Men's Track Gains Experience at IC4As

The Men's Track Team Members who qualified for the IC4As did pretty well this weekend at Princeton. The IC4A Championships are the oldest and most prestigious championship in the United States. It is primarily a Division I Conference, but other division Institutions can join. To qualify for this meet is quite an achievement at our level. To see the standards necessary to qualify for the meet look up this URL: <http://web.mit.edu/athletics/www/intercol/mens/xc/indoorstandards.html>.

John Wallberg 'G, started things off in the Weight Throw. After some good warm-ups, John started okay with 57-7 3/4 effort. Needing only 60' to make finals, we both thought he would be there. However, on his next two throws he stepped wide and was out of position, making his first throw his best one. John finished 12th overall.

Joel Ford '98, was up next in the 1000. He was seeded 19th out of 25, but finished 15th with an even split 2:30.35 effort. Joel had to quickly get his mind off of this race and concentrate on his next one in less than 2 hours, the 3200 Relay.

Last, was the relay. The relay team qualified for this meet with a 7:44.40 effort the week before at Boston University's very fast banked track. The goal was to make the finals, which historically takes about a 7:40 effort. Dan Helgesen '97, led things off, staying competitive, and running a much better race than the week before with a 1:57.6 first leg. Leif Seed '99, was next and ran a great leg, taking off after the competition in splits of 26, 54, and 1:23 to finish in 1:54.0. Edgar Ngwenya 'G, began the leg competitively with splits of 27, 56, and 1:26, but faded badly in the last 200 to a 2:00.2, putting the team out of any chance to make the finals. Joel ran as if he were unaffected by the team's position or his previous race, and ran a very competitive 1:56.6.

John will be going on to Nationals this Thursday to compete on Friday at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh.