 |
|
|
|
MIT Earns Six All America Honors at NCAA's March 13-14, 2009 Four women and three men represented MIT at the NCAA Division III Indoor Track and Field Championship hosted by Rose Hulman Institute of Technology in Terre Haute, Indiana. Many more MIT athletes on the women's side qualified provisionally but did not make the cutoff for the championship. Only the top 11 are guaranteed entry in each individual event and only 10 in the relay events. The first event on Friday with an MIT athlete was the women's pole vault. Emily Hwang '09, was seeded fifth with her 12-6 vault. Hwang cleared 11-0, 11-6, 12-0 and 12-4 all on first attempts. Six women, including Hwang, cleared 12-4. However, Hwang was one of three who had not missed an attempt as yet. At 12-8, Hwang had three solid attempts, but was unable to clear the height. Four others ended up clearing the height, placing Hwang in fifth to earn her first All America honor and garner four points for MIT. Stephen Morton '10, seeded seventh in the long jump, was in the first of two flights. With nine going to the final, Morton wasted no time in positioning himself for finals as he jumped 23-1 1/4 on his first jump. He did not better that in the trials and he entered the finals in fifth position. In the finals, Morton had a mid 23 jump that he barely fouled, but was unable to improve on his first attempt. However, no one passed him in the finals and he finished in fifth place, an improvement on his eighth place in 2008. First up on the track was Yermie Cohen '09, in the men's mile. Cohen was in the first of two heats where 10 of the 14 total runners would advance to Saturday's final. Cohen ran a near perfect first 800, coming through the half in 2:06. However, in the third quarter he got stuck on the inside and could do nothing as the entire field passed him by. Moving to the outside he was unable to pass the field, which was spread out over three lanes. He ran a very respectable 4:14.43 but did not advance to the finals. Amy Magnuson '10, set herself up to complete her comeback from last spring's hamstring tear by running a 8.23 in the 55HH trials. The performance was her fastest this season despite a poor start. Magnuson finished fourth overall in the trials and will have a good lane in Saturday's final. The final athlete to compete for the Engineers on day one was freshman, Portia Jones. Jones was the third seed in the 400 based on her banked track time of 56.77. With the eight fastest times advancing to a two section final, Jones knew she had to get out strong and try to get the break and hold on. Running nearly 26 flat for the first 200, she got the break. Even though she is not accustomed to running with serious oxygen debt, she did hold on for the narrow heat victory in 57.64. Her time was the sixth fastest of the day and will put her in the first of the two sections on Saturday. The second day started as well as day one left off. Greg Tao '10, was first up for MIT. Seeded 11th out of 15 vaulters, Tao knew he would have to be on his game to earn All America honors. He cleared opening height at 15-1 3/4 on his first attempt. At 15-7 3/4, Tao cleared big on his second attempt. At this point four of the vaulters had fouled out and Tao was ahead on misses of four of the remaining vaulters. Tao was unable to clear 16-1 3/4 but neither did three of the four he was ahead of, which gave him eighth place and the final All America spot. Magnuson was next for MIT. Seeded fourth going into the finals, she had a good lane with lane 6. With a solid start she was able to get out with the leaders. A strong finish put her just ahead of the pack into third place with a season best of 8.22. Next up, Jones was back in the 400 final. Fearing the pain she went through the in the prelims by going through the first 200 in 26.1, Jones decided to try to come closer to running an even split race. Coming through in 27.4 was fine but trying to pass three competitors with short straights and feeling the fatigue did not work well. She finished fourth in her section and eighth overall. Earning points and All America honors at nationals as a freshman is quite a feat, but more was there to be had. Stephen Morton was up for his second event, this time it was the triple jump, an event in which he was seeded third. Similar to last year where he seemed to forget how to triple jump, Morton was no where near the consistent 47-48' jumper he had been all season. He seemed passive and cautious each time down the runway. Barely making finals with a 46-7 1/4 jump, Morton held his eighth position to earn an All America award and another point for MIT. The last to compete for MIT was the second seeded, Jacqui Wentz '10, in the 5000. Running the fastest time in the country to this point in the season, Wentz looked very comfortable in the middle of the pack through 2400 meters. After a quick first mile in 5:27 it looked as though this was going to be a perfect setup for someone with Wentz's combination of endurance and speed. Whether it was the lack of longer races throughout the season or a lack of confidence, Wentz faded in the second half of the race to finish in 18:01.62, far from her 17:05 earlier in the season. Earning six All America awards, three for the men and three for the women, was an excellent end to the season. Knowing there was more the teams could have done will hopefully make everyone a little hungrier for the outdoor season, which begins in exactly one week. The MIT teams will be going on the annual spring trip to California from March 22-29, competing at the Point Loma Nazarene Invitational on March 28. |