December 15, 2001

Sean Montgomery (10), Craig Mielcarz (11) and Zach Traina (11 1/4) led the way in scoring to a 91-31 victory over the Alumni in this annual meet. However, Sean Nolan, determined to exorcise the demons that plagued him at the NCAA Division III National Cross Country Championship, led the way in performances with an outstanding 14:53.43 5000 meter victory to provisionally qualify for nationals.

A much leaner John Wallberg, started things off right for the Alumni when he won the 35 lb. weight throw with a 49-0 1/2 effort. John also captured the shot put with a 44-8 3/4 throw to become the only double winner for the "has-beens". Akin Aina also performed well for the Alumni as he secured second place in both the 55 and 200 meter dashes. Not the same Bill Singhose of old, he nevertheless came through for two big second place efforts in the pole vault and long jump. The only other first place winner for the old guys was Morio Alexander in the triple jump with a huge 42-11 1/2 leap. Other scorers for the Alumni were first time has-been, Kalpak Kothari (2nd in the triple jump) and Todd Chamoy (3rd in the weight throw). Others competing, but not placing, were; Keith Bevans and Patrick Dannen in the shot put, Sam Sidiqi and Steve Lefkowitz in the pole vault, Jared Miller in the long and triple jumps, Josh Feldman, Liyan Guo and Steven Linder in the 5000, Bob Collins in the 1500 and Todd Rosenfield in the 400.

Using the old 5-3-1 scoring format, the Alumni kept things close in the early field events, but were outmanned in the running events longer than the 200. Sweeps in the 400, 800, 1500, 5000 and 55HH were too much for the Alumni.

The Varsity represented itself well with outstanding performances in the 800 and 5000 meter races. Sean Montgomery, recovered from his 4:02.6 1500 victory, led the attack in the 800 with a 1:55.83 and was closely followed by Brian Anderson (1:57.27), Alan Raphael (1:57.41) and Mark Jeunnette (1:57.81). In the 5000, trailing Nolan were Dan Feldman in 15:00.50, Albert Liu (15:36.33) and Ben Schmeckpeper (15:52.83).

Zach Traina not only won both the 55 and 200 meter races, he tied the 200 meter freshman record in the 200 with a 23.31 effort. Craig Mielcarz did not set any records but he did win the high jump in 6-6 and the high hurdles in 8.19 while placing 3rd in the long jump at 20-9 1/4.

Other New England Division III qualifying performances were turned in by Dan Kwon in the pole vault (13-6) and Marios Michalakis in the weight throw (46-4 1/4).

The MIT trackmen are off for exams next week and then leave for their holiday break. The next meet will be a home contest on January 12 versus Coast Guard, Fitchburg State and Southern Maine in the Beaver Relays.