TECH TRACK PERFORMS WELL AT HOME PENTATHLON AND BRANDEIS INVITATIONAL
January 11, 2003
MIT had to abandon hosting the annual Beaver Relays due to a lack of interest from enough teams. Instead, MIT split their squad, hosting the pentathlon part of the cancelled relay meet and sending the remainder of the team to Brandeis for a scored invitational. At the former, Tech auto qualified 3 pentathletes and came within a few points for another, and at the latter, the Beavers won handily (MIT 199, Tufts 131, NYU 72, Brandeis 64, USM 52, Worcester State 36, Conn. College 22, Fitchburg State 1) despite the fact the pentathletes did not compete in the meet.
The Engineers hosted the pentathlon because of the need to qualify in the event for the New England Division III Championship. An event which MIT has dominated in recent years, it continues to be a strength for the team. Needing 2900 points to automatically qualify for the championship, the entries from MIT and the University of New Hampshire, toed the line in the 55HH, the first of the five events. While none of the athletes ran very well at 9:00 in the morning, Rick Rajter ran the fastest time with a 8.15 time, good for 772 points. After the required thirty minute rest, the athletes headed to the long jump pit for their three attempts at a best effort. Again, none jumped very well, but Craig Mielcarz edged Tom Hoover 20-9 3/4 to 20-9 1/4 to earn the most points (661). The third event, the shot put went much better for the Engineers. Rajter threw a little farther than Mielcarz, 36-11 1/2 to 36- 5 3/4 to again take top honors with 562 points. In the high jump, the 4th event, Mielcarz again led the way with a sub par jump of 6'4, which netted him 740 points. The only MIT athlete to jump well for his abilities was Victor Williamson, who cleared 5'10, nearly a personal best. In the final event, the 1000 meters, it was clear that Mielcarz, Rajter and Williamson would not have to run very hard to score 2900 points. Hoover needed a 2:56 time in order to reach the necessary total and went out in perfect pace at 35 seconds for the first 200. Hoover continued the exact pace for two more laps, coming through 600 meters in 1:45. At the 800, he had fallen 2 seconds off pace and needed to pick it up in the final lap to hit his time. Falling 1 second, and 6 points short, he is probably assured a spot in the championship competition. Freshman, Chris Peterson won the 1000 in 2:54 to help his score in his first pentathlon and earn 716 points.
Over at Brandeis, the diminished MIT team was preparing to face the competition, most of which were missing athletes who had not yet returned from the holiday break. MIT went into the meet with the attitude of getting a good workout while not trying to over work any of the athletes. The big performer for Tech was Brian Anderson, who won both the 1500 and 800 with times of 4:02.08 and 1:56.92 respectively. Brian also anchored the 3200 relay in 1:59 to bring the team to a 2nd place in that event.
Also scoring a lot of points was Austin Neudecker, who participated in 6 events and scored 31 1/2 points, nearly 1/6 of MIT's total. Austin won the triple jump, tied for 2nd in the high jump, earned a 3rd in the long jump, placed 5th in the 55 and 4th in the 200 and ran his first 400 in anchoring the 4x400 to victory with a 52.8 leg.
Zach Traina placed 2nd in both the 55 and the 200 while leading off the 1600 relay with a 51.7 400. Also doing well in the 55 was David Blau, setting a personal best of 6.75.
Brian Hoying placed 2nd in the 400 and High Jump before tweaking his hamstring in the long jump. Thad Wozniak set a personal best in the 400 with a 52.69, good enough for 4th.
Steve Stoddard ran his first 600 in 1:27.32, to place 2nd. Steve Kannan ran a personal best of 1:29. 81 to place 6th.
In the distance events, Sean Nolan easily won the 5000 with a casual 15:27.42. Craig Wildman followed in 2nd with a season best of 15:51.54. Earlier in the day, Ben Schmeckpeper just missed a victory in the 3000 when he ran 8:45.90, getting outkicked by .45 seconds. Steve Maltas had his debut with a 9:03.93.
MIT had two outstanding performances in the throws. Uzoma Orji won the shot put by nearly 10 feet with a throw of 52-7 1/4 and David Saylor broke 50' for the first time in winning the 35lb. wt. throw in 50-2 1/2.
Next week, MIT will face much stiffer competition when they travel to New London, Connecticut to face Bates and host Coast Guard.