MIT HAS MEET OF A LIFETIME
Women Upset Williams for Championship, Men Make it Close--Garner Second
Morton Takes Down 1936 Long Jump Record
May 2, 2009
Six MIT records, five new or improved NCAA qualifying marks and thirty four personal bests led MIT to perhaps their best meet ever. At the New England Division III Championships, hosted by Springfield College, MIT men and women coming off an average performance in winning the NEWMAC Conference Championship last weekend, knew they would have to step-up big if they were to give heavily favored Williams College a run. In the women's meet, Williams was seeded to score 161.5 points to 113 for MIT, while on the men's side, Williams was favored by a score of 112 to 95. Of the twenty plus other teams, none were seeded to be within 30 points of MIT in either meet. The women had a career and history defining weekend, pulling off the upset while scoring 152.5 points to 143 for Williams. The MIT men also had a phenomenal meet, outscoring their seeds to finish second to Williams 136.66 points with 108 of their own.
If Portia Jones '12, carried the team point wise with 25 points by winning the 200, 400 and placing fourth in the100HH despite her blocks slipping, as well as leading off the fourth place 4x100 and anchoring the winning 4x400 team, then Jacqui Wentz '10, embodied the spirit and determination of this team and Anna Holt-Gosselin '11, Jennifer Doyle '09, and Jamie Simmons '12, the fight and unwillingness to lose. Wentz set two new MIT records and was the anchor leg in the 4x800 relay that was not only victorious but crushed the MIT record, running 9:13.96 after Wentz pulled off a come from behind 2:14.0 anchor to set up the 4x400 to hold onto the 7.5 point lead. In her first race, the 3000 Steeplechase, Wentz ran 10:47.46 to improve her own NCAA qualifying mark and MIT record. Later, she was back on the track in the 800 where she finished third in 2:15.76 to claim the MIT record from Andrea Bradshaw '09, who finished fifth in the race with 2:16.56.
Holt-Gosselin, ran the 10K on Friday, gamely trying to go with the leader, but after coming through the 3200 in 11:26 she began to fall off the ambitious pace. The early consistent 85 second quarters eventually caught up to her, causing her to slip to third at the end despite her 37:31.12. On Saturday, with the promise of not using her in the 5,000 meter race she was entered in unless the meet was on the line, Holt-Gosselin was pretty sure she was finished competing in the meet. However, with the incredible performances piling up, MIT took the lead in the meet two events before the 5K. With Williams seeded to place 1-3-4-5 and Holt-Gosselin second, it was critical to have her in there if MIT was going to have a chance to pull out the meet. Somehow she found the strength to run 17:51.69 to garner third place.
Jennifer Doyle, feeling the pressure and stress of finishing her thesis, was not feeling the best going into the meet. This has never stopped Doyle from performing big when it is needed. In the 1500, she moved strong at the 800 mark, coming through the 1200 in 3:46 and finishing in a big PR of 4:40.20, good for fifth place. Coming back in the 5,000, Doyle was not seeded to score. Once again, Doyle came through despite initially appearing to give up. At the 3200 mark, in 13th place, 19 seconds behind Holt-Gosselin, Doyle began to move. Running quarters of 89, 87, 83, 77 and finishing with a 36 final 200, Doyle moved all the way to fourth to run 17:57.85.
Jamie Simmons, continues to improve by leaps and bounds each week. Running both relays as well as the 400 and 400IH, Simmons had a full plate. Running a fine second leg in the 4x100 relay, she helped set the team up for their fourth place finish. In the 400, seeded fifth at 59.12, Simmons finished with a vicious final 200 to place third in 58.13. An hour later, in the 400IH where she was seeded sixth, she looked beat and fatigued over the first six hurdles. It then appeared as if Simmons looked up, saw she was in last place, and just decided she was not going to accept that outcome. She bolted past the runners, finishing in third with a another personal best of 64.91.
The women began their meet on Friday with the first day of the heptathlon, as well as the 10K, long jump and hammer throw. Neither MIT nor Williams was very strong in the field events with the exception of the pole vault for MIT, but Amy Magnuson pulled off a big surprise in the long jump, moving up from her eighth place seed to finish fourth with a jump of 17-8 3/4, just fouling her last attempt that would have moved her to second place.
In the 10K, in addition to Holt-Gosselin, MIT entered Tania Morimoto '12 and Alina Gatowski '11. Morimoto, feeling drained the past few weeks, had taken some time in the pool rather than on the roads to try and recover. It must have worked, as combined with her will to succeed, she was able to hold onto fifth place despite fading from a very ambitious early pace. Morimoto's final time was 38:32.88. Gatowski, running a huge personal best, just missed scoring as she finished ninth in 39:40.35.
On Saturday, MIT began things with the second day of the heptathlon, the pole vault and the 3000SC. After building up a nice lead on day one led by her personal best of 15.88 in the 100HH, Hazel Briner '10, held her ground with marks of 14-11 1/4 in the long jump, 76-1 in the javelin and 2:33.33 in the 800 to win the event overall with 3972 points. In addition to Wentz's 3000SC victory, Liz Labuz '09, and Maggie Lloyd '12, ran personal bests of 11:44.22 and 11:54.39 respectively.
The pole vault, MIT's big event, was not a disappointment. Seeded to score 18 points, it would have been easy to lose some of those key points, but the vaulters came through big with Emily Hwang '09, leading the way with a 12-7 1/2 winning vault and New England Division III meet record. Karin Fisher '11, jumped 11-7 3/4 to garner third, and in the middle of her heptathlon, Briner managed to clear 10-2 to place sixth, one place higher than she was seeded to finish, giving the Engineers 19 points in the event.
After the fourth place finish of the 4x100 (Jones, Simmons, Margaret Leibovic '10, Magnuson) and Doyle's fifth place finish in the 1500, Magnuson and Jones were on the track for the final of the 100HH. In the trials, both had won their heats with Jones running a personal best of 15.01 and Magnuson running 14.48. In the finals, Jones had blocks missing some spikes on the bottom and did not get someone to hold her blocks, resulting in her blocks slipping at the start, causing her to nearly fall. Despite this start, Jones ran as the superb competitor she is and nearly caught the third place runner, finishing in 15.18 for fourth. Magnuson had no such problems, sprinting to a season best 14.39 victory.
Jones, running in the very next event, the 400, received the time benefit of running her hurdle race before the men's 110HH final and her 400 after the men's 400 final, giving her nearly 30 minutes to recover. This proved to be plenty as she took her frustration from the hurdles out on the 400 field, running away with a 57.24 victory. In addition to Simmons' third place, another freshman, Martha Gross, placed eighth with a season best of 59.39 despite not being seeded to score.
After the 800, in the 400IH, in addition to Simmons' third place finish, Kirsten Aarsvold '11, ran a great race, finishing in 66.65 for a huge personal best and a tie for eighth place, giving MIT 1/2 point.
Jones was back on the track in the 200. Despite having to run the full turn due to her assignment in lane one, and her notoriously poor start, Jones recovered from spotting the field 15 meters and closed with an incredible final 100 to pull out the victory in 25.69.
After the very successful 5000 where MIT scored 11 points to the eight they were seeded and Williams scored 18 as compared to the 25 they were seeded for, the relays were all that was left. Entering the 4x800 relay, MIT held a 5.5 point lead. MIT was seeded to place fourth and Williams seventh, but it was obvious that both teams had the runners to place 1-2. What was to be determined was which would take first and which one second. Bradshaw led off for MIT, hoping to give the Engineers a nice lead after the first leg. Williams had the same idea and were a bit more successful with their plan, opening up a ten meter lead after Bradshaw's 2:19.2 leg. Adrienne Bolger '09, was next and did not disappoint, closing the lead with an excellent 2:20.1 leg. Freshman, Alicia Kaestli, took the baton for the third leg, running a very well paced 2:20.5 to keep MIT with 10 meters of both Williams and Middlebury. This set up the heroics of Wentz, who gradually closed the lead down with her opening 400 of 66 and then completed the job, pulling away in the final 200 to win by over two seconds.
All MIT needed to do in the 4x400 was to finish no worse than sixth if Williams were to win the event. Out in lane eight, with a three turn stagger, Simmons led off with a big 58.6 to put MIT in the lead. Gross came back with a 60.2 to maintain the lead and Aarsvold ran an excellent 61.1 to give Jones a small lead, but that was all she would need as she put the icing on the cake with a 57.6 anchor to finish in 3:57.76
For the men, Friday was exceptional both in points scored and in quality of performance. The decathlon second day was finishing and Travis Hery '11, was in seventh place with 5343 points, more than 200 points higher than his seed. Right after that, both the long jump and 10K were starting. In the 10K, Jake Ruzevick '09, Dan Harper '12, and Jack Bourbonnais '10, hung onto the leaders through a very pedestrian pace, which saw the participants come through the 4800 in 16:00. The pace picked up to a 5:10 fourth mile and then a 5:07, which is where the leaders broke away. Ruzevick hung on to finish fourth in 32:42.00 while Harper and Bourbonnais were relatively close behind in fifth and sixth, running 32:47.98 and 33:17.21 respectively.
Over in the long jump pit, Stephen Morton '10, was almost completely healed from his back injury and appeared ready to compete. However his first jump was a foul and his second jump was only a little over 22'. Knowing he needed a big jump to guarantee finals, Morton hit the jump perfectly, landing at 24-02 1/4, a quarter inch further than the record held by Stanley Johnson in 1934. Trying to save his legs and back, MIT shut Morton down as they were certain the huge jump was enough to win without him jumping in the finals. The 24 points were more than MIT had hoped for and positioned them well after day one.
At the start of day two, MIT opened big with Richard Prevost '11, and Paul Welle '11, in the 3000 Steeplechase. The top seed from Keene State, Cory Loonan, took the pace out very fast in 68 seconds for the first quarter. Prevost and Welle were the only ones who followed and when Loonan fell off the fast pace they were left by themselves. They went on to place 1-2 in 9:26.54 and 9:28.79 respectively, both PRs, for 18 big points.
MIT failed to score in the 4x100, but over in the discus circle, Mitch Kelley '11, went from eighth place to second on his final throw, tossing the discus 149-00 for another big MIT personal best. Similarly, Tony McDonald '10, was sitting in eighth in the shot put and moved to fourth on his final throw with a put of 45-10 1/2. MIT was only seeded to score six in the discus and two in the shot, so the combined 13 points were a big help.
Back on the track, Yermie Cohen '09, was in a very fast 1500. The opening 400 was in 60 and the half in 2:01. Cohen was back at 2:03 towards the front of the spread out pack. The third quarter was slower for Cohen, who came through in 3:07. He ran the final 300 in 50 seconds to hold onto fifth place in 3:57.09, two places higher than he was seeded.
The next event MIT was entered in on the track was the 400IH. Nick Leonard '11, ran a great finish even though his backstretch was uncharacteristically poor, finishing in a personal best of 55.55, good for sixth place.
Vlad Sobes '11, placed fifth in the javelin with a throw of 178-4 and may have broken his foot on his first throw. MIT will have to wait until Monday to see what damage was done to his foot.
Over in the triple jump, Morton and Mattias Flander '11, were taking care of business. Seeded fourth and seventh, both jumpers brought it this day. Morton jumped 48-4 3/4 for second place and his second MIT record of the meet. Flander jumped a personal best 46-5 1/4 for fourth place.
Before Morton made his record making jump, he had to line up for the 200, a race in which he was seeded eighth. Not able to do much working out on the track with his back as of late, Morton seemed lacking in the necessary strength but he nevertheless managed a fourth place in 22.42.
The final field event for MIT was the pole vault. With seven vaulters in the field, MIT stood a strong chance of scoring well. Seeded to score 16, Greg Tao '10, Nathan Peterson '12, and Nate Sharpe '09, combined for second, third and tied for fifth respectively for a total of 19 points.
Not knowing how the pole vault would turn out, MIT made the decision to keep Ruzevick and Cohen entered in the 5K to go along with a fresh Hemagiri Arumugam '10. The pace was quick and Arumugam was up to the task, coming through the 1600 in 4:52, the 3200 in 9:44 and the 4800 in 14:32 before finishing in fourth place in 15:04.11. Ruzevick made a remarkable comeback to place seventh in 15:14.54, an exceptional time after running the 10K the evening before. Cohen got cramps in his calves and did not place despite his 15:33.36.
MIT will now focus on individuals trying to make or improve marks to get to nationals. The next meet will be the NEICAAA Championship on Friday and Saturday at UMass Amherst. The championship brings the best of all track and field athletes from New England colleges, regardless which division they are in.