February 19, 2000

MIT's Men's Track and Field team battled the snow storm, as well as their opponents, including the favored host school, Bates College, to win the 21st New England Division III Indoor Track and Field Championship. MIT combined a fantastic first day in the Pentathlon with a well balanced attack that had 19 of their 23 athletes score points while setting 11 indoor personal bests en route to scoring 112 points for Tech's 8th indoor championship.

The first event, the Pentathlon, which was the only one contested on Friday, was perhaps the key to the meet. Favored Bates College was seeded to score 12 points to MIT's 11. After MIT placed 2-3-4 last year in the Pentathlon, area colleges made a concerted effort to prevent a repeat performance. It took a score 400 points higher this year to qualify as a top 12 participant. To make the task worse, Rick Rajter '03, who was seeded first for MIT, had a soft tissue stress injury that was quite painful and was not certain if he would be able to complete the event.

Rick got off to a fine start with a 8.24 55HH time, and followed that up with a 20-3 Long Jump to put himself in 2nd place after 2 events. Craig Mielcarz '03, seeded 6th going into the event, put together a 20-11 Long Jump to move him up to 3rd. Peter Bluvas '01, last year's runner-up, was also having a good start, but was only in 5th. Tony Pelosi '01, MIT's final entry, was trying to stay close so that he could pass enough people in the final event, the 1000 meters, to move into scoring position.

The Shot Put, the 3rd event, is a very low scoring event, so even though Bluvas and Rajter finished 1-3 in the event, only Bluvas moved up in the positions, so that MIT now held 2-3-4-9. Fortunately, the High Jump is a very high scoring event. Using 2 pits to speed the event up, MIT managed to have 4 of the final 6 jumpers between the two pits, making things very exciting to watch. After Mielcarz (6-6), Rajter (6-2 1/2), Bluvas (5-8), and Pelosi (5-9 1/2) finished they were in 1-2-3-9 with only 1 event to go.

The 1000 is also a high-scoring event (10 points per second). MIT showed their good conditioning, finishing 1-3-4-5 in the event. Pelosi won in 2:42 to move up to a tie for 6th with 3101 points, while Mielcarz set a freshman record with 3414 points. Rajter and Bluvas followed with 3377 and 3239 respectively. MIT had more than they had hoped for, a 24.5 point performance to Bates 2.5 points.

Day 2, MIT stayed on a roll. In the Long Jump, Robbie Gray '02, continued to surprise people by fulfilling his 3rd seed with a 3rd place 21-2 1/4 performance to get 6 more points for Tech. MIT had no one entered in the Shot Put or Weight Throw, and had to sit and watch to see if Bates would be able to do better than their predicted 15 points in the Weight, and 2 in the Shot. Fortunately, Bates, while doing well, were only able to garner 14 of the seeded 17 points in the two events.

Meanwhile, in the trials, Todd Rosenfield '01, the 12th seed in the 400, showed it is not what times you come in with, it is what you are prepared to do when it counts. Todd cruised to a 2nd place finish in the trials with an easy 51.35. Likewise, Yuval Mazor '02, jogged to a 1:27.74 to advance in the 600.

The High Jump, an event where MIT could not improve on their seeds because they were supposed to get 1-2, started very well with Mielcarz, and Brian Hoying '03, not missing any attempts through 6-3. At 6-5, with 5 jumpers remaining, Hoying began abandoning his curve approach and running straight at the bar, thus preventing from clearing his usual 6-5. His perfect performance through 6-3 was good enough for 3rd place. Two cleared 6-5, Mielcarz and Brown from Springfield. Craig cleared 6-6 on his first attempt while Brown set a season best on his 2nd attempt. At 6-7, Craig showed he is at his best with competition as he again cleared on his first attempt, winning the event as Brown missed. The 16 points was a big boost, giving Tech 46 1 /2 points, 34 by freshmen.

The 1500 was the first final on the track. Sean Montgomery '01, and Dan Feldman '02, not seeded to score, were hoping to defy the seeds in this high quality field. Sean, a little too intent on winning, went out too fast with the leader who took off in 59 at the quarter and 2:01 for the half. The top seed, was sitting back about 30 meters, running a very smart race. Montgomery made matters worse by taking the lead just before the 1200 in 3:06 and tried to pull away. By 1350 is was apparent Sean would not be able to hold the lead. Nevertheless, he held on in 3:56.30, an indoor best and NCAA provisional qualifying performance, to place 3rd. Feldman ran a great race, kicking past 3 in the home stretch to place 6th with an all-time best of 3:58.70. Bates College earned 8 points to gain 1 on MIT.

The next event for MIT was the 400. Rosenfield saved the best for last as he ran a great race, setting a PR by nearly a full second in 50.30 to place 4th. Todd's performance moved him into 7th place on the all-time MIT list. Not to be outdone, Mazor blasted out of the blocks, coming through the 400 in 54 en route to a PR of 1:23.79 to earn 3rd place.

Bates College was scoring points too frequently for comfort as they closed to within 10 points after scoring 16 in the 400. Bowdoin College, seeded to get 3rd in the meet, began to make a run by placing 2-3-5 in the 55 to score 16 points.

Bowdoin continued to charge by winning the 800 and 1000 for 20 more points. Montgomery came back in the 1000, but if you have ever gone into serious oxygen debt in your first event and then tried to come back in another event, you know how painful it can be. Now Montgomery also knows. However, he managed to regain focus during the race to finish 2nd with a PR of 2:31.52 in a truly championship performance for the team.

The Pole Vault saw Dan Kwon '02, come through with a tie for 6th place with a 13-0 vault. Bates and Bowdoin earned 5th and 4th respectively to close the gap a little more.

The Triple Jump, was not going well for MIT, as Kalpak Kothari '01, was having a difficult time getting on the board without going over it. Rajter, enduring the pain, began with a 42' jump to at least get him into the finals. In the finals, Rajter came through with a 43-10 3/4 to place 4th. Kalpak came through on his final jump to nail a 44-2 1/2 to move into 2nd place and give MIT 12 more points. At this point, with 5 events to go, MIT had a reasonably comfortable 20 point lead.

The lead was comfortable because Feldman was about to come back and run the 3000, and Chris McGuire the 5000. Dan, a little cautious after such a fast 1500, wisely let the leader go. In the final 600 meters, as Dan and one other runner were realizing they could catch the fading leader, Dan picked up the pace. It was too little, too late, as Dan was unable to catch the leader and was passed by the runner he has just passed despite his 30 second final 200 meters. Nevertheless, Dan came through with a much needed 6 points.

Chris McGuire '00, one of only two seniors for MIT in the meet, was seeded to score 6th in the 5000. Chris showed how reliable seeds are as he ran mile splits of 4:46, 4:49, and 4:52, and then finished with a 32 last 200 to run a career best on an indoor flat track of 14:58.18 to place 2nd.

Going into the relays the victory was secured, but that did not stop Tech from pursuing better times and more points. The 1600 Relay was the relay MIT was really trying to win even though they only had the 3rd fastest seed coming into the meet. Tech's only weakness seems to be that no one can put together a good leadoff leg. Rosenfield ran well, but not his best as he finished the 1st leg in 51.7, good enough for 3rd position. Matt Lehman '03, MIT's only fresh runner, went out hard, but had to slow down as he got caught on the inside. Lehman still brought the baton in 2nd place with a 50.9 leg. Mazor showed he still had plenty left as he blasted out, passed the leader at the handoff, and opened up a 20 meter lead with a 50.1 leg. Montgomery, tired but determined, ran a strong 50.2 to bring home the victory in a season best of 3:23.18.

The final event, the 3200 Relay, was not as strong an event as the past 3 years. MIT hoped to take advantage of this with four fresh runners. George Hanson '03, opened up with a strong leg of 2:02.7 to keep MIT in the front. Alan Raphael '02, did not have his best run and faded to 4th with a 2:03.2 effort. Phil Loiselle '01, ran very well, closing the gap to 10 meters with a 2:00.8. Anchor, John Biesiadecki '01, went out hard in 27, 57, and 1:27 to close the gap. However, John was not able to stay with the leaders when they kicked, dropping back to a very respectable 4th in 8:07.65.

The focus for MIT is now to see who can qualify for Nationals. Next week, the Engineers travel to Boston University for the All New England Championship. Fast times, and high jumps are the hope against the Division I competition.