BALL AND ORJI LEAD THE WAY FOR MIT AT ALL NEW ENGLANDS

Team Ties for 9th With 28 Points

February 24, 2006

At the NEICAAA Championships, hosted by Boston University, the Ball and Orji show was again on and at its best.  Nate Ball went first, jumping clean through 16-0 and clearing16-3 on his third attempt, but missing at 16-9, winning the pole vault in the process.  Shortly after the vault, Uzoma Orji launched six throws over 61' with his second best ever and season best of 64-7 3/4 winning the event by nearly six feet.

Qualifying for semi-finals on day two, David Blau and Omari Stephens ran 6.69 in the 55 dash and 8.10 in the 55HH respectively on the soft and slow infield.

Running but not qualifying for the finals, Eric Khatchadourian ran 15:22.47 in the 5000, Fivos Constantinou and Jake Ruzevick running 4:18 and 4:22 respectively in the mile, Dan Rodgers ran 1:06.61 in the 500 and Blau ran 22.44 in the 200.

On day two, James Oleinik and Orji started things off in the shot put.  Oleinik, throwing the first flight, did better than the previous meet but still was far from his best, throwing 45-6 1/2.  Orji, also throwing well off his best, nevertheless, was second best in the field, throwing 55-11 to give MIT eight more points and a total of 28 points for a tie in ninth place.

While the web results showed that Blau and Stephens had qualified for the semi-finals in their respective events, both had been told when they finished the trials that they had not qualified for the next round.  It turned out the web results were not accurate.  However, due to the mixup, Blau was given the opportunity to race.  Stephens was not able to be reached to tell him he was in the semis and showed up at the track to late to get into the race.  Blau ended up running 6.72 in the semis.

Last to compete for MIT was Joe Roy-Mayhew in the 3000.   Running a very determined and competitive race, Roy-Mayhew ran to a personal best of 8:45.18, moving into MIT's top 10 list for the 3000 meters.

Next week, MIT goes back to Boston University for the prestigious IC4A championship.  Orji and Ball will be competing for the final time before nationals.

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