BALL VAULTS TO NEW HEIGHT
Orji and Schmeckpeper Join Vaulter in Leading Engineers to Fourth Place
February 19, 2005
MIT traveled across town to Tufts University to attempt to out-perform their fourth place seed in the New England Division III Championships this Friday and Saturday. The top seeded athletes on the team came through with three first places and two seconds for 48 of the teams 67 points. However, the Engineers were unable to get much out of their lower seeds, making it impossible to catch any of the top three teams. Williams College had the best meet of any team, scoring more than 20 points over their seeds. Seeded to score 96 points, the Ephs scored 123 to easily win their second championship in a row. Tufts, the top seed, had a very good meet, scoring 108 1/2 points. Bates College, had a good meet early, performed according to their seeds in the end, finishing with 77 to beat MIT by 10.
MIT's plan was to start the meet out with strong performances in the opening events, the weight throw and long jump and add to the momentum achieved by the three points scored in the pentathlon the day before when Chris Desrochers finished strong in his final two events despite an injured hip flexor and moved up to an unexpected seventh place. Thad Wozniak scored nearly two hundred points more than last year in the pentathlon and finished four places lower, but nevertheless gained an unexpected point by placing eighth.
Things did not go the way the Engineers wanted in those early events on Saturday however. Uzoma Orji fouled his first attempt in the weight throw but then cranked a 58-4 effort on his safety throw. Once he tried to put everything into the throws nothing improved. On his final attempt, Scott Cooper of Bates threw a personal best to take the lead and deny Orji the championship. David Saylor, seeded third due to an early season throw, regained some of his touch, throwing 56-3 1/4, which was only good enough for fifth place in this talented field.
In the long jump, Nestor Hernandez was seeded sixth by a mere centimeter. Hernandez had shown on some fouls in the past couple of weeks that he was capable of a big jump and Tech was counting on that sort of performance to get things going. Hernandez had a very good jump of 21-8 1/4 but that was only good enough for seventh place.
On the track things continued to just miss. David Blau, not seeded to score in the 55 dash, ran well but missed the finals by .004 seconds. Likewise, in the 200 trials, Blau drew lane two, which was the most inside lane since lane one was not being used. No one qualified for the final out of lane two even though Blau came close. Zach Traina, drawing lane six in the trials, ran a flat track personal best with a 22.42 to lead all qualifiers.
In the first track final, the 1500, Fivos Constantinou hoped to battle for the victory against a very talented field that showcased six national qualifiers. The pace was very conservative, going through quarter splits of 65, 2:10 and 3:15. Constantinou does better off of a fast pace as his stride is a little too long to produce the sort of kick needed to win off a pace that slow. True to form, the leaders accelerated into a 41 second final 300 while Constantinou was only able to produce a 47, relegating him to eighth place.
Neither Kenny Rosche, running in the 400, nor Jesse Collins (600), were seeded to score. Both ran flat track personal bests of 51.22 and 1:24.97 respectively, but neither scored although Rosche only missed by one place.
MIT had no entries in the 55 high hurdles, high jump or 800 meters. In the 1000 meter race, Eric Khatchadourian, seeded seventh, made a valiant effort out of the slow section final. Running with eventual winner, Aaron Kaye of Tufts, Khatchadourian went through very fast 200 splits of 29, 60 and 1:30 before falling off, slowing to a 64 final 400, placing him ninth.
As the end of the meet neared, MIT was stuck with a mere 19 points. Things began to fall into place as Orji won his specialty, the shot put, with a throw of 55-0. About the same time, Traina, receiving lane four, ran to a second place in the 200 to finish one place higher than he was seeded.
In the triple jump, Makinde Adeagbo struggled on his first two attempts but then jumped 43-1 1/2 to make finals. Adeagbo never improved his mark but held onto seventh place.
The pole vault, another possibility for big points given that MIT had four qualifiers, although only seeded to score 13, did not quite go as hoped. Omari Stephens continued to improve and show promise as he vaulted to a personal best of 13-0 1/4. Josh Chartier had an off day and did not score, only jumping 12-6 1/4. Hernandez was looking good on the pole and getting plenty of height but vaulted into the bar on all three attempts at 14-0, leaving him with eighth place. Nate Ball entered at 14-6, about the time everyone else was finishing. Two other vaulters cleared 14-6 and one of those made 15-0. Ball first attempted 14-6, 15-0 and 15-6. He then cleared 16-1 and 16-5, a new MIT record and the third best vault in the country for division III, with ease. All three attempts at 16-9 were very good attempts, indicating it is just a matter of time before Ball is going after 17-0.
Ben Schmeckpeper stepped to the track as the favorite in the 3000 and did not disappoint. Biding his time through a rather pedestrian 4:38 first mile, Schmeckpeper took the lead and picked up the pace. The final 600 was in 1:36 as he finished with a 8:32.04 victory.
Freshman, Chris Wong, represented MIT in the 5000. Wong had been sick for the past week but started the race determined to place. Going out in a quick pace of 4:53 for the mile and 7:19 for the 2400, Wong tried to stay within striking distance of eighth place. However, going into the two mile mark, Wong's pace fell off to 78 second quarters as he was no longer able to hold on. Nevertheless, he ran a solid 15:42.95.
MIT put together a pretty good distance medley relay and was hoping to challenge for the victory. Williams College ran in the slow section, which ran first, and established a time to beat of 10:26.16. Middlebury also ran in the slow section and also managed a fast time of 10:29.16. Few teams could put together a fresh team at this point in the meet and MIT was in that boat as only Carlos Renjifo was fresh. As such, Renjifo led off with the 1200. Hoping to run 3:06, the ailing Renjifo couldn't seem to run faster than 32 seconds per lap. His 3:12, while solid, put MIT far behind the leadoff legs of Tufts and Amherst. Wozniak returned from the pentathlon and stopped coughing from his cold long enough to run a 53.5 400 leg. Khatchadourian came back with minimal rest after the 1000 and delivered a good 2:03.5 leg to keep MIT in battle, albeit pretty far from Amherst. Constantinou got the baton and proceeded to work on the 10 second lead by Amherst. Constantinou ran equal to his 1500 open race earlier, coming through the 1200 in 3:16 and trying to close the final 30 meters on Amherst. Finishing with a 64 to end his 1600 in 4:20, Constantinou did not quite catch his quarry. Nevertheless, the 10:30.19 was good enough for fifth place.
The 1600 relay, MIT's final scoring threat of the day, was one man short of being a contender for the victory. Traina, returning from the 200, blasted a fine 50.7 leadoff leg to stay even with the leaders. Collins, a very good relay runner, ran 51.0 to keep MIT right in front. Ulzie Rea, greatly improved this year, just is not yet as fast as the top 400 runners. His strong effort left him with a 53.6 leg and dropped MIT back to 5th place. Rosche did another fine job of closing, nearly catching the Bates anchor as he finished his leg in 51.0. MIT's overall time of 3:26.49 was their best of the season on a flat track and placed them fifth overall.
Having too many empty events and needing to depend on unseeded qualifiers was too much for the Engineers to overcome. The goal of capping the season with the New England Division III Championship was wishful thinking given the current talent pool of MIT and that of their competitors. Given their top talent, MIT should fair better in the upcoming championships against all divisions as well as the NCAA championship in March. Next weekend, MIT is back at Boston University for the All New England (NEICAAA) Championship on Friday and Saturday.