January 16, 1999

Saturday, MIT rose to the challenge and defeated Tufts and Coast Guard by a score of 290.5 to 194.5 to 96. However it did not look like the meet was going to end up in an MIT victory, much less a blowout.

Going into the 1998-99 Indoor Track season, the Engineers thought they would be a very strong team that would not have too many problems during the regular season with the exception of Williams College. With star performer, Ravi Sastry '99, out with a hamstring injury, and some very impressive seeds submitted by the Tufts' University Jumbos, it looked as though Tech was going to have a long season.

With meets being run by computers these days, teams are required to make their entries a couple of days before the meet. This also gives each team the ability to mentally prepare for what awaits them. Tufts' seeds did what MIT Coach Halston Taylor was not sure he could do by himself--psych the Engineers up. Going by the seeds, Tufts was 14 point favorites. Given the rich rivalry between the two teams, the threat of losing was all it took to get the Engineers going.

Right out of the gate, MIT took charge. The 35 Lb. Weight was the first event to finish, and Tech took the event with 19 points to Tufts' 12 (Quad Cup scoring is 9-7-6-5-4-3-2-1). Jason Dailey '99 led the way with a 49-2 3/4 throw. Todd Chamoy '99, assisted with a 46-9 1/4 personal best for third place.

The next event to end, the Pole Vault, was very big for MIT. Tech has 6 vaulters on the team. Since most teams are lucky to have 1, the advantage usually is in favor of MIT. In this particular case, Tufts did not have a vaulter. Tech's vaulters had to compete with two vaulters from Coast Guard, and did so quite successfully with Sam Thibault '00, winning for the second week in a row with a 13-3 effort. Matt Potts '00, again earned 2nd place with a 13-0 vault. Also scoring for MIT was freshman Dan Kwon with a 11-6 effort and Sam Sidiqi '99, who jumped 11-0.

The first running event final, the 1500, is one of the strongest for MIT, who probably have 7 runners who can break 4:10. Quad Cup rules dictate that a team can only enter 4 per event, but in this case 4 were enough. Coast Guard runner, Mark Akus, took the pace out strong in 61 seconds for the 400 followed by a runner from Tufts and the four entries from MIT. The Tech runners did not plan to take the lead until after the 1000 meter mark, and they followed the plan to perfection. Sean Montgomery '01 led the charge to the front, and was followed by Dan Feldman '02, Mike Parkins '99, and Leif Seed '99. They held this lead in the same order as the first three qualified for New England Division IIIs, running 4:02.53, 4:03.74, 4:04.20, and 4:04.96 respectively.

After these first three events MIT was leading with 70 points to Tufts 17 and Coast Guards 21. The Long Jump was finishing just about the same time as the 1500, and although Tufts' Rommel Childress took 1st place, MIT claimed 2-5 places for 22 more points to Tufts 15. Leading the way was freshman multi-eventer Jordan Alperin with a 19-4 1/2 effort.

Without Sastry in the Long Jump, MIT's quality is lacking, and in the case of the Hurdles, so is the depth. Rookies Alperin, and Peter Bluvas '01, stepped up nicely and claimed 2nd and 3rd with times of 8.43, and 8.47. Tufts won this event 18-13, showing good depth.

Another event that Sastry usually is a factor in is the High Jump. Fortunately this is not a strong event for many teams, including Tufts and Coast Guard. Both Childress from Tufts and Alperin jumped 6-2, Childress won on fewer misses. Roger Nielsen '01, claimed a tie for 6th, and Sidiqi, 8th to help MIT's cause. Tufts also won this event 17.5 to 10.5 for MIT.

The 400, usually a strong event for MIT, was diluted a bit when Neal Karchem '99, was moved to the 55 to help make up for Sastry not running. Stepping up for MIT were Todd Rosenfield '01, with a 3rd place effort of 52.20, Kamal Mokeddem '01, running a personal best of 52.96 for 4th, and Ashley Clayborne '99, with a personal best of 53.90 for 6th. Tufts took this event, but only 15-14.

In the Quad Cup Meets there is not only the 400 Meter, but also the 600, 800, and 1000 meters, meaning a team has to have 16 400-800 runners to have the necessary depth. MIT had two freshmen lead the way in the 600. Alan Raphael was leading the way, when teammate Yuval Mazor tripped him up from behind in an effort to go between him and a Tufts' runner. Mazor ended up going around both of them to win in 1:27.02, but Raphael stumbled to 3rd place in 1:27.86. Gus Blomquist '99, helped support with a great lean at the finish to claim 4th, giving MIT the event 21-14.

The 55 Dash went to Tufts freshman, Adam Barrer, who ran 6.69 to beat MIT freshman Robbie Gray for the second week in a row. Karchem showed the move to the dash was a good one as he claimed 4th. Roy Emanuel claimed 5th to keep Tufts from catching up too much. At this point, the score was MIT 166.5 and Tufts 116.5.

MIT's foursome who swept the 1500, were about to take over again in the 800 and 1000. First up was Parkins winning the 800. A Tufts runner set a vicious early pace with Tech runners a good 30 meters back at the half way mark. The Tufts runner began to fade and Parkins took advantage of it with a furious kick to win in 2:01.72. MIT runners continued their dominance in the middle distances, claiming 2nd, 4th, and 5th places to support Parkins' win.

In the 1000, Montgomery was racing a fresh Jeff Rasnake from Coast Guard, who had won the Mile last week at the Beaver Relays, and ran the 3000 in 8:36 before Christmas. Montgomery took the lead with 400 to go and easily cruised in with a 60 second last 400 to win in 2:34.60. Phil Loiselle '01, added support with a personal best of 2:37.44 for 4th, followed by Feldman in 2:39.81. MIT won the 800 and 1000 by a 45-13 score over Tufts to pretty much put the meet out of reach.

The Shot Put had been an event where Tech hoped to have a big breakthrough. Starting off strong, but not able to finish with an answer to Tufts and Coast Guard late efforts, MIT was only able to keep the lead constant. Brian Rogers '01, led the way for the Engineers with a 40-4 1/2 effort.

The 200 has not been a strong event for MIT in quite some time. This year, it looked like MIT could hold its own in the deuce. Again, the loss of Sastry has taken a toll on those hopes. However, Karchem has stepped up of late, and did so again with another sub 24 effort to claim 2nd in 23.97. Gray ran his best 200 of the season with a 4th place finish, followed by Alex Rodriguez in 6th. Mokeddem would have finished 5th but was disqualified for running out of his lane in the final curve.

Having a lot of depth allowed MIT to enter a fresh foursome in the 3000, the last running event before the relays. Mark Strauss '01 led the way for MIT with a 29 second final 200 meters to pull away from a Tufts runner, winning in a personal best of 8:51.82. Chris McGuire '00, followed in third with a 8:55.35. Also scoring was Ed Keehr '01, and Liyan Guo '01 in 4th and 6th respectively.

With 3 teams entered, the relays were scored 9-6-0, and in this case insignificant to the outcome of the meet. MIT's squad of Rosenfield, Raphael, Mazor, and Karchem led nearly from start to finish with a season best 3:31.78 run.

The final event was supposed to be the Distance Medley Relay, but the Triple Jump was still being decided. This meant that Kalpak Kothari '01, the intended 400 leg in the DMR and battling for 1st place in the TJ, would not run. Alperin took his place and brought MIT up to 2nd place ahead of Tufts after a great run by Albert Hung '01, had put MIT well behind Coast Guard and Tufts. The lead lasted for a second anyway. The Tufts runner woke up and sprinted away, opening up a big lead going into the 800 leg. Out since the beginning of Cross Country season, Ken Walker '01, made up considerable ground on Tufts with a 2:06 leg before handing off to Loiselle. Loiselle ran a fine 4:33 1600 to pass the Tufts runner in the final lap to give MIT 38 different scorers in the meet.

Next week, MIT travels to Bowdoin to compete against Tufts again, along with Bates, Bowdoin, and Colby. It will take an equally strong effort to come away from that meet with the undefeated mark intact.