MIT SUCCESSFULLY DEFENDS NEWMAC CHAMPIONSHIP TITLES

April 30, 2011

MIT was heavily favored to win both the men's and women's titleS in their defense of the New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) Championship. So much so, that both teams decided to back off a bit on the entries in order to save their best effort for the New England Division III Championship the following weekend. The plan worked out, but there was a point in both meets when it seemed MIT may have made an error in judgment by not maxing their entries. In the end, the men won with 266 points to 223 for Springfield College while host Coast Guard earned third with 127, followed by WPI with 92, Wheaton with 51 and Babson with 15. The women scored 216.5 points to claim the title while Springfield again took second, scoring 154. Wheaton was third with 103.5 points, followed by Smith College and WPI, both with 77, Wellesley with 68 in their first year in the meet, Coast Guard with 47, Mt. Holyoke with 17 and Babson with 15 points.

The weather this spring has not been kind on the dates of competition. The strong winds continued as they have all spring, aiding the sprint events but hurting the lap events. With temperatures at 60 degrees and mostly cloudy it was still the best Saturday this spring.

The men have won this championship every year since 2001, only losing the title once in history and 2011 did not seem to be any different. The meet began with the throwers showing their dominance, taking 1-2-4 in the Hammer Throw, with all three throwing personal bests. Ken Cooper '13, took the title with a throw of 183-1, CK Umachi '12, placed second in 170-11 and high jumper turned thrower, Jeremy Sharpe '14, threw 156-0.

On the track, things also started off great. Matt Weaver '12, injured all season, made his comeback at the right time. As the only entry for MIT in the 10K, while MIT saved their distance runners for the shorter 5K, Weaver felt the pressure to come through and score. No one knew what to expect other than the fact that he would not give up and would compete well. Weaver was not seeded to score since he had not run a race this season. The leaders went out with eventual winner, Brian Fuller of Springfield, which was much too fast a pace for them. Weaver also got pulled a bit too fast at 77 for the first quarter but quickly corrected to running the planned 83 second pace. Spending most of the time back in 11th place, Weaver began catching the fading runners after the second mile. By the final mile Weaver had moved into fourth place. In the final lap he was caught by one runner to end up in fifth, scoring four points for MIT.

Things then took a turn for the worse. In the Long Jump, Mattias Flander '11, made his return to competing with a 20-11 3/4 effort, good for fourth place. Jordan Mizerak '14, added a point for eighth place, but Travis Hery '11, expected to score well, fouled out. At the same time, the 4x100 Relay, while placing third in 43.28 with a makeshift team, lost star sprinter, Josh Duncavage '12, for the rest of the meet after he tweaked his hamstring. Duncavage was seeded first in both the 100 and 200 and was running a leg on the 4x400. This would not only take major points away from MIT, but would move Springfield up in the scoring.

In the 3000 Steeplechase, MIT was seeded 1-2-5-6. Sixth seed, Eric Safai '14, had been sick and was not totally recovered, so was not expected to race his best. While Paul Welle '11, and Richard Prevost '11, did their jobs, beating all opponents, Stephen Serene '12, the fifth seed, ran a great race, placing second with a big PR of 9:29.67 to give MIT a 1-2-3 sweep.

Back in the jumps, Matt Falk '12, seeded in a tie for first, was unable to place better than fourth. In the 100 trials, without Duncavage, MIT had no one make the finals. The 110HH, where MIT was seeded 3-5-6-7 with times much slower than they were all capable of, went even worse with only Nick Leonard '11, and Andrew Musacchio '11, making the finals where they eventually placed third and sixth respectively.

The bad news got worse in the 1500. MIT was seeded 1-2-4-6 in what is usually MIT's signature event. Kyle Hannon '13, seeded first, but having competitive problems lately, gave up after the first 400, eventually fading to seventh in 4:07.62. Dawit Zewdie '13, saved the day, by winning the race despite being seeded fourth. His vicious kick caught the leaders to win in 4:02.24. Justin Bullock '14, ran an aggressive race, but did too much work in front against the strong wind, finishing in third in 4:03.24.

The throwing events could not come often enough for MIT. In the Shot Put, Cooper won his second event, claiming first place with a throw of 50-3 1/2. Mitch Kelley '11, came through as well, placing second in 48'. Sharpe came through again, putting the shot 42-7 to earn sixth while Umachi placed eighth. The 22 points were much needed as Springfield was taking too many points on the track. In the Javelin, Vlad Sobes '11, threw a season best to move up from second seed to take the win with a throw of 198-10. Matt Barron '13, also moved up, placing seventh after being seeded eighth. Continuing in the field events, Flander continued to help his teammates, jumping 43-7 3/4 in the Triple Jump to take third place. Jackson Wirekoh '13, jumped a personal best for the second week in succession, taking fifth with a jump of 43-5 3/4.

Back to the track, hoping for some good results. In the 400, Tech was seeded third and fifth and teammates were looking to Tyler Singer-Clark '14, and DJ Ronde '13, to stop the bleeding in the running events. While Singer-Clark earned fourth and Ronde seventh, Mac Gager '14, snuck in for a sixth place to keep the expected points the same as what was scored.

MIT was seeded 1-2-3-8 in the 800, but again was not able to come through with the expected points. Despite the strong wind, Pat Marx '13, took care of business on his end by winning the event going away in 1:56.18. Hannon made a nice return to racing, focusing well for all by 150 meters, to earn third place. Bullock closed well to place fourth.

In the 400IH, the Engineers took what was expected, a third and sixth. Leonard, looking as though he is ready for the championship season, ran a beautiful first eight hurdles before faltering a little on the final two to fall back to third in a season best of 55.52. Welle returned from the Steeplechase to take sixth.

Seeded 1-2 in the 200, but minus the top seed in Duncavage, Singer-Clark had to get the job done. While he placed third, he raced well, much better than in the 400. His time of 22.25 was only .02 off his best. The problem was that Springfield was now in the lead after taking the top two places. Of course, MIT still had the Discus Throw and Pole Vault to go as well as the 5000 on the track, all three very big events for Tech. So while not overly concerned, MIT was certainly paying attention and letting their athletes know what had to happen.

The Discus Throw had MIT seeded to place 1-2-3-5. While it was the only throwing event where MIT lost some expected points, the 1-2-4-6 finish provided 26 points that put MIT far in the lead. Kelley won the event at 155-5 with Umachi taking second in 143-11, Cooper claiming fourth in 136-9 and Sharpe throwing 126-10 for sixth.

The Pole Vault was taking quite a while to finish and the outcome was keeping the coaching staff wondering about just how close Springfield might be. Seeded 1-2-3-6 after having an excellent week of competition and practice, the vaulters came close to their seeds but not quite. Nathan Peterson '12, jumped a season best of 15-7 to win. Cyrus Vafadari '12, took second at 15-1. Yida Gao '13, seeded third, took sixth at 13-7 1/4 while Hery, seeded sixth, no-heighted. Nevertheless, the 21 points sealed the victory for MIT.

In the 5000, Dan Harper '12, and Roy Wedge '14, were intending on placing first and second, but were primarily interested in helping to pull Gihan Amarasiriwardena '11 and Ben Mattocks '12, to a New England Division III qualifying time of 15:30. It was not to be however, as both Amarasiriwardena and Mattocks fell off the pace at the 3200 meter mark. Harper and Wedge then ran a 4:45 final mile to pull away from everyone to place 1-2 in 15:10.37 and 15:11.70 respectively. Amarasiriwardena earned sixth and Mattocks eighth to help the team effort.

The final event, the 4x400 relay was one where MIT knew they needed to improve on their 3:26 season best in order to get into the fast section in next week's championship. With Leonard replacing Duncavage, the team was pumped up to run at least 3:23. Ronde opened up with a 51.8, about what the team expected. Singer-Clark ran well, splitting 50.5. Leonard came through with a 51.5 leg and Marx ran an excellent leg in 49.6 to give MIT second place in 3:23.56.

The women's meet, with three additional teams had a greater distribution of points, making the prediction of expected points a little more difficult. The women's strengths were much more in the running events with the exception of the Pole Vault.

Choosing to only put one distance runner in the 10K, MIT was counting on Sarah Sprague '13, to run a smart race and win the event without wearing herself out for next week. Springfield runners set the initial pace, so Sprague was content to sit and let them do the work. As the pace deteriorated to 1:40 400's by the two mile mark, only one Springfield runner continued to lead while the other fell back. Sprague was patient until the end of four miles where she took the lead, eventually winning by 38 seconds in 41:19.78.

The 4x100 did not start off well, as Martha Gross '12, pulled away from Jackie Brew '14, at the first handoff. However, the team got it back under control although Jamie Simmons '12, handed off to Portia Jones '12, behind, forcing Jones to run her absolute best to pull out the victory in a season best and MIT record of 48.28.

One of the moves that MIT pulled with the confidence they would pull out the victory was taking Jones out of the 100 and into the 400, an event she had not run outdoors due to the surgery on her hand, thus seeding her into the slow section with no time. In the 100 trials, Brew made the finals but did not run well, due in part to lower leg pain, but also severe allergies. In the 100HH trial, MIT qualified all four participants but they did not look as great as they had in practice.

In the field events, the High Jump was just finishing. Megan Bumgarner '14, placed fifth, which was her seed, clearing 5-01. Kristine Bunker '14, nearly cleared 5-01, but had to settle for 4-11, good for seventh place, one place higher than fellow MIT freshman, Jackie Konopka '14, also clearing 4-11.

Brooke Hamilton '14, favored to win the Shot Put, did not handle that position well, failing to place and throwing six feet less than her best. Hazel Briner '11, was being held out of all of her strong events so that she is fresh next weekend, but did compete in the Shot. Her 35-00 1/2 put earned her a seventh place.

In the Triple Jump, Karin Fisher '11, only jumped in the trials due to her participation in the Pole Vault, but jumped a personal best of 35-7 1/4 to place second. Brew took fourth place, also on a limited number of jumps.

The running events continued to go well for Tech. In the 3000 Steeplechase, Martina de Geus '14, ran an excellent race to place second in an MIT freshman record of 11:17.23. Maggie Lloyd '12, went out at a much too aggressive early pace and paid as she came in third in 11:30.83. Right after that, Anna Holt-Gosselin '11, Louise van den Heuvel '14, and Alina Gatowski '11, placed 1-3-4 after being seeded 2-3-4-6. The number one seed did not race and Brooke Johnson '13, was ill and unable to make the trip for MIT.

In the 100HH, Amy Magnuson 'G, returned to national level form, posting a 14.59 for second place. Jones appears to be getting her confidence back in the hurdles after her surgery, placing third in 15.08. Brew claimed third in 15.79 and Bumgarner took fifth.

In the 400, as thought, Jones was unable to recover completely after the hurdles and had no competition in her section to push her. Her 61.77 was her slowest 400 ever at MIT and only earned her sixth place. Simmons raced well to win in a great time of 57.65, particularly impressive with the strong wind. Gross earned third, but only ran 59.79.

In the 800, MIT was seeded 4-6-7-8, but without Johnson, they were only expected to get 4-6-7. In the first event on the track that did not go their way, the 800 runners took fifth and sixth but ran well even though they never raced with the leaders. Louise van den Heuvel took fifth in 2:22.64 and Chandler Burfield '13, ran a season best of 2:22.80.

Simmons was up again, this time in her favorite event, the 400IH. Simmons first five hurdles were excellent despite running into the wind. She faltered a little on the curve and found herself in second coming down the homestretch. In the final 20 meters she pulled ahead to run a season best of 63.22 for the victory. Kirsten Aarsvold '11, ran a season best of 69.32 for eighth and Lloyd came back after the Steeplechase to place eighth in her first ever 400IH, running 69.66.

Back in the field events, the final two jumping events, the Long Jump and the Pole Vault were finished. Fisher took the Pole Vault at a height of 12-0 3/4. Lauren Kuntz '13, took second in 11-5 3/4 and Kate Wymbs '14 and Becky Stavely '11, both cleared 10-6 to place fourth and fifth. Brew placed fourth in the Long Jump in 16-10 1/2 while Jackie Konopka '14, jumped a personal best of 15-11 1/2 to place eighth.

Hamilton redeemed herself by placing sixth in the Hammer Throw, a 14 foot personal best at 128-3. In the Discus, Christine Labaza '14, took third place with her 102-7. Only scoring 11 points in the throwing events is an area the Engineers hope to improve on in the next year.

In the 200, Jones only ran as fast as she needed to in order to win. Her 25.27 got the job done. Although she seems unable to get out well in the 400, often coming through the first 200 in 28+, Gross earned second place with a personal best of 25.40.

In the 5000, MIT pulled Holt-Gosselin, Gatowski and Sprague, only racing Tania Morimoto '12. The pace was aggressive after a slow first lap, leaving Morimoto and Camille Basurto of Wellesley to decide the outcome. With five laps to go, Morimoto grew tired of the previous two laps of 1:29 each, and took the lead. She came through in a 1:26 to open up a lead, but then started tightening up allowing Basurto to get back in it and then take the lead for good with a lap and a half to go. Morimoto ended up in second, running 18:21.41.

In the final event, the Engineers pulled their A relay and substituted the B relay team of Aarsvold, Bumgarner, Stephanie Ku and Emily Kuo. Aarsvold ran an excellent lead off, splitting 62.0. Bumgarner paced herself well, splitting 61.7 and keeping MIT in second. Ku took the baton and held off the trailing teams for the first 200, but eventually faded to 64.5. Kuo ran 63.9 to put MIT in fourth in 4:12.33.

Next week, MIT hosts the Men's and Women's New England Division III Championship. The Decathlon starts on Thursday, concluding on Friday. The Heptathlon as well as the Discus, Long Jump and 10K are competed on Friday. The conclusion of the Heptathlon and remainder of the meet will be held on Saturday. MIT is the defending runner-up for both men and women. With over 40 teams in the conference it will be difficult, but the Engineers hope to win on their home turf.

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