December 11, 1999

The MIT Track and Field Alumni showed up on Saturday with enough numbers to get the job done, but this particular time the bodies did not follow the spirit, causing the veterans to fall short of winning their 5th straight Alumni/Varsity competition.

Joining Bill Singhose '90, in leading the way for the "Has Beens" was Alumni rookie, Ravi Sastry '99. They both scored 26 points using the 5-3-1 scoring format. Bill won the Shot Put with a 42-4 effort, and the Pole Vault with a 13-06 vault, while finishing 2nd to Sastry in the Long Jump with a leap of 20-05 3/4. Bill may have placed 2nd in the 55HH, but had a poor start and got repeatedly throttled in the chest by Rick Rajter '03, after every hurdle. Ravi did his part by winning the hurdles with a time of 8.06, and finishing 2nd in the 55 Dash with a 6.91 to go along with his 20-08 3/4 winning Long Jump.

Akin Aina '96, defended his sprint double with times of 6.81 and 24.01, despite a strained hamstring after the first 100 of the 200. Akin is one of the few who continues to improve since graduation.

The veterans got the ball moving in their favor by taking advantage of the continued woes of the Varsity in the throws. Todd Chamoy '98, led a sweep in the Weight Throw with a 50-10 heave. John-Paul Clarke '91 followed with a toss of 49-06, and Alumni new-comer, Brian Wong '99 garnered 3rd with a PR of 48-07. When Sastry and Singhose went 1-2 in the LJ, it looked like another long day against the Alumni.

Craig Mielcarz '03, led the charge back by scoring a third in the before-mentioned LJ with a jump of 20-01 1/4, and winning the High Jump in 6-04. Also scoring in the HJ was Brian Hoying '03, also jumping 6-04 for 2nd place, just ahead of the 6-02 jump by Andy Ugarov '95.

Kalpak Kothari '01, and Rajter led a 1-2 finish in the Triple Jump to beat out Morio Alexander '97, and Singhose. The Alumni responded in the Shot Put with Singhose tossing his winning throw in the finals, and Patrick Dannen '98, responding on his final throw for 2nd with a 41-07 1/4 throw to narrowly beat out Peter Bluvas '01. Dan Kwon '02, and Dan Opila '03, vaulted 13-0 for a 2-3 finish in the Pole Vault. Matt Potts '00, also vaulted 13-0, but finished 4th. Coming out of the field events, the Alumni held a comfortable lead of 32-22.

Dan Feldman '02, had a vicious kick in the 1500 to re-capture the lead from Leif Seed '99, who had taken the lead with 100 to go, and finish 1st in 4:05.04 after a pedestrian first 400. Freshman Craig Wildman, never gave up and passed Arnold Seto '96, at the line for third in 4:21.93. This moved the Varsity to within 7 points.

The 1-2-3 finish by the Varsity in the 400 with Todd Rosenfield '01, Yuval Mazor '02, and Matt Lehman '03 running 52.07, 52.42, and 52.57 respectively, made up for the Alumni going 1-2 in the dash and winning the hurdles. Putting the Varsity back by 6 points.

The 800 was the back-breaker for the Alumni as both Seed and Seto scratched, leaving the 800 vacant of "Has Beens". The 9-0 resulting score, led by transer student Mark Jeunnette '01, and Alan Raphael '02, in 2:02.25, and 2:02.29 respectively allowed the Varsity to take the lead by 3.

Aina's win in the 200 brought the Alumni withing 2 points, but the 5000 secured the victory for the Varsity. Chris McGuire '00, and Dan Feldman '02, ran behind Terry McNatt '87, and Jim Garcia '80 for the first two miles before unleashing a sustained kick to easily win with respective times of 15:21.31 and 15:32.18.

The 4x200 Relay results could not change the outcome of the meet, but the pride of the Alumni would not allow a non-competitive effort. They even went to the extent of pulling Dafe Ogagan '97, away from his toddler daughter to run a leg on the relay. However, not even this effort could combat the Varsity team of Dewey Richmond '03, who also scored a 3rd in the dash, Rosenfield, Kamal Mokeddem '01, and Mazor.

Other Alumni competing were Neal Karchem '99, in the 400, Albert Lau '73, in the hurdles, Hung Hoang '96, in the Long Jump, Triple Jump, and High Jump, and Mike DeMassa '97 and Bob White '88, in the Pole Vault. Ethan Crain '95, Brian Moore '73, Pat Sullivan '71, and Chuck Van Buren '98, were among those cheering on their team but not able to compete.

The Varsity are now off for exams and the holiday until January 3rd. The next meet will be the Beaver Relays on January 8th.