MIT SHINES IN ENGINEER'S CUP DESPITE THE POOR WEATHER
April 6, 2003
The 2003 version of the Engineer's Cup was supposed to be competed on Saturday at MIT. However, the sleet and snow predicted for Saturday caused the postponment of the meet until Sunday. This move was beneficial although the weather conditions still were not ideal. MIT won 12 of the 19 events over the teams from RPI and WPI. Due to the date change and the fact that not everyone was able to make the trip on Sunday given the last minute changes, the meet was not scored. This fact did not seem to deter the athletes from MIT.
Braving the 40 degree temperatures and the winds gusting to 25 mph, MIT dominated the field. The 200 and 3000 Steeplechase were particularly good for MIT as they swept the first three places in both events. In most cases, any athlete who was even slightly injured or tight on the MIT team was told not to compete, leaving many of the MIT athletes in the meet help category.
Uzoma Orji improved his national qualifying mark in the shot put with a throw of 53-1. That throw put him within 2 1/2" of the school record and moved him to 5th nationally. Sean Nolan had a season best in the 5000 with a 14:56.72 in the brutal wind. Carlos Renjifo ran his inaugural 3000 Steeplechase race and broke 10:00 with a 9:59.03 performance. Josh Chartier jumped a year best 13' in the pole vault to get 3rd place.
Overall, the performances were not very good, but neither was the setting. The team expects to improve greatly next Saturday when they take their undefeated record to Maine to compete against Bowdoin College and UMass/Lowell in a tri-meet.