MIT DOMINATES 2ND QUAD CUP

TUFTS AND BATES LACK DEPTH TO PULL OFF VICTORY

On Saturday, the 2nd week of Quad Cup competition was hosted and won by MIT (216) over Bates (146 1/2), who having won their first week's competition was coming into the meet undefeated. Tufts (160 1/2) having lost to Bates, but looking strong on paper, looked to be the pre-meet favorite. Others in the meet were Rhode Island College (19), UMass/Dartmouth (19 1/2), and Worcester State College (25 1/2).

All teams must send in their performances prior to the meet in order to seed the events properly. Based on this, Tufts had the superior team by about 10 points. However, since Bates had defeated Tufts the week before, and by a significant margin, Tech was understandably worried about the outcome.

Quad Meets are scored 9-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 in the individual events and 9-6-3-0 if four teams are entered in the relays (changes slightly if fewer or more teams). The meet began with Bates looking great in their best event, the 35 lb. Wt. Throw, scoring 2nd, 4th, 6th, and 7th places in an event that saw the top 5 throwers over 50 feet. John Wallberg won the event, tying his personal best of 58-02 1/4, but that was it for MIT in the scoring of that event.

MIT ruled the Long Jump and Pole Vault, outscoring Bates 38 to 18 and Tufts 38 to 12. Even though MIT won neither event, the Tech competitors came through with solid performances. The other jumps (Triple and High) did not go so well. Tech scored 9 points in the High Jump and that was actually a big plus, as they had planned on only scoring 4 or 5. Leif Seed '99, came back after the 1500 Meters and nailed 5-10 to claim 4th, while Ravi Sastry '98, garnered 5th, also jumping 5-10. In the Triple, Morio Alexander 'G finished off a great day, (2nd-Long Jump, 3rd-400, 6th-200) with a season best effort on his last jump to fall 1/4" shy of first place. Sastry scored the only other points for MIT, winning 8th place.

After looking good in the trials of the 55 Meter Dash by qualifying all 4 runners for the finals, and running two of the fastest times in the Hurdle Trials, MIT had a poor showing in the 1500. "We got crushed at the start," said Coach Halston Taylor. Indeed, the Engineers fell into the back of the pack while a freshman from Bates took control of the race. Leif Seed gave chase, but had to work too hard getting up to the front, and ran out of gas near the end. MIT still outscored their opponents in the race, but were hoping for a few more and a more competitive effort.

In the 55 Meter High Hurdles, fatigued runners Sastry and Lincoln Bonner '97 made a valiant effort but finished 2nd and 3rd respectively behind a Tufts runner. Bonner ran a personal best of 8.18 seconds in his effort. Both Sastry and Bonner were also in the Long Jump, High Jump, and Dash. In addition, Sastry still had the Triple Jump to come and Bonner the 200 Meter.

The 400 and 600 provided great efforts for MIT, but a lack of depth in these events hurt the overall effort. Brad Geilfuss 'G joined Alexander in scoring in the 400 with a 4th place finish. In the 600 Meter, Edgar Ngwenya 'G ran a great race, finishing in 1:25.51, 2 tenths out of 1st. Neal Karchem '99, scored the only other Tech point with a 7th place finish. Those 2 events provided Tufts with a 9 point edge and Bates a 3 point difference over MIT in just those events.

From that point on, MIT competed very well as a team. In the Dash, Matt Sandholm '97 won easily in 6.68. MIT also placed 4th, 7th, and 8th. Tech then scored a total of 29 points in the 800 and 1000 Meter Runs, getting great efforts out of Dan Helgesen '97, Leif Seed, Joel Ford '98, Sohail Husain '98, Martin Suresh "99, and Gabe White '00.

The 200 Meter event secured the team victory for MIT. Sandholm again won easily and Bonner ran a great time of 23.85 for a personal best to get 2nd place. Geilfuss placed 4th and Alexander 6th to give MIT 24 points in just this event.

Remaining were the Shot Put and the relays. Wallberg rallied for a personal best in the Shot Put, throwing 47-0 1/4 for 2nd place and got unexpected backup from Patrick Dannen '98 for 6th and George Torres '99 for 7th place. The relays were a moot issue, but Coach Taylor had the star middle-distance runners get together to win the 1600 Relay in a season best time of 3:32.9. They need a good seed time to get into the fast section of the upcoming New England Division III Championships, which will be hosted by MIT on February 14 and 15.

Next week, MIT heads to Maine to compete with Bowdoin, and Norwich at Bates. Bowdoin's involvement may be more of a hindrance to MIT and a help to Bates than Tufts was.