MIT FINISHES 2ND IN CHAMPIONSHIPS

MIT finished 2nd to Williams College this weekend in the New England Division III Championships held at MIT. Once again Williams College was able to pull out the victory over MIT and 25 other teams with a score of 99 points to 87 to MIT. Wheaton College followed very closely behind with 86 1/2 points for third.

The Engineers did as well as could possibly have been expected, getting personal or seasonal bests from 12 of 16 performers in individual events. Most of this occurred after Matt Sandholm '97 pulled his hamstring in the 55 Meter Dash Trials. Matt was expected to not only score at least 12 points, but push back the scores from Williams and Wheaton in those events. Going into the meet Tech was seeded to get 4th behind Wheaton, Williams, and Brandeis University.

The meet began on Friday at noon with the Pentathlon. MIT hoped to get 10 points out of the event with Ravi Sastry '98 and Lincoln Bonner '97 both entered in the event (points are awarded with 10 for 1st, 8 for 2nd, 6 for 3rd, 4 for 4th, 2 for 5th, and 1 for 6th). Even though they were seeded 5th and 8th, Ravi and Lincoln had great days and finished in 2nd and 4th bettering all expectations. Ravi had 3 personal bests and another season best in the 5 event Pentathlon for a great score of 3214. Lincoln also had 3 personal bests and 1 season best as he held off a competitor from UMass/Boston for 4th and came within 1 second in the 1000 meter run of catching the 3rd place competitor.

Saturday, the magic was still in the air for MIT as John Wallberg 'G, led things off with a win in the 35 lb. Weight Throw. John bettered a field in which the first 10 places all qualified for the National Championships. Tech was also represented by Mike Butville '98 and Jason Dailey '99. Mike improved his national qualifying mark to 51-04 1/4, but missed scoring by 3 places. Jason tied his personal best of 46-1.

About the same time the Long Jump was being contested at the other end of the infield. Morio Alexander 'G, suffering from a bad ankle as well as a tender hamstring did not fair well, but Sastry again came through with a good jump and placed 6th.

On the track, the trials in the shorter events were taking place. In the 55 High Hurdles, Sastry and Bonner were again the stars, both making the finals. In the finals the competition was tough, but both ran personal bests for the 2nd day in a row and yet only placed 5th and 7th, .16 and .20 out of first.

In the 55 Meter Dash Trials, Sandholm ran the fastest time even though he eased up at 40 meters when he felt his hamstring go. At this time he had to scratch from both the finals of the 55 and the 200 Meters.

This is when the MIT Team showed their real character. Coach Halston Taylor said that most of the team came up to him and asked if Matt was going to run in the rest of the meet. Knowing that Matt was the team's big point man along with Wallberg, Coach Taylor did not know how the team would react to the idea of losing so many points. Instead of giving up and just thinking of themselves, the team responded in a way that left their coach very proud, they competed. If anything, they seemed even more determined to win the meet.

In the 600 Meter Run, Edgar Ngwenya 'G ran an intelligent race in the trials and finished 3rd with a personal best of 1:24.59 In the finals, Edgar had the most amazing finish that many at the track had ever seen. Edgar took over 3rd just before the final turn, but lost it going into the straightway. Fighting with everything he had, Edgar could not quite pull ahead, then with less than a meter to go, Edgar surged ahead as if he were pushed from behind, but he wasn't.

Co-Captain, Dan Helgesen '97, sick most of the week, pulled it together long enough to run a personal best of 1:56.31 to earn 4th place in a very fast race in which the first three finishers all qualified for Nationals. Dan only missed qualifying by less than 1 second.

Joel Ford '98 ran a very strategic race and took the lead with 400 meters to go. This may have been a little to soon. Joel began to tighten up in the last 150 meters and 3 runners passed him, leaving him in 4th with a season best of 2:33.82.

In the 1500 Meter Run, Leif Seed '99 represented MIT and also ran a personal best with a time of 4:02.17. Leif was up against some very good competition including an All-America runner from Amherst College, who ran away right from the start. Leif and two others went with him, but could not catch him and battled for the next 3 spots. Leif did not have enough to keep up, but held on for 4th.

The 3000 Meter Run brought the home crowd to their feet as Mike Parkins '99 ran the perfect race to win in 8:37.36. Mike was ranked 3rd going into the race, but over 14 seconds behind the leader. However, Mike said earlier in the week that he was not worried about what the others had done prior to the race, he would be ready. Ready he was. Mike ran right behind the fast pace set by the 2 Brandeis runners until their was 2 laps to go. At that time Mike sprinted around and away from the two. With 100 meters to go the Brandeis runners made a charge, but Mike put it in yet another gear to hold both off and significantly quieted the Brandeis crowd seated near the MIT team. Mike's last 200 meters was in 30 seconds.

Ethan Crain's freshman record in the 5000 went down to Chris McGuire as Chris ran a stoic race. All of his splits were between 73 and 75 seconds. He came through the mile in 4:53 and 2 mile in 9:46. The pace stayed consistent and so did Chris as he held on for 3rd in a new freshman record of 15:16.33.

Going back to the field events, the Pole Vault began in a very ominous way for MIT. Mike DeMassa, one of three vaulters from MIT who qualified for the competition, dislocated his elbow during warm-ups. As the vault progressed, the Tech vaulters were hanging tough, but so were the other vaulters. After 14-0 there were still 7 vaulters in the competition and Tech had two of them. Andrew Jamieson '99, went out trying to make 14-6 and missed placing by one position. Dafe Ogagan '97, in only his second week of competition for the season, cleared 14-6 easily along with 3 others. 15-0 proved to be the winning height as only 1 vaulter made it, and it was not Dafe who ended up 2nd.

In the Triple Jump, Morio showed the type of competitor he is by not dwelling on his disappointing long jump, and focusing on scoring points in the Triple. Morio placed 4th with a solid jump of 43-8, and came within an inch of having a fair high 44' jump.

The Shot Put brought more good news as Wallberg again competed well and garnered 4th with his second best throw of the season, a 46-5 1/2 effort. Also setting a personal best, but not placing was Patrick Dannen '98, throwing 43-7.

Going into the relays, Williams was not going to be caught, but Wheaton was only 3 1/2 points ahead. Coach Taylor knew that Wheaton was favored to win the 1600 Relay, having a seed time that was 8 seconds faster than their closest opponent. He also knew that MIT's 3200 Relay could win. The problem was making up the 3 1/2 points in the 1600 and Distance Medley Relays.

In the DMR, MIT got things rolling with a very gutsy effort by some guys who are not accustomed to being in the spotlight and a very fatigued Ravi Sastry and Mike Parkins. Sohail Husain '98, led things off with a 3:20 1200 leg, Ravi followed with a solid 53 quarter. When Martin Suresh '99 received the baton things looked dismal. However, Martin did not think so as he put MIT back into contention with at 2:01 leg. Parkins took over, less than 30 minutes after his winning 3000 effort, and held onto 6th place and 1 point. "Mike never questioned running the race, he just did what had to be done," said Coach Taylor.

The 1600 Relay unit had not run very fast all season and in fact had to run in the 2nd and slower section of the race. The team of Brad Geilfuss 'G, Lincoln Bonner, John Kim '98, and Neal Karchem '99 all ran 53 second quarters, but ran a season best 3:32.61 and also placed 6th, beating 2 teams in the faster section. The key here was that Wheaton only placed 2nd, as Williams won the event. This left MIT down by 9 1/2.

The final race of the meet was the 3200 Meter Relay. MIT had not run a best team in this event all season, but was prepared to do so now. The plan was simple, the Engineers had to win in order to place 2nd in the meet. Ngwenya led things off with a 2:02 leg, putting MIT a little behind the leader. Seed took over and after 600 meters opened up a large 20 meter margin, running a 1:58 800. Next up was Ford who went out very fast at 55 for the quarter. Joel held on and even opened up a larger lead with a 2:00 leg. Helgesen took over with a 40 meter lead and never looked back, running a 1:59 anchor. The victorious relay had scored the 10 points and pushed the Engineers ahead of Wheaton for 2nd place.

Next up for MIT Track and Field will be the All New England Championships at BU on the 21st and 22nd. Many individuals will try to compete in their specialty in order to qualify for Nationals