 and 2:01. In the final 400 Brian tried to catch the lead runner from Williams but was unable to close within 3 seconds as he finished with a 3:04. Brian Hoying took over in the 400 and closed the gap by about 1/2 second on Williams with his 49.30 split. Mark Jeunnette was next with the 800 leg. Mark went out strong with a 55 second 400, but did not close the gap any on Williams. Mark finished with a 1:56.94, still 2-3 seconds behind Williams. Sean Montgomery anchored the relay and made up the gap in the first 600 meters of his 1600 meter leg after an opening 400 of 60. Sean settled in and let the Williams runner do the work as long as the pace was quick enough. With 400 meters to go, Sean opened up and took the lead, opening a small gap. In the last 200, Sean ran a 30 flat to finish in 4:11.97, winning the event in 10:02.74 and reaching the standard for the NCAA Championship in 2 weeks.

Saturday began with the Triple Jump. Kalpak Kothari, competing in his last indoor triple jump for MIT, saved his season best for last. Kalpak jumped 44-00 1/2 to claim 6th place and give MIT another point.

Biesiadecki was the next Tech competitor, competing in the finals of the 1000. John went out with the pack and looked okay for the first 400, but then quickly faded to the back. Perhaps he was overly concerned about his leg in the 4x800 an hour later. John finished with a 2:38.69, out of the scoring.

The only events left for MIT were the 4x400 and 4x800 relays. In the 4x400, the NCAA, in their infinite wisdom, have applied a 3.2 second penalty for running on banked or oversized tracks. It is bad enough that this penalty is random, but worse, the penalty for Division I in the same event is only 1.6 seconds. At any rate, MIT was hoping to run in the neighborhood of 3:17, a time still more than a second out of qualifying but also a second faster than the time MIT ran last year to qualify for those same championships.

MIT was seeded 9th in the 4x400, which put them in the second to last section on the four lap track. Brian Hoying led off with an excellent 50.24, about .5 behind Williams College. Matt Lehman was up next, and he did his job well, holding the same gap with Williams while running 49.25. Yuval Mazor made up a little ground in the last home stretch of his 49.16 400. Anchor Sean Montgomery, officially out of his late season funk, turned a remarkable 48.94 to close within .31 seconds and finish with an excellent 3:17.59. Unfortunately, that time was .12 out of 6th place.

The final event of the weekend was the 4x800. MIT was seeded 3rd with a 7:55.55 performance, but everyone knew it would take a far faster time to place at all much less third. MIT put it's best foot forward with a somewhat embarrassed John Biesiadecki leading off. John surprised everyone with a personal best performance of 1:57.40 to bring MIT in 3rd after the first leg. Mark Jeunnette stepped up and brought the baton in even with the leader with a 1:55.52 split. George Hanson ran a decent 800, but could not get his confidence to match his talent and faded to a distant 3rd with his 1:59.19 effort. Freshman anchor Brian Anderson set out to catch up to the leaders. Brian ran splits of 27, 55, 1:24 and 1:53.26 to close significantly on 2nd place but could not catch them. The overall time of 7:45.37 was more than a 10 second PR and was good enough for 4th place.

The 23 points put MIT into 10th place, the team goal entering the meet. Next week, the team will send some individuals to the ECAC Division III Meet hosted by Boston University and some to the IC4A Championship hosted at the Reggie Lewis track in Boston.