ENGINEERS HAVE BEST SPRING OUTING SO FAR
April 19, 2003
It took four weeks, but the MIT Men's track team finally began to show the sort of performances they produced during the indoor season that carried them to the New England Division III title. Participating in the Northeastern University Husky Invitational, the Engineers had 17 season or personal bests and 5 new or improved national qualifying marks despite a headwind for the dashes and hurdles and the continued cool temperatures that are lingering longer than usual this year.
Chris Khan had what has become a typical great day when he added four feet to his hammer throw with a 194-4 effort, ranking him 2nd in the country for Division III. Khan also threw 159-3 in the discus despite the tailwind. Marios Michalakis also had a national qualifying performance in the hammer with a 170-10 effort.
Brian Hoying and Craig Mielcarz both jumped 6-08 in the high jump to make the provisional qualifying mark for nationals. Both had good attempts at 6-10 but sitting around for 7 hours in 50 degree temperatures got the best of them.
Sean Nolan ran the first 10K of this career and made the most of it by pulling away immediately and running 31:06.49 to provisionally qualify for nationals. Also making his debut in the 10,000 meter event was Steve Maltas, who ran 33:10.69, good for only being healthy a few weeks.
Ben Schmeckpeper was still having problems measuring his approach to the steeple barriers, but ran a season best of 9:37.45 regardless.
Two huge bests were had by 1500 meter runners, John Brewer and Fivos Constantinous. Brewer ran an all time personal best of 4:05.36 despite just coming off achilles tendinitis. Constantinous ran a season best of 4:07.54 even though he made a few tactical errors during the race. Both hope to improve even more in the upcoming conference championship.
Rick Rajter focused on the 110HH for the first time this season, delivering a season best of 15.58 into a pretty good headwind. Rajter also led the way in the 1600 meter relay with a 50.5 leg to help the team run 3:27.27 even though they were missing two of their best legs.
Dale Cotton had some problems with his elbow but still produced a 169-8 throw in the javelin. Cotton's throw will allow him to continue his season a couple more weeks.
The meet breathed some life into the MIT track team and seemed to inspire them as they enter the championship season. Next week, MIT travels to Smith College to defend their NEWMAC Conference title on Saturday, April 26.