Long Sprints Lead Engineers to Third Consecutive New England Division III Title

February 20-21, 2015

At the Men’s New England Division III Indoor Track & Field Championship, the energy of the Springfield College Fieldhouse never quite reached the level commensurate with a traditional New England Division III Championship. From the very beginning of the meet, it seemed that the MIT Men’s Track and Field team was expected to overtake the competition. MIT did not disappoint. In business-like fashion, the MIT Men’s Track and Field team sprinted away from the 26 team field, scoring 129 points to 73 for runner-up Bates to win the Indoor New England Division III Championship for the third year in a row and the fifth time in the past six years.

Despite the relatively docile demeanor of the competition overall, it did not take away from the steadiness with which the Engineers performed. Luke Gray ’18 was able to get the team started on Day One of the Heptathlon, putting together four personal bests in his first four events. Gray completed Day One of competition by running 7.68 in the 60m Dash, Long Jumping 18-2 ¼, throwing the Shot Put 37-00 ¼, and finishing with a personal best in the High Jump by going 5-3. Due to his strong performance, Gray positioned himself in 8th place, only 43 points out of 7th. Day Two brought with it opportunity as Matthew Begley of Worcester State was disqualified in the 60mHH, taking him out of the scoring position. In addition, Alex Karys of Tufts University no heighted in the Pole Vault, leaving the door open for Gray to move up in place. Gray responded beautifully, having strong performances in both events, putting himself in 7th place with the 1,000m to go. In the 1,000m Gray once again made the most of his opportunity, running a 2:55.36, moving him into a 6th place finish, beating his seed by two places with a personal record point total of 4163.

With the strong start provided by the freshman Heptathlete, the MIT milers continued the momentum with a very impressive performance. Seeded 5th and 6th coming into the competition, Colin Godwin ’17 and Nicholas O’Connell ’18 looked to grab more points for the team. Godwin ran an incredibly intelligent race sitting in 3rd place, biding his time before opening up on the competition and taking the lead with 400m to go. He would not relinquish his lead and would go on to be crowned the champion, finishing with a personal best time of 4:14.47. Meanwhile, Freshman O’Connell did some impressive racing of his own, timing his kick perfectly by breaking away from a second pack of runners with 400m to go and holding on to a 4th place finish with a time of 4:18.25.

As impressive as the Mile was for MIT, the 1,000m proved to be a very entertaining and controversial race. A loaded field of runners featuring sub-1:50 800m runner, Mitchell Black from Tufts University, and 4:08 miler, Andrew Sukeforth from Bridgewater State, was set with MIT runners Rick Paez ’15 and Daniel Kilcoyne ’16 looking to challenge the All-Americans. Although Kilcoyne was not able to put forth his best performance, Paez showed his competitive spirit by staying with Sukeforth throughout the race. As Black of Tufts pulled away to finish 1st, Paez and Sukeforth battled until the very end. This battle was not without drama as Andrew Beaudoin of Williams looked to spoil the party for Paez and Sukeforth. However, Beaudoin’s decision to pass on the inside of Paez, who was in lane one, proved to be a mistake as his momentum carried him off of the track. Beaudoin then made an attempt to rejoin the competition by hopping back onto the track, impeding Paez’s finish and potentially influencing his ability to hold of Bridgewater’s Sukeforth in the end. As the dust settled, Beaudoin was disqualified and Paez was able to hold on to an impressive 3rd place finish, running 2:31.34 and losing to Sukeforth by .005 of a second.

In the 800m, Sam Parker ’15, went out a bit too conservatively, keeping him in the back half of the field for too long. Despite a strong kick with about 200m to go, the leaders, Desmond of Southern Maine and Cattanach of Eastern Connecticut, proved too much for Parker, who finished in 3rd place with a solid time of 1:55.31. In the 3K, Matt Deyo ’17 showed that he would not back down from the talented field of runners, taking early control of the pace and leading the race through the first mile. Although he was not able to hold onto the lead the entire way, Deyo went on to finish 5th with an 8-second personal best time of 8:29.69. In the 5K, Benji Xie ’15 pushed the pace for the first 3,000m, setting up a fast race for the rest of the field. In the end, it wasn’t meant to be for Xie who fell off the pace finishing 8th with a time of 15:13.42. Allen Leung ’15, however, was able to stay steady throughout the race, never losing focus and finishing in 5th place with a time of 15:06.73 to pick up 4 more points for the Engineers.

The most dominant performance for MIT came in both the 200m and 400m competitions. In the 200m, MIT demonstrated that its sprinters are, without rival, the best in the region, placing 1-2-3-5 and putting three runners in front of top-seeded sprinter Jared Barros of Worcester State. In his first New England Division III Championship, Tre Albritton ’18 fought off the competition by finishing his race the way it should be done, out-leaning his competitors and running a time of 22.91 for 5th place. In the final section, Luca Cacopardo ’18, Michael Kaba ’16, and States Lee ’16 blew away the competition, taking 1-2-3 from lanes 4, 5, and 6. In the end, it was the Freshman Cacopardo who cruised to victory in a time of 22.57, taking home another individual title for the MIT Men’s team. Meanwhile, Kaba and Lee finished neck and neck, taking 2nd and 3rd in 22.64 and 22.66, respectively. In an equally impressive fashion, MIT’s sprinters crushed the field of 400m runners by going 1-2-3. Kaba continued his point scoring by finishing in 3rd place with a hard-fought time of 50.36, narrowly edging Jeremy Collins of Southern Maine. Derek Barnes ’16 added to his impressive indoor campaign by running a very solid 50.15 for 2nd place. Lee, however, stole the show, getting a strong start and taking an early lead that he would never surrender, successfully defending his 400m title with an impressive time of 49.88. Of the 129 points scored by MIT on the day, 52 of them were scored in the 200 and 400m, a truly impressive feat and one that took away whatever wind rival schools may have had in their sails.

In the throwing events, the day belonged to Sean Enos of Bates College. The senior had a huge day, winning the Shot Put by over 3 feet. Enos also went on to win the Weight Throw with an even more impressive performance, setting a new New England Division III Record of 65-2 ¾. MIT’s Ken Cooper ’15 was unable to keep pace with boys of Bates College; however, he performed well enough to score valuable points by taking 3rd in the Shot Put (51-9 ¼) and 4th in the Weight Throw (54-9 ¼). In the Pole Vault, Marshall Wentworth ’16 and Abe Gertler ’18 helped the group overcome an unfortunate no-height by teammate Ben Schreck ’15. Both Wentworth and Gertler competed well at the right time, putting together season best performances of 13-9 ¼ to finish in a 3-way tie for 6th place. In the Long Jump, Carrington Motley ’16 fought through some foul trouble to qualify for finals from the first flight. After Arinze Okeke ’17 failed to make finals in the event, Motley stepped in to finish 7th in a rather subdued Long Jump competition, finishing with a jump of 21’2 ¾”.

Coming into the meet, the Triple Jump looked to be the biggest field event point-scorer for the Engineers. MIT’s Triple Jumpers did not disappoint, although the outcome looked rather uncertain in the preliminary round of jumps. Seeded to score 16 points, MIT qualified three jumpers into the final with Okeke leading, Billy Ruschel ’18 tied for 5th, and Motley squeaking in the final in 9th place. Into the final round of jumps, the jumpers of MIT had yet to improve their position. In his last jump, Motley was able to muster a jump of 44-2 ¾, moving him from 9th to 7th position by surpassing both Trinity’s Aman Stuppard and Bowdoin’s Colin Litts in the process. Next up, Ruschel’s final round jump. On his sixth and final attempt, Ruschel refused to be denied, putting together a fantastic jump of 45-5 ¾, a new season best for the freshman. With his jump, Ruschel improved his position from 5th to tie for 1st with Okeke, knocking top-seeded Brian Greenberg from Bowdoin, into 3rd place. Once Greenberg failed to improve his jump in the final round, the stage was set for Okeke to take his final jump to win the Triple Jump title outright. As he tore down the runway, Okeke hit three beautiful phases, jumping 46-1 ¼, surpassing teammate Ruschel, and adding another indoor individual title for MIT. Although the distances were not earth shattering, it was the way with which the MIT Triple Jumpers owned the competition when it mattered the most that tied a ribbon around the satisfying team victory. With the 20 points gained from the Triple Jump, MIT was very comfortably ahead, affording them the luxury of resting the 4x400m relay in preparation for upcoming national-qualifying performances.

Next week, the MIT Men’s Track and Field team looks to improve national list positions against competition from Division I, II, and III schools at the NEICAAA Championships hosted by Boston University.

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