JANUARY 9, 1999
On Saturday, MIT hosted the annual Beaver Relays. This is typically a non scoring invitational designed for the athletes to regain their sense of competition after the long holiday break. MIT appeared unusually prepared for the competition, resulting in some outstanding performances for this early in the season.
The Pentathlon, a multi-event combining the performances of the 55HH, Long Jump, Shot Put, High Jump, and 1000 Meters, started the meet off at 9:30. By the event's end at 1:00, MIT freshman, Jordan Alperin, was in front with 2817 points. Jordan narrowly held off John Nadeau from Keene State, who had a very fast 1000 meters to move into 2nd place ahead of MIT's Peter Bluvas '01, 2805 points to 2793 respectively.
MIT's throwers all had season bests in the 35 Lb. Weight Throw. Jason Dailey '99, led the way by winning the event with a throw of 49-11, qualifying him for the New England Div. III Championship, and missing the All Division New England Championship by 1 inch. Todd Chamoy '99, threw 45-6 1/2 for second.
Senior Captain, Ravi Sastry, was out of the meet while his hamstring heels from an early season pull. Ravi is a pentathlete who is one of the best hurdlers and long jumpers in New England. The Long Jump was not the same without him. Tuft's Oliver Wong won the event with a 21-0 3/4 effort. The closest competitor was MIT's Robbie Gray '02, who had a leap of 19-10 1/4.
In the Triple Jump, Tech had four of the five top jumps, but once again, Wong from Tufts won the event. Both Gray and Kalpak Kothari '01, jumped over 40' with 40-08 3/4, and 40-05 respectively.
The Pole Vault, usually a strong event for MIT, continued that trend. Sam Thibault '00, jumped a season best of 13-06, and Matt Potts '00 cleared 13-00 for a 1-2 finish. The other vertical jump, the High Jump, only had one Tech entry due to the participation by the other MIT jumpers in the pentathlon.
With the loss of George Torres '99, due to withdrawal from MIT, the throws are certainly going to be weaker. However, as evidenced by the Weight Throw, the throwers are obviously stepping up. In the Shot Put, Bluvas returned from his pentathlon effort to turn in a 40-10 1/2 for 2nd place. In third was Brian Rogers '01, with a heave of 40-10 1/4.
On the track, things got started off with the 3000. Freshman Dan Feldman, continued his winning ways by taking the lead right from the start and never looking back while running an 8:57.37. Mike Parkins '99, was second with a 9:05.22 run. Phil Loiselle '01, was 4th with a 9:12.11, and Chris McGuire '00, was not quite himself, running a 9:16.80 for 5th.
Next on the track was the 5000. MIT continued to show their distance dominance by going 1-2-3. Mark Strauss '01, ran a 15:30.97 for 1st place, becoming the 4th MIT runner this year to run 15:30 or better. Nearly breaking 16:00 was Ed Keehr '01, running 16:00.36 for 2nd. Liyan Guo '01, was 3rd with a 16:05.58.
Leif Seed '99, is not quite his competitive self as yet, and it showed, as he never challenged for the lead, getting 2nd with a 4:29.16 performance in the Mile Run. Since the meet was non-scoring, Sean Montgomery '01, passed up the Mile so he could concentrate on the 800. With the exception of a slow 2nd 200, Sean concentrated very well, running away with the half in 1:56.50. The other MIT 800 runners did not fair so well, with the exception of a personal best by Damian Plummer '02, of 2:05.94.
Tech's top two pentathletes came back in the high hurdles to claim first and second. Alperin won with a 8.55, while Bluvas was second in 8:56. In the other sprint event, Gray ran a personal best of 6.79, losing to Barrer from Tufts with the same time. Gray's time qualified him for the New England Division III Championships. Other personal bests were claimed by Roy Emanuel '99, in 6.98, and Neal Karchem '99 in 7.01.
Todd Rosenfield '01, seeded in the slower section, ran a personal best of 52.03 to win the event. Yuval Mazor '02, ran leaning back the entire race, which cost him in the end as he faded to 3rd in the fast section with a 52.59. Freshman Alan Raphael also ran well with a 53.35 clocking.
Running the 55 instead of the 400 as the first event seemed to favor Karchem regarding his 200 performance as he ran a personal best of 23.96 to win his section and claim 3rd overall. Kamal Mokeddem '01, also ran well with a season best of 24.21.
The relays were supposed to be the strongest of suits for Tech as most of the runners had only run 1 race and had plenty of time to recover. The Distance Medley Relay did not start off well as McGuire ran poorly with a 3:25 1200 to put the Engineers 10 seconds back after the first leg. Ashley Clayborne '99, lost a little more ground as he ran a full second slower in the 400 leg than he ran in the open 400. Loiselle kept the gap constant with a 2:06 800, and Feldman, whose heart was in it, was not up to the task of catching Coast Guard and Tufts. His 4:32 made up a couple of seconds, but not enough to be competitive.
The 1600 Relay went much better for MIT in terms of winning, but not in time. Once again, the Engineers could not find a way to match their open performances. Rosenfield led off with a 53.1, followed by a 54.1 from Raphael. Mazor clinched the victory with a 52.9, and Karchem put the finishing touches on with a 53.5. The overall time of 3:34.00 was 6 seconds slower than was hoped for.
The 3200 Relay was very similar to the 1600 Relay. Two time defending Division III Champions, MIT was hoping for a sub 8:00 effort. John Biesiadecki '01, led off with a 2:07 to put Tech in a big hole time wise, and in 2nd place. Seed really attacked his leg, but faded a little in the final 200 to run a 2:01. Comfortably in the lead, Parkins only had to focus on running as close to 2:00 as possible. Mike did pretty well, running an even paced 2:02. Montgomery anchored home the winning relay with another great half of 1:57, for an overall time of 8:09.28.
Next week, MIT will be host to the first Quad Cup meet of the season. Visiting will be Coast Guard, Tufts, and WPI. The first event will kick off at 1:00.