MIT Loses to Williams College in Nail Biter
January 22, 2005
As the Engineers of MIT planned to host the competition this week against RPI, Westfield State and Williams College, it appeared that the spectacular record achieved by the men's track team was in jeopardy of not continuing its high standard. In the past 23 years of indoor track (Coach Halston Taylor's tenure as assistant and head track and field coach) the Engineers have only lost six times to Division III schools, if of course you do not count Williams College. Of the 21 meetings between the two schools, MIT had won 10 and Williams 11. Never before had MIT lost to more than one team in a non-championship meet. However, for this meet, MIT was seeded third, behind Williams by 60 points and RPI by 30 points. While this fact certainly motivated some members of the team, it may have also served to intimidate others into thinking they could not win irregardless of their efforts.
A see-saw battle that was waged for three hours came to an end with Williams coming out on top 202 to 197.5 for MIT. RPI trailed with 145.5 followed by Westfield State with 53. The Engineers certainly made the meet close but lacked the depth and possibly the desire to get the job done.
MIT jumped out to a sizeable lead at the beginning, but scoring eight places with points being awarded at 9-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 for individual events and 9-7-6 for relays meant that no lead was safe. In the weight throw, Uzoma Orji threw a season best of 57-11 1/2 to easily win the event, but David Saylor missed out on a chance for a 1-2 finish when he lost out to Dan Austin of Williams by one inch 54-8 to 54-7. In the first running event, MIT had to substitute Eric Khatchadourian for an injured Carlos Renjifo, and seemingly nothing was lost with the substitution, as they still managed to place 1-2-3 with Ben Schmeckpeper continuing to shine, running 4:19.03 for a personal best in the mile. Fivos Constantinou earned second place over Khatchadourian as both ran 4:26.
As the meet progressed the opportunities came and went but MIT did not seize them all. In the long jump, Tech managed a 3rd, 6th and 7th by Nestor Hernandez, Matt Clancy and Chris Desrochers respectively, but with the winning effort at 21-3 3/4 the victory was certainly within the ability of the MIT jumpers. However, in the second running event, the 55HH, the three freshmen continued to improve securing 4-5-6 places led by Omari Stephens and followed by Anthony Teixeira and Desrochers.
The next events in the field and on the track, the pole vault and 400 had mixed results. Nate Ball vaulted 15-6 to provisionally qualify for nationals and win the event over some very good vaulters, but with the exception of Stephens coming through with a tie for 5th at 12-6, and Patrick Barragan claiming a personal best of 11-6 in a non-scoring effort, the vaulters did not take advantage of poor performances by their opponents and missed out on valuable points. The 400 had freshman Kenny Rosche claim victory in a time of 52.81 and Ulzie Rea ran a PR of 54.38 for 5th, but MIT's lack of depth could not take advantage of a very weak field.
The 600 again showed a lack of depth for Tech but plenty of fortitude. Jesse Collins ran a fine race, claiming second in 1:25.73. Both Dave Reshef and Franklyn Lau fought hard to claim 7th and 8th places respectively. Despite the missed opportunities and lack of entries for MIT, at this point they were leading Williams 100.5 to 67.
Things began to change in the next two events, the high jump and 55 dash. Williams claimed first and second in the high jump with relatively low heights of 6-0 and 5-10 and MIT was only able to manage a seventh place even though they jumped well for their abilities. In the dash, both Zach Traina at 6.70 for third place and David Blau at 6.74 for seventh, ran well but Williams still outscored Tech 14-8. In the two events Williams had gained 20 points.
MIT was still happy to be in the lead but that was about to change.Constantinou came back from the mile to run the 800 against five fresh Williams runners. Constantinou proved no match for the Williams runners as they swept the first four places and added insult to injury by also gaining sixth place. In addition to Constantinou's fifth place, Erik Stafl was able to support with a seventh place. Williams' 30 points in the event put them in the lead 127 to 116.5.
MIT bounced back in the 1000 as Schmeckpeper got back on the track. Schmeckpeper led from gun to wire as he ran 2:38.49. Sam Berberian garnered a fourth place and Khatchadourian managed to hold on for seventh. Steve Nicholson scored his first varsity point with an eighth place finish to give MIT 17 points to Williams 14 for the event.
Uzoma Orji went back to work in the shot put, remaining unbeaten with a throw of 54-4 but those were the only points for MIT in the event. Williams pulled out 12 points with third, fourth and eighth places to bring the score to153 for Williams and 142.5 for MIT.
The 200 brought Traina and Blau back to the track and neither disappointed. Traina ran a season best of 22.74 on the flat track for third place and Blau also turned in a season best of 23.67 to place 6th. The unfortunate part of the story was that Williams went 1-2 and 8 to outscore MIT 17-9.
The triple jump was being competed in the infield and was looking like MIT might need some career performances to pull that pivotal event out. Just as the MIT team seemed to be getting down, the distance runners took to the track. With Schmeckpeper and Khatchadourian taken out of their primary event in favor of the middle distance events and Renjifo on the sideline injured, the team looked to those unaccustomed to the pressure of having to get the job done. Williams was also minus their top two distance runners as All America runner Neal Holtschulte was out with a minor injury and second man, Sam Van Volkenburgh, ran the mile. MIT's runners showed no fear of their opponents, running a very quick pace to come through the first mile in 5:03 and this for a group of runners who had never broken 16:00 or in some cases, even come close. After the 2400 mark the lone Williams runner and Chris Wong, Kevin DiGenova, Ian Driver and Chris Bruce broke the one contending RPI runner. 250 meters before the 3200 mark Chris Bruce sustained a calf injury that dropped him out of the race. Grant Hofmeister and Rocco Repetski, running in contention for seventh and eighth, now became even more important. The pace slowed slightly in the second mile to 10:12 for the leaders and this is where Wong and DiGenova took control, dropping the Williams runner and the rest of the MIT runners. Wong went on to a strong victory, running 5:04 for the third 1600 and finishing with a 33 final 200 to run 15:49.40. DiGenova also broke 16:00 with a 15:57.44 for second place. Driver raced to an excellent fourth place finish in 16:12.09. Hofmeister and Repetski held on to do their part with seventh and eighth place finishes. The score was now a lot closer with MIT only trailing by 1 1/2 points with the triple jump and both relays still to go.
With the relays possibly playing an important role in the outcome, MIT loaded both relays with their best runners. In the 4x400 this meant Collins leading off followed by Rosche, Clancy and anchored by Traina. Collins opened up with a lead over Williams but was unable to gain a lead over RPI. Both Rosche and Clancy ran well but the situations stayed the same with Williams falling further behind and RPI maintaining their lead. Traina was unable to gain much ground on RPI and MIT settled for 2nd, gaining one point on Williams, making the difference 1/2 point.
In the 3200 relay, Stafl led off with a fine 2:05 to take the lead. MIT followed with Constantinou, Khatchadourian and Schmeckpeper to run away with the victory in 8:15.47. Williams seemed to finish second but was disqualified by the referee on a uniform violation and now MIT owned a 8 1/2 point lead.
In the triple jump, neither Teixeira nor Jason Alcaraz were able to score, leaving Makinde Adeagbo to defend against a trio of Williams jumpers in the finals. It was not to be as Williams placed 1-2-5 to score 20 points and put the victory away.
MIT performed well but missed out on key opportunities in some of their strong events. Next week, the Engineers travel to Brunswick, Maine to compete against host Bowdoin, Springfield and Tufts. All three teams are capable of defeating MIT so the Engineers will have to improve on their ability to take advantage of any situation that presents itself.