May 5, 2001

MIT, seeded 28 points behind Wheaton College and 87 behind Williams College, had an incredible display of team track and field as they placed second to Williams 143.5 to 105. On a mostly sunny, but very windy day, the Engineers had nine personal bests and four more season bests as they scored 38 points more than they were seeded.

Things started going Tech's way with the first event on Saturday, the 10K. Ed Keehr, seeded second battled for 6 miles with the favored runner from Keene State, dropping him with 400 to go, running a 66 last quarter to win by nearly 6 seconds in a personal best of 32:01.93. Frank Johnston, seeded 18th, having recovered from his bout of Salmonella last week, showed what he is capable of when he placed 8th in 33:10.99.

The next event, the Hammer, brought another freshman record for Chris Khan. Chris, already owning the freshman record in the Discus, threw 169-6 to place 6th, and take the record away from John Wallberg. Chris qualified provisionally for the NCAA Championships, but he is only ranked 23rd at this time and will need to improve to make it to Nationals.

The Long Jump was just not to be a good event for MIT this year. Even though Tech had 3 jumpers over 21' and three more over 20', they could not put together a jump to place in these Championships. Craig Mielcarz set a season best of 21-1 1/2, but that was only good enough for 10th. The only good news for MIT was that Wheaton was seeded 1-2-3 going into the event and was only able to pull out a first and third.

Craig did come through big in the High Jump, clearing 6-9 on his first attempt to place 2nd. Craig had a good first attempt at 6-11 but it was not quite there. Rick Rajter cleared 6-1 1/2 to place 7th. It would have taken a leap of 6-5 to place any higher. Craig qualified provisionally for the NCAA Championship with his effort.

The Pole Vault was also being contested at this time. All three MIT vaulters placed in the team's best event. Sam Thibault was the most successful at battling the inconsistent cross wind as he won the event with a vault of 14-3 1/4. Dan Opila set a season best of 13-11 1/4 as he placed 3rd. Dan Kwon tied for 5th with 13-3, bringing MIT's point total in the event to 19.

At this point in the meet, MIT had scored 43 points but Wheaton had amassed 34 points to keep pace. Both teams had successful preliminary rounds on the track but Wheaton had much more scoring potential in the these races. Wheaton had 3 in the finals of the 100, 2 in the 200, and 1 in the 400 coming out of the trials. MIT had qualified Rick Rajter in the 110HH, Marc Washington in the 200, and Tony Pelosi in the 400IH in the early round.

During the break in the running action, Chris Khan went to work again, this time in the Discus. Chris spotted the field about 15' in the trials but unloaded a throw of 152-11 to tie his freshman record and win the event by 4'. Chris is hoping to qualify for nationals in the next two weeks.

The Triple Jump was a hotly contested event. Wheaton was seeded 1-3-6 going in, and Kalpak Kothari of MIT was seeded 5th. Wheaton only finished 1-6 to help Tech's cause and Kalpak unloaded a 46-6 3/4 jump on his last attempt to move up to 4th place. What was supposed to be a 19-4 scoring difference turned out to be 13-5, a 7 point swing. Kalpak joined the MIT ranks of national provisional qualifiers with his jump.

The first running event on the track after the trials was the 3000 Steeplechase. Craig Wildman made a valiant effort at trying to score but the ambitious effort left him in severe oxygen debt at the end as he faded to 11th. Williams College showed their dominance in this event by placing 1-2-5-7 to score 24 points.

Next, the 400 Relay was supposed to be a battle between Wheaton and Williams and that is exactly what happened until the final leg when Bates College split the teams up. Wheaton pulled out the victory with a 42.17 effort. Bates College ran very well to finish 2nd and take a couple of points away from Williams. MIT did not enter a team due to their low seed and the fragile state of Rick Rajter, who would do well to hold together for the meet without the 4x100. The score was now MIT 58, Wheaton 57.

The 1500 had Brian Anderson from MIT seeded 5th. What the rest of the field did not know was that Brian was ready to run fast. Mark Miller, the defending indoor national champion from Keene State took the pace out despite the wind in 61 for the first 400. Brian went with him hoping he would be able to hang on and use his 800 speed to surprise Miller at the end if the pace slowed a little. The 800 split was 2:05 and the 1200 3:08. Miller began to pull away at this point as Brian slowed a bit. Coming into the final straight, runners from Trinity and Williams made a desperate attempt to catch Brian but came a little short as all three ran 3:55. Brian's second place time of 3:55.65 provisionally qualifies him for nationals.

The 110HH was next and Rick Rajter was ready. Rick has run faster in each race this season. In the trials he set another PR of 15.16, the second fastest time in the trials. Rick was only seeded 6th so it was looking like more good news for MIT. True to form, Rick set another PR in the finals, this time breaking 15 seconds with a 14.88 for second place. With a slow start and reaching for the finish, Rick has plenty of room for more personal bests. Rick's time not only moves him into the top 10 at MIT, but all the way to #6 all time. Rick's time also provisionally qualifies him for nationals.

MIT was on a roll, but they had to take a break and watch as the next two events did not have a Tech entry. Wheaton however was seeded to score 28 points in the two events. In the 100, things went pretty much as predicted. Stanley Egbor of Worcester State showed why he is one of the top sprinters in the country with his 10.48 victory. Wheaton did not quite get what the were seeded to score, but nevertheless racked up 15 points.

New England Division III track and field has improved a lot in the last 5 years and the 400 race was a good example. It took a 49.77 to make the finals on this day despite the wind. In the finals, Erik Zwick of Bates beat the favored freshman from Wheaton with a 48.57 victory. The 23 points for Wheaton in the two events brought the score to Wheaton 80, MIT 74.

Next on the track was the 800. Sean Montgomery of MIT was seeded first and he did not disappoint. Sean let the field do the work as he moved up during the first 400. The slow first quarter pace of 57 did not help Sean in his bid for a better national qualifying performance, but it did not affect the outcome. Sean held back against the wind on the backstretch but opened up in the final 200 to bring it home in 1:53.40 for first place.

Tony Pelosi , seeded 13th going into the trials of the 400IH, ran a 56.06 to win his heat and get himself lane 5 in the finals. In the final, Tony had to reach for the first hurdle but held 15 steps throughout 6 hurdles despite running into the wind. Coming home Tony looked strong, finishing 5th in 56.00. Again Williams showed their depth by placing 1-2-3 to score 24 points. Freshman Adrian Townsend served notice he would be back as he ran his race in 57.92 in the trials, missing the finals by 1 position.

The score was now 88 for MIT and 80 for Wheaton. The 200, a strong event for Wheaton was next. Marc Washington of MIT ran a 22.32 PR in the trials to make it into the finals. In the final, Egbor again dominated, running 20.94 for the win. Wheaton dropped the ball, and their chance to catch MIT, by only earning 10 points. Washington placed 6th to give MIT 3 more points and 91 total.

Sean Nolan was Tech's lone warrior in the 5000. Moving up through the field cautiously during the first mile and a half due to the ambitious pace, Sean nevertheless came through 2 miles in 9:32. By this point Sean had moved up to 5th place and was in position to move into 4th when his gas began to run out. The final mile was very challenging for Nolan who managed to summon a 33 final 200 to hold off the closing field. Sean's 15:10.7 was not his best time, but it was a great effort that was worthy of 5th place.

The final race, the 4x400 relay, was seeded to be very competitive. The top 8 teams had run between 3:18.10 and 3:23.95. MIT was seeded 6th with their time of 3:22.34. Pride was at stake for MIT who had won this race the last three championships (twice indoor and last year outdoor). Despite losing Brian Hoying earlier in the season to an injury in the groin area, and Matt Lehman to a hamstring injury last week, the Engineers refused to accept the underdog role. Rick Rajter stepped up to run the 400 for the first time despite being exhausted from the heat and his earlier races. Rick's leadoff leg of 50.4 put Tech in the lead. Yuval Mazor, normally MIT's fastest leg, moved up a leg to guarantee MIT would not have to move out of lane 1 on the exchanges. This would save MIT some time that they anticipated needing given the alternate legs they were using. Yuval ran a 49.4 leg to open up the lead to about 5 meters over Springfield. Todd Rosenfield, brought along as an alternate because he has not been able to return to his performance level of last year after the bout with mono in the winter, went out hard and never gave up. Todd held on strong in the final straight to run 50.6 and give Sean Montgomery a 1/2 step lead over the anchor leg from Springfield who had placed 5th earlier in the open 400. The Springfield runner took the lead on the first turn, which was probably the best thing he could do to help MIT. Sean does not tend to push the first 200 if he is in the lead, but he can run with just about anyone from New England if he is trailing. Sean trailed until the final straight when he pulled alongside and finally past Springfield in the final 10 meters. Sean ran a 48.4 anchor for a winning time of 3:19.07.

Coach Halston Taylor feels this effort by his team was the best such championship effort he had witnessed by an MIT team since 1989. "Even though we finished 38 1/2 points behind Williams, the losses we faced this year due to injuries (two All-Americans, two national qualifiers and one Division III runner-up), people who quit and those who elected to do something other than outdoor track (one national qualifier and a freshman record holder), combined with the fact that the team had to split up and practice in three different venues while the outdoor track is being resurfaced, this group of guys stepped up and got the job done. I am very proud of this team."

Next week the Men's team will be at UConn to compete in the All Division New England Championship.