Morton Leads Engineers With Varsity Record in the 100 Meters
March 29, 2008
The MIT Track and Field team rewarded themselves after a long week of very hard work by competing in the Point Loma Invitational hosted by Point Loma Nazarene University in San Diego. MIT finished second with 274 points in the 12 team meet despite leaving more than half the team back at MIT and with some of those on the trip not competing in their full complement of events. The scoring was a bit unusual in that no more than two individuals from a team could score in any event and the scoring went 15-13-12-11-10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1.
The spring trip began with five very hard days of work at Claremont McKenna Scripps Colleges. If the work alone did not get to the athletes then the heat certainly took its toll. By the end of the week, when the Engineers travled south to Point Loma for the meet, the entire team was dragging. However, knowing the hard work would pay huge dividends later in the season, the MIT athletes decided they would rather not wait until later, shrugged off their fatigue and ran, jumped and threw to many personal bests.
Tony McDonald got things going on Friday evening with a nice hammer throw of 137-8, a personal best good for fourth place. The team then went to a reception to welcome the MIT class of 2012 from the San Diego area before going over to Jake Ruzevick's home for a very nice home cooked meal. This, along with the other hosted meals by Chris Bateman, '07 and Chris Khan, '03, gave the team the fuel they needed to bring it on on Saturday.
Paul Welle and Richard Prevost raced in their first ever 3000 Steeplechase, taking charge at the start and running excellent rookie times of 10:05.5 and 10:14.6 to place first and second in the event. The only other victory for MIT came at the hands, or rather the feet, of Stephen Morton. Despite tight and sore hamstrings, Morton managed an MIT record of 10.79 in the 100 meters despite a poor start and rough first 30 meters.
Second place honors went to Kevin Kleinguetl, who ran the 800, leading from start to almost the finish in a great 1:55.72 time. Omari Stephens also earned runner-up with his 15-7 vault, continuing his successful vaulting from the indoor season. Also claiming second place was James Oleinik in the shot put with a heave of 46-10 1/4. Earning a tie for tenth on the MIT Outdoor Track and Field top 10 list for the triple jump, freshman Mattias Flander leaped 45-10 to also place second. Flander had a jump over 46' that was clearly legal but the official made an admitted error, calling the jump a foul causing the rakers to remove the mark before the judgement could be corrected.
Both the 4x100 and 4x400 relay teams placed third despite very little work and perhaps the best team not being in place. Anthony Teixeira, only running the relay due to his over worked hamstrings, led the 4x100 off with a fine leadoff leg. Nick Leonard, running the second leg, surprised all with his speed as he held his own down the backstretch. Mattias Flander started the third leg well but fatigued towards the end, and combined with Stephen Morton leaving a bit early, he was unable to catch Morton without Morton nearly stopping at the end of the exchange zone. Despite all this, Morton passed teams down the home stretch, earning the team a respectable 43.31 performance. Running the 4x400 with three 800 runners and one multi-eventer, no one expected the team to place third, with the exception of those running the race for MIT. Matt Bieniosek led off with a nice 51.5 leg, which was followed by a 52.6 leg by a fatigued Bill Phipps. Leonard again surprised everyone by running an excellent 51.3 leg. Kleinguetl finished the leg off with an outstanding 51.2 anchor to put the team in third. Also placing third was Morton in the long jump with a 21-10 1/4 performance. The final third place for Tech was earned by Brian Jacokes, who fought off the pain and fatigue to race to a very respectable 15:36.37 for his outdoor personal best.
There were three fourth place efforts by MIT, but none were more welcome that the 167' throw in the javelin by freshman Vlad Sobes. It has been a few years since the Engineers had a good javelin thrower. In addition to McDonald's throw in the hammer, Morton also earned fourth place but was also the victim of a poor judging call in the triple jump, missing out on a 46'+ mark. Instead, he settled for a 42-9 1/2 performance for the fourth place.
Next week, MIT hosts the annual Engineer's Cup against RPI and WPI on 4/5 at 12:00.