STEPHENS AND MORTON MAKE NCAA MARKS AT ECAC CHAMPIONSHIP
March 7-8, 2008
In a startling contrast to last week at the All New England Championship but much like the superb team display at the New England Division III Championship two weeks ago, Omari Stephens and Stephen Morton took control of their own destiny for this season, setting personal bests in their respective events. At the ECAC Division III Championship held at Harvard University, the pole vault was the first event. Patrick Barragan easily cleared opening height at 13-5 1/4 as did Greg Tao. At 13-11 1/4, Barragan was unable to match his personal best but Tao cleared again. At 14-5 1/ 4 both Tao and Stephens cleared, which put both in scoring position. Tao was unable to clear a season best at 14-11 but Stephens cleared easily as he also did at 15-5 and 15-9, which provisionally qualified him for the NCAA Division III Championship. At 16-0 3/4 Stephens again made the height, virtually guaranteeing him a spot among the nations elite next weekend at Ohio Northern University. Attempting the meet record at 16-3 3/4, he was unable to clear the height although he had a couple of fine attempts.
In the triple jump, Mattias Flander, Anthony Teixeira and Morton took on an impressive field. Flander jumped 44-6 3/4, which only netted him 15th place. Teixeira leaped 44-11 1/2 for 10th place. Morton, floundering in seventh place coming into his final jump, put together his best jump of the season, a 47-11 effort that netted him second place and an MIT varsity record. This also moved him up to number five on the NCAA performance list.
On Saturday, Morton was not quite ready for the 9:00 A.M. start for the long jump. He had a difficult time with his approach, fouling some pretty good jumps in the process. Morton did not place even though he jumped 21-10.
John Granata was entered across town in the IC4A 800 being held at Boston University. It had been a long season for the freshman, which had been magnified by the frustrating races each weekend. Starting off with a good first 300 when he went to go around a competitor and move up to the front, the competitor also moved, forcing Granata to back off and it was then plain to see the mental exhaustion as he struggled to continue to race, finishing in 1:57.38
The freshman 4x880 relay team of Richard Prevost, Paul Welle, Shawn Conrad and Kevin Kleinguetl wanted to go for the MIT freshman record of 8:05.13 set back in 1992, also at Harvard. Prevost, primarily a distance runner, led off with a fine 1:59.2 and handed the baton to Welle in third place. Even though the handoff was a bit sloppy, Welle got out well, took the lead halfway through and held on to first place, running an outstanding 1:57.6. Conrad held onto the lead for a while but could not stay with the top two runners in the final 200, handing off to Kleinguetl in a distant third despite running 2:01.5. Kleinguetl could not close the gap despite a 57.4 first 400 and finished with a 1:58.8 for a new freshman record of 7:57.23.
Even though MIT did not bring very many of those who qualified, prefering to have individuals prepare for the upcoming outdoor season, they still placed eighth with 25 points.
Next week Stephens and Morton will travel to Ohio Northern University in Ada, OH to compete in the NCAA Division III Championship. A live webcast will be taking place and can be viewed by starting at http://www.onusports.com/NCAATrack08/index.html. If Morton gets into the long jump he will compete at 1:00 on Friday afternoon and 10:00 Saturday morning in the triple. Stephens will compete in the pole vault at 5:00 on Friday.