Williams College Too Strong For Injured Engineers

 

April 16, 2016

MIT traveled to Williams College for a good old-fashioned dual meet, knowing they were low in numbers from injuries and illness.  Even though the Engineers were not seeded to win this type of competition, they put their best foot forward and competed like the champions they are.  Both the men's and women's teams are defending NEWMAC and New England Division III champions.  They know their strength is in the larger championships where quality is a bigger factor than quantity.  The plan was to fight for every point against an extremely talented and competitive Williams team in hopes of possibly pulling out a surprise victory, making the team even stronger if they are able to get a few of their injured back for the rematch at the NED3 meet in three weeks.

MIT did indeed compete very well and fought for every point, but the Ephs from Williams were just too strong and too deep. The scores for the women were Williams 111 and MIT 91 and 116 to 85 for the men. While every team has injuries to deal with, this year seems to be an anomaly for MIT with the number of top performers going out with everything from ACL tears, to stress reactions to concussions unrelated to the sport and even cases of mono.  With all the years of success to the program, including winning the past seven NEWMAC titles for both teams and winning the NED3 Championship the past four out of five years for both the men and women, this will certainly test the mettle of the program.

The women had a back and forth battle throughout the meet.  Having much more field event strength, MIT started well with a 1-2-3 finish in Hammer Throw.  Jackie Vahey '17 led the way with a new personal best of 168-8, currently the 10th best throw in the country for Division III. Vahey was supported by a new personal best of 147-6 from Ariela Slutsky '18 and a third place of 139-3 by Audrey Pillsbury '19.  The 10-1 lead using the 5-3-2-1 scoring format would build through the early events.  In the Long Jump, Tech pulled out another 1-2-3 finish when Nneoma Okonkwo '18 won with a jump of 17-10 3/4.  Hannah Chen '18 took second (17-7) and Haley Strouf '18 took third with a new PR of 17-6.  The Pole Vault looked to be going Williams way as Maggie Murphy '19 cleared 10-10 1/4 on her first attempt while Jen Tylock '17 and Sherry Wan '16 needed two and three attempts respectively to clear the height. At 11-2 1/4 both Tylock and Wan cleared on their first attempt while Murphy needed two attempts to put the Engineers back in front.  Tylock was the only one to improve from there as she won the event with a new personal best and solid national mark of 12-2 to move to number five on the all-time MIT list.  Kathleen Brandes '19 added a fourth place at 10-6 to give MIT a 29-5 lead.  The trend continued in the Javelin as Dana Balek '18 won with a 107-3 effort and Isabella Stuopis '16 added a fourth place.

As the first round of field events were finishing, the running events were starting.  This is where MIT was going to suffer.  With both freshmen steeplers dealing with nagging little injuries, the Engineers had no entries, giving Williams an uncontested 11 points.  The next event, the 4x100 Relay, Williams was a heavy favorite having run .8 faster.  With excellent handoffs between Okonkwo, Natalie Alper '17 and Kendra Knittel '17, and an incredible anchor leg by Hannah Chen, coming from way behind, Tech pulled out the victory 48.40 to 48.41.  The five points and 10 point swing gave MIT a 40-21 lead. 

The 1500 was one event where MIT could have done better than they did.  Maryann Gong '17, also working through an injury, did not run with the patience she needed, taking the lead after an initial pedestrian lap of 80 seconds.  Even though she ran a 76 then a 71 and finished with a 50 second final 300, which would have been a sub 2:20 final 800, Anna Harlean '18 targeted Gong and outkicked her for the victory.  Gong ran 4:37.40, and Clemmie Mitchell, who should have been able to get fourth, gave up in the final half of the race, running 4:53.81.

In the 100HH, Chen again came through, but could not quite get the victory.  Her season best 15.11 into a very slight head wind, earned her second place, but for the second event in succession Williams outscored MIT 8-3, making the score 46 to 37 in favor of MIT.  The trend continued with the next two events as MIT only had one entry in each event and both claimed second place.  First, Knittel ran a season best 59.41 in the 400 and then Okonkwo ran a PR of 12.47 in the 100.  Williams was now in the lead 53 to 52. 

Back to the field events, MIT throwers went 1-2-3 again, this time in the Shot Put.  Slutsky again came through, this time improving nearly a meter to win with a throw of 41-3 3/4.  Stuopis was second at 40-0 1/2 and Vahey placed third at 39-5 1/4. However, in the Triple Jump, Tech had no entries, giving Williams another uncontested 11-0 sweep and a three point lead.  Natalie Alper had to come back from her 4x100 effort to try and clear 5-6, but was unable to do so, giving her a second place at 5-4 1/4.

The 800 was next on the track.  Bailey Tregoning '19, working on raising her serum ferritin levels, is starting to regain the form that allowed her to set the MIT indoor freshman record for the 800. Williams was seeded to go 1-2-3, but Tregoning would have none of that. After a 68 first 400, she jumped into the lead with 200 to go, but Laney Teaford '17 responded, retaking the lead coming into the home straight to win in 2:13.73.  Tregoning finished second in 2:15.49, setting the MIT outdoor freshman record.  Gong was hoping to score some points but just missed with her 2:18.06.

Chen was back on the track, this time in her primary event, the 400IH. Starting more conservatively than usual, Chen ran a well paced race to win in a season and NCAA DIII best 62.01.  Even winning the event, MIT still fell further behind as Williams placed 2-3-4 to outscore Tech 6-5, making the overall score 87 to 73.

Even though, Vahey set another MIT record of 141-6 in the Discus and Slutsky responded with her third personal best of the day, claiming second with a 132-6, the meet was essentially over when Knittel was only able to manage a fourth place in the 200.  In the next to last event, Jenny Xu '19 ran her 5K debut, performing very well, earning second place with an 18:08.33, but Williams claimed 1-3-4.

Finishing the meet was the 4x400 Relay.  MIT not only wanted to close the meet with a victory, but also needed a fast time to get them into the fast section in the NED3 Championship.  Chen led off with a 59.0 leg to give Tech the lead.  Knittel ran 59.9, Alper a 60.6 and Tregoning a 59.9 to give MIT the victory at 3:59.61.

The men's meet was very similar in scoring with each team having their dominant events, with the depth of Williams winning out.  The men did not have the quality or depth in the throwing events, but the throwers held their own.  The threesome of Cody Bratten '18, Jon Fakkema '19 and Alex Noakes '16 scored 14 points in the Hammer, Discus and Shot Put compared to the Williams throwers earning 19 points. Fakkema threw three personal bests, placing second in the Discus at 134-0, third in the Hammer at 148-1 and 42-11 1/2 in the Shot. Bratten won the Discus at 148-6 and placed fourth in the Shot at 43-9 1/4.  Noakes claimed two fourth places; in the Hammer at 147-11 and in the Discus at 123-11.  In the Javelin, Luke Gray '18 threw 142-7 to finish third in the event.

The horizontal jumps was the most dominant area for Tech.  In the Long Jump, even though the Engineers were seeded three-four, Arinze Okeke '17 jumped 22-2 1/2 to take first place honors.  Billy Ruschel '18 had his best ever long jump, taking third place at 21-9 1/2.  Carrington Motley '16 did not place, missing fourth by two centimeters at 21-8.  MIT stepped up in the Triple Jump, taking 1-2-3-4-5. Motley reversed things, taking the victory at 47-9 1/4.  Ruschel supported with a second place at 46-10 3/4.  Okeke was third at 46-6 1/4, Angel Echevarria '16 fourth at 46-6 and Ryan Prinster '18 not scoring at 44-6.

In the vertical jumps, Scott Cameron '19 continued to be MIT's top vaulter, taking second at 14-11.  Marshall Wentworth '16 placed third at 13-5 1/4 and Gray was fourth at 12-11 1/2.  In the High Jump, Milo Knowles '19 took the only place for MIT, a third at 5-10.  Overall, Williams outscored MIT 46-42 in the field events.

On the track, Aidan Gilson '19 got things started with a well run 3000 Meter Steeplechase, taking the lead half-way through the first lap when it was clear that accelerating into the barriers was going to put him in the lead.  Opening up with a 5:04 first mile, Gilson ran 81's to run a PR of 9:43.91 for the victory.

Once again, the men's 4x100 failed to get the baton around, losing a chance at five points in a critical point in the meet.  In the next event, the 1500, Tech's top runners were all out with the exception of Gilson.  Benji Xie 'G did his best, but took the lead too soon and could not hold it.  Even though he ran 4:02.92 and Daniel Weiss '19 ran 4:03.69, MIT was shut out of the points.

Chris Sweeney '18 had a very strong day, first just missing out on first in the 110HH, running a PR of 15.28 and then coming back in the 400IH, again just missing out on first place as he ran another PR of 53.79.

Another area where MIT dominated was in the long sprints.  In the 400, States Lee '16 led a 1-3-4 finish with his 48.03 victory.  Derek Barnes '16 ran a season best 49.43 for third place and Danny Newman '17 took fourth in 49.58.  In the 200 MIT did one better, taking 1-2-3.  Tre Albritten '18, after getting second in the 100 in 10.85, returned to win the 200 in 21.84.  Lee took second in 22.36 and Newman third in 22.46.

In the 5K, Colin Cotton '16 of Williams opened up a lead after 3200 meters to win in 15:05.01.  Fellow freshmen Dennis Maloney and Josh Rosenkranz did not have the turnover to accelerate as much as Cotton and settled for second and third respectively.  After back to back 4:56 1600's, they ran 4:47 and 4:49 respectively in the final 1600 and closed with a 34 final 200 to run 15:14.13 and 15:15.97.

In the 4x400, MIT ran a unit of Tom Frejowski '19, Albritten, Talla Babou '19 and Barnes.  Frejowski backed up his open 50.29 with a 51.0 leadoff leg.  Albritten ran his best 400 to date, a 49.9 to give MIT a huge lead.  Babou did his job of holding the lead with his 52.0 and Barnes brought home the victory in 50.2.

Next week, MIT will take a handful of individuals in the 800 and 5K to the Larry Ellis Invitational at Princeton University on Friday evening and will also host a meet on Saturday at the Sean Collier Invitational.  That will be the final weekend before the start of the Championship season.

 

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