MIT Track & Field Teams Have Best Meet of Season at BU Valentine Invitational

February 8-9, 2019

On day one of the Boston University David Hemery Valentines Invitational and the start of day two, the women representing MIT competed amazingly well.  All in all the women came away with three NCAA Division III qualifying performances, an MIT record and a few MIT top ten all-time performances.

Margaret Trautner '20, already qualified for Nationals in the 800, moved to the 1000 to test her ability to run the 1200 leg of the Distance Medley Relay.  The junior ran an outstanding race, going out in 33.0, taking the lead later in the race when it slowed and won going away with a new MIT record of 2:54.92.  This should give her confidence in being able to handle the DMR leg the next day.

In the 400, Sarah Ishamuddin '21, recently tried the event to try and provide a strong leg for the DMR, teamed with veteran Kristen Frombach '19 they were racing to see who would be the best for the position.  For both it was the first time on a banked track.  Ishamuddin raced first, went out in 28.3, ran a great backstretch until she cut her momentum at the end of the straight because she did not plan her pass well.  She accelerated again, but it took a little out of her.  Nevertheless she ran 60.06.  Frombach also got out well in 28.8, but seemed flat and unable to take advantage of the banked turns.  She finished in 61.94.

Marissa McPhillips '20 was out to improve her Mile time to guarantee a national qualifying mark.  She was in a fast section and let them do the work.  Her first 440 was 72.4 and her second a 73.9.  She maintained that pace through a 3:40.1 3200 then fell off just a bit in the final two laps to run a Mile personal best of 4:55.05.  A time that should certainly get her into the national championship.  Tessa Weiss '20 ran in a later section and also raced well, but not to her potential.  The junior went out well in 75.2, but then did not take charge when the pace slowed to splits of 2:32.7 and 3:51.2.  She finished in a season best 5:09.71, moving in the right direction.

At the end of the first evening Tech had two in the 5K; Katie Collins '21 and Jenna Melanson '20.  Both were racing to finish as close to 17:00 as possible and beat as many as possible in the process.  The goal was 81-82 second 400's.  Collins and Melanson were perfect through a 5:25 first 1600.  In the second 1600 Melanson started to fall off at the end as she came through in 10:56 to Collins's 10:55.  Collins refocused as she had fallen to two straight 83's.  She ran 82's the rest of the way until the final 600 where she ran 40 second 200's the rest of the way to a 17:01.78.  Melanson fell off with a final 1600 of 5:47, but closed with a 42 final 200 to show she lost focus in the final 1600.

While the second day was the men's day, the one exception was the women's DMR at the start of the meet.  MIT was in the fast section based on last year's performance as they had not run one this season.  Trautner was the leadoff for the 1200 leg.  She positioned herself towards the back of the 12 team field.  The initial pace was just off the 35.0 goal at 35.7.  She went around a few runners and hit the 400 split in 70.6.  Somewhere towards the end of the 600 she started thinking, which took her mentally out of the race a bit.  She remained competitive and finished strong in 3:35.2.  Ishamuddin had a clean exchange and ran an excellent leg, handing off in 59.0.  Bailey Tregoning '19, who the day before had gotten caught up in a very slow, strategic 800 that finished in 2:15, and typically tries to make up deficits in the first 200, was very patient.  Even though she was behind the next runner by 25 meters at the handoff, she gradually moved up as she split the first 400 in 64.3.  Although she fell off a little in the final 400 she split 2:11.7 to put the Engineers in a great position for McPhillips to do her thing.  In sixth place with five Division I teams in front of her, the junior moved up slowly.  However, moving up slowly brought her through a 70.5 first 400, which was way too fast.  She showed her strength by not falling apart.  Although she did not move into the top five despite a 2:24 800 and 3:40 1200, she did finish in 4:55.2 to anchor her team in 11:41.25, currently the fastest time in Division III.

The men began with the 800.  Aiden Foucault-Etheridge '22 was Tech's first competitor.  The freshman had missed a few weeks of racing due to a tweaked hamstring, so was unsure how things would go.  To his credit he did not consider that an issue and raced well.  With the exception of making a big pass on the turn, having to go out to lane three, after 500 meters, he raced well and nearly won as he was caught at the finish in a 1:54.45.  Reed Foster '22, another freshman who had missed some time due to injury was in a similar position, racing for the first time this season.  Foster also raced with good instincts with the exception of making passes on three of the four turns.  He pulled away in the final lap, running a 1:55.28.

Nick Duchatellier '22 was up next in the 400.  Getting a better feel for collegiate indoor running and a better sense of pacing, the freshman went out in control, positioned himself well at the break in 23.0 and proceeded to run 49.85, almost pulling out the section victory.

Alec Reduker '20 was the sole field event competitor for MIT.  Competing in the High Jump, the All American was able to clear 6-6 3/4, but did not clear 6-8 1/4 despite two good attempts.

In the 200, Benton Wilson '21 improved his time to 21.82, which currently ranks him 10th on the DIII national list.

Up in the 1000 were Simon Alford '20 and Billy Woltz '20.  Alford, the defending New England Division III Champion, was cautious at the start in order to avoid taking the lead as he was in the outside lane in a two turn stagger.  He ran an excellent race from the back, hitting even splits to come through the 800 in 1:59.7, but never had his notorious kick, finishing in 2:30.07, a nice season best, but lacking something at the end.  Woltz, trying to find the right event this season as he has range from 800 to 5K, ran a strong 1000.  Running the first 800 very well, he made a strong move to approach taking the lead coming into the 800, but backed off at the end of the straight, cutting his momentum as he tucked in.  He was unable to get it back, finishing in 2:32.02.

The Mile was next and Aidan Gilson '19 was hoping to get out of his mental funk and get back to being the runner he is.  The senior took one giant step forward towards accomplishing that by delivering a 4:12.38 gem.  He raced very well with splits of 62.7, 2:06.0 and 3:08.9.  He probably took the lead too soon with 360 to go on the turn.  With 100 to go he faded a bit as he was passed on the final turn.  This was a big boost heading into the championships.  Kent Slaney '21 was in a later, slower section, so the concern was that the pace would be too slow.  Although it was the 14th section out of 24 ( there had already been 12 sub-4 minute miles in earlier sections), the pace was very fast with the opening 440 in 60.7 for Slaney and he was in fifth place.  He ran a great race, moving up as the pace slowed, taking the lead with 400 to go and holding it.  He finished strong in a personal best 4:14.86.

While the distance events had some excellent performances for the men representing MIT, they were not quite to the standard set by their teammates throughout the weekend.  Matthew Kearney '22 was up first for the Engineers.  Two weeks prior his 3K had set up perfectly for him to run 8:28.13.  This time the section was much more competitive.  He was hoping to go through the 1600 in 4:24-4:28.  The initial pace did not get out well, which put Kearney in the back in 69 seconds.  The pace did pick up, but not enough, and Kearney could not get around those bunched in front of him who were three to four wide.  The flow never happened and Kearney never was able to relax and race.  Nevertheless he ran a competitive race even though he fell off to 70's at the end, finishing in 8:32.10.  Steven Goldy '20 was next and ran exactly has planned, coming through the 1600 in 4:39.  Looking good with plenty in the tank, Goldy never felt confident with opening up and going after the leaders until the final 150.  Although his 8:43.32 was an excellent improvement there is plenty more there.

The final event was the 5K.  Andrew Mah '22, racing the 5K for the second week in a row, hoping to qualify for nationals ran into a similar situation as Kearney in the 3K.  The initial pace was slow, and with Mah in the back, he was unable to pass due to the congestion and number of bodies in front of him.  This combined with not being fresh mentally had him lose focus about half-way through.  His 14:57.79 was far below his ability.  In the fourth section, MIT had three runners; Josh Derrick '20, Finn Jacobson-Schulte '21 and Alex Knoedler '18.  Derrick went out with the leaders, but was very uncomfortable with how close the runners were.  He was not accustomed to having his heels kicked and getting jostled around so he never relaxed, wasting significant energy in the first half of the race.  While he slowed slightly during the race from all the fatigue, he ran a strong season best of 15:09.38.  Jacobson-Schulte and Knoedler worked together early, coming through the 1600 in 4:52, but Knoedler was never relaxed.  Knoedler slowed to a 4:55 second 1600 and Jacobson-Schulte a 4:57.  Jacobson-Schulte remained at 5:00 pace until the final 200 where he ran a 35 for a 15:27.63.  He was never fatigued and did not challenge his ability despite the personal best.  Knoedler's tense racing got the best of him after 3200 meters, causing him to fade to a 15:34.61.

Back at MIT, the field event athletes, sprinters and hurdlers and a few oval runners were competing in the Gordon Kelly Invitational.  The top performance has to go to Jon Fakkema '19 in the Weight Throw.  The senior won with a huge personal best of 59-2, number nine on the all-time MIT list and 19th on the current NCAA list.  Also in the Weight Throw, Ryan Nall '22 threw 51-0 1/4 and Nate Basinger '22 threw 47-2 1/2.

Joa Kennedy '21 attempted his first Heptathlon and performed amazingly well.  With marks of 7.53 in the 60, 20-7 3/4 in the Long Jump, 25-1 1/4 in the Shot Put, 5-11 1/4 in the High Jump, 8.78 in the 60HH, 11-1 3/4 in the Pole Vault and 2:46.98 in the 1000, the sophomore scored 4384 points, ranking him seventh in New England Division III.

Alex Liu '22 had a big day, running 7.25 in the 60 and 23.59 in the 200, both personal bests.

For the women Megan Su '22 had a great day, sprinting to an 8.32 personal best and jumping 16-8 1/2 in the Long Jump.  Folusho Jebutu '20 did not quite throw a personal best, but she did throw a season best of 48-7 1/4 in the Weight Throw to win the event.

Next week, MIT will rest many of their athletes in preparation for the New England Division III Championship on February 22-23.  Others will travel to Springfield College to get some final qualifying marks or fine tune their performances.

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