TRACK TEAM FINISHES REGULAR SEASON AT 13-2

by Todd Chamoy

Team Member



        Last Saturday, the track team turned in a solid performance against 

perennial powerhouse Williams College. Finishing what Coach Halston 

Taylor referred to as a "year of recovery," the Engineers posted a 

respectable 13-2 record, losing only this week to Williams and last week 

to Tufts. The final score of this week's meet was Williams 260.5, MIT 

207.5, Bates 100, Norwich 22, and Worcester State 1.

        Overall, the athletes turned in good performances on Saturday, but the 

team didn't have the talent necessary to defeat Williams. The 1500 

meters was a paradigm of the races that MIT did well in, but not well 

enough. Running some of their best times all season, Joel Ford '98, Dan 

Helgesen '97, Arnold Seto '96, and Joshua Feldman '97 finished fourth, 

fifth, sixth, and seventh. Unfortunately, ahead of all four of them were 

three athletes from Williams.

        Williams also swept the top three slots of the 55 meter dash, the 200 

meters, and the 400 meters. MIT managed to place three athletes in each 

of these races, but the points Williams earned from the top three slots 

were too much to overcome. Finishing fourth through sixth in the 55 

meters were Alim Needham '97, Akin Aina G, and Paul Ogagan '97. Aina 

finished fourth in the 200 meters, followed by Lincoln Bonner '97 and 

Neil Karchem '99 in seventh and eighth places. Karchem also placed in 

the 400 meters, this time in fourth, right behind the Williams runners. 

Marlon Osbourne '98 and Reginald Paulding '97 took sixth and eighth.

        At first glance, this meet may seem like a blowout, but MIT did have 

several very successful athletes. Shot putter Keith Bevans G met his 

season goal with a third place throw of 45' 1". Ravi Sastry '98 excelled 

in the long jump with a victory and a season best 22' 0.5" jump on his 

first attempt, leaving him free to challenge Williams in other events, 

which he did rather well. In the 55 meter high hurdles, Sastry ran a 

quick 8.19, which was second by only .04 seconds to a Bates runner. 

Sastry cleared 6 feet in the high jump for the second week in a row, but 

this time it was only good enough for fourth place. Sastry also placed 

high in the triple jump, where his 41' 3.5" jump left him in third, 

behind a Norwich athlete and teammate Morio Alexander '96, who won the 

event with a 43' 8.75" jump.

        Josh Feldman came back from a successful 1500 meters to blow away the 

competition in his next event. He ran an 8:53 3000 meters, almost 5 

seconds faster than the second place Williams runner. MIT had two other 

athletes place in the 3000 meters. Michael Parkins '99 and Omar Saleh 

'97, who both ran the race in 9:10, finished seventh and eighth.

        The pole vaulters continued their successful season, led by 13' 6" 

vaults from Andrew Jamieson '99 and Jason Melvin '97. Paul Ogagan 

vaulted 13', and Michael Demassa '97 cleared 12'. Once again, this 

wasn't enough to catch Williams, who had two vaulters over 14'.

        Next week, the MIT track team travels to Brandeis University for the 

New England Division III Championships. Last year, a slightly better 

team finished third behind Williams and Coast Guard. This year, with a 

fair number of qualifiers, MIT has a good chance of being in the top 

three again, but that will require standout performances like they had 

during the past two weeks.