Mielcarz Leads Team to 3rd New England Division III Title in 4 Years
February 22, 2003
MIT played host to the New England Division III Indoor Track and Field Championship, and defended their home turf very well, winning the meet for the third time in the past four years with 120 points. The next closest teams were Williams College with 88 points and Tufts University with 87 to lead the charge of the other 24 teams.
Going into the meet, MIT was determined to keep their confidence high despite what seemed like fate trying to deal them a bad hand. Nate Ball, the #1 seed, and defending champion in the pole vault was injured with a hamstring pull and was very unlikely to compete. Previous national qualifier in the high jump and the team's best 400 runner, Brian Hoying was out with a stress fracture to his foot. National cross country qualifiers Ben Schmeckpeper and Sean Nolan were enduring minor injuries that were preventing them from training properly. Austin Neudecker, the team's number one triple jumper had been nursing a sore ankle for nearly a month. All in all, the team was down 30 or more points before the meet even started. Nevertheless, the spirit of the team, led by the indomitable force supplied by the seniors was not succumbing to the disappointment.
Tri-captain, Craig Mielcarz, led the way for MIT, scoring 29 points and winning two of only three events won by the Engineers. On Friday, Mielcarz led the MIT pentathletes to a 1-2-3-4 finish and a 29 point first day total. Having the meet of his life, Mielcarz began with a personal best in the 55HH of 8.00. Knowing he needed to conserve energy for day two of the meet, Mielcarz made his first long jump count as he seemingly flew to another PR of 22-5 3/4, which was certainly enough to convince his coaches to tell him to put his warmups on and wait for the shot put. A third PR in a row was delivered by Mielcarz in the shot with a toss of 37-5 3/4. With the event thoroughly in hand at this point, Mielcarz stopped the high jump after two jumps, one at 6-4 1/4 and one at 6-5 1/2. Mielcarz finished the event with a 3:07 jog in the 1000 to easily score 3526 points, 107 better than teammate Rick Rajter.
Rajter, another of the tri-captains competed with a severe heel bruise he received in a fall over the hurdles two weeks earlier. Jumping was excruciating for Rajter but he persevered through the event to set a personal best pentathlon score of 3419 points and place second.
Tom Hoover, seeded 8th going into the pentathlon, kept up the MIT tradition of dominating the multi-event with season bests in every event. A 8.35 in the hurdles, a one jump 21-8 3/4 effort in the long jump, a huge best of 32-7 3/4 in the shot put, a 5-11 1/2 in the high jump and a perfectly run 2:54 1000 earned Hoover a 3rd overall with a personal best total of 3298 points.
Seeded 7th coming into the event, and in 7th place with just the 1000 remaining, Victor Williamson surprised everyone with a phenomenal 2:50.31 to win the 1000 and move up to 4th place overall with a personal best total of 3198 points.
Going into day 2 the feeling by the Engineers was that it was their meet and no one was going to take this opportunity away. The first two events, the long jump and 35lb. weight throw were crucial ones for MIT. The long jump was going to show how well Mielcarz and Hoover would be able to come back from the pentathlon the day before. Hoover showed no ill effects as he popped a 21-9 1/4 in the first flight. Mielcarz stayed one placed ahead by jumping 22-0 3/4 in the second flight. Hoover improved to a personal best of 21-11 1/4 in the finals to give MIT 4th and 5th place and 9 points when they were only seeded for 3.5 points.
The weight throwers scored 15 points to hold up their end of the plan. Chris Khan led the way with a second place effort of 57-4 1/2. David Saylor threw a huge personal best of 54-2 1/4, good for 4th place. Uzoma Orji did very well for a freshman in a new event as he threw 52-5 1/2 for 7th place. This gave Tech 53 points and half of what the coaches thought they would need to guarantee a team victory.
On the track, MIT was seeded to get 4.5 points in the dash but failed to qualify anyone for the finals with David Blau just missing with a 6.71 55 meters. The 55HH, another pivotal event for the pentathletes, was one where MIT was seeded to earn 3 points. To prove his 8.00 PR from the day before was no fluke, Mielcarz blew out of the blocks in first, faded to second but ran a 7.91 to earn a trip to the finals. Determined not to give into the pain from his heel, Rick Rajter ran 8.00 in his trial to also get into the finals.
The first running final, the 1500, had Brian Anderson going up against the top two milers in the country for division III and another who was ranked 5th in the country, just behind Anderson. The race disappointed no one as Ryan Bak of Trinity took the pace out hard and kept going, running a meet record 3:47.84. Anderson couldn't quite hold onto third, getting outkicked in the final straight. However, his 4th place effort of 3:54.24 was very impressive.
The 55HH final was next and the entire MIT team was anxious to see what Mielcarz and Rajter could force their bodies to do. Unbelievably, Mielcarz set another PR with a 7.90 for 5th place. Just a hair behind, Rajter came in with a season best of 7.91 for 6th, giving MIT 4 more points than they were seeded to get, making up for the dash disappointment.
Heading into the high jump and shot put, events MIT was seeded #1 in, the team knew that positive results could nearly clinch the meet. Mielcarz continued his amazing meet with no misses through 6-8 1/4 to win the event on misses, giving MIT ten more points to total 75 points.
Uzoma Orji did not put the shot out of reach and the defending champion from Williams College took the lead on the 5th round with a throw of 53-2. On his last throw, Orji gave it his all, tying for the lead at 53-2. Based on the 2nd best throw, Orji won the event based on his 52-10 1/2 in the 2nd round.
Back on the track, Brian Anderson was about to go up against the same three runners who beat him in the 1500, in the 1000. Bak wasted no time in taking the pace out, coming through the 200 in 29 and 400 in 58. Bak slowed a little and Anderson took the lead, coming through the 600 in 1:28. Holding the lead through the 800 in 1:58.8, Anderson could not quite hold off Bak in the home stretch, running a personal best of 2:28.13 for 2nd and what would prove to be the winning points as Tech brought their total to 93.
In the final field event, Austin Neudecker leaped to a personal best of 45-5 1/2, despite his ankle, claiming 2nd place. Rajter managed a season best with a heel jarring 43-1 1/4 for 6th place, giving MIT 11 more points and the 100+ they though they would need to win the meet with 5 events to go.
Sean Nolan, the other tri-captain, endured the pain in his foot to run a huge season best of 8:46.77 in the 3000. Nolan's great effort earned him a 5th place and energized the relay teams to do their best as well.
With 108 points going into the relays, it was mathematically impossible for any team to catch MIT, so instead of putting Hoover and Rajter through any more pain, MIT pulled their 4x400 team. The distance medley relay team, seeded 9th, was led off by freshman distance runner David Gray. Gray managed to stay with the main pack, running 3:17 for the 1200 leg. Zach Traina made up for his poor 55 dash and disqualification in the 200 when he ran on the lane line and interfered with another runner, by running an outstanding 50.3 in the 400. Freshman Chris Peterson, a pentathlon participant the coaches pulled before the 1000 meter run because of no chance of placing, ran the 800 leg. Truly inspired, Peterson went out in 27 and 57 in an effort to stay with the other runners. Peterson slowed to 2:03, but it was a huge personal best. Running anchor was another freshman, distance runner Steve Maltas. Maltas, making a late season comeback ran an outstanding leg, passing teams along the way to his 4:24 1600. The team's 10:35.54 was good enough for 5th place and 4 more points.
In the final event, the 3200 relay, MIT wanted to win to defend their event title from the year before. Leading off, George Hanson ran a great leg in what proved to be a very deep field. Hanson handed off with a 2:02.0 leadoff leg. Steve Stoddard delivered a personal best, bringing MIT up to the leaders with a 1:58.9 leg. Taku Iida had a performance as good as anyone on the team, improving by 3 seconds as he ran 2:00.6, good enough to bring MIT within 4 seconds of the lead. Anderson, running his third event within 2 1/2 hours, wasted no time going after Bates College 1:55 800 runner. Coming through 200 splits of 26, 53 and 1:23 (good enough to win the open 600), Anderson closed to within 10 meters but could not get any closer. Running a 1:54.6 leg, Anderson brought the team home in 7:56.29, good for 2nd place.
With the season goal accomplished, MIT will rest most of their stars who have not qualified for the NCAA Championship in three weeks so that they will be ready for the start of the outdoor season. The next meet, the all division New England championship held at Boston University on February 28 and March 1 will be an opportunity for MIT's national level competitors to compete in one event and focus on improving their national rank.