Alumnae Win For First Time
December 11, 2021
The "Has-Beens", the affectionate term given to all MIT Track & Field / Cross Country Alumni/ae, showed up in historic numbers (over 100 competitors, and many more there to cheer on their teammates) to celebrate the retirement of Coach Halston Taylor, and to do battle against the MIT Varsity while they had the numbers, if not in their favor, certainly closer than ever before for the annual Alumni/ae vs Varsity meet.
Although age-grading was used, it did not affect the outcome of either meet. The alumnae took the lead right out of the gate and never looked back, winning 69 to 49 using a 5-3-1 scoring format for individual events and 5-0 for the single relay. Likewise the varsity men started with a lead and kept building, taking the victory 83 to 39.
After the alums brought it together before the start of the meet, inspired by "Has-Been" coach, Halston Taylor, they went about the business of taking on their younger counterparts. In the Men's Weight Throw, Uzoma Orji '06 (five-time NCAA DIII champion - four shot put, one weight throw), Albert Menio '19 and Jon Fakkema '19 were taking on Will Woltmann '22 and Nathan Basinger '22. Both Woltmann and Basinger waited until their fifth throw for their best performances at 52-10 1/4 and 50-1 1/4 to earn first and second places. Fakkema threw 46-7 1/2 for third place, with Menio (46-1 1/4) in fourth. Orji threw a very respectable 44-11 for not picking up a throwing implement in over a decade.
At the same time, Kenneth Wei '23 was taking first place in the Long Jump with a leap of 22-1 1/2, defeating alums, Billy Ruschel '18 (21-4 3/4) and Arinze Okeke '16 (21-2 1/2).
One neutralizing event for the alums was the High Jump. Alec Reduker '20 bailed out the alums with a 6-6 3/4 victory in the High Jump, and Than Bogan '93 added a second place age-graded jump to give the "Has-Beens" a short reprieve as they trailed 14-13.
Despite the large number of entries representing alums, the Shot Put and Pole Vault went the way of the young guys as they swept both events. Liam Ackerman 'G won the vault at 15-7 and Woltmann got his second win with a victory in the Shot Put at 49-11 1/4. The varsity had no entries in the Triple Jump, holding Wei back to keep him healthy, in addition to not having their usual plethora of horizontal jumpers. Coming out of the field events the score was 32 to 22 in favor of the varsity.
As can be surmised, if the alums only scored 39 points, they were only able to garner 17 points in the running events. Five of those came from Sam Parker '15 in the 800. Sam took the lead and controlled the pace at 62 for the 400. When Matt Schofield '22 went to challenge Parker, he stepped on the gas, pulling away to run 1:59.94. Ellery Rajagopal '21 added a point for third in 2:04.96.
The Varsity swept the 200 and 400, with Benton Wilson '22 leading the way in both events: 22.39 and 50.91 respectively. Tyler Singer-Clark '14 took third outright in the 60 with a 6.72 performance, but in the age-graded version, Zach Traina '05 claimed third with a 6.58 converted time.
In the Mile, Michael Picchini '18 took third place in 4:36.76 to give the old guys one more point. The 5K was an excellent race. Jacob Hansen '24 (15:37.42) led the race, start to finish for the varsity, but it was not until the final mile that he was able to pull away from David Walter '18 and Josh Rosenkranz '19, who earned second and third in 15:41.04 and 15:46.12. Fivos Constantinou '06 passed Rosenkranz on the age-graded tables with a 15:46.00 converted time.
The only other points for the alums came in the 60HH. Wei easily claimed his second event with an 8.26. Adrian Samsel '16 surprised himself with an 8.96 for second after already having competed in the High Jump and Long Jump. With Michael Kaba '16 and Jordan Mizerak '14 going down to injury prior to the start of the race, Kyle Hannon '13, jumped into the race under Mizerak's name as there was not time to add him to the event, earning a third place in 12.44.
The women's meet had a much different start. With a slew of recent grads back in the throws, and the relative inexperience of the varsity throwers in the Weight Throw, the "Has-Beens" swept the event with Ari Slutsky '18 claiming the victory with a throw of 49-11 1/4, followed closely by Jackie Vahey '17 (48-8 1/4) and Ashley (Wheeler) Sorenson '15 (47-5 3/4). At the same time, the Pole Vault was getting started. Cimmy Virdi '16 and her four national titles did not help since she had not vaulted in quite some time. As she said, it is definitely not like riding a bike. Kari Stromhaug '19 vaulted to a second place with an 11-11 3/4 performance, losing out to Jacqueline Ahrens '22 on misses. Hannah Chen '18 jumped 17-3 1/4 to garner the victory in the Long Jump and Margaret Redfield '21 won the High Jump, clearing 5-3. Liana Reilly '21 took second on misses over MIT's Sophia Haug '25 and Tolu Akinbo '25 at 5-1.
Closing out the field events, the inexperience of the varsity throwers was only in the Weight Throw. In the Shot Put, they got revenge, taking the sweep with Alexis Boykin '25 leading the way, becoming the sixth best thrower in MIT history with her 40-8 3/4 effort. Abby Lo '25 won the Triple Jump for the Varsity at 36-3 1/2. Lucy Lee '21 grabbed a point for the alums with a 34-5 3/4 jump. The score after the field events was 28 to 26 in favor of the Varsity.
The Varsity nearly totally owned the short events. Abby Lo added another victory, this time in the 60 with an 8.08 performance. However, with only one entry for the Varsity, the alums took second and third with Michelle Menkiti '20 (8.24) and Hannah Chen (8.31). Chen came back in the 200 to take second in 27.42. Julia Howarth '24 won the 200 in 27.31, as well as led a sweep in the 400 in 60.05.
In the 60HH, Kimmy McPherson '23 was winning easily, but fell mid-way through the race, allowing Lucy Lee to take the victory in 10.69. So instead of a 5-3 score in favor of the Varsity, the Alums took a 5-0 score out of the event when McPherson was unable to finish.
Fortunately the alums were able to dominate the middle-distance and distance events. First on the schedule was the Mile. Louise van den Heuvel '14 took control early along and Margaret Trautner '20. Marissa McPhillips '20, Katie Bacher '20 and Andrea Bradshaw '09 trailed the aggressive MIT runners trying to compete with Louise and Margaret. Starting out at 5:20 pace, van den Heuvel gradually picked up the pace. The fatigued varsity runners were soon passed by the chasing alums. In the end, van den Huevel won in 5:10.56. Trautner, listed as Erin Grela, was second in 5:22.13. Bradshaw was third with an age-graded 5:23.90 for an MIT sweep. Returning in the 800, Trautner and van den Heuvel trailed an ambitious Olivia Stoner '25, representing the Varsity, who took the pace out in 33 for the first 200. When the pace slowed to 68 for the 400, Trautner took control, running 2:19.99 for the win, with van den Heuvel following in 2:20.64 for second place. Stoner kept Bradshaw at bay for third place in 2:27.20.
With two events to go: the 5K and 4x800 relay, the score was 55 to 49 in favor of the Alumnae and could go either way. Unfortunately for the Varsity, former All Americans Jenna Melanson '20, Maryann Gong '18 and Mary Eccles '18 were entered in the 5K and All Americans Trautner, van den Heuvel, McPhillips and Bacher were returning in the 4x800. The Varsity did not score another point. Melanson led start to finish, running an impressive 16:58.94 to win the 5K. Eccles took second place in 18:00.12, and Gong claimed third in 18:15.63.
In the 4x800, McPhillips led off, established a lead which was never challenged. van den Heuvel ran second, Bacher third and Trautner anchored, giving the Alums a comfortable win in 9:56.90 to the Varsity's 10:30.97. This was the first time in the women's team history that the Alumnae were able to pull out the victory.
The meet was streamed live and is archived at https://team1sports.com/mitathletics/. In addition, the celebration after the meet was recorded and can be seen and heard at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hCSnhWwhuIw&feature=youtu.be
The turnout for this meet and celebration was nothing short of phenomenal, particularly in COVID times. Everyone had to be vaccinated, do a daily attestation and wear a mask indoors when not warming-up or competing. Those competing for the Alumnae in order of graduation year were:
| Sharlene Day '91 |
| Lila French '99 |
| Janine (Buseman-Williams) Cain '01 |
| Julia Sharpe '08 |
| Andrea Bradshaw '09 |
| Emily Cole '09 |
| Maggie Lloyd '12 |
| Emily Kuo '13 |
| Stephanie Birkhimer '14 |
| Alexandra Taylor '14 |
| Christine Labaza '14 |
| Louise van den Heuvel '14 |
| Ellen Liverpool '15 |
| Ashley Sorenson (Wheeler) '15 |
| Preethi Vaidyanathan '15 |
| Cimmy Virdi '16 |
| Isabella Stuopis '16 |
| Jackie Vahey '17 |
| Madeleine Waller '17 |
| Stephanie Guo '17 |
| Natalie Alper '17 |
| Hannah Chen '18 |
| Maryann Gong '18 |
| Mary Eccles '18 |
| Ariela Slutsky '18 |
| Bailey Tregoning '19 |
| Kari Stromhaug '19 |
| Margaret Trautner '20 |
| Elise McCormack '20 |
| Folusho Jebutu '20 |
| Michelle Menkiti '20 |
| Marissa McPhillips '20 |
| Megan McCandless '20 |
| Skylar Brooks '20 |
| Jenna Melanson '20 |
| Katie Bacher '20 |
| Katie Williams '21 |
| Lucy Lee '21 |
| Tema Nwana '21 |
| Elizabeth Weeks '21 |
| Sarah Ishamuddin '21 |
| Liana Reilly '21 |
| Margaret Redfield '21 |
Represening the Alumni were:
| Brian Michon '82 |
| Bob Collins '82 |
| Gordy Holterman '86 |
| Bill Singhose '90 |
| Than Bogan '93 |
| Mike Piepergerdes '93 |
| James Kirtley '94 |
| Andy Ugarov '95 |
| John Wallberg '96 |
| Mike Demassa '98 |
| Sam Sidiqi '99 |
| Yuval Mazor '02 |
| Zach Traina '05 |
| Nate Ball '05 |
| John Brewer '05 |
| Ben Schmeckpeper '05 |
| Uzoma Orji '06 |
| David Blau '06 |
| Eric Khatchadourian '06 |
| Fivos Constantinou '06 |
| Nate Sharpe '09 |
| Gihan Amarasiriwardena '11 |
| Jared Forman '13 |
| Kyle Hannon '13 |
| Jordan Mizerak '14 |
| Justin Bullock '14 |
| Tyler Singer-Clark '14 |
| Sam Parker '15 |
| Matt Jordan '15 |
| Harrison Hunter '15 |
| Arinze Okeke '16 |
| Adrian Samsel '16 |
| Marshall Wentworth '16 |
| Michael Kaba '16 |
| Rory Beyer '17 |
| David Walter '18 |
| Billy Ruschel '18 |
| Michael Picchini '18 |
| Aidan Gilson '19 |
| Alex Knoedler '19 |
| Joah Rosenkranz '19 |
| Jon Fakkema '19 |
| Daniel Weiss '19 |
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| Alec Reduker '20 |
| Josh Derrick '20 |
| Albert Menio '20 |
| Chris Washington '20 |
| Ellery Rajagopal '21 |
Those in attendance and supporting their teammates were:
| Albert Lau '72 |
| Don Shobrys '75 |
| Jack Martin '80 |
| John Taylor '84 |
| Terry McNatt '87 |
| Tom Washington '92 |
| Dan Corcoran '94 |
| Elliott Mason '95 |
| Akin Aina '95 |
| Ethan Crain '96 |
| Reggie Paulding '97 |
| Chuck Van Buren '98 |
| Ravi Sastry '99 |
| John Biesiadecki '01 |
| Ngozi Eze '05 |
| Jesse Collins '06 |
| Alisha Schor '07 |
| Patrick Barragan '08 |
| Joe Roy-Mayhew '08 |
| Peter Mulligan '08 |
| Alina Gatowski '11 |
| Nick Leonard '11 |
| Kirsten Aarsvold '11 |
| Brian Djaja '13 |
| Josh Duncavage '13 |
| Brooke Johnson '13 |
| Abby Klein '14 |
| Jackie Konopka '14 |
| Roy Wedge '14 |
| Elaine McVay '15 |
| Michelle Johnson '15 |
| Veronica Szklarzewski '15 |
| Kali Benavides '15 |
| Angel Echevarria '16 |
| Sarah Quinn '16 |
| Carrington Motley '16 |
| Nicole Zeinstra '16 |
| Colin Godwin '17 |
| Henry Tareque '17 |
| Haley Strouf '18 |
| Dana Balek '18 |
| Ryan Prinster '18 |
| Kristen Frombach '19 |
| Alex Knapp '19 |
| Darby LaPlant '19 |
| Bailee Margolis '19 |
| Camila Thanos '19 |
| Sope Eweje '19 |
| Scott Cameron '19 |
| Simon Alford '20 |
| Brian Bates '20 |
| Dylan Doblar '20 |
| Steven Goldy '20 |
| Maia Mesyngier '20 |
| Jake Jorgensen '21 |
RETURN TO INDOOR
