TRAINA AND ORJI LEAD WAY TO FIFTH STRAIGHT NEWMAC CHAMPIONSHIP WITH DOUBLE VICTORIES
April 30, 2005
Despite a strong effort by Springfield College, MIT came out strong with 90 points in the first five events, kept the effort strong with double victories by Uzoma Orji and Zach Traina and closed out the victory with 60 points in the final four events to win their fifth consecutive NEWMAC Championship and sixth out of the seven championships since the conference began in 1999. Following MIT's 246 points were Springfield College with 199, Coast Guard with 167 1/2, host WPI with 78, Wheaton College with 54 and Babson bringing up the rear with 15 1/2 points.
The meet opened with the 10K and MIT set the tone for the afternoon by claiming 2-4-5-6, by Ian Driver, Joe Roy-Mayhew, Spencer Dudley and Brian Jacokes respectively. All but Dudley ran personal bests, but Driver perhaps had the performance of the meet. Running a solid race by negatively splitting with miles of 5:26, 5:21, 5:21, 5:21, 5:16 and 5:19 before finishing with a 68 final quarter, Driver nearly caught the winner, who had lapped the field and then faded to within eight seconds of losing the race. Driver's final time of 33:12.38 was a personal best by over a minute. Roy-Mayhew, a freshman who was injured since the summer, missing both cross country and indoor track and just started racing four weeks ago, has continued to amaze his teammates by consistently racing well beyond all expectations, this time running 33:44.07 to qualify for the New England Division III Championship.
During the rain soaked pole vault, Patrick Barragan and Omari Stephens went out early but not before clearing 12-5 1/2 to place sixth and seventh. Nester Hernandez cleared 13-5 1/4 with no misses in the competition to claim second. Nate Ball entered the competition after everyone else was finished, cleared 14-6 and then 15-7 to set the meet record before retiring for the day with the victory.
In the hammer throw, number one seed Uzoma Orji lost for the first time this season, but did so to teammate David Saylor. Saylor threw a personal best, national qualifying mark of 175-0. The 1-2 finish provided MIT with 18 more points. Throwing a personal best in the rain showed how good Saylor really threw.
Back on the track, Ben Schmeckpeper took the steeple lead at the gun and won by 34 seconds as he ran a personal best and meet record of 9:20.0 while also qualifying provisionally for the NCAA Championships. Supporting another 1-2 finish, Chris Bruce ran a personal best of 9:54.1. Kevin DiGenova rounded out the scoring with an excellent finish to take over eighth place in a season best of 10:32.1.
The 400 relay was next on the track and the number one seeded Engineers did not disappoint their teammates. David Blau got a good start and had Tech in the lead at the first exchange to Kenny Rosche. Despite a foot injury, Kenny ran one of his best legs of the season. Jonathan Hsieh stumbled as he took off to get into position to receive the handoff from Roshce, causing him to be no where near full speed when he received the baton. Nevertheless, Hsieh ran his strongest leg of the season, giving him a significant lead as he approached anchor leg Traina, who did not hesitate to put the race away, finishing in a season best of 42.70. These first five events put MIT in a commanding lead with 90 points and they never looked back.
The drought of points in the high jump and javelin did not keep MIT down. In the 1500, Brian Anderson, Fivos Constantinou and John Brewer placed 2-3-4 with Anderson running a season best of 3:57.73 as he continues his comeback. Carlos Renjifo gave support with an eighth place performance. In the field, Nestor Hernandez came through with his second second place in as many events when he jumped 21-1 1/2 in the long jump. Tom Hoover placed fifth and Makinde Adeagbo held onto eighth to build MIT's lead.
In the 110HH, Stephens did not place first as he was seeded, but he did get third and Anthony Teixeira, who was not expected to place at all, came in fourth with a personal best of 16.50. In the discus, Orji found his winning touch despite the rain with a throw of 140-03.
When MIT dropped below expectations in one event, they would step up big in another event to more than make up for the points lost. A good example was the 400 and 100 dashes. In the 400, Kenny Rosche, seeded 5th, placed 6th with a very respectable 50.62. In the 100, Traina and Blau put their considerable talents together and placed 1-2 in a season best for Traina of 11.01 and a personal best for Blau in 11.10. Hsieh added two points with his 7th place finish.
The triple jump did not go as expected as Adeagbo was not able to come though and settled for fourth place. Teixeira, having a great meet, jumped his season best to place 6th. On the track, Chris Desrochers ran a huge personal best by nearly a second, running 57.99 in the 400 IH to place 5th.
Anderson returned to the track in the 800 and looked great as he took the lead and kept it through 700 meters. However, he was passed by two runners in the final straight to finish third in 1:56.43. Constantinou ran 1:59.88 to finish 8th.
The 200 put the meet away as Traina, Blau and Rosche finished 1-3-5 for a nice 20 point score. Not to be outdone, the distance runners scored 22 points in the 5000 by placing 2-3-4-6. All MIT runners broke 16:00 with Kevin Brulois in 15:35.24, Eric Khatchadourian in 15:39.28, Chris Wong in 15:42.02 and Erik Stafl with a 15:46.60.
With the rain really coming down, Orji took to the shot put circle. Aided by teammates Brian Malley and John Brewer keeping the circle dry with towels each time before he threw, Orji threw a season best of 55-11 to win easily.
The final event on the track, the 1600 relay was led off by Traina with a 50.1 leg, his best ever. Brian Anderson was only able to put together a 51.9 leg, as was third leg, Jesse Collins. Rosche anchored with a 50.3 but it was not enough to claim first. The team had to settle for second with a time of 3:24.22. For his efforts and superb performances, Zach Traina was named Outstanding Male Athlete in the NEWMAC Conference for the season.
Next week, MIT heads west to Springfield College for the New England Division III Championships. MIT is seeded to place second behind Williams College but Bates and Tufts are seeded just a couple of points behind.