MIT AND WILLIAMS TIE FOR NEW ENGLAND DIVISION III TITLE

February 15-16, 2002

MIT and Williams split the indoor title the last two years with MIT winning in 2000 and Williams winning last year. This year, it seemed fitting the two track and field power houses would finish the two day championship tied, each with a score of 150.5 points.

MIT, winners of the quad meet at Williams earlier this season, was hoping to rely on depth and numbers to win the title. The clearest example of this was the first event, the pentathlon. MIT entered seven athletes in the event, seeded 1, 2, 3, 6, 7, 8 and 9. With eight scoring places this year, MIT hoped to garner six of the eight places. After a spectacular day of competition, MIT had indeed set a new standard in dominating an event ,with a clean sweep of the first 7 places to score 38 points. Event champion Rick Rajter and runner-up Craig Mielcarz coasted in the event with hopes of saving something for the next day. Rajter took only 1 long jump, 4 high jumps, and jogged the 1000 over twenty seconds slower than his best. Mielcarz took 2 long jumps, 5 high jump attempts and jogged around the oval with Rajter. Peter Bluvas, Tom Hoover, Junius Ho, Victor Williamson and Adrian Townsend took the next five places, all scoring over 3000 points.

MIT knew they had spent their strength, and that Williams' strength would come in the Shot Put and the dashes. This was indeed the case as the Ephs took the top three and eighth places in the shot put as well as first and fifth in the 55 to garner a total of 40 points to make up the difference in a hurry.

In the jumps, Williams outscored MIT 30-25 by taking three of the four events. MIT was unable to seize an opportunity in the long jump. MIT had five of the 16 entries, but only one was seeded to score and that was eighth. Mielcarz showed he had indeed saved something from the day before as he secured 8th with a jump of 20-7 3/4 off the very unforgiving Bates runway. MIT had 4 jumpers over 20', but none could really pop a good one to break through. Williams managed a 4th place after being seeded 3rd.

In the Triple Jump, Austin Neudecker came through on his final attempt to jump 44-11 1/2 for 3rd place. Williams was seeded to get 6 points but came up with 7 as they had a low seed make the finals and add to their total.

Mielcarz jumped well in the very talented High Jump field (five national qualifiers) with no misses through 6-5. However, at 6-7 he needed two attempts and was unable to clear 6-9 despite very good hip height on his final attempt. Seven jumpers cleared 6-7 and unfortunately for Tech, Gairy from Williams was one of them, and he did so on his first attempt to secure 5th place to 7th for Mielcarz.

The Pole Vault went better than expected for MIT. When Dan Opila broke his nose the week before, there was still hope he would be able to compete, but that was not the case. Losing the 6th seed was a blow to the Engineers, but freshman Nate Ball won the event with an easy clear at 14-6 and was supported by a tie for third from Dan Kwon at 14-0. The problem was that Williams College provided the competition and they took 2nd and a surprising tie for 3rd. MIT outscored Williams 15.5 to 13.5.

In the other throwing event, the 35 lb. Weight Throw, Chris Khan showed his rookie skills with a PR of 56-1 1/2 on his last throw for 2nd place. Marios Michalakis pulled off an upset with a 8th place to give MIT 9 points compared with the 5 they were seeded for. Williams, seeded 6th and 7th, got just that, for 5 points.

The battle on the track was just as intense. In the first final, the 1500, where three of the top four milers in the country were going to go at it, Sean Montgomery let Ryan Bak from Trinity get away midway through the race and was unable to reel him back in. Finishing second, Montgomery ran a 3:55.49 to move up from his 3rd place seed. Brian Anderson, seeded 4th, did not run his patented race and fell victim to running someone else's race. Anderson did not place, leaving MIT 3 points short of their seed.

In the High Hurdles, it took sub 7.95 to make the finals, which Rick Rajter barely achieved. To run a season best the day after a pentathlon, while nursing a back injury all season took a lot of desire. Rajter hung in there and finished 7th in the finals to give MIT 2 more points than they were seeded to get.

Beginning with the 600, MIT made a huge bid to steal the championship. Yuval Mazor won the 600 title from teammate Jesse Alejandro by just thousandths of a second, and were backed up by a 5th place from Mark Jeunnette to score 22 points, 5 more than they were seeded to get.

Not to be outdone, Montgomery showed what he can run like when he does not think about his opponents as he took the lead at the start and never looked back in the 800. Montgomery ran a 1:53.76 while easing off at the finish to win easily over Reilly of Williams. Both were seeded where they finished.

Anderson came back in the 1000 and ran the way he should have in the 1500, opening up a 10 meter lead at the 200 mark and running even, high 29 second splits to finish in first with a time of 2:29.59. Anderson had been seeded 3rd, thus making up the three points he lost in the 1500. Williams was seeded 1st and 5th and finished 2nd and 4th to lose only 1 point.

In the 200, freshman Zach Traina, made a successful return from his early season hamstring pull by making the finals in 23.22. Zach then showed what he is made of by further lowering his freshman record with a 22.95 effort, good for 7th place. Traina's effort gained MIT 1 more point than they were seeded to get.

Things looked put away with only the two distance races and relays to go. In the 3000, Dan Feldman was seeded 6th, but despite having some asthma problems, held on for 2nd place. Williams also moved up in the points as they were seeded 8th and finished 4th.

Going into the 5000, MIT had a 19 point lead and were seeded to get 16 points in the 5000. However, Sean Nolan was ill and was not able to respond as he has all season. Running with all he had, he managed to hold on to a 4th place finish. Ben Schmeckpeper, seeded 3rd, was not able to handle the fast early pace and tightened up to finish out of the scoring. Reutimann from Williams, seeded 5th, came up with the victory to make up 5 points on MIT.

The Distance Medley Relay was not one in which MIT was planning on scoring in despite having the fastest time in the country so far this year. The reason was not enough bodies to cover all the relays, particularly the longer legs of the DMR. Nevertheless, a slow field would have allowed the Engineers to score had it not been for over ambitious pacing in the last two legs of the race. Williams finished 2nd in the race while MIT did not score to cut the lead to 6.

MIT has won the 1600 Relay in the last 4 New England Division III Championships. However, this time, two of the four legs had already run 2 races, and of the other two, one was recovering from a stomach virus and the other from a tight hamstring. The result was a bad first leg, which put MIT well back in the pack. Matt Lehman made a fine move to bring the team up to third despite being ill, but that was soon lost on the next leg. Sean Montgomery was the anchor and was determined to close the gap but at the handoff ran right into the back of the incoming Tufts runner who had already handed off. The dead stop caused Montgomery some serious time, but he ran a 50 flat leg anyway. However, it was .31 out of 6th place. Williams won the relay with a great effort from their runners to pull ahead by 2.

The final event was run in two sections. Williams, which had not put together their best team all season, was forced to run out of the slower of two sections. Nevertheless, Williams put their best effort forward, winning their section with an effort of 8:03.64. MIT knew what they had to do. To tie, they needed to win the second section with a time faster than 8:03. To win, they had to hope another team would get the job done as well. Alan Raphael, running fresh, ran a great 1:59.5 leg to give MIT a 10 meter lead. Mark Jeunnette, running his 3rd race, showed he is rounding into the same form that produced a 1:55 last year, ran 1:58.8 to open the race up. Jesse Alejandro, also running his third race, went out a little too quickly but held on despite the fatigue to run a 2:00.7 leg. The answer would rest with Brian Anderson, who already ran the 1500 and 1000 earlier. Brian left no doubts, running 1:56.4 to record a 7:55.64 victory and a tie for the team title.

It is difficult to finish in a tie after fighting for two days. However, the effort was superb, 6 victories were earned and the team showed their character. Next week, the Engineers head to Boston University for the All Division New England Championships.

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