MIT SHINES AT HUSKY INVITATIONAL

16 Season Bests Highlite Meet

April 20, 2002

MIT track and field athletes responded well to the competition Saturday at the Husky Invitational hosted by Northeastern University, by throwing, running and jumping to 16 personal or season bests in the non-scoring meet. The Hammer and the 800 were the events showcasing the most improvement.

Chris Khan led the way in the Hammer with another personal best and automatic qualifying mark of 184-8 to move up to a ranking of #3 in the country for Division III. Marios Michalakis followed suit with a 176-8 throw to move up significantly in the national standings. Greg Walker nearly joined the national qualifiers, throwing 163-8 to miss national provisional qualifying by 8 inches. Finally, Scott Bradley added nearly 3 feet to his personal best, throwing 134-3.

Alan Raphael ran a superb race in the 800, just losing his section at the finish, but running a best of 1:57.53. George Hanson, knocked 7 seconds off his season best, running 2:01.21. Taku Iida set a PR for the second week in succession, even splitting a 2:03.34 to win his section.

Due to the headwind, there were no personal bests in the sprints or 110 hurdles on the soft track. In the 1 lap events, Gabe Sanchez showed he his on his way back in the 400 as he ran a season best of 51.96 and Mark Jeunnette knocked two more tenths off his 400 IH performance, running 56.30.

In the 3000 Steeplechase, Ben Schmeckpeper showed he is getting more and more comfortable with his new event. In his third steeple ever, he lowered his personal best by another 10 seconds, running 9:38.22. In other distance events, Liyan Guo ran a season best of 15:58.61 behind the winning effort of Sean Nolan who ran 14:54.83 in a strategic event that showcased Sean's speed as he ran a 30 second final 200. Albert Liu ran his first 10K of the season, producing a PR of 32:49.71.

In the jumps, Victor Williamson leaped 20-3 for a season best in the Long Jump, Rick Rajter started looking better in the High Jump with a 6-4 effort and Dan Kwon vaulted 14-0 at his favorite meet site.

Dale Cotton had the performance of the day, three times setting new PRs, finishing with a 19' improvement to 180-11 in the Javelin Throw. Greg Walker had his second PR of the day when he threw 127' in the Discus Throw despite a light rain.

Next week, the Engineers will see if they are ready to defend their NEWMAC conference title against powerhouses, Wheaton College, Springfield College and the Coast Guard Academy. The meet will be hosted at MIT's new track with the first events beginning at 10:00 AM.

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