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Cohen and Wentz Lead the Way for MIT in Bowdoin Meet January 31, 2009 MIT traveled to Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine on Saturday to take on Bowdoin and Colby on the women's side and Bowdoin, Colby, Springfield and Tufts on the men's side. The women, led by Jacqui Wentz '10, with runaway victories in the mile and 800, defeated Colby but fell to Bowdoin's depth. The final scores for the women were Bowdoin 173.5, MIT 149 and Colby 73.5. The men, led by Yermie Cohen's '09, two victories, in the mile and 1000, scored 181 points to defeat Bowdoin (155), Tufts (121), Springfield (89) and Colby (3). In the women's competition, it was the quality of MIT versus the quality and depth of Bowdoin. MIT won seven of the 18 events, had 18 personal scoring bests, one MIT varsity record and 14 new entries on the all time top ten lists and top five relays marks. Bowdoin won nine events, but totally dominated in depth, placing three or four individuals even when MIT would win the event. Perhaps the most dominating performance in the women's meet was provided courtesy of Andrea Bradshaw '09. Her wire to wire victory in the 600 was a very well paced 1:36.87, the fastest time in New England Division III this year. Wentz's time in the mile was a negatively split 5:09.95, after coming through the 800 in 2:38. Her 800 victory was a 2:18.45, making her the second fastest indoor 800 runner in MIT history. All America hurdler, Amy Magnuson '10, won her specialty in 8.56, but was tentative due to a tight hamstring. However that did not seem to slow her down in the long jump as she produced a 16-7 1/4 performance for second place. Emily Hwang '09, led the Engineers in a 1-3-4-5 effort in the pole vault, winning the event with a 10-11 1/2 vault. Karin Fisher '11, placed second with a 10-5 1/2 vault despite tweaking her leg when she came down off the pit early in the competition. Hazel Briner '11, placed fourth with a 9-11 1/2, coming after a career day with a PR in the 55HH in 9.14, a 4-10 personal best in the high jump, a 30-7 shot put and a 2:30.77 800 PR. Briner was trying to score enough points in the varied events to be able to qualify for the pentathlon at the New England Division III Championship. MIT took both of the relays they entered, the 4x200 and the 4x400. The final event, the distance medley relay was held after the outcome of the meet was decided so MIT decided not to waste the bodies. Portia Jones '12, Bradshaw, Martha Gross '12 and Margaret Leibovic '10, sprinted their way to a 1:49.18 performance for the second fastest time in MIT history. Gross and Bradshaw came back with Kirsten Aarsvold '11, and Wentz as the anchor in the 4x400 to win in 4:10.34, the fifth fastest time in the MIT record books. Jones also had a very successful day even though she did not claim any individual victories. She hurdled her way to a 8.73 personal best for second place to Magnuson in the 55HH and then ran a flat track PR of 26.94 for second place in the 200. She also jumped a best of 15-9 in the long jump for fourth place and 4-10 in the high jump for third place. Even though they did not win either of their events, the distance runners raced extremely well. In the 3000, Anna Holt-Gosselin '11, ran a superb 10:20.48 for second place and the second fastest time ever for MIT. She was supported by freshman Maggie Lloyd, who ran a 10:35.39, good enough for third place and the eighth fastest time in MIT history. In the 5000, Elizabeth Finn '09, continued her comeback, running 18:23.85 with a 38 second final 200 for second place. Tania Morimoto '12, ran an incredibly courageous race, pulling away just after the halfway point, which was outside her comfort zone. Even though she was caught in the final 400, she ran a huge personal best of 18:30.87, good for eighth on the all-time MIT list. In the men's meet, Yermie Cohen took no prisoners in his race, taking the lead early in the second half of the mile, running a 61 final 400 to hold off a strong charge by a Bowdoin runner, en route to a 4:18.16. In the 1000, Cohen followed the exceptionally fast field and then unleashed a vicious kick to run 2:31.67 in the 1000 victory. Bowdoin College presented a big challenge to the Engineer's undefeated record, leading the meet through the first half of the day and staying too close for comfort until the 5000 and pole vault, which were dominating events for the Engineers. MIT won eight of the 18 events in the five team meet but also provided the necessary depth to outscore their opponents. Stephen Morton '10, was on the way to a career day but fouled out in the long jump. His 6.51 for second place in the 55 dash was a personal best and the second fastest on the MIT all-time list. He jumped 47-2 1/2 for the victory in the triple jump and ran 22.75 in the 200 for the win. Each of his three long jump attempts were fouls by less than two inches and all were over an estimated 23'. This was the first day Morton used a full approach and his speed was a bit erratic as well as a little reaching at the takeoff. Even though Morton faltered in the long jump, Mattias Flander '11, stepped up and jumped 21-9 for the victory. Flander also supplied a 44-6 triple jump performance for second place in that event. Hemu Arumugam '10, led the way in the 5000 with a 15:32.75 uncontested victory. Dan Harper, taking it easy after last week's 15:16 5K, just held on for second place in 15:45.81. Greg Tao '10, led the vaulters to a 1-4-5-6 finish in the pole vault. Tao tied his season best of 14-9 and had a great attempt at 15-3. Supporting Tao were Travis Hery '11 (13-3 1/2), Cyrus Vafadari '12 (13-3 1/2) and Davey Hunt '12 (12-9 1/2). Matt Bieniosek '09, led the Engineers to a victory in the 4x400, leading off with a 51.9 as MIT ran 3:28.17. Bieniosek also ran a personal best of 1:23.91 to place third in the 600. They did not win their event, but the MIT crew of weight throwers had a great day. Tony McDonald '10, placed third with a 49-3 3/4 and he was backed up by big PRs from Adam Mustafa '11 (49-1 3/4) and Jared Darby '12 (46-6 3/4) for fourth and sixth place respectively. Next week, MIT is at home versus Coast Guard and Williams, which promises to be a war on the track and in the field. The meet starts at noon. |