MORTON'S FOUR VICTORIES AND TWO PERSONAL BESTS LEAD ENGINEERS
February 2, 2008
In the final scoring regular season meet, the MIT Engineers started February on an even higher note than they left January with a resounding victory in a 5-way meet at Bowdoin College. Tech totaled 240 points to Tufts' 107, Springfield's 86, Bowdoin's 70 and Colby's 51. The victory brought the season record to 6-0 for a second straight undefeated season.
Leading the way for MIT was sophomore, Stephen Morton, who claimed four victories, two of them personal bests and one of those provisionally qualifying for the NCAA Division III Championship. Morton began the day with the triple jump since the Bowdoin College track has a wider radius and cannot fit the entire triple jump approach within the infield, so in order not to interfere as much with the running events it is held before the long jump. Morton waited until the finals to do much but he took over the lead with a 46-0 3/4 leap to claim victory, set a personal best and provisionally qualify for nationals. His next event was the 55 meter dash. With his primary rival, a sprinter from Springfield, home sick with flu like symptoms, Morton had little difficulty in sprinting away with a 6.59 victory. Towards the end of the meet he was back on the track in the 200. From the middle of the track, lane three, Morton made up the stagger on everyone halfway through the second turn and won going away in 22.59. Finally, in the long jump, on his final attempt, he took the victory with another personal best of 22-8 1/2, a mark that moved him to number four on the MIT all-time indoor list. His 40 points scored in the 10-8-6-4-2-1 scoring system gave him a team leading 82 points for the season.
Not having the day he hoped for, but nevertheless, a very good day for MIT, Co-captain, Anthony Teixeira, supported Morton's effort with 19 points of his own. Teixeira had two great performances in the 200 and long jump. It was almost as if it took him a while to get his motor running as his earlier events, the 55HH and triple jump, were below his usual standard even though he placed fourth and sixth respectively in those events. In the 200 Teixeira claimed second place in a personal best of 23.18. In the long jump he finished strong, ending up with a season best of 21-5 1/4, which also tied his indoor personal best.
After two weeks of not doing much hurdling and not having raced them at all this season, Omari Stephens showed how much intensity matters as he blasted his way to a personal best victory in 7.94 seconds. In the events on the oval, MIT won the 600, 800, 3000, 5000 and both the 1600 and 3200 relays. In the 600, John Granata, not only won the 600 from start to finish but he set the freshman record with his 1:23.63 effort, a mark that moves him to number three all time for MIT. In the 800, Matt Bieniosek had a nice battle with Tufts Billy Hale and won the battle with a time of 1:57.84.
In the distance events, MIT showed their dominance and depth. In the 3000, Yermie Cohen took control of the race after 800 meters, began throwing in 68 and 69 second quarters to run away from everyone but teammate Brian Jacokes. Cohen's winning time of 8:43.73 put in him in the top 10 list all-time for MIT. Jacokes was close behind in 8:45.93 for a great personal best. MIT also claimed third and fifth performances from Chris Wong and Richard Prevost. In the 5000, Hemagiri Arumugam uncharacteristically ran from the front, running mile splits of 4:56, 4:55 and 5:03 to finish in a season best of 15:31.57. Supporting his effort with a personal best was freshman Gihan Amarasiriwardena in 15:38.36.
In the relays, MIT's primary objectives were to see how fast the 1600 relay could run on a flat track against good competition and to run a sub 8:05 in the 3200 relay in order to get themselves in the fast section of the New England Division III Championship in three weeks. Objective number one was handled by Stephen Oney, the only 400 runner on the relay, as he ran a 51.4 to give Bieniosek the lead. Bieniosek got blown away in the first 200 by Tufts but came back to take a healthy lead with his 51.2 split. Dave Reshef was unable to hold the lead but kept it very close with his 52.4 split. Granata ran a 24.1 first 200 and still lost about five meters to the Tufts runner. However, his determination won out as he finished with a 50.5 anchor leg to win the event in 3:25.56. In the 3200 relay, Peter Mulligan began the task at hand hoping to match his 2:01.93 open 800. However, he was only able to manage a 2:03 effort, which put MIT at a significant disadvantage to Tufts and Colby. Bill Phipps made up the difference in short order with his 58 first 400. Phipps continued to expand the lead, running 1:59. Kevin Kleinguetl expanded the lead to the point of no contention with his second 1:59 of the day. Anchor Paul Welle, put the race away with a 2:01 to meet the goal with an overall time of 8:02.93.
In the pole vault, Greg Tao won with a 14-2 3/4 clearance. Nate Sharpe vaulted to a personal best of 13-3 and freshman Travis Hery cleared 12-3 1/4. Stephens looked awesome in warmups but no-heighted when it came time to vault.
Next week it is back to Boston University for the Valentine's Invitational on Saturday with events beginning at 11:00.