Uzoma has a rough day but finishes 5th in the hammer with 188' 10" at the IC4A Championships
May 13-14, 2006
While other MIT athletes were competing at the NEIAAA Championships Uzoma Orji traveled to Princeton for the IC4A Championships to face the top competition in the East. While the rest of the MIT athletes were getting soaked with torrential downpours in Boston there was nothing but sun in Princeton on Saturday for the hammer throw. Uzoma came into the meet seeded third at 205' 9". The strongest throwers in the field were from Manhattan. They took first through fourth last year, all over 200'.
After the first heat it was evident that one of the Manhattan throwers was not going to make finals. Taking his place on top however was a thrower from Bucknell who led his flight with 200' 2". The second flight featured last year's champion Zoran Loncar who did not disappoint with a 203' 3" to win his flight. Going into the third flight the competition was wide open with third place being a relatively low 190'. Uzoma looked to be a little tentative on his first throw and didn't have the positions to get a fair throw. He then watched Paul Peulich from Manhattan throw 206' 6" to take the lead. On Uzoma's second throw he was able to get a mark with 188' 10" to secure fifth place before finals. On the third round he was not able to improve and Peulich threw 209' 10" to increase his lead.
Going into finals Uzoma knew that he had a solid chance of taking at least second place. After throwing around 200' twice in warmups he seemed to be ready. However the smooth acceleration that he displayed at Springfield last week just wasn't there and his distances suffered. Unable to improve his distance he finished in fifth place behind Freeman from Manhattan with 198' 3", Frake from Bucknell with 200' 2", Loncar from Manhattan with 208' 1", and Peulich from Manhattan with 209' 10".
Sunday morning the men's shot put was set to start with Uzoma seeded third behind Milan Jotanovic from Manhattan and Derek Anderson from Northeastern. Uzoma didn't get the feel of the circle during warmups and had to abort his first throw at the front of the circle. Lasher from Sacred Heart opened with a 55' 2" throw just after Uzoma. Then Anderson opened up with a 58' 9.5" toss to take the early lead. Uzoma bettered his mark with his second throw of 53' 8.5", but still didn't quite have the acceleration in the middle of the circle. With his third throw being under 52' he was looking forward to finals to correct his technique. In the second flight only Jotanovic was able to better Uzoma's mark when he took the lead with 60' 10", putting Uzoma in fourth place heading into finals.
With a few throwers breathing down his back Uzoma was able to improve his mark on his final throw of 53' 10.5" but still didn't have the active right leg acceleration that we had seen in practice during the week. He finished fourth just behind Lasher from Sacred Heart with 55' 2", Anderson from Northeastern with 61' 6.25", and Jotanovic with 62' 5.75".
Next week, Uzoma will join some of his teammates at Springfield College for the ECAC Championship where he will try to get back in the groove before heading to the NCAA Division III Championship on May 23.