Taylor's Sets Varsity 800 Record at Terrier Classic

Three Others Set Freshman Records

January 25, 2013

In a meet full of fast times and great performances for MIT's Women's Track and Field team the two most significant performances at Boston University's Terrier Classic were a 2:14.77 Varsity record in the 800 by Alexandra Taylor '14 and another Rookie record by Isabella Stuopis '16, this one a 44-4 1/4 mark in the Weight Throw.

This weekend, MIT hosted their own meet, leaving most of the sprinters, hurdlers and field event athletes at home where the facilities are superior for those events. For all oval runners, the banked track at BU is significantly faster.

In the Mile Run, Louise van den Heuvel '14 led all MIT athletes with a 5:06.16, a slower time than she is capable of running but acceptable at this time in the season. The slow overall time was due to an inconsistent rhythm in the race and not establishing herself towards the front of the pack after the 800 mark. Brooke Johnson '13, running in another section, was stuck in a slow section, coming through the first half in 2:36. Johnson, along with Allison Hallock '16, negative split the second half in 2:30, giving them overall times of 5:06.81 and 5:07.77 respectively. Missy Showers '13, back after missing three years due to various injuries, started her comeback with a fine 5:12.29.

Taylor's 800 was run by following the leaders through splits of 31 and 64 for the first two laps. She raced well, moving up to second place in the third lap. Taylor tightened up in the final 150, closing in 70 to fall back to fifth place. Cindy Huang '15 seemed to lose focus in the final 200 of her race, nevertheless running a season best of 2:19.46

Marie Burkland '13 ran a 3:06.02 PR in the 1000. Burkland ran a fairly even pace of 37 second 200's after an initial lap of 34. She contended for the lead on the final lap, running a very competitive and intelligently run race.

Isabel Crystal '16 ran a personal best in the 500, splitting the 400 in 63.8 she closed well for an overall time of 1:22.25.

The only field event athlete for MIT competing at BU was freshman thrower, Isabella Stuopis. She still has plenty of technical pieces to work on in both the Shot Put and the Weight Throw, which is unfortunate for her competitors. In the Shot Put she threw 41-3 1/4 despite opening up very early and displaying no block with her arm. In the Weight Throw, a new event for the rookie, she threw an MIT freshman record of 44-4 1/4 even though she is still stepping in late and heavy.

In the evening, the distance events took over the track. Shivani Kaushal '15 ran the 3K and raced by far her best ever, running a very competitive even split race to run a PR of 10:44.68.

In the 5K, Elaine McVay '15, intending to run 82-83 second quarters, got pulled out by the lead pack in 80-81, splitting the mile in 5:25. Her second mile slowed as she fatigued, but she remained competitive with a 5:36. She slowed quite a bit in the third mile, but continued to compete every step, splitting 5:44. She had nothing left in the final 200, ending with a time of 17:26.91. Claire O'Connell '14 ran a very respectable 18:35 and Kali Benavides '15 raced a very competitive 18:43.

The final event of the meet for the women, the Distance Medley Relay (DMR) was on day two of the competition. The quartet of van den Heuvel, Crystal, Huang and Taylor were hoping to go under 12:00 for their first competitive effort of the season. van den Heuvel led off with the 1200 leg, racing with the pack right from the start. Her first 400 was 71.4 as she moved up through the field. Her second 400 slowed a bit as the field slowed, but she moved to the front in the final 400, splitting 71 for a 3:38.1. Crystal took the baton for the 400 leg. Even though she is not a pure 400 runner, she did very well, running 61.1 as she kept MIT as competitive as possible in fourth place. Huang, running the 800 leg, wanted to move up in the field, but once she did not make up ground with her 66.8 first 400, she seemed to lose competitiveness as she slowed to an overall time of 2:21.1, losing a lot of ground to the leaders. Taylor had no one around her, so basically was in position to run a time trial. She ran a very impressive even split race for only her second 1600 ever. She ran 400 splits of 74.5, 2:30.0, 3:46.3, finishing with a 5:01.1 to move MIT up to fifth place in 12:01.43.

The men's meet for MIT began with the 400. Tech has a few freshman 400 runners to add to the already deep squad that placed sixth in the 4x400 at last year's indoor nationals and all but two were running at BU. States Lee '16 started things off. The North Carolinian did not negotiate the indoor quarter all that well, first losing the break badly and then having to fight with everyone to move up. Nevertheless he managed 49.80, slightly slower than the freshman record. Tyler Singer-Clark '15 was next. He also failed to challenge for the break and he suffered similar problems, eventually finishing in 49.94. Fortunately the freshman Michael Kaba '16 decided not to follow the example set by his teammates. He went out in 23.0, getting the break and taking it from there, setting the freshman record in 49.54. Mac Gager '14 moved down an event, racing his first 400 ever. His lack of sprint speed made it close to impossible to get the break then trying to move past everyone was equally difficult. Gager went out in 23.8, finishing in 50.69. Derek Barnes was the next freshman on the line. Barnes also took the break, running 23.3 to do so. He held his competition off on the final back straight, then closing to run 49.64, also under the old freshman record. Nick Diamantoni '15 was the final entry for MIT. Diamantoni also took the break and also won his section. He backed off a bit during the final lap, which cost him in his quest to break 50. Instead he finished in 50.20.

DJ Ronde was the only entry for the Engineers in the 500. Ronde went out well and even got the break in 24, but lost it immediately as they entered the turn. Seizing the lead with a lap to go Ronde passed the 400 in 50.8. However,his technique of leaning too far forward eventually got to his quads, tying him up as he finished in 1:06.68.

In the 800, most of the MIT racers were reacting to the situations in front of them instead of predicting what would happen based on the pace and position of individuals, and then putting themselves in favorable positions. The result was getting boxed in, getting stuck behind large fields and getting hung out wide on the turns. Nevertheless some good times were achieved. Pat Marx '13 ran 1:54.94. Jared Forman '13 ran an outstanding race, moving up through the field well and earning a nice PR of 1:55.77. Sam Parker '15, still coming back from injury, reacted to things, but did not own the race. He died pretty hard, but finished in 1:56.04. The surprise of the event for the Engineers was supplied by Harrison Hunter '15. Hunter ran for the win and did just that, crushing his competition in 1:58.59 in one of the later sections.

Justin Bullock '14 was planning on getting the MIT record of 2:26.38 in the 1000. However, the pace felt too fast even at 29 for the first 200, so his confidence dropped off enough that he no longer tried to win the section. He got back on the horse in the final lap, closing in 28 to finish with a 2:28.77. Chadd Kiggins '15 ran a respectable 2:31.04, but the 1:53 half miler has the ability to be under 2:30.

In the 4x400, Tech ran two teams. Team A consisted of Singer-Clark leading off, Lee in second, Kaba on third leg and Marx running anchor. Singer-Clark went out too slow for the first 150 and again missed getting the break, forcing him to cut his speed going into the turn bringing him in with a 50.2. Lee took the baton and went out perhaps with too much effort, but he did take the lead, hitting 22.7 for the 200. He got passed in the final 100 as he tied up but still ran a respectable 49.6. Kaba had a nice handoff and got out in 23.1. Kaba continued to run strong, finishing in 49.1. Marx, really an 800 runner, still has the necessary speed to get out well in the 400 and he did. His 23.0 set up a 49.0 anchor, bringing MIT in with a 3:18.09. The banked track index will probably keep this time from making the NCAA Championship, so the team will have to continue to improve. The B unit, made up of Barnes, Gager, Diamantoni and Parker ran pretty equivalent to the A team for the first two legs. Barnes led off with a 50.0. Gager improved nicely from his open 400, splitting 49.6. Diamantoni has trouble running his best unless challenged so he did not get out fast enough. He still managed a 50.0. Parker had a nice lead, but did not get out well at all, splitting the 200 in 24.6 and then proceeding to tie up, finishing in 51.2. Overall the B team ran 3:20.86.

The final event for MIT was the 5K. Three Tech runners still needed to run the New England Division III qualifying time of 15:30. They wanted to run 72's, which Allen Leung '15 and Matt Jordan '15 were able to do through 3600, but Edgar Gridello '16 was only able to hold 73's and fell off of that at 2400 meters. However, all three kept racing, never losing focus. Leung finished strong, ending with a 15:05.12. Jordan fell off at 3600, but came back at the end to finish in 15:09.83. Even though Gridello dropped off pace, he still managed to run 15:27.28 to qualify for the upcoming championship.

Back at MIT there were not a lot of highlights. The event that supplied the best results was the women's Pole Vault. Lauren Kuntz '13 cleared a season best of 12-3 1/2. Cimmy Virdi '16 set a freshman record with a vault of 11-5 3/4. Also clearing a season best was Sherry Wan '16 who made 10-0.

Also impressive for the women was sophomore Preethi Vaidyanathan's 5-3 3/4 in the High Jump, matching her personal best. Stephanie Birkhimer '14 jumped a personal best 16-2 1/2 in the Long Jump.

Next week the Engineers travel across town to Tufts University for a large invitational. This meet will be the next to last opportunity to get performances that will place individuals in top positions for the New England Division III Championship on 2/15-16.

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