WOMEN MISS OPPORTUNITY AT CHAMPIONSHIP, FINISH SECOND

February 18, 2012

The women's track team from MIT traveled to Smith College with high hopes of winning their first indoor New England Division III title since 2009. Finishing second in both 2010 and 2011 among the 40+ teams in the conference, MIT felt all they had to do was deliver on their seeds and the championship would be their's. A disqualification due to a lane line violation in the Distance Medley Relay after the team had seemingly won the event, a small handful of poor performances and a very impressive display of athletic desire and ability by the Williams College team ended with a one point loss to Williams, 143 to 142. The next closest team was Bowdoin at 72 points.

MIT started the meet on Friday with two entries in the Pentathlon, Kristine Bunker '14 and Jackie Konopka '14. In the first event, Konopka ran a PR of 9.33 in the 60 meter hurdles to take the lead in the event. Bunker also ran a PR, but she is relatively new to hurdling, so the 10.15 had her back in the standings a bit. The High Jump was supposed to be Bunker's big event, but only clearing 5-1 3/4, compared to her PR of 5-3 3/4 cost her about 60-70 points. Bunker and Konopka were in very good shape after the Shot Put, but the Long Jump hurt them both a lot. Konopka only went 15-1 1/4 and strained her hamstring in the process. Bunker jumped 14-9 1/4. Both lost around 200 points to the leaders. In the 800, Bunker ran a very competitive 2:29.22 to move up to fourth place. Konopka somehow fought the pain of her hamstring and managed a 2:37.19 to finish in sixth place. This was an excellent finish and both surpassed their points that got them in the competition, but Williams College had an athlete finish in second, putting the meet at a tie with each event scoring eight places in a 10-8-6-5-4-3-2-1 format.

Day two began with the Triple Jump. Williams had the defending national champion and two other jumpers seeded in the top eight and MIT had the eighth seed, Michelle Johnson '15. The freshmen set numerous personal bests during the competition, finishing with an MIT record of 36-10 1/4, good for sixth place. Unfortunately Williams earned first, fourth and seventh to put MIT at a 14 point disadvantage. The next final was the Distance Medley Relay. Maggie Lloyd '12, ran a great leg of 3:45 to put MIT in second place, near the leader. Martha Gross '12 ran a superb 400 leg of 59.6 to keep MIT close. Stephanie Marzen '15 ran 2:22.6 to keep MIT in good position close to the leader. Dacie Manion '15 anchored for Tech and ran about a half mile, easily taking the lead with a first half split of 2:31, when an official announced to Coach Halston Taylor that Lloyd had committed a lane line violation twice, disqualifying MIT. Even after telling Manion to slow down, that her team was DQ'd, she still managed a 5:12, which gave MIT an unofficial 12:19. The loss of the sure 10 points and allowing Williams to move up to fourth from fifth was an 11 point difference.

The 5K was next, a big event for both MIT and Williams. Elaine McVay '15 ran a wonderful race, placing third in 17:38.03. Teammates Tania Morimoto '12 and Claire O'Connell '14 ran huge PR's of 17:52.75 and 18:04.43 respectively to place sixth and eighth. However, Williams countered with first place, giving both teams 10 points.

Still with a 25 point edge, the Long Jump was another big event for Williams. MIT hoped to counter with Jackie Brew '14 and Veronica Szklarzewski '15. Szklarzewski won her flight and made it to finals with a new PR of 16-11 1/2, but was passed by three people in the final to end up in ninth, one place out of the scoring. Brew fouled five of her six jumps, but still managed a fourth place with a leap of 17-2 1/4, far from her best of 17-7. Williams placed first and third to garner 16 points to MIT's five, giving them a 36 point edge.

Two more field events were taking place at the same time, the Weight Throw and the High Jump. MIT had no one in the Weight Throw, but Williams did and scored six points. In the High Jump, MIT was seeded fourth and fifth, so was counting on those points. However, neither Bunker, nor Preethi Vaidyanathan '15 matched their previous bests. Bunker jumped 5-0 1/4 to tie for fifth, but Vaidyanathan, who also cleared 5-0 1/4 did not place due to two early misses. Williams scored eight surprise points, putting them up by 41.

MIT's signature event, the Pole Vault was another disappointment. The Engineers were seeded to score nine with second and eighth place seeds while Williams was seeded first for 10 points. When it was all over, Williams earned second place while MIT earned sixth and eighth by Lauren Kuntz '14 and Marissa Engle '15 respectively. Engle had a PR of 11-0, while Kate Wymbs '14 also earned a PR at 10-6, although she finished one place out of the scoring. Williams was now up by 45.

MIT's points were most definitely in the running events and they were very pleased to see that only the Shot Put remained among the field events. In the 4x200, MIT set a school and meet record of 1:43.51. Portia Jones '12, Jackie Brew '14, Martha Gross '12 and Jamie Simmons '12 led start to finish to give MIT a much needed 10 points. Williams was a little over a second behind to place third.

In the Mile Run, Louise van den Heuvel '14 seemed to forget how to race, languishing in the rear of the pack and seemingly refusing to move up. In the final 400 she finally made her move to earn fifth place in 5:02.18. Brooke Johnson '13 and Stephanie Marzen '15 did not score. Williams however placed a predicted third to build a 43 point lead.

The 60HH were next. Portia Jones did not feel recovered from her 4x200 relay, but fortunately for MIT, Jackie Brew was recovered enough to place second to Jones's third. Both were timed in 9.06 far off their trial times of 8.98 for Brew and 8.89 for Jones. Tanasia Hoffler '13 of Williams, the winner of the Long Jump and Triple Jump was off to a great start in the hurdles but fell, causing her to finish eighth. This allowed MIT to finally make a dent in the score, gaining 13 points to cut the lead to 30.

In the 400, the very next event, Jones was the second seed. She ran a well paced race, but had too many to catch after entering the last lap in sixth place. Her third place in 58.32 was supported by a marvelous run by Maddie Bairey '15, placing sixth in 59.82 to give MIT nine points. Williams only earned one point, making it a 22 point deficit.

Just as the Engineers were closing the gap, the results of the Shot Put came in. Again, MIT had no entries, but Williams scored seven points, pushing the lead back to 29.

In the 600, Simmons was not going to lose this event and you could see it in her eyes. She trailed through the 200 and 400 marks at 29.9 and 61.7, before moving past the leader to demolish her own MIT record, the facility record and the meet record in 1:34.93. Williams did manage four points, but the lead was again becoming manageable at 23 points.

Neither MIT nor Williams had much in the way of predicted points in the 60 Meter Dash, but Brew did make the final. Surprisingly, Brew ran a personal best of 7.90 to place fourth and provide Tech with five more points, cutting the lead to 18.

The 800 and 1000 needed to be big events for MIT because the upcoming 3K promised to be huge for Williams. Cindy Huang '15 ran an excellent race in the 800, improving on her fourth place seed to finish in third in a new PR and freshman record of 2:17.33. Alexandra Taylor '14 supported her team with a sixth place finish in 2:20.83 to give MIT nine points and an 11 point deficit. It was brief because while MIT was seeded to score nine more points in the 1000 and thought they might gain more because Margaret Coad '15 was bound to score despite her 10th place seed, van den Heuvel again ran in the back, only moving up at the end to pass Coad and give MIT fifth (3:00.07) and sixth place (3:0028). In addition to Tech not getting their predicted points, Williams earned a second place despite the slow time of 2:59.33. The meet was now a 10 point difference.

In the 200, Jones had not lost to a Division III opponent all season and MIT was hoping for 10 big points. However, Jones drew lane three, which is a huge disadvantage to the outside lanes. Getting out slower than usual, the gap became too much to make up as Jones finished in second in 25.45. Brew gave MIT a much needed point by securing eighth place in 26.34. Williams scrambled for a key five points. The lead was now six.

The 3K was going to be the event that would decide the meet because Tech was pretty certain to win both the 4x400 and 4x800 relays. MIT and Williams entered every runner that had qualified for the event, even those who had already run the 5K at the beginning of the meet. Williams took the pace out well at 80 seconds for the first 400, but then slowed to 85's for two quarters. Manion started to push the pace at that point and came through the 1600 in 5:32. The field was still very bunched due to the slow early pace. Manion continued to try to push the pace, but could not break the field. Morimoto and McVay stayed with Manion through 2400 meters. Williams Chiara Del Piccolo '13 pulled away just as she did in the 5K, but Manion went with her through 2700 meters, but then faded. A second Williams runner caught and passed Manion in the final 100 to give the Ephs 18 big points. Manion placed third in 10:17.26 after falling in the final straight. Morimoto placed sixth with an excellent personal best of 10:20.50. McVay finished in seventh in 10:20.57 and Martina de Geus '14 finished in eighth in 10:22.74. MIT earned 12 points, but were now 12 back with two events to go.

In the 4x400, MIT led off with Simmons who threw down a casual 58.9. Bairey, lost the lead with a poor 61.3 leg and Gross kept Tech close with an average 60.4 leg. Jones looked the best she had all day with a well run 57.4 to easily take the lead and give MIT another relay victory in 3:58.08. Williams placed third to earn six points and make the lead eight points. MIT not only would have to win the final event, but Williams would have to finish in seventh for a tie and eighth or worse for an MIT victory.

Williams ran in the slower section and won that section, although there was quite a bit of controversy. The officials had the third leg of the first three teams handoff after three laps and then had those same three team's anchor legs run an extra lap to give them a full 3200 meters. This was immediately protested by one of the coaches as by rule the handoff did not take place in the zone since it was a lap early. While this was going on MIT was busy winning the final section. Huang led off with a 2:18.5 and put MIT in the lead for good. Taylor ran tight but still managed a 2:23.3. Coad added an excellent 2:21.4. van den Heuvel ran 2:21.4 to seal the victory in a facility and new MIT record of 9:24.87. Everyone watched the clock to see how many teams from the fast section would beat Williams time of 9:46.65. Five teams managed to beat that time, and the protest was denied, giving the Ephs the one point victory.

It was a very disappointing loss, but certainly a lesson to the MIT competitors that every point really does count. Next week, MIT will rest for the most part, focusing on just a few events in preparation for the NCAA Championships in three weeks.

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