MIT WINS 3RD CONSECUTIVE NEWMAC TITLE
35 Personal or Season Bests Lead to Championship
April 27, 2003
MIT's men's track team won their 3rd consecutive NEWMAC Championship today. Chris Khan led the way with two personal bests and 26 points scored, earning the 2003 male track and field athlete of the year for the NEWMAC conference. MIT finished with 253 points, easily outdistancing Springfield College with 185, Coast Guard with 126, WPI with 97, Wheaton with 62 and Babson College with 33 points.
Khan improved his national mark in the hammer with a 195-11 winning throw on his last effort. He also won the discus with a 162-11 throw with a tailwind, which is not favorable in the discus. Perhaps his best effort was his 46-7 1/2 throw in the shot put, which was nearly a foot personal best. All together, the throwers scored 69 points in the hammer, discus and shot put with a scoring format of 10-8-6-5-4-3-2-1 and a maximum of 4 entries per team per event. The best event was the hammer, where Tech earned the first 4 places. Following Khan were Marios Michalakis 163-9, David Saylor 159-4 and Greg Walker 154-5. In the discus, after Khan, Uzoma Orji threw a personal best of 140-3 for 3rd, just ahead of Walker at 138-2 and Tom Weathers in 6th with 129-7. Orji also won the shot put with a throw of 51-8 1/4. Dale Cotton was not able to compete in the javelin due to the meet being moved to Sunday at the last minute due to weather conditions on Saturday.
The jumpers were pulling their own weight, scoring 65 points in the long jump, triple jump, high jump and pole vault. Nate Ball, jumped for the first time since January, returning from his hamstring injury with a successful, and provisionally national qualifying vault at 15-2 1/4 and three narrow misses at 15-9 to win the event. Ball was supported by Josh Chartier, who vaulted 13-3 for 3rd and Nestor Hernandez at 12-0 for 7th. Rick Rajter scored 10 of his 25 points when he won the triple jump with a season best of 43-5 3/4. Rajter was accompanied in the triple jump by Victor Williamson who broke out of his slump with a 42-9 3/4 effort, good for 3rd place. The biggest improvements of the day were accomplished in the long jump. Craig Mielcarz led way, scoring 8 of his 22 points by leaping to a personal best of 22-6 3/4. Nestor Hernandez stepped up to take the place of injured Tom Hoover, and improved nearly two feet with a Beamon like jump of 21-11 1/4 to place 4th. Brian Hoying took two jumps, enough to secure a solid 7th place of 21-0 3/4. The high jump had the potential to be a premier event with 2 all america winners, including the defending national champion, and 5 former national qualifiers. However, between the Penn Relays the day before for a couple of the jumpers and the other events already competed in, the jumpers just did not have it. Mielcarz garnered 2nd with a 6-7 jump, done immediately after the 110HH and the long jump. Hoying placed 3rd with 6-5 and was very close to getting 6-7. Rajter had the only season best, jumping 6-3 for 7th and nearly clearing 6-5.
The thinned out runner's field for MIT, missing All American, Brian Anderson, for the season with an injured achilles tendon, Steve Stoddard with a torn plantar fascia, Carlos Renjifo in the 3000SC also with plantar fascitis, and missing Hoying from the 400 due to previous leg injuries, still managed to score 119 points, despite pulling numerous runners from the meet once the win was secure, including the 4x400 relay.
The strongest running event for the Engineers was the 110HH. All four MIT runners ran a season best with Mielcarz and Chris Peterson hurdling to personal bests. Rajter led Tech hurdlers with a 2nd place in 15.23 and was followed by Mielcarz in 3rd, 15.48, Peterson in 4th, 15.74 and Williamson in 7th, 16.04.
The 400IH was also strong for MIT with Peterson running a season best of 56.04 and Williamson close behind in 56.14. Steve Kannan knocked 3 seconds off his personal best, running 61.33 for 7th.
The sprinters appreciated the warm weather and slight tailwind as all three MIT sprinters had season bests in both the 100 and 200 meter dashes. Zach Traina showed championship form, placing 2nd in the 100 with a 11.10 performance and 22.56 in the 200 to place 3rd. David Blau and Marc Washington gave support as Washington placed 6th in the 200 (22.86) and 8th in the 100 in 11.38. Blau placed 7th in the 100 with a 11.32, although he ran 11.25 in the trials.
Two first time performers did very well in the 400 and 800 meter events. Rajter was moved from the 400IH to the open 400 and the gamble paid off. Rajter went out a little conservatively, but ran strong in the middle, running 50.86 to place 4th in the talented field. Fivos Constantinou came back from a season best in the 1500 at 4:07.08 and ran a great 800, placing 8th with a 2:00.11.
MIT had three scorers in the 1500. Leading the way was Sean Nolan at 4:03.29 in 3rd place. Running a personal best and placing 4th was John Brewer in 4:03.57. Constantinou placed 7th with his 4:07 performance.
The distance events were dominated by the Engineers but not quite as much as in past years. In the 3000SC, minus Renjifo, Ben Schmeckpeper and Craig Wildman placed 2-3 respectively, running 9:44.95 and 9:54.82. In the 5000 meter race, Sean Nolan doubled back from the 1500 and won easily, taking it easy in 15:35.31. Steve Maltas, just getting back in shape, ran 15:51.06 for a personal best and 2nd place. Finally, in the 10K, rookie, David Gray scored 8 points by placing 2nd in 35:57.76 in his first race since a February injury sidelined him. Gray was supported by Greg Fonder and David Newell in 7th and 8th respectively.
The next task for Tech is to try and match their indoor performance at the New England Division III Championship at Bates College on 5/1-5/3. Williams College is the favorite but MIT has a chance if everything goes their way.