January 26, 2002

The MIT Men's Track and Field team jumped out to an early lead by leading Williams in the first three events by a score of 68-17 and never looked back. MIT won over the Ephmen by a final score of 253 to 198. RPI finished third with 97 points and Westfield State brought up the rear with a score of 40.

Since 1981, except for four seasons, either MIT or Williams has ruled New England Division III. The rivalry and mutual respect has grown each year. Williams College had won nine regular season meets in a row versus MIT, although 3 of the last four were settled by less than 10 points. This year, it appeared MIT had the edge over Williams with the depth of their squad. However, what looked to be a strong sprint squad, has begun to disintegrate over the past few weeks. Both freshmen sprinters (Zach Traina and Jim Lin) went down with hamstring pulls and veteran, Marc Washington has been unable to return to his previous championship form. With Williams strength in the sprints, Coach Halston Taylor was concerned that if Williams got a little momentum going early and then shut MIT out in the sprints, MIT may not recover.

Fortunately, for MIT, Williams never got the early momentum. By design, MIT loaded up the 1500 meter run, the first final. Sean Montgomery continued to dominate his competition by taking the lead at the half way point from teammate Brian Anderson and pushing it to the finish in a time of 3:57.44 to provisionally qualify for the NCAA Championship. Montgomery was followed by Brian Anderson in second, Sean Nolan in fourth and Dan Feldman in fifth to take a 25-8 lead over Williams. The meet scored eight deep, with points being awarded 9-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 to the respective places for individual events and 9-6-3 in the relays. No more than four from a school were allowed to score in any event.

In the 55HH, MIT would have qualified five runners for the final, but with only four being allowed to score, Peter Bluvas's 8.22 PR scored no points. Victor Williamson knocked nearly two tenths of a second off his time, running 7.95 in the trials and 7.98 in the finals to place second behind an RPI runner. Rick Rajter, whose hamstring was too tight to run the hurdles well, nevertheless placed third with a 7.99 performance. Junius Ho finished 5th for MIT after running a season best 8.19 in the trials and was followed by Craig Mielcarz in 6th with a 8.23 final time. Williams was only able to score 2 points to MIT's 20.

Chris Khan upped his national qualifying mark to 53-9 in the Weight Throw on his way to winning that event. Marios Michalakis (46-10) and David Saylor (46-7) also had personal bests for MIT as they placed 3rd and 4th. Peter Bluvas lent his skills to the event as well and earned a 6th place with a 39-3 effort. Williams College could only manage a 2nd place finish as one of their throwers fouled out.

In the past, when MIT would get an early lead, Williams would dominate the 200-800 meter events and get back in the meet. MIT, aware of this, put their best effort forward on the 9 laps to the mile track by outscoring the Ephmen 34-24 in the 400 and 600. In the 400, Matt Lehman and Gabe Sanchez lost the battle for first, but came in 2nd and 3rd with times of 51.82 and 52.41. Yuval Mazor ran a personal best of 1:22.98, but was also unable to garner first place. Jesse Alejandro, moving a little too early in the race, finished 4th in a very respectable 1:24.27.

In the field, too many fouls along with a number of technical problems prevented MIT from winning the Long Jump. However, strong personal efforts allowed Tech to score a draw with Williams in the event. No personal or season bests were achieved but solid performances were given by Tom Hoover for 2nd in 21-7 1/2, Craig Mielcarz in 6th with 20-9, Victor Williamson in 7th with 20-7 1/2 and Austin Neudecker in 8th with 20-3 1/2.

In the High Jump, Mielcarz led the way with a winning jump of 6-7. Craig had two very good attempts on 6-9 3/4 but just nicked the bar. Rick Rajter, whose hamstring did not bother him in the high jump, cleared 6-5 and nearly achieved 6-7 for second. Neudecker claimed 5th with 6-1 and Tom Hoover had a season best jump of 5-11 for 7th. MIT outscored Williams in the event 22-9.

The 55 dash was every bit as bad for MIT as expected. Jim Lin again pulled his hamstring after running full practices for two weeks with no problems. Dave Kloster made the finals and came through with a personal best of 6.93 to give MIT a 6th place finish. Robbie Gray ran 6.94 for 8th. Williams scored 19 points to MIT's 4 to cut into the lead.

Williams had no answer for MIT's depth in the 800 and 1000 meter runs. In an attempt to lessen the damage, Williams brought back 600 runners, Reilly and Garvin to do battle in the 1000. Montgomery took the race out in a strong pace, spreading the field and taking away the chance for either Reilly or Garvin to place in the top two. Montgomery finished in 2:32.73 for the win for his first effort of the year. George Hanson ran the best race of his season by going with Montgomery for much of the race and holding on for a fine 2nd place effort of 2:36.95. Craig Wildman finished in 4th with a 2:39.60. In the 800, Anderson came back from the 1500 with an easy win in 1:58.21 and was followed in 2nd and 3rd by teammates Alan Raphael and Mark Jeunnette in 2:01.40 and 2:01.54. The two events gave MIT a 43-20 edge.

The anticipated battle in the Pole Vault did not produce any spectacular heights but it was nevertheless a great battle. Perry from Williams won the event with 14-3 height. Freshman Nate Ball came through with a 13-9 leap for 2nd to continue his solid vaulting. Dan Kwon and Dan Opila lost 4th place on misses to Carvalho from Williams but did claim 5th and 6th. Opila cleared 13-3 for the first time this season to qualify for the NE Division III Championship. After 11 events the score was 199 to 119.

Two events that significantly cut into MIT's lead were the 200 and the Shot Put. In the 200, the loss of Traina was obvious. Mazor ran a tremendous race, coming back from his 600 PR with a season tying best 23.78 for 5th place. Lehman added an 8th place to give MIT 5 points in the event to Williams' 20. In the Shot Put, MIT was shut out. A loaded field produced 6 throwers over 45' but Tech should have nevertheless scored 2 points. Williams took advantage of MIT's weakness and scored 23 points to bring the score to 204-161.

Fortunately, MIT has a very deep distance squad. Even a sub par Feldman could not prevent MIT from scoring 19 points in the 3000. Nolan lost a battle for first to Reutimann from Williams but still ran a PR of 8:40.67. Feldman feeling tired all day, closed strong to edge MIT freshman Ben Schmeckpeper for 3rd in 8:48.00 to 8:48.18.

With the strength in the 400-1000 events, the relays were not a contest. MIT pulled away early in both relays to win the 1600 Relay in 3:29.15 and the 3200 Relay in 8:20.35. Even though the 4x800 pulled away from Williams College early, they let RPI back into the race with sub par legs in the middle of the relay. Alejandro brought it home in 2:02.5 for the victory.

The final event was the Triple Jump. All America Dwayne Alleyne from RPI led the way with a 46-10 effort and left the battle for 2nd between Williamson and Neudecker from MIT and Ho-Sang from Williams. Williamson managed to pull edge out Ho-Sang on his 2nd best jump as they tied at 43-2. Neudecker finished with 43-0 for 4th. Townsend added a 6th place finish to give MIT a 14-10 edge in the event and the 253-198 final score.

Coach Taylor was very pleased with the win and his team's effort. "The team came here with a purpose and came through with 21 personal or season bests despite the small track. We are fortunate to have a very good team with even greater potential. Our fouls in the horizontal jumps, inconsistency in the Shot Put and lack of production by the middle distance relays need to be corrected if the team hopes to win the New England Division III Championship in three weeks".

Next week, MIT goes across the river to BU for the Greater Boston Championships, brought back to life this year after they were canceled after the 1992 season. The competing teams include Division I schools; BU, Harvard and Northeastern along with Division II Bentley College and fellow Division III Institution, Brandeis.