MIT CLAIMS FOURTH PLACE IN NE DIVISION III CHAMPIONSHIP
February 21, 2004
MIT went into the New England Division III Championships, hosted by Bowdoin College, with hopes of securing third place. Significantly below full strength, the Engineers hoped they could have great performances from the few athletes they had competing and hold off Bates College, who was seeded within a few points of MIT. After all the dust cleared, Williams College returned to the champions position with 115.5 points. Tufts had a good meet, putting together 107.5 points. Bates had marvelous performances from their weight throwers and their 600 and 3000 meter runners to exceed their seed and come home with the third place trophy, scoring 84.5 points in the process. MIT also exceeded their seeds, scoring 73 points, but with one event to go realized they could not make up the necessary points and cruised in the 3200 relay to avoid aggravating star the injured glute of middle distance star Brian Anderson.
On Friday, Marcus Carson and Thad Wozniak participated in the pentathlon. With MIT's normally dominating contingent either graduated or electing to not participate on the team, Wozniak and Carson, both rookies in the event, knew they had to put points on the board. Both started off well in the hurdles and performed well all day. Wozniak placed fourth and Carson sixth, both with season bests of 2735 and 2540 respectively.
In the first event, the 35 lb. weight throw, Uzoma Orji took care of business with a throw of 57-00 3/4 to win the event. The big surprise was Chris Khan moving from seventh to third on his last throw with a 55-1 1/2 for a season best. This is after three weeks of not throwing the implement, even in practice due to an injured back. The shot put brought similar results. Again Orji took care of his part by throwing a meet record of 57-1. Once again, the surprise was Khan moving from fifth to third with a 15 inch personal best of 51-2 1/4 on his final throw. Orji and Khan accounted for 32 points between them, which would have defeated all by eight of the team in New England.
Josh Chartier and Nate Ball entered the pole vault hoping to add significantly to the Engineers point total. Ball, not having vaulted hard since the alumni meet due to his hamstring pull, could not get the timing down and no heighted. Chartier jumped well at 13-9 but could not clear a PR of 14-3. Chartier claimed sixth place to add three points to MIT's effort.
On the track, Brian Anderson took his partially injured glute and ran conservatively for the first part of the 1500. Once he picked up the pace he was dogged by a determined runner from Bowdoin. Anderson could not shake him and was unprepared to handle the final kick, losing for the first time this year to a division III athlete. Coach Halston Taylor took the blame for this loss, explaining that it was he who asked Anderson to use the strategy. In the 1000 meters, Anderson did not have to be told to run his race from the front, which he did, winning by nearly two seconds in 2:29.45.
Zach Traina stepped on the track for the first time in three weeks, in fact the same track where he pulled his hamstring on January 31. Against his better judgment, Coach Taylor allowed Traina to run the 200, an event in which Traina was seeded eighth. Not only did Traina make the finals but he set a personal indoor best of 22.50 to post the fastest time in the trials. It was obvious that his endurance was not there as he slowed significantly in the final 30 meters. In the finals, Traina again got out well and again fatigued on the final straight. Nevertheless, his 22.61 was good enough for third place and an unexpected six points.
Ben Schmeckpeper had a difficult decision to make when deciding which race to enter, the 3000 or the 5000. Needing a faster 5000 time to guarantee entrance in the All Division New England Championship next weekend, and thus another shot at nationals, Schmeckpeper decided on that race rather than the 3000 where he had the fastest seed time. The 3000 may have garnered more points for MIT but would have been a dead end since that distance is not run at the NCAA Championships in division III. The pace was quick and Schmeckpeper was right with the leaders through two miles in 9:31. The leader and eventual winner of the race, Nate Brigham from Tufts, decided he no longer wanted the lead and slowed to 78 second pace trying to force someone in the lead. Eventually another runner took the lead with less than a mile to go. With three quarters of a mile to go, Schmeckpeper took the lead but did not put the runners away. When the others kicked, Schmeckpeper could not go with them, settling for a very respectable fourth place finish in a personal best of 14:51.96.
MIT had just enough bodies to put together two relays, the distance medley and the 3200. In the DMR, Chris Fidkowski ran his second track race ever and produced a respectable 3:14 1200 meter opening leg. Wozniak came back from his pentathlon effort and provided a 52.7 leg to move MIT up to sixth place. Eric Khatchadourian ran a very fine 2:02.8 leg and had MIT in the back of a pack running for fifth place. Carlos Renjifo got caught up in the excitement and went out a little too fast, posting splits of 31 and 62 seconds for the first 200 and 400. This pace took its toll, causing Renjifo to settle for a survival pace, holding on for 8th with a 4:26 split. It was a loaded field as MIT ran a season best by 22 seconds and still only got one point out of it.
Bates College needed at least three points in the 1600 relay to make it mathematically impossible for MIT to catch them and three points is exactly what they got. Coach Taylor told Anderson, the anchor, to not risk further injury and to take it easy unless it was obvious MIT could win the event. MIT ran great splits but not good enough to put Anderson in contention. Jesse Collins moved up from the 600 distance to record a 2:02.9 leg. Fivos Constantinous, battled an injured abdominal muscle to run a season best of 2:00.8. Imran Hendley also ran a season best, but his 2:03.9 put him far behind the first three teams in the race. Anderson could have run a sub 2:00 800 to get the team to fourth place in the race, but the additional points would not help the cause so Anderson jogged in a 2:11 to save his body for nationals.
Next week, Traina, Anderson, Schmeckpeper, Orji, Khan and possibly the Ball and Chartier will compete at the All New Englands held at Boston University on Friday night and Saturday afternoon.