MIT BEGINS REGULAR SEASON 2-0 BEHIND MORTON'S VICTORIES
January 19, 2008
The MIT Engineers did not enter their athletes with questionable injuries, used the meet to get some performances from some of their runners in alternate events and still ran away with a comfortable victory with 211 points to 90 for Bates College and 42 for Colby College in this early season tri meet. With Stephen Morton leading the way with three victories, MIT won 13 of 17 events and had three top 10 performances to start the season off 2-0.
The meet did not start favorably for MIT as the first event was the 35 lb. weight throw and Bates is exceptionally talented in that event. Bates earned four of the top five places with James Oleinik sneaking in for a sixth place, good for one point in the 7-5-4-3-2-1 scoring format. Fortunately the Engineers did not waste any time in making up most of those points by going 1-2-3 in the pole vault with Greg Tao and Patrick Barragan leading the way with vaults of 13-5 1/4, a new personal best for Barragan.
The mile run being the first running final and Tech set the trend with Yermie Cohen winning in 4:23.63 but also garnering second, third and fifth to pull ahead in the meet for the first time and never look back. Despite Omari Stephens not vaulting or hurdling, MIT still collected first and second place in the 55HH with Anthony Teixeira getting a personal best of 7.98 for the victory.
Back in the infield, the long jumpers claimed 1-2-5-6 with Morton earning one of his three victories, moving into MIT's top 10 indoor performances with his 22-3 effort. The 400 and 600 meter runs were on the track and MIT took advantage of their quality and depth by going 1-2-3 in the 400, led by a season best of 52.82 by Ulzie Rea and 1-2-3-4 in the 600 led by freshman John Granata's top 10 performance of 1:24.86.
Morton sprinted to his second victory with a 6.58 performance in the 55 dash about the same time Oleinik was throwing his season best of 48-2 in the shot put for a second place. MIT suffered their only event loss on the track in the 800 meter run although led by Matt Bieniosek they earned second, fifth and sixth places. In the next event, the 1000, MIT strength was obvious as Cohen earned his second victory in 2:36.42 in leading Tech to a 1-2-4-5-6 finish.
MIT earned their only event sweep (first through sixth) in the triple jump with Mattias Flander winning for the second week in a row with a 43-7 1/4 jump. The 22 point perfect score, despite Stephens and Anyanwu not jumping, for the event added insult to injury as MIT pushed the lead to over 100 points.
Morton earned his third victory in the 200 with a 22.76. He was supported with Teixeira's second place in yet another top 10 performance of 23.23. The final event before the relays was the 3000. Even though they have not done any track workouts, Jake Ruzevick wanted to go for a fast 3000 time. He could not hold his early pace but still earned the victory with a 8:44.43 performance. MIT also place second, third and fourth in the 15 lap event.
MIT's entry in the 4x400 was primarily made up of 800 runners. Even though the faster Bates runners would go out hard and lead the first 200 the MIT runners would pass them in the second 200. This happened through the first three legs but when Bieniosek got the baton his 24.9, 52.0 leg allowed him to lead start to finish for a 3:33.13 victory.
The final event was the 4x800 relay. MIT was attempting an early season attack on the freshman record but despite an excellent setup by first leg Paul Welle of 2:01.0, Shawn Conrad, Kevin Kleinguetl and John Granata were unable to hold the pace necessary to break the 1992 record of 8:05.13.
Next week, MIT goes across the river to Boston University to run in the Terrier Classic, a very large non-scoring invitational where some of the best runners in the country from all divisions come to compete.