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.