MIT MEN RUN AWAY WITH COMPETITION TO PUT RECORD AT 9-1
January 28, 2006
MIT men's track and field team traveled to Brunswick, Maine on Saturday to face host Bowdoin College, Colby College, Gordon College, Springfield College and Tufts University. Tufts was favored in the meet based on the seeds but did not to seem to have the energy necessary to overcome the Engineers, who were anxious to finally run on a 200 meter track and show they could run, throw and jump with the best in New England Division III. MIT pulled ahead late in the meet, dominating the last of the field events to beat Tufts by a score of 184 to 156. Bowdoin College followed in the scoring with 98 points, just ahead of Springfield. Colby trailed with 20 points while Gordon failed to score. Only six places were awarded points using the 10-8-6-4-2-1 scoring format for meets with five or more teams.
All the squads seemed to have left good individuals out of the meet. For Tufts a few of their top distance runners had run at a large invitational the night before, and for MIT, Nate Ball, New England's premier vaulter, was at the pole vault summit in Reno, Nevada. The determined team from Tech started off well in the first events. In the trials for the 55HH, Omari Stephens ran a personal best of 8.10. David Blau followed that up in the 55 dash trials by running the fastest qualifying time of 6.71. In the finals, both lived to up to expectation. Stephens narrowly missed the victory, running another PR of 8.09 to Bowdoin College's Joe Adu in 8.08. In the process, Stephens upset the top seeded hurdler from Tufts, who finished third. Blau left nothing to chance, winning in 6.63.
In the first oval event, Jake Ruzevick took the pace out in the mile. His early splits of 64 and 2:08 strung out the field, with teammates Fivos Constantinou running right with him, and Yermie Cohen running a few seconds off the pace. The pace dragged a bit in the third quarter, slowing to 3:15. Owen McKenna of Bowdoin pulled ahead and ran to an easy victory in 4:16.64. Ruzevick set a personal best, placing second in 4:19.78. Constantinou and Cohen ran season bests to place 3rd and 4th respectively with times of 4:21.07 and 4:29.97. MIT outscored Tufts 18 to two. This momentum affected the rest of the team as 42 personal or seasonal bests were set.
In the field events, Anthony Teixeira continued to improve in his specialty, the triple jump. "Tex" jumped 43-0 1/2 to place fourth and break up a very good jumping squad from Tufts. Stephens lent a hand here as well, jumping a best of 41-4 1/2 to place sixth. Tufts outscored MIT 18-5 in the event but Coach Taylor of MIT expected much worse. Uzoma Orji did not have his best day in the weight throw but still managed to win by over four feet, throwing 61-1 1/2. Tufts countered in the high jump, sweeping the first three places as well as fifth to garner 26 points to MIT's 0.
Back on the track, MIT tried to dig out of the whole. Not expecting, but hoping to score in the 400, Alex Rothberg ran a personal best of 52.54 to place fourth. Even though Tufts scored 12 points to MIT's four, it could have been much worse. In the 600, freshman Dan Rodgers held off a Tufts runner down the stretch to win in 1:24.58. Rodgers was supported by Aron Walker, running 1:26.68 for fifth place.
In the 800, Constantinou doubled back, took the pace out aggressively in 58 for the first 400, but tied up in the final 300, getting overtaken by a runner from Tufts and Colby and settling for third. Matt Bieniosek ran a personal best of 2:01.02, placing fifth by .01 seconds. Tufts came out on top due to the event win, 10-8. The 1000 was next and Ruzevick went out with a vengeance. He ran 2:01 through the 800, holding off Mahoney from Tufts until the final lap. Ruzevick settled for a very fast second place of 2:32.24. Cohen showed he is coming around to top form as he placed fourth in 2:36.89. MIT came out with a slight edge over Tufts 12-10.
David Blau got back on the track in the 200 meter dash. Blau won easily, running a season best of 22.83. Thad Wozniak ran a season best of 23.64 to place sixth and give MIT another one point edge over Tufts.
Finally, the distance events were coming up and MIT was up to the task. In the 3000, Bowdoin placed first and second by out kicking the front running tandem of Chris Bruce and Joe Roy-Mayhew, who place third and fourth with personal bests of 8:57.64 and 9:00.33. Immediately following the 3000, the runners took to the track in the 5000. Eric Khatchadourian and Trevor Rundell took the lead and pushed the pace, but this time they would not be caught. Rundell ran a huge personal best of 15:25.95. Khatchadourian, doing all the work early in the race, faded a little in the end but still ran 15:34.07 for second. Chris Wong was back to his old form, placing fourth in 15:44.82 and Spencer Dudley ran a personal best of 15:51.98 to give MIT 23 points in the event.
On the infield, the throwers and jumpers were taking care of business. In the long jump, another event MIT figured to lose. Tufts jumpers managed the win and a sixth place, but MIT came through big for third through fifth to score 12 big points. Orji and outstanding freshman, James Oleinik placed first and third, throwing season bests of 59-4 and 47-11 1/4 respectively. Springfield throwers came through, holding Tufts to zero points. Finally, in the pole vault, despite the absence of Ball, Stephens and Barragan managed first and fifth to Tufts second. Stephens joined MIT's top ten list for indoor vaults with his personal best of 14-0 1/2.
The "team effort" could not have been better. This meet marked the end of MIT's regular season competition against division III opponents. Next week (2/6) MIT goes across the river to Boston University to take on division I teams BU, Boston College, Northeastern University and Providence College.