VARSITY PULLS AWAY FROM ALUMNI IN ANNUAL MEET
Orji Sets Shot Put Freshman Record, Provisionally Qualifies for NCAAs
December 14, 2002
Sixteen Alumni competed on Saturday, won 6 of the 14 events, and came within a 5 point swing and .2 of a second in the 4x200 relay of winning the annual Alumni / Varsity Meet on the newly named Donald Shobrys and Carol Aronson Indoor Track. Led by two victories (55 and 200 meters) by sophomore Zach Traina and a freshman record by Uzoma Orji in the Shot Put, the Varsity pulled away to a 71-51 victory.
The Varsity were warned many times by the coaching staff that the meet would be close and if the Alumni would be favored to win the 400, 800, 1500, Wt. Throw and Triple Jump. If they also won the Pole Vault, Long Jump and 55HH, events that were in the Varsity's favor but not by much, the meet may come down to the relay. The Varsity paid no heed and seemed poorly prepared for the competition that the Alumni brought to the table.
In the first two events, the Weight Throw and the Long Jump, momentum was definitely in the Alumni's favor. Todd Chamoy, assistant coach and alumni, showed that even if Chris Khan (absent due to an illness) was competing it would not likely have mattered, as he threw a personal best of 53-6 1/2. Junior, David Saylor, also threw a personal best of 48-3 1/4 to place 2nd. Professor John-Paul Clarke showed that even with no practice in a year, he can still do well enough to place third as he threw 45-9 1/4.
The Long Jump, one of the bubble events that could go either way, seemed to only be coveted by the Has-Beens as Ravi Sastry brought back some of the old magic with a 21-5 3/4 effort for the victory. Professor Bill Singhose held the old hamstrings together long enough to jump 20-10 1/2 for second, 1/2 inch ahead of Senior, Brian Hoying. The meet was just underway and the Alumni were up 14-4.
Before another field event was completed, the 1500 was on the track. Sean Montgomery was favored to win, with Junior, Brian Anderson given a slight chance, partially due to very poor sleep over the past couple of weeks. Anderson's only chance was to take the pace out hard and hope to run away from Montgomery. The 61 first 400 and 2:05 800 split were fast enough to bring it down to the final quarter, but Anderson was not able to continue the pace beyond the 3:09 1200 mark, falling off to a 4:04.13 performance, good enough for 2nd place. Montgomery pulled away to win easily in 4:01.15. Freshman, Fivos Constantinou made the error of holding onto the fast early pace through the half and paid dearly as he faded to 4:13.19 for 3rd.
The High Hurdles was next and a pivotal event in which Sastry and Singhose could steal the victory. Without the injured Victor Williamson, the Varsity could only hope for the best. Singhose scratched from the event, leaving Sastry and Junius Ho to defend the Alumni lead. At the start, Sastry seemed not to hear the start, giving the rest of the field a nice lead and one he could not make up. The capture failed to work on the photo finish, forcing the use of hand times. Rick Rajter '03, won the event in 7.7. Chris Peterson '06 and Craig Mielcarz '03 battled it out for 2nd and ran 7.9 and 8.0 respectively to sweep the event. This good fortune brought the score to 19-17 in favor of the Alumni. Sastry finished in 8.2 and Ho in 8.3.
The Shot Put was one of the five certain wins for the current track and field team. Freshman sensation, Uzoma Orji won by 10' over Singhose, setting the freshman record of 50-07 1/4 on his 5th throw. The absence of Khan and fellow shot putters, Francisco Cruz and Phil Zakielarz due to academic conflicts earlier in the week, provided a total lack of competition for the Alumni as Clarke placed third.
Another one of the sure wins came in the High Jump, where the Alumni were unable to field an entrant. Mielcarz and Hoying placed 1st and 2nd respectively with leaps of 6-6, both narrowly missing 6-8 on their final attempts. Rajter placed 3rd with a jump of 6-2 to give the Varsity their second sweep of the meet and a somewhat comfortable lead of 31-23.
Back on the track, Yuval Mazor was hoping to make easy work of the 400 after the numerous losses of personnel in this event for the Varsity. Tony Pelosi took out the pace very hard with Mazor close behind as they ran 1-2 through the first 200 in 25 flat. Hoying getting out slowly, pulled up behind the two leaders with 150 to go. Pelosi slowed and Mazor went around at the end of the straight. Hoying followed but too late to avoid having to go wide on the turn. Hoying made a desperate effort at the end but fell .16 short, 51.56 to 51.72. Pelosi held on for third to bring the Alumni 3 points closer.
Next, Zach Traina took to the track in his first event, the 55 meter dash. Assistant coach, Akin Aina was the lone Alumni warrior. Traina had an awkward start, but quickly established a lead and sprinted away with the victory in 6.70. Aina battled it out with freshman, David Blau, coming out ahead 6.85 to 6.86 to keep the Alumni close.
Montgomery was back in the 800 to repeat the damage he managed in the 1500. Again Anderson made an attempt to take the pace out, but could only manage a 58 first 400. Montgomery had no problem with this pace and quickly took over with no other challenges to win in 1:59.73. With a furious kick over the final 150 meters, John Biesiadecki showed that passion is sometimes more important than training as he pulled ahead of many varsity performers to place second in 2:01.93. George Hanson, a senior, also kicked well at the end, but could not overtake Biesiadecki, finishing third in 2:02.57. Making up another 7 points, the comfortable lead was now an Alumni lead of 37-35.
The Triple Jump, an event that could go either way, turned out to be the pivotal event for the Varsity. Morio Alexander, who seems to get better with age, and Kalpak Kothari, who placed 1-2 in this meet last year, were not able to overcome the jumping of Austin Neudecker, '05 and Rajter who jumped 43-6 and 42-11 respectively. The 8-1 point scoring gave the Varsity a lead they would not relinquish.
Traina went back to work on the track in the 200. This time, Mazor doubled back from the 400 to give Aina some support. Traina made up the stagger in the first 50 meters, breezing to a 23.05 victory. Mazor fought off Tom Hoover '05 23.70 to 23.86 for 2nd place.
While the 5000 got underway, the Pole Vault was coming to a close. Battling it out for first place were Singhose and Nate Ball, '05. Singhose, making as few efforts as possible, cam in at 13' after not having gone over a bar in a year. Ball made 14' but so did Singhose. Singhose made 14-6 on his first attempt but Ball could not respond. Singhose went on the clear 15' before stopping, claiming he needed to save some efforts for next year. Assistant coach and recent alumni, Dan Kwon, placed 3rd with 13-0. Also in the vault were Sam Sidiqi with a fine 13' jump and Steve Lefkowitz who cleared 11-6.
Sean Nolan and Ben Schmeckpeper pulled away at the start of the 5000 and ran to victory unchallenged in 15:21.33 and 15:31.35. Terry McNatt, recently recovered from a virus, raced for third and was successful with a 15:55.74.
In the final event, the 800 relay, the Varsity led off with Traina, despite the 15 minute recovery. The plan was to avoid handoff complications by providing the Varsity team with a big lead, which worked despite a valiant effort by Aina. On the second leg, Montgomery made up significant ground on Hoover to bring the Alumni to within 10 meters. Pelosi further cut into the lead against freshman Thad Wozniak, putting Mazor at a 5 meter disadvantage. Mazor twice challenged Blau but was denied both times as the Varsity closed the meet out with the victory.
In attendance for the Alumni, but not competing, were Don Shobrys, Liyan Guo and Chuck Van Buren.
MIT is off until January due to exams and the Holiday break. The next meet is on 1/11 where MIT will host the Beaver Pentathlon at 9:00 AM while the remainder of the team will head to Brandeis for a low key invitational.