MIT PREPARES FOR CHAMPIONSHIPS WITH FINAL TUNE-UP

April 22, 2006

Despite windy and cool conditions many MIT athletes set season or personal bests in the Spring Invitational as they showed they are ready for the championships to begin.  Colleges represented were Bentley, Bryant, Emanuel, Fitchburg State, Merrimack, Naval Academy Prep School, Regis, Stonehill, UMass Lowell, URI, Wellesley and Wheaton.

In the 100, the finish line was changed to take advantage of the wind.  Taking advantage of this, although for this one section the automatic timing system failed, were Kenny Rosche and Demario Dayton, running 10.8 and 11.0 handtimes respectively.  Rosche, recently out for track after a long volleyball season, is returning to last year's condition as he ran 23.19 in the 200.

In the 400, Alex Rothberg ran a personal best of 51.10 despite a strong wind during the 400.  Rothberg came back later for another PR in the 200, running 22.95.

The strongest running event for MIT was the 800 meters.  MIT placed 2-5 with Jake Ruzevick leading the way with a personal best of 1:58.04.  Aron Walker won an earlier section in 1:58.93, also a personal best.  Continuing the trend, Dan Rodgers was just behind Walker with a personal best of 1:59.27.  Also running well were Fivos Constantinou and Yermie Cohen, running 1:59.45 and 2:00.07 respectively.

The other personal best on the track was provided by Tyler Abrams as he ran 16:12.59 in the 5000.  Also running well in the distance events was Chris Bruce winning the 3000 Steeplechase in 10:03.24, Brian Jacokes running 16:17.70 in the 5000 and Steve Maltas running a casual New England Division III qualifying time of 33:16.17 in the 10K.

In the field events, the long jump turned out to be the premier event for the Engineers.  Chris Bateman popped a huge personal best of 21-8 1/4 to finish second in the event.  Thad Wozniak and Anthony Teixeira also PR'd with leaps of 21-2 1/2 and 20-4 1/2 respectively.

Nate Sharpe continued to learn and improve in the pole vault as he cleared 12-0.  Also doing well in the field events were James Oleinik with a new personal best in the shot put, throwing 48-4 and a personal best in the hammer by Uzoma Orji, throwing 189-4.

Next week, MIT hosts the NEWMAC Conference Championship, beginning at 11:00 on Saturday, April 29.  MIT has won the past five championships in succession and six of the seven championships since the conference began in 1999.  This year, both Springfield College and Wheaton College pose serious challenges to MIT in their defense as conference champion.

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