MEN'S TRACK FINISHES REGULAR SEASON UNDEFEATED
Field Events Lead the Way in Quad Win Over Bowdoin, Springfield and Tufts
February 1, 2003
MIT Men's Track and Field was able to survive a challenging meet against tough competition to finish the regular season undefeated for the second season in succession. In a meet where the running events were owned by the opponents, the field events came through to score 88 1/2 of the 197 1/2 total points scored by MIT. Bowdoin, the host team finished second with 165 points, followed by Tufts with 151 and Springfield with 132.5.
One of the few coed meets MIT is involved in, the women's field events were conducted first, leaving the men to wait around and somewhat guess when to start warming up. Apparently, this only served to stoke the fires of competition in the Tech participants. The triple jump was the first event competed and MIT wasted no time showing they would take care of business. Austin Neudecker tied his personal best with a 45-1 3/4 effort to easily win the event. Rick Rajter came from behind to claim second with a 42-8 1/4 and Victor Williamson added a fourth with a season best of 42-0 1/2.
Chris Khan and David Saylor did there part in the 35lb. Weight Throw with a 1-2 finish of their own. Both set personal bests with throws of 57-11 and 50-6 3/4. Khan's throw moves him into 6th on the all time MIT list.
While things were going well in the field, Brian Anderson started things off right in the mile with a 4:18.51 victory. Sean Nolan, battling a foot injury ran a season best of 4:25. 75, but was obviously not at his best as he finished 6th in the deep field. Ben Schmeckpeper, another expected scorer, was thinking about a potential leg injury and was not able to race well.
The high hurdlers expected to do well and they all ran fast. However, going against four of the five best hurdlers in New England Division III, those fast times were only able to net them 5th, 6th and 7th. Rajter led the way with an 8.01 and Craig Mielcarz ran a personal best with 8.07.
The high jump, an event MIT needed to exploit in this meet, was setting up as an intense competition. In addition to Tech's entries, there were 3 other jumpers who had leaped at least 6-8 in their careers. Mielcarz continued to have a great day, winning the event with a new indoor personal best and school record of 6-10 3/4, which also qualified him automatically for the NCAA championships. Brian Hoying showed he is getting back in championship form as he easily cleared 6-6 3/4 to garner 3rd place. Austin Neudecker and Rick Rajter both cleared 6-2 3/4 to earn a tie for 5th and 7th places respectively. The 20.5 points was MIT's second best event of the day.
The pole vault went as well as could be expected with Nate Ball (3rd on MIT's all time list) nursing an injured hamstring. Josh Chartier stepped up with a season best of 12-6 to earn 4th place.
Due to a lack of depth, the 400-1000 events were a definite weakness, particularly against schools with the track strength of Bowdoin and Tufts. In the 400, Hoying ran above his seed to place 3rd with a 51.73 and Tom Hoover ran a season best of 52.53 to place 7th in the stacked field. The 600 went better than expected with Chris Peterson coming back from the hurdles and placing 4th out of the slow section with a 1:27.79. He was supported by a 7th and 8th from Steve Kannan and Steve Stoddard respectively to make it an all freshman event for MIT. Anderson came back from the mile and easily won the 800 with a 1:57.04. George Hanson ran a season best of 2:01.33 to place 5th. The 800 was the only running event in which MIT outscored all other teams. The 1000, another all freshman event for MIT did not go as well as expected. Although all ran season bests, the meet goals were a bit higher than was achieved. Eric Khatchadourian ran a 2:38.15 to place 5th. Fivos Constantinou placed 7th with a 2:40.02.
The sprints had both good and bad news for MIT. Freshman David Blau had a great day by first matching his personal best of 6.67 to place 2nd in the 55 dash, then by running a personal best of 23.42 to earn 6th in a very talented field. Zach Traina did not have a good day in the 55 as he ran only 6.80 to place 6th. In the 200, Traina suffered from the meet setup mistake made by Bowdoin and was put in lane 1, a very disadvantageous lane on a flat indoor track. Bowdoin set up the lanes based on entry times in all of the races when they should have been set up randomly, and the meet director was unwilling to make the necessary changes before the meet started. Traina made the best of it but was unable to overcome the obstacle, placing 4th in 23.18. Hoover earned another 7th with a personal best of 23.54.
Without Nolan and Schmeckpeper at their best, the distance events did not inspire high hopes for MIT. The 3000 would have gone well, but Nolan's foot was bothering him and was scratched from the event. David Gray ran a personal best of 9:07.53 to place 5th for MIT's only points. Schmeckpeper's leg felt well enough to race the 5k, but was pulled out to a very fast pace and was unable to hold it. After coming through the mile in 4:43, the pace began to slow, so much so that the 3rd mile was run in 5:07. Unable to hold the lead, Schmeckpeper fell to 2nd in 15:18.16. Craig Wildman is doing his best do live up to his name as he once again knocked seconds off his time to run another personal best, this time a 15:29.50 to place 3rd. Ian Driver added an 8th place in 16:24.13.
With two of the 4x400 legs still competing in the long jump, Peterson and Thad Wozniak joined Traina and Rajter to run a season best of 3:28.25. Traina led off with a 50.9 to highlight the race.
The only races won by MIT during the meet were those with Brian Anderson entered and the 4x800 was no different. Khatchadourian ran 2:03.9 to put MIT in front. Hanson ran 2:04.6, dropping MIT back to second by about 10 meters. Stoddard ran his best race of the year by far when he made up the gap he inherited as well as what was created when the Springfield 3rd leg went out in 25 for the first 200. Stoddard brought the baton home to Anderson with a lead after his 2:00.5 leg. Anderson was not about to give up an inherited lead as he expanded the lead to 10 seconds with a 1:57.2 anchor for a 8:06.52 season best.
The final events to be contested, the long jump and shot put were were nearing completion at the end of the relays. Four of the eight finalists in the long jump were from MIT. Hoover placed 3rd with a 21-4, and was supported by Mielcarz in 4th with 21-0 1/2, Neudecker in 7th with 20-7 1/4 and Hoying in 8th with 20-5 3/4. It was not until this point that the MIT team could relax, knowing their undefeated season was a reality.
The shot put provided a fitting end to the meet. Uzoma Orji, performing poorly in the weight throw, remained undefeated in the shot. Orji opened with a 52' throw to virtually win the competition before it got started. On the final round, the 2nd place thrower from Springfield set a season best of 51-3 1/2 to get the crowd going. This was all Orji needed. As he took measure of the landing area, he strode back to the circle meaning to take care of business, which he did with a crowd wowing 53-7 1/2. Khan added a 42-9 3/4 line drive to place 7th.
Next week, MIT hosts the Greater Boston Championship against Bentley College, Brandeis University, Harvard University and Northeastern University at 3:00.