May 17-18, 2001

MIT's Men's Track and Field team entered the ECAC Division III Championships, hosted by Springfield College, with the sole purpose of qualifying people for nationals, or improving the marks of those who had already qualified. Given the cool, windy conditions, one automatic mark and two improved provisional marks were quite an accomplishment. Six season bests along with a varsity record in the High Jump and yet another freshman record in the Hammer made the meet an incredible one for MIT.

The first annual ECAC Division III Championship for Men was held on a Thursday and Friday because of Springfield's graduation. The meet, basically a last chance qualifier that few schools treat as a scoring meet, much less a team championship, was attended by colleges from the New England states as well as New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. MIT had qualified 25 individuals, many in more than one event, but only brought 10 along because of the team philosophy to treat this meet as an opportunity only for those with a chance of going to the NCAA Championship.

The first day had the trials in the 100 and 110HH as well as the Hammer Throw. Marc Washington ran a fine 11.18 into a slight headwind to make Friday's final. Rick Rajter followed suit in the High Hurdles with a 15.23.

In the Hammer, Marios Michalakis and Chris Khan waged their friendly weekly war to decide who would end up with the freshman Hammer Throw record. Chris, who was in possession of the record, opened with a near record performance of 169-5. On his second throw, Marios unleashed a 172-0 effort to take the record and 6th place in the competition. Neither improved on these marks even though they both had their best series of the season. Marios's throw has him ranked 20th in the division III national ranking.

Friday's competition opened up with the High Jump. Craig Mielcarz had jumped 6-9 two weeks in succession. Unfortunately, the following heights had increased to 6-11, which Craig did not make. His 6-9 success had him ranked in a tie for 13th on the national list with 5 other athletes. This was enough to convince Craig he needed to jump in hopes of getting the automatic standard of 6-9 1/2. Craig had a shaky start and did not seem "into the competition", missing attempts at 6-3 1/2, 6-5 3/4, and at 6-8. At 6-9 1/2 Craig missed his first two attempts badly, but cleared the third attempt by at least 2". Having made the automatic standard, the height went to 6-11 1/2. Craig had the height on all attempts as well as a solid effort on his second attempt, but was not able to clear it. Craig's jump set the MIT varsity record and placed him second in the meet.

The first event on the track for MIT was the 1500. Freshman Brian Anderson was attempting to improve on his provisional mark of 3:55.65. Sean Montgomery, seeded 3rd in the 800 was running the 1500 to help Brian with the pace and to see what kind of strength he had after missing so much training due to his quad injury. Sean was shoved back at the start and stumbled badly going in to the first turn. Brian took the lead on the backstretch and came through the first quarter in 62. Brian backed off at the 600 mark so Sean moved to the lead. Coming through splits of 2:05 and 3:07, Sean looked great. Brian had seemed to lose focus and was fading quickly. Sean eased in to the finish, getting passed in the final 10 meters, but ran a solid national qualifying time of 3:53.05.

In the 110HH final, Rick Rajter ran his best race of the year. It was a technically sound race from start to finish. However, it was into a headwind, leaving Rick with a 15.14 performance, good enough for 3rd place, but not improving on his provisional qualifying time of 14.88.

Kalpak Kothari was also trying to better his provisional performance in the Triple Jump. Kalpak's best is 46-6 and he needed a 47-3 or so to give him a solid chance of making the NCAA field. Kalpak jumped well with a 44-8 performance, but was unable to put everything together on one jump.

Yuval Mazor, primarily at the meet to see if the 1600 relay team could qualify for nationals, was running the open quarter to see if he could break the 50 second barrier. Seeded 21st with a 50.49, Yuval went out perhaps a little too hard in his section. Yuval definitely had the look of one struggling to make the finish but nevertheless ran a PR of 50.09 to place 7th on this windy day. A conservative first 200 would surely have brought the sub 50 quarter he was looking for.

Chris Khan stuck around the second day to see if he could get a little more practice in the Discus. With qualifying already taken care of, Chris did not seem very psyched to be competing. Off balance and not aggressive, Chris struggled to throw 144'. On the plus side, Chris has worked some of his flaws out and should be ready to compete at nationals.

Marc Washington, at the meet primarily as an alternate in the 1600 relay, was also taking advantage of the opportunity to compete in open events. Looking good the day before with his 11.18, Marc did not bring any of that magic with him on the 2nd day. Marc ran 11.41 and 22.92 in the 100 and 200 finals.

Mark Jeunnette, another MIT runner in Springfield for the 1600 Relay, participated in the 400IH in hopes of reaching a provisional qualifying mark. Mark ran a good race but lost time on the 6th and 7th hurdle. His time of 56.14 was his best of the season, but no where near his potential.

As usual, the 1600 Relay was the final event of the day. Due to Marc Washington's bad day and Rick Rajter having suffered through a stomach ailment all day, MIT was putting together their ninth different combination of the season to try again to qualify for nationals. This iteration had Mark Jeunnette leading off, which he did as well as anyone has all season, running 50.4. Yuval continued to show he is a better relay runner than an open runner as he once again broke 49, this time with a 48.7 split. Brian Anderson was up next. Brian got out well but after the 200 mark seemed to lose focus. He was passed, which seemed to wake him up. The last 100 meters was a battle with the Amherst runner, which certainly did not help Brian's time. The third split was 50.2. Sean Montgomery got out well on the anchor leg but seemed to be holding back for the first 300 meters. As he was getting passed by two more teams, he picked it up and finished very strong, running a 49.4 split. Sean, it turned out had a tight hamstring that he was concerned about and did not want to go out too quickly. The overall time of 3:18.71 was the best of the season, but not good enough to make nationals.