MIT Men and Women Earn Engineer's Meet Victory
April 4, 2009
MIT began their true outdoor season (a meet involving most of the team) at WPI in Worcester, MA, the site of this year's annual Engineers Meet. The men claimed a relatively easy victory with a score of 160.5 to 123.5 for RPI and 113 for WPI. The women did not pull out the victory until the final event, the pole vault, to win with 146 points to 135 for RPI and 87 for WPI.
The day started off pretty miserable with temperatures in the 40's and the wind gusting at 20-30 mph and proceeded to get worse with even harsher winds, making the wind chill too low to produce outstanding performances. If the facility were set up to utilize the strong winds it may have been beneficial for the sprints and jumps but with the ability to only use one finish line, which was running into the strong headwind, and the jumps perpendicular to the direction of the wind, making the pole vault miserable, pretty much everyone suffered through the meet.
On the men's side it was simply a matter of too many MIT competitors at a relatively high level. However, Tech could have done much better. Stephen Morton '10, was sick and after winning the long jump, retired from the meet, meaning he would not be scoring in the triple jump, 100 or 200 and that MIT needed to substitute for his anchor leg in the 4x100 relay. In addition, MIT intentionally did not double up their top runners and moved some to different events. Nevertheless, MIT won with depth and by claiming seven of the 19 events.
Vlad Sobes '11, perhaps had the best mark for MIT with a javelin throw of 190-4 for the win. Greg Tao '10, took care of his specialty with a vault of 15-4 1/2. The only other field event victory for the men was earned by Mattias Flander in the triple jump with a mark of 43-1 1/2. In the running events, Richard Prevost '11, started things off with a well run 9:34.80 in the 3000 Steeplechase despite the strong winds. Right after that, MIT was all set to win the 4x100 as they were leading by three second going into the final handoff. After the handoff, the incoming runner ran into the adjacent lane and interfered with RPI's handoff, thus earning a DQ for MIT. In the 800, Yermie Cohen '09, dropped down in distance and displayed nice closing speed as he won in 1:58.52. Dan Harper '12, showed the ability to run alone in the wind as he took the lead with 2400 meters to go and ran 15: 52.55 for MIT's final victory of the day for the men despite the strongest winds of the day.
The women, lacking the depth and missing most of the distance squad due to a need for a break in racing, resting Margaret Leibovic '10, in the sprints due to leg soreness and giving Amy Magnuson '10, a very short day, needed high quality to secure the win. They provided this by winning 12 of the 19 events despite giving away victories in the 100HH and 100 due to the absence of Magnuson and Leibovic.
The women pulled ahead by six with Alina Gatowski's victory in the 5000 with an excellent PR of 18:45.58. They expanded it by two more with a strong victory in the 4x400 in 4:07.30 by Jamie Simmons '12, Jacqui Wentz '10, Adrienne Bolger '09, and Andrea Bradshaw '09. However, RPI scored 12 to 0 for MIT in the discus to take a three point lead with only the pole vault remaining. Fortunately, Karin Fisher '11, led the way in the horrible cross wind with a vault of 10-10 and was buoyed by second place from Emily Hwang '09, and third by Hazel Briner '11 to secure the win.
The most spectacular performance on the women's side was by Jacqui Wentz, who literally threw caution to the wind in the 1500, running 4:40.10, a new PR and a new varsity record. Six other victories on the track were earned by Portia Jones '12, in both the 200 and 400, running 61.15 and 27.01 respectively; Andrea Bradshaw in the 800 with a wire to wire victory in 2:21.72; Jamie Simmons ran 66.43 in the 400IH for the win despite some difficulties finding her steps; Liz Labuz '09, ran a solid 12:19.7 for the victory in the 3000 Steeplechase and the quartet of Bradshaw, Simmons, Jones and Magnuson won the 4x100 on a come from behind leg by Magnuson to total 51.93.
Next week, MIT heads north to Colby College in Waterville, Maine to face Bates, host Colby and Southern Maine.