MIT Track & Field Teams Accomplish Goals at Springfield Invite
February 16, 2019
When the NEICAAA Championship moved last year from this weekend to the first weekend in February, it left a gap week between the New England Division III Championship held on this weekend and the NCAA Final Qualifier on the first weekend in March. This year, the New England Division III Coaches Association voted to move the championship to the final weekend in February, creating the opportunity for a final qualifier of sorts on this current weekend. There were three such meets in New England at Bowdoin College, Middlebury College and the Springfield College Triangle Classic Invitational. The teams attending were MIT, Conn. College, Springfield College, Trinity College, Tufts University, Williams College and WPI.
Most of the teams left a good portion their top athletes at home to rest for next weekend's New England Division III Championship, as most of the events were contested by those trying to get a qualifying performance, or a better one in some cases. Many of the top field event athletes competed making for some great competition in those events.
For the most part, MIT accomplished what they were hoping to, improving marks and providing flexibility with their potential entries for next weekend. For the men, one of primary areas of focus was to put up competitive times in the 4x400 Relay and DMR to get into the fast sections next weekend. For a variety of reasons MIT had not competed in a DMR and had only put together makeshift 4x400 units that had only produced a 3:31.32 performance. Benton Wilson '21, Nick Duchatellier '22, Aidan Gilson '19 and Aiden Foucault-Etheridge '22, with no competition, put together a 3:25.25 performance that moved them up to the number seven seed in New England. In the DMR, the quartet of Matthew Kearney '22, Joa Kennedy '21, Simon Alford '20 and Kent Slaney '21 put together respective splits of 3:10.5, 52.9, 1:59.0 and 4:23.6 in their second or third events of the day to run 10:26.16, a performance ranking them fourth in New England.
The most outstanding single event for the men was a battle between the Shot Putters and the High Jumpers, but the weight men pulled it out with four out of five personal bests. Will Woltmann '22 hit the 50' mark right on the button to take first place honors. Jon Fakkema '19 threw 49-7 1/4 for a personal best and second place. Ryan Nall '22 hit a PR of 47-8 1/2 for third place and Nathan Basinger '22 added his own personal best of 45-7 3/4 for fourth place. Three of the four are freshmen and will be a group to watch in the future.
While the vertical jumpers did not match the throwers, they did represent the Engineers quite well. Caleb Harris '22 matched his PR of 6-6 3/4 to win the event. Steven Speck '20 set a personal best of 6-4 3/4. Sope Eweje '20 did not set a PR, but jumped well, clearing 6-0 3/4.
The 800 runners got the job done to set themselves up as viable relay runners next week. Ellery Rajagopal '21 ran a 1:58.53 indoor PR to win his section in an excellent race. Matt Schofield '22 ran 2:00.12, a personal best.
In addition to his leg in the DMR, Joa Kennedy ran added personal bests of 21- 3 1/4 in the Long Jump and 8.76 in the 60HH.
For the women, the horizontal jumpers ruled the day. In the Long Jump, three of the four Tech jumpers entered the 17' range. Elena Andree '22 led the way with a 17-2 3/4 performance. Yilinn Yang '22 was close behind at 17-2 and Tema Nwana '21 right with them at 17-0 1/2. Nwana, added a 10' PR in the Weight Throw when she threw 40-11.
Yang joined Elizabeth Weeks '21 in the Triple Jump to place first and third. Weeks earned first with a season best of 36-5 1/2 and Yang placed third with a personal best of 35-6 3/4. Andree added a fourth place even though her 35-4 was not a season best.
On the track, the 4x400 unit of Sarah Ishamuddin '21, Margaret Trautner '20, Kristen Frombach '19 and Bailey Tregoning '19 put together a season best of 4:05.60 to put themselves in position to run in the second fastest section next weekend.
Trautner had earlier run her first 600 in 1:38.61 to earn second place behind teammate Tregoning who ran 1:38.51.
Next week the men will be at home where they will be favored to win the New England Division III Championship after not winning it the past two years. The men had won the previous four years in a row. The women will travel to Bowdoin College where they will be seeded a distant second place to Williams College, who won the championship last year. MIT had won the championship 2015-2017.
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