Menkiti Sets Freshman Record, Women Win Bates Invite
Men Suffer Loss to Bates
April 8, 2017
This weekend, Tech headed north to Lewiston, ME to take on Tufts University, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and the host, Bates College in the Bates Invitational. On a day with temperatures peaking in the low 40’s and wind gusts of up to 8 m/s at times, Tech was set to lock in on its first scored meet of the outdoor season. Earlier in the week, it was questionable as to whether Bates would be able to host the College Invite due to snow and ice on the track; however, with a bit of warm rain and good luck, enough snow melted and was removed from the surface. With only a few adjustments made to accommodate for snow that could not be removed, including moving the vertical jumps indoors, the meet provided Tech with a great opportunity to build off their strong start from a week ago on their Spring Trip. As the competition came to a close, however, it seemed that the Engineers of MIT still have many questions to answer heading into the championship season.
Picking up where they left off from a week ago, the throws squad came up big at the Bates College Invite, churning out more strong performances and personal bests. In the women’s Discus, MIT looked to its standout throwers Jackie Vahey ’17 and Ari Slutsky ’18 to get the team rolling. Captain, Jackie Vahey ’17 continued her solid start in her specialty, slinging a throw of 136-03 ¼. The day belonged to Ari Slutsky ’18, however, narrowly edging her teammate with a season’s best throw of 136-05 ¾. Following the 1-2 punch of the women’s Discus, the highlight of the day came in the men’s competition as Cody Bratten ’18 continued his hot streak. Not fazed by the wind or cold, Bratten ’18 unloaded his first throw of the day, launching the disc to a new personal best of 167-05 and adding over two meters to his previous best set a week ago. Bratten’s throw will most likely qualify him for the NCAA Outdoor Championships in May, is currently the third best throw in the country, and is the second best throw in MIT history.
In the horizontal jumps, Tech’s men took advantage of the tail winds and the sluggish Long Jump performances of their counterparts, adding 16 points to the team total with three of the four jumpers reaching new personal bests in the process. MIT was led by junior, Jason Villanueva, who took third with a leap of 20-10, improving his personal best set just a week ago. Chris Washington ‘20 and Shane Lyons ‘20 also improved their previous best marks by jumping 20-07 and 20-02 ½, good for fourth and fifth place finishes. In the women’s Triple Jump, Freshmen Jasmine Jin struggled to find the right mindset in the wind and cold but managed to pull it together to jump 35-04 for second place.
On the track, the MIT Steeplechasers were poised to make a strong statement in their season debuts. In the women’s race, Jenna Melanson ’20 owned the field from start to finish, showing off her hurdling acumen and breezing to a first-place finish in a time of 11:15.19, over 23 seconds faster than the nearest finisher. In the men’s race Aidan Gilson ’19 and Ben Freed ’18 braved the cold and wind to run a smooth and decisive race. Gilson ’19 proved to be too much for Freed ’18, winning in a time of 9:45.70. Freed ’18 finished in a time of 9:49.80, holding off Bates’ Ferguson-Hull for a second-place finish. In the 4x100 relay, the Tech women’s squad looked to atone for last week’s disqualification. The team of Hannah Chen ’18, Michelle Menkiti ’20, Jane Reed ’20, and Nneoma Okonkwo ’18 did just that, getting the baton around the track in smooth fashion, running away with the victory in a time of 48.75.
Meanwhile, the vertical jumps were heating up indoors where the weather was a calm 70 degrees. In the women’s High Jump, Natalie Alper ’17 continued her winning ways clearing 5-04 ¼ on her second attempt and running away with nine more points for the Tech team score. Alper ’17 once again took three solid attempts at 5-06, which would have improved upon her school record leap of a week ago, but narrowly missed. In the men’s Pole Vault, Scott Cameron was out for redemption following a no height performance in San Antonio, TX, while Bobby Upton ’20 set his sights on improving his freshman record set a week ago. The day was Cameron’s, flinging himself over the 15-05 bar for the win, outdoing his teammate Upton ’20 who finished second with a jump of 14-11. Freshman Raja Rajcic unfortunately no heighted for the second week in a row.
Back on the track, the 1500m had an old, familiar face in Colin Godwin ’17 who has battled back from a stress fracture to his femur earlier in the year. Although the race was not his fastest, by any means, Godwin ’17 ran with purpose in the whipping winds, posting a time of 4:06.36 for third place. Continuing on from her strong hurdle performance at the Trinity Tiger Invite, Hannah Chen ’18 took advantage of a 4.0 m/s wind to blast her fastest 100m hurdle performance in her time at MIT. Her time of 14.68 was good enough for second place and is fifth all-time in MIT history.
In the throws ring, Junior Ari Slutsky ’18 continued her competitive ways in the Shot Put unleashing another season’s best performance of 40-09 ½ for yet another first-place finish. Her teammate, Jackie Vahey ’17 added her own season’s best throw of 36-11 ½, good enough for third. On the men’s side, the Shot Put competition was quite pedestrian as no one threw beyond 15m the entire competition. Junior, Cody Bratten was able to manage a fourth place toss of 45-06 ½, while Jon Fakkema ’19 finished a disappointing 9th.
In the men’s Triple Jump, Tech looked to gain the edge on a field that did not seem to be enjoying Maine’s early spring weather. In the preliminary rounds, MIT did not take advantage as the trio of Jason Villanueva ’18, Ryan Prinster ’18, and Shane Lyons ’20 failed to produce anything noteworthy. After Lyons ’20 fouled out of the competition, it was Prinster ’18 who woke up, improving his best preliminary jump by nearly a meter, tying his personal best from a windy, short approach, jumping 45-02 ½ for the win. Villanueva ’18 finished 2nd. In the women’s Long Jump, Tech’s top jumpers Nneoma Okonkwo ’18 and Haley Strouf ’18 fought off a feisty Bates tandem of Sally Ceesay and Srishti Sunil to finish 1-2 with jumps of 18-03 and 18-00 ½. Jumpers Jasmine Jin ’20 and Kristen Frombach ’19 improved their personal bests, with leaps of 16-10 and 16-09 ¼, respectively.
In the short sprints, the women’s 100m proved to be helpful to the team score. With a 3.1 m/s tailwind Tech paced the field with Michelle Menkiti ’20 and Nneoma Okonkwo ’18 running 12.51 and 12.66 for first and second, respectively. Menkiti’s performance was a new MIT Freshman Record. In the men’s 100m, Danny Newman ’17 better utilized the heavy tail wind of 4.9 m/s to run a personal best time of 10.95 which was good enough for second place. In the women’s 800m, Marissa McPhillips fought the wind to take second in a time of 2:20.56, while Clementine Mitchell ’18 and Margaret Trautner ’20, who saw her first action of the track season, placed fourth and sixth. In the men’s 800m, a heavily depleted Tech squad following injuries to freshmen Simon Alford and Tyndale Hannan, looked to sophomore Nathan Munet to get the job done. Unfortunately, it was not meant to be as an ill Munet ’19 finished a disappointing seventh in a time of 2:02.58.
Meanwhile, in the balmy confines of the Bates College indoor track facility, the men’s High Jump and women’s Pole Vault were underway. On paper, the men’s High Jump competition seemed destined to be a good one, however, due to the lack of energy in the building, the field did not deliver. After a disappointing eighth place finish by freshman, Steven Speck, Chris Washington ’20 seemed focused on winning the event for MIT. Unfortunately, he was unable to find his rhythm, taking second and jumping a disappointing 6’4” in the process. In the women’s Pole Vault, the Tech women’s crew did not look like their usual competitive selves, seeming erratic and inconsistent on their runways and takeoffs. Despite the sub-par showing, the army of Engineer vaulters got the job done, finishing 1-2-3-4-5-7, scoring a grand total of 33 points. It was MIT’s Kari Stromhaug ’19 who set the standard, finishing with a jump of 11-07 ¾ to win the competition.
Finishing up the track events, Hannah Chen ’18 and Michelle Menkiti ’20 finished 1-2 in the 200, running 25.59 and 25.79. In the men’s competition, senior Danny Newman, once again, utilized a 3.9 m/s wind and ran a blazing fast 22.07 for second place. Sophomore Michael Amoako did the same, riding a 4.2 m/s wind to take third in a time of 22.44. In the 5000m, Mary Eccles ’18 ran a dominant race, fighting through the wind on the backstretch and making a big move to blow the race open on the sixth lap. Eccles ’18 did not look back from there, winning the race in a time of 18:03.25. In the men’s race, it was junior David Walter who was the Engineers’ top finisher, coming in at 15:25.01.
In the final event of the day, the Engineers of MIT looked to cap off an up and down competition with a strong closing to the day in the Hammer Throw. After putting together impressive warm-up throws, Jackie Vahey ’17 and Ari Slutsky ’18 entered the competition with their focus on personal records rather than competing. It was clear that both were pressing as their form began to shift from the effortless throws of warm-ups to the forced, tense throws of competition. Despite leaving the door open to other competitors, no one was willing to walk through it, leaving Vahey ’17 the victor with a throw of 159-04, while Slutsky ’18 garnered second with a toss of 156-02. In the men’s competition, sophomore Jon Fakkema followed the women’s lead, losing his technique during the competition but still managing a throw of 146-02, enough for third place.
When all was said and done, the MIT women’s team finished first with a score of 235 to second place finisher Bates’ 194. The men’s team, however, finished a disappointing second place, scoring 178.5 points and falling to Bates College by over 50 points. Although there were bright spots, personal and season’s bests, and many event wins throughout the competition, the Tech squads have yet to achieve the standard of success they seek to uphold. Next week, the Engineers will face off with their arch rival Williams College in a dual meet battle in Williamstown, MA. After an indoor season which saw MIT finishing behind the men of Williams College at the New England DIII Indoor Championships and the women’s team falling just four points behind fourth place finisher Williams at the NCAA Indoor Championships, Tech has a lot to prove against the very formidable Ephs squads. It will certainly take a more consistent, focused effort than was demonstrated in Lewiston, ME this weekend. In addition, MIT will need the health of both teams to improve greatly to make a run at taking home both the men and women’s dual meet titles.
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