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MIT REMAINS UNDEFEATED, TAKING DOWN WILLIAMS AND MORAVIAN WITH DOMINATING PERFORMANCES AND ATTITUDE
February 5, 2011
The women's track & field team from MIT had never defeated Williams College in a regular season meet, even though they did defeat the Ephs in all three (indoor, outdoor, xc) New England Division III Championships in 2009 as well as the past three NCAA Championships. Going into the tri-meet with Williams and Moravian College, MIT was favored by two points based on the seeds. Watching the team it was clear MIT wanted this victory. Williams College, known for their competitiveness, did not seem to have the attitude it takes to win a meet of this intensity, at least not on this day.
MIT had not been challenged in 2011 and looked forward to bringing their best effort. On meet day, All America hurdler, Amy Magnuson 'G, felt her hamstring, that cramped on her earlier in the week, was not ready for competition. This major loss in the hurdles, and horizontal jumps did not deter the Engineers as they opened the meet with a bang.
Due to the number of entries, there were trials in the 55 dash and 55HH. In the hurdle trials, MIT earned five of the eight final qualifying spots led by Portia Jones '12 with a 8.40 performance. In those trials, Jackie Brew '14, led fellow freshmen, Jackie Konopka and Megan Bumgarner with personal bests, 8.69, 8.94 and 9.01 respectively. Jones, Brew and Hazel Briner '11, all returned in the 55 dash trials and all three earned finals spots with Jones setting a new MIT record of 7.43.
With some of Williams' top runners injured and the emotion missing, MIT took advantage where able. In the mile run Louise van den Heuvel '14, continued her winning ways despite the slow pace, crossing the line in 5:13.34. Fellow freshmen Martina de Geus, Olivia Papa and Andrea Nickerson followed her in third, fourth and fifth places. Returning from injury, Marie Burkland '13, claimed the final point scoring place, sixth in 5:27.12.
MIT won nine of 12 running events with Jones and van den Heuvel winning six of those. Jones was up next in the 55HH final and won comfortably in 8.47. Briner followed in third with a personal best of 8.67 and Konopka placed fourth in another PR of 8.91. Bumgarner did not improve but claimed sixth place.
Not having been pushed as yet, Jones stepped to the line for her first 400 of the year. Running just fast enough to stay ahead, Jones crossed the line in first with a 60.41 performance. Martha Gross '12, continued her comeback, placing third in 61.43. Bumgarner responded remarkably well for a freshman coming back from the hurdles, placing fith in 64.05.
Jamie Simmons '12, needed a fast 600 or risk not getting into the fast section in the New England Division III Championship in two weeks. Starting to get her legs back from the hard early season workouts, Simmons took the lead at the gun, running 30.5 in the first 200 en route to an excellent 1:37.14 victory. Stephanie Ku '14, and Kirsten Aarsvold '11, both ran season bests to take third and fourth places.
The 55 dash finals were next. Jones knew she had less than 20 minutes to recover from the 400 and did a marvelous job of preparing. Running well out of the blocks, Jones was nevertheless behind until the final 10 meters of the race where she overtook Williams' Tanasia Hoffler '13, the national champion in the triple jump, to reset the MIT record with an excellent 7.37 clocking. Brew lowered her own freshman record to 7.50 as she claimed third place. Briner matched her personal best with a 7.64 even though she tripped a bit coming out of the blocks.
In the field events, normally the heart and soul of the Williams team, MIT held their own despite the absence of Magnuson. In the long jump, Brew set a freshman record with an excellent 17-5 1/2 leap for second place. She was supported by Briner in third and Konopka in sixth. In the high jump, Briner never missed, stopping at 5-2 1/4 with the victory and a new MIT record. MIT also claimed second, fourth, fifth and a tie for sixth with Bumgarner, Jones, Diana Zhu '13, and Konopka respectively. In the shot put, freshman Brooke Hamilton threw 37-3 1/4 to earn second place.
Four of the top six vaulters in the country were entered in the pole vault and certainly performed in that manner. Karin Fisher '11, lost to Abigail Schaffer '12, despite her new MIT record and NCAA automatic qualifying performance of 12-9 1/2. Schaffer and Fisher are ranked 1-2 on the NCAA Division III performance list. Briner placed fourth with a vault of 11-5 3/4 even though she has the fourth best vault in the country at 12-3 1/2. Jenna Adams, a freshman for Williams cleared 11-11 3/4 to become the sixth ranked vaulter.
Back on the track, van den Heuvel returned to claim the 800 victory. In an evenly paced, strategic
race, she came from behind to win in 2:24.76. Also scoring for MIT was Papa and Emily Kuo '13. In the 1000, de Geus and Nickerson returned to lay claim to second and third place, the first running event loss for MIT.
In the 200, Jones returned for her final event, again running just fash enough to win, pulling away in the final twenty meters to win in 26.33. Brew, still learning how to race the 200, knocked .76 off her best for a third place 26.89 on the tight turns of the indoor track. Simmons ran her first 200 of the year, clocking 27.12 for fifth place and an indoor personal best.
Anna Holt-Gosselin '11, pulled away from the field in the 3000, running an excellent last 600 meters for the victory in 10:20.57.
MIT backed off on the relays as the meet was no longer in question. MIT's women claimed their first victory over Williams in the regular season, far outscoring their seeds, scoring 185.5 points to Williams 139. Moravian finished with 42.5 points.
The men's team from MIT has not lost to Williams in the regular season since 2006. With their depth and quality in every event other than the horizontal jumps it did not seem likely the result would be any different than in recent years. It appeared that Williams knew they were not going to win, as similar to the women, just did not seem to bring their usual emotion to the meet.
In the first final, MIT set the tone, claiming three of the top four scoring places in the mile run. Kyle Hannon '13, dropped a 60 second final 400 to take the victory in 4:16.90. He was backed by Logan Trimble '13 and Ben Mattocks '12, in second and fifth respectively.
In the 55HH final, MIT's runners were solid but were not able to defeat the top two hurdlers from Williams. Nick Leonard '11, led the way for MIT with a season best of 8.25 for third place. Drew Musacchio '11, and Brent Johnson '14, claimed fourth and fifth respectively.
Losing Stephen Morton to graduation and with Mattias Flander not quite returning as yet to last year's form, MIT has struggled in the horizontal jumps. Flander was able to place fifth in the long jump and fourth in the triple jump, but those were Tech's only points.
The throwers, MIT's current field event strength, allowed Williams to outperform them with respect to the seeds coming into the meet. Ken Cooper '13, won the shot put in 47-4 1/2 and Mitch Kelley '11, laid claim to third with a throw of 44-10 3/4, but both were nearly three feet off their best. CK Umachi '12, had a season best of 42-6 for fifth place and Adam Mustafa '11, also threw a season best of 41-3, good for sixth place. In the 35lb. weight throw, Cooper did not have a good throw in the trials, putting him in the position of watching his opponents throw their final effort and not being able to come back to counter with his own effort. In third place going into the finals, Cooper took the lead from teammate Umachi on his first throw in the finals. Cooper added to that lead on his final throw with a toss of 57-9 3/4. On his final throw, Rusty Cowher of Williams, took the lead at 58-3. Umachi, the leader going into finals, was unable to pass Cowher, settling for third. Mustafa had a best of 48-9 for sixth place.
Matt Falk '12, led the way in the vertical jumps, clearing a personal best of 6' 4" to win the high jump, jumping clean all the way. Umachi added a third place. Moravian claimed the first two places in the pole vault at 15-5, but MIT took the next three places. Cyrus Vafadari '12, returned from an ankle sprain to lead MIT with a 14-5 1/4 vault. Nathan Peterson '12 and Yida Gao '13, placed fourth and fifth respectively.
In the 600, Pat Marx '13, was up against Jabulani Blyden '13, from Williams, a national qualifier as a freshman in the 400IH. Marx worked his way to the front at the end of the 400, but Blyden blasted around just as they entered the turn in a well timed move. Marx was simply stronger as he pulled away on the final turn to win in 1:23.69. MIT also claimed third, fourth and sixth with Logan Daum '11, Gil O'Neil '13 and Mac Gager '14.
David Way '13, won the 800 in a dramatic finish, coming from behind to win in 1:58.25. Richard Prevost '11, provided support with a 1:58.95 third place. Trimble came back from the mile to place fourth in 2:00.87 and Jared Forman '13, out for the past month with an injury, ran like he did not miss a day, running 2:00.95 for sixth.
The 1000 was the most dominant event for MIT, as the Engineers claimed five of the top six places. Hannon came back from the mile to win going away in 2:34.97. Dawit Zewdie '13, ran an excellent race, running 2:35.80, good for second place. Andrew Erickson '12, Eric Safai '14 and Justin Bullock '14, took 4th-6th places.
Josh Duncavage '13, had a great sprint day, taking second place in both the 55 and 200 meter dashes. Moravian's Eric Woodruff took both victories, but Duncavage did not concede anything, running a personal best in the 55 with a 6.63 time and then returning to sprint a flat track PR of 22.64. Babajide Akinronbi '14, supported Duncavage in both events, placing third in 6.65 in the 55 and placing fifth in the 200 despite the disadvantage of lane two. Marx came back after the 600 to place fourth in the 200 in 22.93.
The Engineers shined in the distance events as well. Paul Welle '11, returning from a bout of low iron, won the 3000 in 8:46.91, finishing with a 32 final 200. Dan Harper '12, added a third place. In the 5000, Roy Wedge '14, ran a personal best of 15:18.63 to place second and Gihan Amarasiriwardena '11, placed third in 15:21.71. Joe Christopher '12, added a fourth place.
Tech backed off of the relays, but still managed to run 7:59.16 in the 4x800 as Prevost (2:00.2), Daum (2:00.3), Zewdie (1:59.9) and Trimble (1:59.3) won the event.
The men literally ran away with the meet, earning 186.5 points to 110 for Williams and 78.5 for Moravian.
Next week, MIT will again split up their team, taking many runners over to Boston University for their big Valentines Invitational while keeping the field event performers and some runners at MIT's Coed Invite II.
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