Women Deliver New England Division III Title

Six Individual Victories Lead the Way

February 20-21, 2015

The women began the New England Division III Championship, hosted by Smith College, with three event victories, taking all the spirit out of the other teams. They never took their collective foot off the gas until the final three events, easily outdistancing the other 28 scoring teams with 151 points to 86 points for second place Williams College.

The first three field events were the Pole Vault, Weight Throw and Triple Jump. With these three and the first running event, the Distance Medley Relay (DMR), the Engineers wanted to put their opponents away and not give them a thought of an upset. In the Weight Throw both Ellen Liverpool '15 and Jackie Vahey '17 put themselves in position to place first and second on their second throw. Ashley Wheeler '15 added a sixth place to give Tech 21 points with the 10-8-6-5-4-3-2-1 scoring format. Liverpool threw a personal best 54-8 3/4 to put her 11th on the NCAA Division III list. The top 17 women in each event and top 12 relay teams make the NCAA Division III Championship in three weeks. Vahey also threw a PR, hers 50-8.

The Pole Vault yielded nearly as many points. The top two ranked vaulters in the country were going at it as Cimmy Virdi '16 of MIT was set to dual Erin Silva '15 of Bowdoin College, both tied at 12-9 1/2 entering the meet. Maeve Devlin '18 earned a three way tie for fifth at 10-11 3/4 while Abby Klein '15 placed third at 11-5 3/4. Silva cleared 12-5 1/2 on her second attempt to take the lead as Virdi needed all three attempts to make the height. However, at 12-11 1/2, Virdi cleared on her first attempt while Silva failed to make the height to give Virdi the top vault in NCAA Division III and the victory. MIT claimed 19 points for a total of 40 in the first two events and their main rival, Williams College, scored zero.

In the Triple Jump, Michelle Johnson had the day she has been waiting for, adding nearly a foot to her season best, jumping 37-3 3/4 to place sixth in the event when she was not seeded to score. Williams earned second place for eight points, but the route was on.

Three freshmen led the way for MIT in the DMR, anchored by Nicole Zeinstra '16. Liz Cox '18 started things off with the 1200, leading start to finish in a superb 3:45. Annie Dai '18 ran her best 400 of the year with a 60.1 leg to open the lead up to 10 meters. Lauren Paul '18 ran her best race of the season, a 2:22 800, to give Zeinstra a small lead to start the 1600 leg. A small lead was more than the distance runner needed. Running splits of 75, 76, 77, Zeinstra was told to back off in the final quarter as she had built up a 40 meter lead and was scheduled to race the 3K at the end of the meet. Finishing with a 5:06 split to total 12:14.35, Tech added 10 more points to their total. Williams managed a third place finish for six points.

In the next final, the 5K, MIT added more big points. Elaine McVay '15 took control of the race at the start, attempting to run 83 second quarters with hopes of qualifying for the NCAA Championship. Running 5:27 for the 1600, McVay was ahead of schedule, but in the second 1600 she ran 5:36 as she lost focus and the lead, falling behind by quite a bit. In the final 1800 meters, the leader started to falter and McVay found her groove again, running another 5:36 with an 81 last quarter and then a 39 final lap to finish first in 17:18.80, a flat track personal best. Mary Eccles '18 ran a very smart race, coming from behind to place eighth in a 17 second PR of 18:00.64. Williams managed two points for seventh place making the overall score 64-16.

In the 4x200, an event the Engineers tend not to run in these championships, MIT ran Kendra Knittel '17, Veronica Szklarzewski '15, Kayla Harris '15 and Annie Dai '18, pulling Hannah Chen '18 due to the number of events for the freshman and the close proximity of those events. As the early sections were running, Szklarzewski was competing in the Long Jump where she had made the finals with a nice personal best, sitting in eighth place. With time for one more jump before she had to sprint over to be ready for the start of the 4x200, the senior popped a 17-8 3/4 performance to move up to fourth place and set a new MIT record. Knittel opened up with a competitive 26.7 despite having to start in lane four. The LJ took something out of Szklarzewski who was not focused, only producing a 27.5. Harris and Dai both ran 26.4 to get MIT a sixth place.

Both the High Jump and Shot Put, the final two field events were going on at this time. Natalie Alper '18 was also in the LJ, jumping a personal best of 17-1 1/4 to place seventh. Going back and forth between the two events, the freshman took two attempts to clear 4-11 and 5-1, but cleared 5-3 on her first attempt. Preethi Vaidyanathan '15 also cleared 5-3 on her first attempt, giving MIT two of the eight who cleared that height. At 5-5, Vaidyanathan made the height on her second attempt. Alper just missed clearing it, but earned fifth place by virtue of her first attempt make at 5-3. No one cleared 5-7, giving Vaidyanathan a huge second place finish. Again Williams failed to score. MIT had 87 points and the meet was just about half way over.

Isabella Stuopis '16 needed her final throw to move from fourth to second with a 42-5 1/4 effort in the Shot Put. Jackie Vahey was unable to score, placing one place south of scoring.

In the Mile run, an event where MIT had the top three seeds, Sarah Quinn '16 was pulled from the event as well as the 3K due to a knee injury. Christina Wicker '17 was seeded second but was feeling ill from a cold and was letting it mess with her confidence. Fortunately the solid Maryann Gong '17 was ready to go. Gong took the lead with a 72 first quarter. Only one opponent, along with Wicker, dared go with her. Gong hit the half at 2:25 and Wicker was right behind. Gong was at the three quarter mark in 3:41. Wicker gave up just prior to that, falling way back. Gong took off, finishing with a 70 to run 4:51.12, the top time in Division III and a new MIT record.

Hannah Chen was up in the 400 after failing by .005 to advance to the final of the 60HH even though she ran a personal best of 9.27. Unfortunately she drew lane one on one of the tightest turns for an indoor track. Chen ran a great race but was last at the break as she just could not generate speed in lane one. On the second lap she closed well when all were running on the inside lane, moving up to fourth place, missing first by .38 seconds. There is little doubt she would have won if in an outside lane for the first lap.

Szklarzewski ran a personal best of 7.92 in the 60 Meter Dash trials and was up in the finals. As they were preparing to start the runner next to her false started. This shook Szklarzewski a bit, causing a less than great start. However, she ran 7.98 to beat one other finalist to place sixth, earning three unexpected points.

The 800 was up, which meant the amazing Gong was back on the track. Joining her was number one seed Cindy Huang '15. Although Huang is managing an achilles tendon injury, she did not let it affect her race mentality. Taking the lead with three hundred to go after a crisp 66 first 400, Gong was slow to respond. With 250 to go Gong moved to join Huang. Both Huang and Gong were in control until Huang started to falter with 100 to go. Gong sprinted away with a 2:14.87 victory while Huang hung on for a third place 2:16.14.

Wicker gives up at times, but she often comes back very well. She did just that in the 1000. While she could not stay with the leader the entire race, she fought very hard for second place, running 72, 2:24 and 2:59.63 to earn MIT eight points.

Chen was back in the 200, this time getting lane three of the five lanes being used. She raced very well, placing fourth in 26.20, .44 out of first. Again, a more favorable lane may have made all the difference between first and fourth

At this point, MIT put on the brakes. They pulled McVay from the upcoming 3K, pulled Chen from the 4x400 and scratched from the 4x800 despite being seeded number one.

Zeinstra was back in the 3K, as was Eccles, who was running her final race of the season prior to getting ready for the outdoor season. Zeinstra was patient with the slow pace, 5:27 at the 1600, taking the lead for a short period before letting the heat get to her. Her focus went to how she was feeling instead of the race. She lost the lead, but then rallied with a 39 second final lap to hold onto second place in 10:11.09. Eccles was in the first and unseeded section of the 3K. She ran a very competitive race, running a new personal best of 10:28.51, finishing third in her section. Those in the fast section faded at the end, allowing Eccles to finish seventh overall, completing an impressive day.

The final event for MIT was the 4x400 relay. With Chen out, it was going to be difficult for the Engineers to score. Knittel led off and was totally out of it at the start, putting her team behind with a 64.3 leadoff leg. Dai came through again, running 60.9. Sam Fierro '18, injured all season, was the replacement for Chen and ran 60.9. Harris came back with a 60.2 to give MIT a 4:06.3, missing the top eight by one place and .39 seconds.

Next week is the NEICAAA Championship, which pits Division I, II and III schools throughout New England against each other at Boston University. From this point on MIT will be focusing on the NCAA Division III Championship. The upcoming meet will be used to improve performances to get in position to make the NCAA field and then score when there.

 

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