Women's Relays Qualify for NCAA Division III Championship

2/12-13/2010

In MIT's first crack at running for times for qualifying purposes, as opposed to just trying to win in order for the team to fair better, success was had in many running events. MIT split their squad, keeping their short sprinters and hurdlers as well as all field event participants at the MIT Invitational, and took all their runners over to the Boston University Valentines Invitational.

The women's 400 runners started things off at BU. Portia Jones '12, got out well, running the first 200 in 26.0. She tightened up a bit in the final 100, not relaxing her arms as she should, but still ran a personal best of 55.98, which is also the fastest time in the country for Division III and a new MIT record. A few sections later, Jamie Simmons '12 took to the track. Simmons did not get out well and ended up well in the back after the break, coming through the 200 in 27.8. Even though she cut her momentum going into the final turn, she still ran an indoor best of 58.65. Martha Gross '12, ran a near perfect race in another 400 section, finishing with a nice personal best of 58.91.

Kirsten Aarsvold '11, was the lone MIT representative in the 500 and she faired well, running a personal best of 1:21.74 after coming through the 400 in 63.7. Also running as the only MIT runner, was Margaret Leibovic '10, in the 200. Leibovic produced a season best of 27.48.

In the mile run, Brooke Johnson '12, got into a section that went out well, but when they slowed for the second quarter she did not take the lead. Instead she waited until the final quarter to move to the front. She ran a 72 final 400, but it was too little, too late as she ran 5:02.46. Marie Burkland '12, missing a week due to an injury, did not think about what she could not do. Instead she just raced and came out with a huge personal best of 5:12.57.

Maggie Lloyd '12, ran an excellent first 1600 of the 3000, coming through in a very well paced 5:31. It appeared she began to think at that point as her expression suddenly changed and her pace slowed, decaying from 83 to 90 second 400 splits. However, Lloyd nevertheless ran a PR of 10:34.84.

The women's relays was where the real action was. Jones, Simmons, Gross, and multi-eventer, Hazel Briner '11, put together a marvelous 4x400 that has many wondering just how fast this quartet can run. Jones led things off, but the team was not prepared for their race as they thought there were still sections of the 1000 to come. Instead the top 4x400 teams were impatiently waiting for Jones to get her blocks on the track and get her warmups off. This did not put her in the best competitive frame of mind and she ran like it, going out in 27.5 and finishing in 58.7 to put MIT severely behind the leaders. Simmons, ran much better than her open 400, putting herself in a very competitive situation and splitting 57.6. Briner went out a little too fast, running 27.2 for the 200. Even though she fatigued at the end, she still held on for a personal best of 59.2. Gross, after a terrible handoff, split 58.4 to give MIT a marvelous 3:53.94. Putting all the parts together could mean something special at nationals.

The Distance Medley Relay was run on the morning of day two of the invitational. MIT's anchor, Jacqui Wentz '10, bothered by a sore foot, was not able to race, so MIT inserted distance ace, Alina Gatowski '11, to run the 1600 leg. Johnson led things off with the 1200 leg. Unlike her mile race the day before, Johnson got out in 71 for the first 400. Although the pace slowed in the second quarter, Johnson still was racing well and took the lead, blasting the final 400 to finish her leg in 3:38.2. Jones took the baton next and even though the team once again did not plan their warmup appropriately, she raced excellently, running 26.3 and 55.8 to move MIT up to second place. Simmons was racing her second 800 ever and was obviously still fearful of the distance as her approach to the event was much different than the 600. However, she showed a glimpse of her potential as she split 66.2 en route to a 2:17.0 leg. MIT had just run 6:51 through the first three legs. So now it was up to Gatowski to see how much she could better her PR of 5:22. Fortunately for MIT, Gatowski raced and did not bother to think about how fast she was running. She split 71 for the 400 and ran a personal best 800 in the half mile split of 2:29. She obviously paid for the first quarter, but still held on for an amazing 5:04.8 to give MIT a 11:55.71, easily an NCAA qualifying performance and the fastest time in the country thus far.

The men did not have the national level performances, but nevertheless performed very well. On Friday, the DMR unit of Paul Welle '11, Kahlil Dozier '12, Logan Daum '11, and Hemu Arumugam took to the track trying to give MIT a good enough performance to be in a faster section in the upcoming championships. Despite poor running tactics of getting in behind people and getting jostled repeatedly, Welle came through the 1200 in a respectable 3:10. Dozier ran a very nice 52.1 to put MIT in good position for Logan Daum. Daum ran very aggressively, splitting 26.9, 56.7 and 1:27.5 before finishing with a personal best 1:59.0. Arumugam also took the aggressive approach, splitting 61 for the first 400. Although he backed off to run back to back 66s before finishing in 64 for a 4:17.9, a personal 1600 best. The total time of 10:19.67 was quite good for the Engineers.

On Saturday, the rest of the men raced. In the 400, all three MIT runners ran personal or season bests. Nick Leonard '11, ran 51.23, Dozier ran 51.62 and DJ Ronde '13, ran 51.63.

The 500 went very well for Tech as Pat Marx '13, and John Granata '11, both ran sub 1:06. Marx finished in 1:05.16 after splitting 49 for the 400 and Granata raced to a 1:05.87. Marx's time moved him to number two all-time on the MIT 500 list.

MIT had four runners in the 800. Gil O'Neil '13, ran the best tactical race as well as the fastest time, finishing in 1:57.69 for the fastest MIT time thus far this season. David Way '13, ran a very poor race, continuing to slow down and cut in, only to have to slow down further and get back to the outside. The bouncing around from lane one to three and back caused premature fatigue resulting in a mediocre 1:58.30. Both Timmy Galvin '13, and Pat McDaniel '13, ran season bests of 2:00.10 and 2:01.61 respectively.

The 1000 meter results set MIT up very well for the upcoming New England Division III Championship as six runners were under 2:35. Richard Prevost '11, took the lead early in his race and never looked back, finishing in 2:31.81. Logan Trimble '13, ran an excellent 2:32.52. Bill Phipps '10, was inconsistent with his pace, surging and then cutting back, but still ran a very fine 2:32.67. Stephen Serene '12, ran from the back and engaged too late in the race to run to his potential but still ran a personal best of 2:33.47. Dawit Zewdie '13, and Andrew Erickson '12, also ran personal bests of 2:34.23 and 2:34.34 respectively.

In the 200, Josh Duncavage '13, was the only MIT runner as he took a week off from the high hurdles. Duncavage took advantage of the banked turns, running 22.61 for a personal best of nearly seven tenths.

MIT needed a faster 4x400 in order to get into next week's fast section, thus giving themselves a better chance of placing in the event. Ronde, recovering from a severe cold, could only split 51.7 on the opening leg. Marx came through in the first 200 but seemed to lose focus in the second half of the race, splitting 50.0. Way ran very well, handing off in 50.7. Granata brought the baton home in 49.6 for a 3:22.02, cutting more than two seconds off their personal best.

In the distance events, Gihan Amarasiriwardena '11, and Ben Mattocks '12, led the way with outstanding performances in the 5000 and 3000 meters respectively. Amarasiriwardena ran continuous 73-74 second quarters through the first two miles then threw down a 4:50 final mile to run a 15:11.96 PR. Mattocks also ran a personal best, finishing with a 31 final 200 to run the 3000 in 8:41.71.

Next week, MIT travels to Bates College with the men and University of Southern Maine with the women to try to claim the New England Division III titles.

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