RELAYS RULE AS MIT QUALIFIES TEAMS FOR NCAA'S

February 11, 2012

MIT visited Boston University's banked track on Friday and Saturday for the Valentine's Invitational, hoping for improved performances to get better qualifying marks for the upcoming championships. Headlining the way for MIT were the Distance Medley Relay (DMR) and 4x400 teams, with all four getting season PR's and solid NCAA Division III qualifying times.

The women started off the meet on Friday with the open 400. Portia Jones '12, running out of the next to fastest section, sprinted her way to a 56.53. Even though she got well, running the first 200 in 25.6, she did not finish as well as she is capable. Maddie Bairey '15 ran another personal best, closing well to run 58.69. Martha Gross '12 continued her come back from injury, running a season best of 59.63.

In the 800, Louise van den Heuvel '14, dropping down in distance, showed she is more than capable of having success at the shorter distances. Running a well paced race, van den Heuvel clocked 2:17.06 to move to number three on the MIT all time list. Cindy Huang '15 went out a little slow, but still closed well to run an indoor PR of 2:17.43.

MIT had two entries in the 1000, but Margaret Coad '15, was disqualified for cutting in too soon. She ran a great race and would have been given a time of 2:58 had she not been DQ'd. Alexandra Taylor '14 continued to improve weekly, splitting 71 and 2:23 en route to finishing in a huge PR of 2:59.14.

In the Mile Run, Maggie Lloyd '12 continued her epiphany of fast running, this time running a near 20 second PR as she won her section in 5:10.17. Stephanie Marzen '15 improved her PR, running 5:07.96 in a fairly even split race. Brooke Johnson '13 knocked 10 seconds off her debut mile last week, but still has a lot of room for improvement as she learns to race the mile again.

The women's 4x400 was next. MIT has had an All America 4x400 team for the past two indoor and outdoor seasons, and planned on qualifying for the NCAA Division III Championship in this race. Knowing that only the top 10 times in the country advance to Nationals, MIT was looking for a sub 3:52 performance. Jamie Simmons '12 led off and ran a great leg, splitting 57.0. Jackie Brew '14 finished her leg better than she has been doing, handing off in 58.6. Bairey had a horrible handoff but ran a strong leg anyway. Despite a fairly quick 27.1 first 200 she finished in 58.7. Jones anchored in a very strong 56.6 to bring the team in third overall and a new MIT record of 3:50.98. This time should certainly hold up for Nationals.

In the Pole Vault, Lauren Kuntz '13 did not seem as into the competition as she should have been, but still vaulted 11-5 3/4. Joanna Chen '15 and Marissa Engle '15 stayed consistent by vaulting 10-6 once again. Kate Wymbs '14 also was consistent, clearing 10-0 for the second week in a row.

Kristine Bunker '14 and Preethi Vaidyanathan '15 tested the soft BU infield in the High Jump, but did not perform at their usual level, both clearing 5-0 1/4, far from their 5-3 3/4 best.

The first event on Saturday, and the only women's event that day, was the DMR. Huang was a bit nervous about running the 1200 leg, but it only served to get the adrenaline going as she split 3:38 to put MIT in the thick of the race. Gross ran the 400 leg and split 59, although she ran the first 200 too slow. Simmons ran the 800 leg, splitting an excellent 2:15. Louise van den Heuvel anchored, running quarter splits of 71, 75, 77 and 76 to run a 4:59 1600. This gave the team an 11:51.33, one of the top times in the country for Division III.

The men took to the track next, and opened up with the DMR. Even though MIT set a school record last year with all sophomores, only one of those four were on this year's unit, mostly due to those folks still rounding themselves into championship condition and the addition of a strong freshman class and developing sophomore runners. Chadd Kiggins '15 led off with the 1200 leg and ran perhaps his best race of the year. Going out with the leaders and competing the entire race, he split 59.9 and 2:02.1 before kicking it in with a very solid 3:03.5. David Way '13, ran the 400 in 51.1, keeping MIT competitive in the fast section. Pat Marx '13, the only returning leg from last year's unit, crushed a 1:52.1 to move MIT up in the pack. Justin Bullock '14 ran the race of his life despite going out in 59.7. He was able to close in 62 to finish in 4:09.1, giving MIT an overall time of 9:55.71. That time may hold up for the NCAA Championship, but MIT will be prepared to race again in three weeks at the ECAC Championship at the NY Armory.

In the 400, Tyler Singer-Clark '14 shook off the effects of a cold to run a personal indoor best of 50.08. Right behind him in another section was Nick Diamantoni '15, who came close to a personal best, finishing in 50.58.

Both Mac Gager '14 and David Way '13 delivered season bests in the 500. Gager went out in 24.4 and finished in 1:05.99. Way split 24.5 and 50.9 before finishing in 1:06.21.

As a warmup to the 200 later in the meet, Josh Duncavage '13 and Michael DuPlessis '14 raced in the 60 Meter High Hurdles and the 60 Meter Dash respectively. Duncavage did not race well, hurdling in 8.80. DuPlessis had a good start and nice acceleration phase, but the slow surface only netted him a 7.13.

In the Mile Run, Kyle Hannon '13 found the magic that made him one of the best milers in the country the past two years, as he buckled down in the second half of the race to run a personal best in the open mile of 4:09.79. Hannon negatively split the race, running the second 880 in 2:03.8 and the final 440 in 59.4.

Duncavage came back in the 200, but drew lane two, guaranteeing a poor time, which happened with a 22.60. Singer-Clark also drew lane two and it showed with his 23.04. DuPlessis decided to tie his shoe as his section was getting on the track and the starter did not wait for him, which resulted in a DNR for DuPlessis.

Marx returned in the 800 to see if he could get a national qualifying time. He went out well in 26.4 and 54.9, but then backed off a bit in the next 200 and lost a little of the edge. Nevertheless he ran his second 1:52 of the day, this one a 1:52.86. A couple of sections later, Kiggins and Sam Parker '15 took to the track. Parker took off as if he thought it was a 400, opening up in 24 and 51, while Kiggins was back at a very respectable 56. It turned out that Parker cut in early and knew it so he just took off out of anger. However, it did not appear the officials caught it. Nevertheless, after his 1:22 600, Parker cashed in. Kiggins went on to run an indoor PR of 1:54.64.

In the 1000, MIT finally came to play. Bullock returned from is epic anchor and delivered a very well run 2:28.20. Stephen Serene '12 displayed the kick that earned him the New England Division III title in 2011, running 2:30.09 this time. Jared Forman '13 ran an even split 2:31.45 as did Logan Trimble '13 with a 2:31.80 and Gil O'Neil '13, running 2:31.92.

In the Pole Vault, Nathan Peterson '12 finished second with a vault of 15-3. Ben Schreck '15 got back on the horse and vaulted 14-1 1/4.

The final event of the day for Tech was the 4x400 Relay. Hoping to go four for four with National qualifying relay performances, Singer-Clark, Gager, Diamantoni and Marx returned to the banked oval one more time. Singer-Clark got things rolling with an excellent 50.1 leadoff leg. Gager made a fine handoff and got out very well, coming through the first 200 in 23.1. Appearing to not slow down at all, Gager flew down the home stretch to clock 48.9. Diamantoni put forth the effort but was only able to split 50.5. Marx made up significant ground on the field as he closed in 49.2. The overall time of 3:18.75 is the second fastest in New England Division III and ranks 12th on the NCAA list.

Back at MIT, the Coed II meet was going on. MIT had most of the short sprinters, hurdlers and field event athletes at this meet. The top performance by an MIT athlete was by CK Umachi '12, who threw 63' 7" in the Weight Throw, the fourth best throw on the NCAA list and the top throw in New England. Nearly equal in value to the team was Jackson Wirekoh's '13 45' 0 1/4" leap in the Triple Jump. Wirekoh had been unable to practice since mid-December due to an infection. Practicing for the first time this week, it was questionable if he could produce a qualifying jump for next week's New England Division III Championship. Wirekoh not only qualified, his jump ranks 10th on the New England list. Also competing well for the men were Matt Jordan '15, who broke 16 minutes in the 5K for the first time, running 15:57.44, and John Thomas '15, who backed up his 6-3 1/4 High Jump with a PR of 23.65 victory in the 200.

On the women's side, Jackie Brew returned to competition one day after the Valentine's Meet to run a PR of 7.45 in the 55 Dash and another one of 7.50 in the 55HH. Preethi Vaidyanathan '15 won the High Jump at 5-3 3/4, which matches her personal best. Veronica Szklarzewski '15 ran a PR of 7.59 in the 55 Dash and participated in the Long Jump for the first time this year, qualifying the next weekend's championship with a 16-7 3/4 performance.

Next Friday and Saturday MIT competes in the New England Division III Championship. The men travel to Springfield College where they hope to threepeat while the women compete at Smith College where they hope to back up their victory in the Outdoor Championship last spring.

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