TECH TRACK CONTINUES RUN TO NATIONALS

Khan, Mielcarz and Montgomery Lead Way to 9th Place Finish

May 11-12, 2001

At the New England Intercollegiate Amateur Athletic Association (NEIAAA) Championship on Friday and Saturday, MIT's Men's Track and Field team continued their amazing performances in championship meets.

Despite the difficulty of competing at the end of the week when final projects were due in many classes, the Engineers showed up at the University of Connecticut with most of their continuing athletes under perfect weather conditions. Two qualified Tech athletes did not make the trip; Sam Thibault decided his thesis needed more attention and decided to finish his season with the conference victory at the New England Division III Championship, and Rick Rajter did not feel his legs were ready for another championship performance this week.

The temperature on Friday was 75š with little wind under very sunny skies. Sean Montgomery led the way for MIT qualifiers with the second fastest qualifying time in the 800 meter trials. Sean worked his way up from the back of the pack settling in second with a 53 first 400. Working the second 400, Sean took the lead with 200 to go but eased up in the home stretch to finish second with a 1:51.23 performance. Sean's performance meets the automatic standard for the NCAA Championship.

Other competitors in the qualifying rounds who did not fare so well were Marc Washington in the 200 (22.40), Tony Pelosi in the 400IH (56.69), and Brian Anderson in the 1500 (4:04.91). "Some of these performances could have been better if the mental preparation was what it should have been," said Coach Halston Taylor.

There were certainly no lack of preparation on the part of Tech's distance runners. The temperature was a little on the hot side for the distance folks and many could not handle the pace in either race. In the 5000, Sean Nolan continued his improvement as he placed 7th, scoring the first two points for MIT, with his first sub 15:00 performance (14:59.44). Ed Keehr put the cherry on his varsity career with a 5th place effort in the 10K. Ed battled his way into the top eight despite twisting his ankle during the third mile and then slowly worked on his competitors until the final 800 meters when he threw in laps of 74 and 68 seconds to move into 5th with a time of 32:02.24.

Saturday was 85š and very uncomfortable for most of the athletes but it seemed to be just fine for MIT's contingent of athletes. Craig Mielcarz led things off for the Engineers in the High Jump. Craig cleared 6-5, 6-7 and 6-9 all on first attempts, and found himself in the lead going to 6-11. None of the four remaining jumpers seemed able to clear the height. With one jump remaining to determine if Craig would win the event based on the number of misses, Anthony Lordo of URI cleared the height to win the event. Nevertheless, Craig finished second and earned 8 more points for MIT.

On the track, Sean Montgomery taped up his blisters caused by the very hot track the day before, and stepped up to the line in the 800. Again moving up from the rear, Sean almost did not make it to the front as he tripped over a fallen runner on the third turn of the first 400. After a slight struggle, Sean made it to the front with defending champion Eric Sherry from UMass Lowell in a conservative 55 first lap split. Sean held back from taking the lead with 200 to go, saving his effort for the final straight. However, there was not enough left to win the event. Sean faded a little in the final 50 meters, finishing third in 1:52.18.

Chris Khan missed making the Hammer field by 2 inches, but had no problem qualifying for the Discus. Chris, seeded 10th, served notice on his first throw that he was here to take care of business. King Khan, as his teammates call him, unloaded a 154-11 to start things off. This mark had him in third going into the finals where Chris finally put together a good step-in the back of the circle and was in position to use his legs, resulting in a new PR and varsity record of 165-1. This mark did not move him up in position but did qualify him provisionally for nationals, currently in 10th position.

The final event was the 1600 Relay. MIT, still trying to find a combination that would allow their team to qualify for nationals, substituted sprinter Marc Washington for the absent Rick Rajter, and put Brian Anderson back in the lineup. Washington, running his first 400 of the season, went out a little too hard and very tight. Nevertheless, Marc showed his potential by coming in with a split of 51.0. Yuval Mazor ran his best 400 split ever with an incredible 48.3 split to put MIT back in the money. Brian Anderson also ran a PR with a split of 49.7. Sean Montgomery, still hurting from his 800 race, was unable to duplicate his 48 split from the week before but did put together a 49.8 to bring MIT a new season best of 3:18.91. The time was good enough for 9th, 1 place out of the scoring.

The 26 points earned by MIT placed them 9th, the highest finish by the Engineers in over 10 years.

Next week, some individuals will be going to Springfield for the ECAC Championship to try and improve their chances of making nationals.

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