Gong and Relays Lead Way for Tech Track

March 1, 2014

For the most part, the first day of the NEICAAA Championship hosted by Boston University was nothing spectacular for MIT Track & Field. This annual championship pits the Division I, II and III colleges against one another for New England Champion bragging rights.

After going to war the past weekend, giving it all to win the New England Division III Championship, and with the NCAA Division III Championship two weeks away, the Engineers were using this opportunity, not as a team scoring event, but more as a chance to qualify individuals for the upcoming NCAA Championship. Giving the distance runners the weekend off, mostly the field events and shorter running events were being contested by MIT.

The men's competition was the first half of the day. Right from the start it did not appear that the MIT athletes were hungry enough to get past the emotional fatigue suffered from loading up the previous weekend. They were competing well and trying their best, but qualifying for nationals for most individuals takes a certain emotional engagement that is difficult to come by and can be very draining. The Tech athletes had it last weekend, but not this weekend.

If that was not bad enough, a particularly nasty stomach bug was making its way through the team. A couple would try to compete anyway, but Ken Cooper '15, MIT's nationally ranked thrower, was not able to compete. In the 60HH, Michael Kaba '16, who set a PR the weekend before, running 8.36, got a great start, looking strong over the first two hurdles. He then was hit by the runner next to him and lost his edge, finishing in 8.89.

In the 200, Tyler Singer-Clark '14 was hoping to improve on his 22.10 and move up on the national ranking list, but was seeded in lane three, allowing a very poor chance of improving. He raced well, but only managed a 22.14. Kaba returned and ran a PR of 22.35 even though he was also seeded in lane three. Not doing so well, still recovering from his illness from last week, was Nick Diamantoni '15, who ran 22.72.

The 400 brought about similar results. States Lee '16 ran 48.96, but just did not seem to have what it took to make it to the finals or win his heat. Mac Gager '14 was the only long sprinter to produce a personal best. He improved his time to 50.06. Derek Barnes '16, who has not recovered from his long bout with a respiratory/sinus infection was only able to run 50.38. Diamantoni ran 50.44.

Sam Parker '15 had the right attitude, in that he was trying to win his heat to advance to the finals, but again seemed to lack that spark that is necessary to really compete at one's best. After running a nearly flawless strategic race and coming through the 600 in 1:24.0, he faded in the end to finish in 1:53.26, just missing the cut for finals. Harrison Hunter '15 performed well for all but 100 meters. At the area where he normally starts doubting his ability, he fell back from the group, but then reasserted himself and fought back to finish in 1:54.54. Chadd Kiggins '15 was currently suffering with the gastrointestinal plight and faded badly after the 400, finishing in 1:59.14.

Rick Paez '15 wanted to improve on his 1000 meter time of 2:29.82, but mostly wanted to make the finals in the event. Still learning how to run in the higher profile meets with better competition, Paez used too much energy fighting the competition in order to get and keep his spot right off the leader's shoulder. This extra work bit him in the end as he was not able to kick with the rest of the field. His final time was 2:33.21. Andrew Mullen '17 let his impatience get the best of him, taking the lead in his 1000 heat. The slow pace was not to his liking, but he was thinking more about time than winning his heat. The outcome was Mullen fading at the end due to his early move, but still running a personal best of 2:33.61.

In the field events, Adrian Samsel '16 was behind the board in the Long Jump, only jumping 20-6 1/4. In the Pole Vault, Ben Schreck '15 gave Tech its first points by placing third with a vault of 15-9 1/4. Jordan Mizerak '14, primarily a multi-event athlete, cleared 14-3 1/2.

The women saw a very good performance from Jackie Brew '14 in the 60HH. She started off running a heat where the electronic clock never started, which was a good thing because she was third in that version. About thirty minutes later she returned to win her heat in a very fast 8.96. Boston University's infield is a bit soft, which does not yield fast times, so running just .04 off her best was very good. In the semi-finals she was unable to advance, running 9.25. Later in the 200, her bad cold got the best of her, so despite having lane six she only ran 25.67.

In the pole vault, Cimmy Virdi '16 placed third for MIT, clearing 11-11 3/4. Joanna Chen '15 cleared 10-11 3/4 and Abby Klein '14 jumped 10-6. Jenn Tylock '17 no heighted for the second week in succession.

In the Long Jump, Veronica Szklarzewski '15 jumped 16-10 3/4 and in the Weight Throw, Ellen Liverpool fouled out with two sector fouls and one toe foul.

The Distance Medley Relay was the final event of day one. Louise van den Heuvel '14, possibly suffering from a slight concussion earlier in the week was not going to be racing. This meant MIT needed to substitute Christina Wicker '17 in at the 1200 leg and mover Maryann Gong '17 to the 1600 anchor leg. The team was sitting third in the national rankings with an 11:55, but there was little chance of that time holding up as one of the top 12 times when selection is done. Wicker looked very good early in the 1200, splitting 69.3 for the 400. She slowed too much for the second 400, hitting the 800 in 2:24.3. She fell even further back to seventh in the final 400, as she finished in 3:40.2. Starting third from last, Stephanie Guo '17 did a fantastic job of keeping MIT in the race as she ran a personal best leg of 58.5, although she did get passed, pushing MIT back to eighth. Cindy Huang '15, the only upperclassman in the event for MIT, took the baton at the back of the field absolutely buried behind the chase group. It took her 600 meters to catch up as she hit that mark in 1:38.0, then passed four teams to hand off in third pace in a huge PR of 2:12.6. Gong immediately made a strong move towards catching the leaders. Her 70.6 first 400 was a little ambitious and probably had her thinking she could not hold it. She moved into second place but started slowing as first place was too far ahead to gauge pace. Her second 400 was 74.7, much too slow for what the team needed. In the next 400 she fell back to sixth place with a 76.1. In the final 400 her competitiveness resurfaced and she smoked a 71.9 to move the team back up to third with a 4:53.3 leg to give the team a new season best of 11:44.99. By the end of the meet this time was good for third on the NCAA list while the 11:55 was 13th.

On day two, the first event for MIT was the women's High Jump. Preethi Vaidyanathan '15 needed a 5'6 1/2 jump to give her a solid chance at making Nationals. However, today was not the day as she no-heighted.

The men's Triple Jump was next. MIT was represented by both Carrington Motley '16 and Angel Echevarria '16. Motley ended up earning sixth place with a jump of 47-1. Echevarria got one fair jump in and it was 45-6 1/4. In the women's Triple Jump, Stephanie Birkhimer '14 jumped 35-10 1/2 and Michelle Johnson '15 made it to 35-5.

Isabella Stuopis '16 placed fifth in the Shot Put, throwing 43-7, finishing as the top Division III thrower.

On the track, Maryann Gong was back, this time in the 3K. She ran a flawless race, moving towards the front, hanging out in third place as the group came through the 1600 in 5:11. As the pace slowed slightly to 80 seconds and then another quarter at 79, Gong took control, moving to the front with 600 meters to go. She ran a 75 and then closed with a 36 200 to win in 9:42.48. Her time is a new MIT record and ranks her number three on the NCAA Division III list.

The final event for MIT was the men's 4x400 relay. The quartet of States Lee '16, Michael Kaba '16, Derek Barnes '16 and Tyler Singer-Clark '14 were ready to prove they were the best in New England. Lee did his job, putting his team just off of first and second place with a 48.6 opening leg. Kaba started off great despite a poor handoff. He tried to pass into first at the end of the first backstretch, but was unable to do so. After cutting his momentum and getting hung out in lane two, he made another huge effort on the homestretch, but again was denied. At this point there was not much left and he slipped badly off the leaders, finishing his leg in 49.6. Barnes was standing dead still when he received the baton and proceeded to run the first 200 in 22.7 from a dead stop. The second 200 did not go well as Barnes faded to fifth in 49.4. Singer-Clark did his best to make up the ground, but even his 47.8 could only close the gap, but not actually passing anyone. The team's 3:15.58 was a season best, but with two New England Division III teams beating them they slipped to sixth place on the NCAA list.

Next week, the team will onc again split up. On Thursday, a few will take advantage of the bonus time given to flat track times when they visited Tufts University for their Last Chance Qualifier. On Friday and Saturday, most of the rest of the MIT athletes will race at the Reggis Lewis track, the host of the ECAC Division III Championship. On Saturday and Sunday a handful of the men's team will race back at BU in the IC4A Championship. That will be the final weekend prior to the start of the NCAA Division III Championship.

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