ENGINEERS FINISH REGULAR SEASON UNDEFEATED IN WAY OVER BATES, COLBY AND SOUTHERN MAINE
April 15, 2006
The MIT men's track and field team stepped up big in a quadrangular meet at Lewiston, Maine versus host Bates College, Colby College and the University of Southern Maine to finish the regular season undefeated with a record of 7-0. Bates College provided superb competition as the meet was not decided until the final few events with MIT putting the meet away with a 1-2-3-4 finish in the 5000 to score a total of 244 points to 208 for Bates, 104 for USM and 89 for Colby.
The day before the meet MIT received some bad news as their leading point scorer, multi event specialist, Thad Wozniak, was diagnosed with a blood clot in his shoulder area, precluding him from competing in the meet. A few minutes later, John McGonagle, MIT's only intermediate hurdler came to practice with a splint on his ankle, preventing him from competing as well.
Bates is a strong, well coached team, and had showed as much in the indoor New England Division III Championships as the Bobcats edged out the Engineers for third place. MIT would need to step up in the areas that Wozniak was a key factor; long jump, both relays and the 200 as well as start to run at the level they are capable of.
The first indication that MIT meant to do something special was in the 3000 steeplechase. Freshman Jake Ruzevick, running like his old self, ran an extraordinary steeplechase in his second ever race at the event. Ruzevick pulled ahead with about a lap and a half to go, opened up a 20 meter lead that was growing on the final homestretch. He ended up too close to the final barrier, catching his lead leg and falling, allowing Johnson of Bates to pass him. Ruzevick nevertheless ran a superb race with a final time of 9:41.63. Supporting his PR, Rocco Repetski and Ryan King ran PRs of their own in 10:22.22 and 10:37.23 respectively.
In the 4x100, Omari Stephens took over for Wozniak and Kenny Rosche, competing for the first time after a long volleyball season, entered in the event where he helped MIT to a fourth place finish at the 2005 New England Division III Championship. Stephens took off five meters too early for the second handoff, managed to slow down enough to get the exchange and MIT managed to finish second despite the two new legs.
The jumpers did not produce the distances they were looking for, but they competed very well and got the job done. Chris Bateman, Anthony Teixeira and Obinna Anyanwu made up for the lack of Wozniak in the long jump by placing 1-2-3. Similarly, Stephens, Teixeira, Bateman and Anyanwu placed 1-2-3-6 in the triple jump.
In the sprints, MIT held their own. David Blau pulled away in the 100 to win in 11.24. In the 200, the runner in lane one appeared to outside Blau's field of vision as he pulled away on the homestretch, but Blau still secured second place. In both events, Blau received support from Rosche who placed fifth in the 100 and seventh in the 200. Ulzie Rea continued to run very well despite a bad back as he placed third in 51.63. Alex Rothberg finished fourth in the 400 and fifth in the 200 to provide even more points.
In the throws, Uzoma Orji and James Oleinik took care of business even if they did not have their best outing of the season. Orji placed second in the hammer but won the shot put and discus. Oleinik threw a season best in the shot put with a toss of 46-2 1/2 for third and finished sixth in both the hammer and discus.
With Bates College closing on MIT's early lead, the Tech 800 runners took matters into their own hands. Aron Walker, running poorly the week before, perhaps due to not following the prescribed warmup, put it together this time. With three hundred meters to go he took off , winning the slow section by fifteen meters and placing second overall in 2:00.26. Dan Rodgers ran his first 800 of the outdoor season, overcame the fever he had most of the week and posted a fine 2:00.52 in the fast section to finish third overall. Fivos Constantinou came from the back of the pack to finish fifth in 2:01.38 after running 4:05.41 in the 1500 where he placed third.
The event that clinched the win, the 5000, sported seven MIT runners. With Joe Roy-Mayhew, a 15:53 under his belt already this season was sitting out with an injury, Khatchadourian decided he wanted to double, both for the points but also to help pace the other Tech runners to a 5:00 per mile pace. True to form, Khatch hit pace right on until the half way point where he threw in two 74s to come through two miles in 9:58. At this point only one opponent, a Bates runner, was managing to stay with Khatch, Spencer Dudley, Steve Maltas and Chris Wong and he was beginning to fade. At two and a half miles Wong was slowing to 79 second pace and Maltas dropped a 78. Khatch and Dudley threw in 1:44 final 600s to run 15:27.56 and 15:28.45 respectively. Dudley's time was his second PR in as many weeks. Maltas finished third in a personal best of 15:39.94 and Wong ran a season best of 15:41.92 to finish fourth after his 31 second final 200 nearly caught back up to Maltas.
Tech closed out the meet with a season best 3:26.25 4x400. Next week, MIT hosts the Spring Invitational for 12 teams from all NCAA divisions, which will be the final tuneup before the NEWMAC Championships, also at MIT, on 4/29.