Women Win New England Division III Championship While Men Earn Tie for Second

February 20-21, 2009

The Men's and Women's Track and Field teams from MIT had their best combined New England Division III Championship results in history this weekend. The women won their first ever championship in this meet, out dueling Williams College and Tufts University as well as the 21 other scoring teams with a score of 134 points to 118 for Williams and 108 for Tufts at host Bowdoin College. MIT hosted the men's meet, which was won by Williams College with a 145 points, having a spectacular day on the track. MIT won the final event, the 4x800 relay to tie Tufts in the overall score for second place with 104 points.

For the first time in the history of the women's program, the team was favored to win the championship based on the seed performances entered in the meet. The difficult part would be to turn those seeds into points when the pressure was on to do what was expected of you--win, and to hold off Williams College, a team not accustomed to losing this championship and Tufts, the defending champion.

The pentathlon was contested on day one of the championship. Hazel Briner '11, was seeded number one, but this was based on a cumulative score of the five events contested. The seed was not based on an actual pentathlon score, which was actually about 400 points less. Briner did not waste any time establishing a strong position as she ran a personal best of 9.06 in the 55HH to start off in 2nd place. The next event was the high jump, which she cleared 4' 9" to stay in second, but she fell further behind the leader, Morgan Jamiel from Wheaton College. The third event, the shot put, Briner threw a PR of 36' 4.25" to wipe out the 74 point disadvantage and take a comfortable lead. The long jump, perhaps Briner's weakest event so despite a personal best of 14' 9.75", she lost significant ground to the field. If the long jump is her weakest then the 800 is Briner's strongest and she demonstrated this with a wire to wire 2:28.35 to score 3072 points for the victory. This mark also set the MIT record as well as provisionally qualified her for nationals.

On day two, MIT picked up where they left off. In the Distance Medley Relay (1200, 400, 800, 1600), MIT was seeded second based on their national qualifying mark of 12:03, but only one of those women were on this team, so no one knew what would happen. Jennifer Doyle '09, led off with a 3:45 for the 1200 to get the team off to a strong start. Kirsten Aarsvold '11, did her part and then some as she ran an excellent 63 for the 400 leg. Alicia Kaestli '12, performed well in the 800 with a solid 2:24. Katherine Eve '12, then turned in a five second PR of 5:09 for the anchor leg to earn third place for the team, one place behind Williams, which is where they were seeded. Tufts, seeded third, finished seventh, losing some valuable points.

The next final on the list was the 5000, an event MIT was seeded to place third and fifth. Anna Holt-Gosselin '11, continued her marvelous season with a personal best of 17:50.41 to secure her third place seed. The big surprise to most people who do not know her competitive drive, was the fourth place earned by Tania Morimoto '12, with a huge personal best of 18:07.86. Elizabeth Finn '09, added one point for her eighth place finish in a season best 18:23.49. Although not scoring, freshman Maggie Lloyd finished ninth in a personal best of 18:37.44. Williams gained four points on their seeds and Tufts lost two points. The score after the three events was MIT 28, Williams 24 and Tufts 20, based on the 10-8-6-5-4-3-2-1 scoring system.

Next on the track was the 4x200 relay, an event in which MIT was seeded third, but had a chance to win. Portia Jones '12, led off to give MIT a nice lead. MIT maintained the lead with Margaret Leibovic '10, on second leg, but unfortunately, the handoffs between Leibovic and Martha Gross '12, and Gross and Andrea Bradshaw '09, were less than necessary to hold onto the lead. Nevertheless, MIT finished fourth with a big season best of 1:47.68. However, Williams finished second and Tufts third to tighten the point scoring up a bit.

In the mile, Jacqui Wentz '10, came out and took care of business, winning handily in 5:01.84 against a very strong field. MIT caught a break here as they received their expected points but Williams dropped five points and Tufts lost two to give MIT 43 to Williams 34 and Tufts 32.

In the field events, MIT only had entries in the pole vault and the long jump. However, Tufts picked up 21 points in the high jump, triple jump and weight throw to pass MIT. Fortunately, Williams scored nothing in these events. In the pole vault, Emily Hwang '09, jumped a new personal best of 11' 7.75" to tie for second and Briner and Karin Fisher '11, tied for seventh at 10' 2" to give MIT their expected 10 points. Tufts was seeded fourth and received fourth for their five points.

Back on the track, Amy Magnuson '10, and Jones were lining up for the 55HH final. Both had run season bests in the trials with Magnuson running 8.39 and Jones 8.42 for the fastest two times in the field. Both ran slower, 8.44 and 8.49 respectively, but they easily secured the top two places to put MIT back in the lead with 71 points to 63 for Tufts and 41 for Williams.

One of the more difficult challenges for Jones, was going immediately from the 55HH to line up for the 400, an event in which she was seeded number one. Despite a big PR of 58.69 to provisionally qualify for nationals, Jones finished second to fifth seeded Hillary Higgs from Williams. Gross was seeded seventh, but finished ninth to just miss out on the scoring. Tufts was seeded sixth and also did not score.

In the 600, MIT was not seeded to score and despite a season best by Aarsvold of 1:44.86 no points were earned for MIT. Williams did pick up an expected eight points for second place and again Tufts did not follow up on their seventh place seed.

In the 800, Bradshaw, intent on leading from the start, had someone do the work for her through the first 700 meters. Bradshaw displayed a vicious kick to pull away in a new MIT record of 2:15.18. This time moves Bradshaw up significantly on the national provisional list. MIT scored their allotted 10 points, but Williams despite scoring 10 points, was seeded for 14. The score now stood at MIT 89, Williams 71 and Tufts 71 after the two had scored two and eight points respectively in the 55 dash.

Wentz was back on the in the 1000, an event MIT was seeded for 13 points with Wentz seeded second and Adrienne Bolger, '09, last year's runner-up seeded fourth. Wentz took care of business, running a new best of 2:59.18 for the victory. However, Bolger did not have a very good race and did not score. MIT's dropped three points combined with Williams scoring the 12 they were supposed to score, meant Williams still had life. Tufts was supposed to score nine and only garnered seven to further help MIT's cause.

Back to the infield, Tufts added another nine points in the long jump and shot put, while Magnuson came through big with a third place 17' 4.75" in the long jump. Williams continued to be blanked in the field with no points to help their cause. With four events to go MIT was leading with 105 points to 87 for Tufts and 83 for Williams.

Jones was back on the track yet again for the 200. She was seeded fifth, with both Tufts and Williams seeded ahead of her. Both opponents did finish ahead, but Jones moved up a place to fourth with a flat track personal best of 26.10.

Knowing that anything can happen in a relay, MIT needed big points in the 3000 to secure the victory. The seeds were in MIT's favor if they followed through on bringing Holt-Gosselin back after the 5K as she was seeded 5th in the 3000. Doyle was also doubling, coming back from the 1200 leg in the DMR. With the meet too close the call, Holt-Gosselin was ready to deliver and she did, coming through with a huge race, placing third with a new MIT record, which Doyle just set last week, in 10:11.88. Doyle ran very well in this talented field, placing sixth in 10:20.67. Both MIT and Williams scored nine points to zero for Tufts, who did not have an entry. With just the 4x400 and 4x800 remaining, MIT needed just two points to guarantee the victory over Williams.

It did not take long for the quartet of Gross, Bradshaw, Briner and Jones to establish the fact they meant to close this meet out. Running a season best of 4:02.73 for their sixth victory of the meet. To finish the meet, Bolger, Kaestli, Eve and Wentz ran 9:41.16 for fourth place.

Back in Cambridge, the same three teams were doing battle on the men's side. MIT did not have any entrants in the pentathlon, but Tufts managed 13 points and Williams 3.

The story on Saturday was Williams College far exceeding their seeds, which had them at 96 points, MIT falling just a little short of their 108 points and Tufts dropping the ball in a couple of areas to fall short of their expected 119 points.

The first finals for MIT were the long jump and weight throw. Following his trend in these meets, Stephen Morton '10, pulled out the long jump victory on his final attempt with a 22' 7.75 effort. Mattias Flander '11, was seeded sixth but failed to score as he just did not seem to show his competitive fire. At the other end of the infield, Adam Mustafa '11, and Tony McDonald '10, who were not supposed to even make finals, placed fourth and sixth respectively with personal bests of 50' 8.25" and 49' 7.25". MIT was already five points up on their seeds and looking good.

The mile was the first final on the track. Yermie Cohen '09, was seeded third, but was thinking he had a good chance of winning. Unfortunately, no one wanted to take the pace out as all the top runners were tripling in the meet. The first 400 was a pedestrian 69 and the 800 not much better at 2:17. Finally the pace picked up, dropping most of the field. Cohen finished strong but got nipped at the line and had to settle for third place after all in 4:19.72.

In the pole vault, MIT really turned it on. Despite a no-height by Nathan Peterson '12, and injuries to Nate Sharpe '09 and Ian Fischer '12, MIT still had four of the final nine vaulters in the 19 person field. Greg Tao added a foot to his season best with a new PR and national qualifying mark of 15' 9.25 to claim the victory. A huge surprise was Cyrus Vafadari '12, clearing 14' 6" for a new personal best and fourth place. Travis Hery '11, placed sixth at 14' and Davey Hunt '12, also cleared 14' although he did not score, finishing ninth. Seeded to get eight points and netting 18 was just what the Engineers needed.

The 15 points MIT was up overall, started to dwindle when MIT next had races on the track. Nick Leonard '11, was favored to place seventh in the 400, but due to his bout with a cold, he was not at his best. He did not get the break despite a slow pace by the leaders and then finished with a coughing fit, just allowing him to make it to the finish line. Next, in the 600, John Granata '11, also suffering from a bad could and a tight hamstring, was not able to deliver. Although he was not expected to place, seeded ninth, he has the talent to win the event, so there was hope.

In the 55 dash, Morton was back in action, but had his worst start of the year. Despite coming out last, he ran a terrific final 40 meters to get back to third place. He was seeded second so the loss was only two points.

In the 800, Matt Bieniosek '09, continued his great season. Running a controlled race, Bieniosek moved to the front in the final half of the race but was just unable to hold the lead, running 1:57.38, settling for third place, losing to second by .01 seconds. Bieniosek was seeded third so he earned his expected points.

Cohen was back up in the 1000 where he was the third seed along with teammate, Bill Phipps '10, who was seeded fourth. Cohen was not in the race from the start, falling to the rear and losing to John Chaffee of Williams for the second time this day. Phipps ran an outstanding race, nearly matching his banked track race from the week before with a third place in 2:31.95.

Morton had to leave the triple jump, where he had just set an MIT record and qualified automatically for nationals with a 48' 6.75" effort, to race in the finals of the 200. Unfortunately, Morton earned lane four out of the trials, a disadvantage to lanes five and six. Almost overcoming the odds, Morton ran a season best and an amazing time from lane four, to place second with a 22.41. Morton was seeded third, so he gained two points for MIT but Kahlil Dozier '12, seeded eighth, did not place, so the net gain was one.

Morton was the co-number one seed in the triple and in the final attempt, Alex Samma from Connecticut College jumped 48' 8.25" to steal the event victory. On his final attempt, Morton was again out over 48' but it was not enough. Flander came back with the competitiveness he usually brings to the runway, placing fourth with a season best of 45' 7.75".

With only the distance events and the three relays to go, MIT was in a good position to take down Tufts, but Williams was already out of reach. In the 3000, an event MIT was seeded to place second and third, some lingering sickness and a bad day combined to give MIT only fourth place for Paul Welle '11, and seventh place for Hemu Arumugam '10. Ben Mattocks '12, ran a personal best of 8:52.29 but did not place.

The 5000 was also a disappointment for MIT, but only because of the potential, not the seeds. Dan Harper '12, was seeded to place seventh and that was exactly what he did, passing three runners in the final 200, coming back from a disappointing middle mile where he did not race well. Gihan Amarasiriwardena '11, looking to place high despite not being seeded well, had his shoe spiked early in the race, ripping all the laces and causing his shoe to flap out of control. Unable to run properly, a disappointed Amarasiriwardena dropped out.

MIT had a strong team in the DMR, but again was counting on individuals who had been sick over the past three weeks. Richard Prevost '11, led off with a superb 3:10.8 1200 leg. Kahlil Dozier '12, went out too quickly, causing him to fade badly at the finish, leading to a poor handoff and putting MIT at a disadvantage. Kevin Kleinguetl '11, ran a solid race, coming in at 2:01.7 for his best race this season. Jake Ruzevick '09, had only returned to running for a few days after missing two weeks. He did his best to hold the lead, but eventually was run down, dropping MIT to fifth, one place lower than their seed. Tufts won the race, moving to 10 points ahead of MIT.

MIT was depending on a cramping Stephen Morton and a sick Nick Leonard and John Granata for the 4x400, hoping to gain some ground on Tufts. Leonard and Dave Reshef 'G, ran 52 legs, but were still in very good position. Granata turned in a reasonable 51 split to put MIT in the thick of the race. Morton went with the two leaders through the 200 and looked strong, but that was when his hamstring tightened up so he did as instructed and pulled off the track. Tufts did not score so the deficit was still 10 points.

In the final event, the 4x800, MIT led off with a 1:59.0 from Bill Phipps, establishing the lead. Freshman, Stephen Serene donated a 2:00.6 to the cause, a season best. Cohen came back and ran well, giving Bieniosek the baton in the lead after a 1:59.4 leg. Bieniosek knew that 7:59 won the first section and that Tufts seemed to be having a bad race and appeared out of it. He needed a 1:59 to secure the victory and tie for second overall with Tufts. Going out in 27 for the first 200, Bieniosek did not look back, running 1:55.8 for his anchor leg to give MIT a 7:55.28 victory and a tie for second place with 104 points.

Next week, MIT will race at Boston University, the host site for the All Division New England Championship. Only a select few men and women have qualified for the meet. MIT's goal will not be to score points but to set people up for nationals.

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