MIT CLAIMS TRI-MEET VICTORY OVER BATES, COLBY

1/16/2010

Led by an incredible number of personal bests and New England Division III Championship qualifying marks, MIT's men's and women's teams both claimed victories over Bates and Colby yesterday in Cambridge. The men pulled away early and never looked back, winning with a score of 223.5 to 125.5 for Bates and 29 for Colby. The women, having plenty of quality, but not much in the depth department, did not pull ahead until the end of the meet, finishing with two relay victories and claiming the first four places in the pole vault to win with 160 points to 127 for Bates and 97 for Colby.

Entering the meet, MIT's women's squad was missing All America hurdler, and jumper, Amy Magnuson '10, due to a tender hamstring, as well as a couple others who would undoubtedly score much needed points. The already small women's team was going up against a very deep Bates team with twice the number of athletes. They would be dependent on first and second places whenever possible if they were going to win. With six scoring places (7-5-4-3-2-1) for individual events and three scoring places (7-5-4) for the relays, depth could easily overcome quality, so MIT needed to score every point they possibly could.

As it turned out, Tech won 10 of the 12 running events and earned second in five of the 10 individual running events. In the field events, MIT scored very few points in the horizontal jumps and throws, but fortunately, the vertical jumps (pole vault, high jump) went well as MIT scored 28 of a possible 44 points.

While Bates pulled ahead with 28 points in the shot put and long jump, MIT started well in the 55HH and the mile run. Portia Jones '12, earned first in the high hurdles with an NCAA provisional performance of 8.43. She was backed by Hazel Briner '11, who placed second in 8.95. Jacqui Wentz '10, made her debut this year with a victory in the mile in 5:15.61 and was supported by Tania Morimoto '12, and Anna Holt-Gosselin '11 in third and fifth respectively.

Again, MIT suffered a significant disadvantage in the weight throw and triple jump as Bates outscored MIT 30-6. Making up the points on the track was not immediate as Bates also out sprinted MIT in the 55 dash with 13 points to five for MIT, earned by Margaret Leibovic '10. Jones and Martha Gross '12, earned twelve of the points by going 1-2 in the 400 in 61.29 and 61.63 respectively. Immediately afterwards Jamie Simmons '12, led Briner and Aarsvold to a 1-4-5 finish in the 600. Simmons's time of 1:38.67 is the second fastest in MIT history.

Wentz was back on the track in the 800, as she led Marie Burkland '13, to another MIT 1-2 finish. MIT was down by 20 points going into the high jump and the 200. After Briner led Jones and Diana Zhu to a 3-4-5 finish in the high jump and Jones won the 200, MIT was down by 12.

Brooke Johnson '13, ran her first 3000 and did so in spectacular fashion, winning in 10:18.92. Sarah Sprague '13, earned fourth to bring MIT within four. Tech's 14 points in the 5000, earned by Alina Gatowski's '11 win and third and fourth by Maggie Lloyd '12, and Lauren Allen '13, finally put them ahead 127-118.

Winning both the 4x400 in 4:14. 79 and the 4x800 in 9:51.30 put MIT up by 15 with only the pole vault to be determined. Fortunately, Briner won the event with an NCAA provisional mark of 11-6 1/2. She was supported by Karin Fisher '11, (11-1), Lynn Jepsen '11 (10-0) and Lauren Kuntz '13, (9-6 1/4).

The men's meet was never in any real doubt, as MIT boasted their deepest team ever and there is no lack of quality either. A few key athletes were missing with minor injuries and illness, including All America pole vaulter, Greg Tao '10. However, the losses were not enough to have a significant impact on the outcome of the meet.

Tech won all but one running event, scoring at least three of the six places in every individual running event, as well as winning the long and triple jumps. Perhaps the two most dominating events for MIT were ones in which they have not had much depth over the years. The 55HH was the first of the pleasant surprises as every MIT hurdler set a personal best. Brian Djaja '13, led the way with a 8.01. He was followed by Nick Leonard '11, in 8.17, Andrew Musacchio '11, in 8.20 and Josh Duncavage '13, in 8.50. Shortly afterwards, Stephen Morton '10, won the first of his four events, the 55 dash and led MIT to a 1-2-3-5-6 finish for their most dominating event. Morton's 6.64 was followed by Rene Peters '13, in 6.67, Duncavage in 6.73, Chazz Sims '13, in 6.84 and Nathan Peterson '12, in 6.86.

Morton also won the 200 in a modest 23.02, the long jump in 22-2 1/2 and the triple jump in an NCAA provisional qualifying mark of 47-8. Morton was supported in the 200 by Duncavage in second and Kahlil Dozier '12, in fourth. In the jumps Mattias Flander '11, earned second place in both the long jump and triple jump.

DJ Ronde '13, led a 1-2 MIT finish in the 400 as he and Leonard ran 52.24 and 52.79. John Granata '11, won the 600 in 1:25.33, leading a 1-3-4-6 domination. Gil O'Neil '13, surprised many with a 1:58.23 victory as fellow freshmen, David Way and Logan Trimble earned third and fourth.

The only running event the Engineers lost, the 1000, was one in which they still dominated by placing 2-3-4-5, led by Stephen Serene's 2:35.99. Kyle Hannon '13, won the mile in a 4:26.13, followed closely by Hemu Arumugam in 4:28.44. In the 3000, Paul Welle '11, led Richard Prevost '11, to a 1-2 finish in 8:52.47 to 8:54.84. Gihan Amarasiriwardena '11, took the 5000 from start to finish in 15:38.83.

While Tech did not win the throwing events, the big guys did throw far. In the shot put, James Oleinik 'G, led Mitch Kelley '11, and Tony McDonald '10, with throws of 46-2, 46-1 1/2 and 45-8 1/2. In the 35lb. weight throw, McDonald threw 49-3 to 48-5 1/4 for Adam Mustafa '11 and 47-6 1/2 for Ken Cooper '13. The depth in the event was significant as Kelley's 47-5 3/4 did not place.

Next week, MIT is again at home for their own invitational, which will give the Engineers the chance to focus on taking a mental break by doing different events or taking a weekend off from competing.

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