PERSONAL AND SEASON BESTS HIGHLIGHT THE WEEKEND FOR MIT

January 29, 2011

In a unique weekend that allowed MIT to split up their team between two meets and accomplish some great performances to help set the team up for the New England Division III Championship in three weeks, half of the team made the trip to Boston University and the other half stayed home.

Boston University, across the river, from MIT, holds two large invitationals each indoor season where individuals come from across the country to compete on the fast banked 200 meter track. Having a faster sprint surface and equally good if not superior field event facilities, MIT hosts meets on the same weekends (MIT Coed Invite I and II) as BU to accommodate many teams throughout the Northeast who wish to also split their teams up between the two meets.

On Friday, the Terrier Classic at BU was for women only. MIT sent their top pole vaulters hoping for some top competition, but the top two vaulters in the country for Division III were left to fight it out among themselves. Karin Fisher '11, won the event at 12-4 3/4, although she was clearly over 12-8, hitting with her chest on the way down. Hazel Briner '11, settled for second with a vault of 11-11 3/4, showing up just in time for the warmup right after taking her MCAT for medical school applications. Lauren Kuntz '13, claimed third in the non-scoring meet at 10-11 3/4.

On the track, Martha Gross '12, returned from a lower back injury, and after a week and a half of training showed she has not lost much. Gross powered to a 60.38 400 and came back in the 200 to run 27.46. Jamie Simmons '12 was the star on the track for MIT, clocking 58.00 to provisionally qualify for the NCAA Division III Championship. Megan Bumgarner '14, ran her season best, running 61.45 even though she had missed two days with a severe cold.

In the Mile Run, Louise van den Heuvel '14, continued to improve by multiple seconds each week. This time by nine seconds as she clocked a 5:06.11, finishing strong enough to know she has even more. Martina de Geus, also a freshman, ran 5:12.12, herself improving tremendously each week.

Maggie Lloyd '12, provided the biggest improvement of the meet, knocking off 26 seconds from her previous best in the 5k to run 18:11. 81. Also improving significantly for a season best as she returns from a hip injury, Anna Holt-Gosselin '11, ran 18:15.22.

The men, competing on the Saturday portion of the meet, brought many more runners and had equally successful results. In the field events, CK Umachi '12, threw a nice personal best of 55-0 1/4 in the Weight Throw. On the track, where MIT focused most of their athletes, the personal bests were many.

In the 200, Josh Duncavage '13, led the way with a season best 22.60. Babajide Akinronbi '14, still learning a lot about the technical art of sprinting, blasted a 22.96 for a new personal best.

In the 400, DJ Ronde '13, ran a nice personal best of 50.97 to lead MIT runners. Nick Leonard '11, ran 51.29 and freshman Jake Jurewicz produced an indoor best of 51.41.

Running the 500 for the first time, Mac Gager '14, ran an excellent 1:07.70, which converts to a 1:24.60 in the 600. Matt Baron '13, also ran a personal best, his time a 1:09.51.

The 800 produced some great performances for this time of year for MIT. Pat Marx '13, qualified provisionally for the NCAA Division III Championship with a 1:53.84. Marx ran a well paced race, but perhaps made his move a bit late, ending up in second despite a very strong finish. David Way '13, came back from a long term hamstring injury, running 1:57.87. Dawit Zewdie '13, continued the improvements for the sophomore class, producing a 1:58.18. Logan Daum '11, ran a great personal best, clocking 1:58.32.

Moving to the 1000 meter race, things continued to go very well for MIT. Richard Prevost '11, nursing a sore knee since the end of the cross country season and just returning to workouts this week, showed that the mental part is more important than the physical as he ran 2:32.27. Stephen Serene '12, turned around two weeks of poor results to run a great 2:32.92. Showing he is great at racing any middle distance, Justin Bullock '14, produced a 2:33.97 personal best.

In the mile, Logan Trimble '13, got caught in a race where the leader went out in 59 seconds for the first quarter and the rest of the field was back at 64. Trimble took middle ground, but was taken out of the race by this tactic. After coming through in 3:11, he had trouble holding on after becoming disengaged from the race. Nevertheless, he ran a personal best of 4:17.57. In a later section, Kyle Hannon '13, continued to react slowly to cover the moves of other runners and got caught on the rail, forcing him to lose momentum at least three times. Showing his incredible talent, he waited until the final 400, unleashing a 59 kick to finish in 4:15.73. In still another section, Eric Safai '14, and Jay McKenna '14, were in and out competitively throughout the race. Nevertheless, Safai ran a personal best of 4:23.70 and McKenna a season best 4:27.01.

The only relay race the Engineers attempted was the 4x400. Trying to run a time that will get them into the fast section of the New England Division III Championship, the quartet of Ronde, Gager, Jurewicz and Marx knew they would need to run in the low 3:20's. With a previous season best of 3:28, the foursome would have their work cut out for them. Ronde led off with his best leg ever, a 50.8. Gager got out well, executing a great handoff and running a very aggressive leg to produce a 51.7 effort. Jurewicz did not get out well, slowing down Gager as he came in, as well as the speed of the baton through the zone. Nevertheless, Jurewicz ran a strong 51.3 to put MIT in a favorable position. The handoff to Marx was worse yet as Marx did not produce any speed on his takeoff, virtually stopping to receive the baton with both hands. Showing his considerable talent, Marx ran a 49.7 split to give MIT a 3:22.42 performance.

In the distance events, Ben Mattocks '12, continued his comeback, running a tough early pace in the 3000, although he was not able to hold it at the end. His time of 8:43.23 was a nice season best. Joe Christopher '12, took the lead at the start of his 3000 section, starting off with a 31 first 200. Correcting his pace salvaged a decent performance, but certainly created a premature anaerobic situation. Christopher was able to manage a 8:45.75. Dan Harper '12, was the final MIT competitor of the meet, running the 5000. Running with the leaders for the entire race, Harper successfully battled his habit of slowing down in the middle of the race, maintaining 73 second quarter pace to come through 1600 splits of 4:53, 9:46 and 14:37 en route to a personal best of 15:10.08.

While all of this was going on, the rest of the team was competing back at MIT. For the women, Brooke Hamilton '14, led the way, throwing a nice personal best of 37-8 3/4 in the shot put. In the long jump, Hazel Briner won the event, jumping 17-2 1/4 and both Jackie Brew '14, and Amy Magnuson 'G, provided season bests of 16-7 3/4 and 16-5 3/4 respectively. Marie Burkland '13, competed for the first time since early outdoor track last spring, running a 5:34.01 mile, far off her 5:12 from 2010, but pretty good for one workout.

On the men's side Jackson Wirekoh '13, won the triple jump with a leap of 42-2 3/4. Mitch Kelley '11, matched his season best in the shot put at 47-11 1/4. Freshman Jeremy Sharpe threw a personal best of 44-5 1/2 in the 35 lb. Weight Throw as he continues to learn the event.

Next week, MIT plays host to rival Williams College and Moravian College, making the trip from Pennsylvania. For the past 30+ years, New England Division III track and field has been dominated by Williams College and MIT on the men's side and the same is true for the past two years on the women's side. MIT's men have won this tri-meet the past two years while the Williams' women have won the past two meets.

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