April 21, 2001

MIT Men's Track and Field team took a weekend off from scoring meets to go to the Husky Invitational hosted by Northeastern University at their track in Dedham. Tech endured the long time schedule with hopes of attaining some good performances against the mostly Division I and II field. The warm temperatures and strong but inconsistent tailwind aided the jumpers and sprinters but did little to assist the other performers.

Many personal and season bests were achieved and not just by the sprinters and jumpers. Consistently, throughout the day, Tech runners passed people in the homestretch to finish their races strong. In the middle distance and distance events MIT competed well and each event had at least a season best despite the strong winds. Matt Yarosz ran a very even paced 1500 to knock 3 seconds off his best in running a 4:10.80 time. In the Steeple Chase, Craig Wildman shaved a few tenths off his performance with an aggressive race leading to a 9:57.11 time. Sean Nolan ran his best outdoor 5000 by far in placing 3rd with a 15:06.64.

Season bests were achieved in the 800 by George Hanson (2:01.83), Alan Raphael (2:02.20), and Matt Yarosz (2:03.99). All finished strong, showing there may be more to come in the Championships next weekend.

Mark Jeunnette went out much stronger than he has in earlier meets in the 400IH. He ran a season best of 56.67 but may have run much faster were it not for a severe stutter on the final hurdle. As it was, he finished 4th and must wait until next week to see if he can put the whole race together. All three 400 runners won their respective sections but the wind was just too strong to guarantee good performances. Yuval Mazor ran 51.02, Matt Lehman 51.14 and Todd Rosenfield 52.29. Again, all finished very strong, passing many in the final 100 meters.

Mark Washington had a pretty good day, running a PR in the 200 with a 22.57 to place 4th and a 11.28 in the 100 despite a slow start. Marc has come a long way in the sprints this year. Thus far, he has dropped his time in the 100 by .16 and in the 200 by .53. MIT is hoping for big things once Marc gets his start down. Robbie Gray also ran a season best in the 100 with a clocking of 11.50.

Rick Rajter ran the 110HH for the second time this year and recorded a PR of 15.32. He has a lot of room for improvement so the future is bright if Rick can stay healthy. Junius Ho, nursing a tender hamstring also ran a season best of 16.54, but that is far from Junius's personal best of 15.73.

In the field events, Dan Kwon led the way with his second PR in as many weeks. Dan jumped 14-6 to qualify for the All New England Championships. Overall the vaulters did well in the meet with Sam Thibault also clearing 14-6 and having some very good attempts at 15-0. Dan Opila cleared 13-6 for the 2nd consecutive week.

Kalpak Kothari continued to improve each week, jumping 45-0 1/2 in the Triple Jump to set his best mark of the season and only 3" behind his best ever. Also jumping well in the horizontal jumps was Robbie Gray, who set season best in both the Long Jump (20-10 3/4) and Triple Jump (41-0 1/2). Victor Williamson, just beginning to recover from his overused legs, jumped 41-6 in the Triple Jump for his season best.

In the throws, Spiros Michalakis is beginning to return to good form in the Javelin. Spiros threw 161' for his season best. In the Hammer, Scott Bradley has a PR of 123-8, just ahead of David Saylor's PR of 121-8.

Next week, the Engineers travel to WPI to compete in the New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) Championship. This is the 3rd year of the Championship. The first year, MIT won but last year Springfield won on their home track.