BOTH MEN AND WOMEN DOMINATE NEWMAC'S TO EXTEND CHAMPIONSHIP STREAK

April 27, 2013

Going for their 14th New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) in succession, the men traveled to host Springfield College on a perfect weather day of 70 degree sunny skies and mild breezes, getting the job done with a winning total of 290 points. Second place went to WPI with 215, third to Coast Guard with 114, fourth to Springfield with 91, fifth to Babson with 35 and Wheaton College finished sixth with 26 points. The women were going for their fifth in a row and were also successful, taking the title with 228.5 points. Wheaton College was second with 153, followed by Springfield with 102.5, WPI with 91, Smith with 67, Wellesley with 51, Coast Guard with 45, Mt. Holyoke with 22 and Babson with 20.

The men were well aware that WPI would be the closest threat and knew that WPI's dominance would primarily be in the throwing events, so expected to be behind early in the meet. This indeed was the case as WPI outscored MIT 72-17 in the four throwing events. In those events, Harry Rein '15 of MIT placed second in the Javelin and qualified for the New England Division III Championship next week with a 171-5 effort. Alex Noakes '16 placed fifth in the Discus and Curtis Shoyer '16 earned third in the Javelin. The jumps went MIT's way, but not overwhelmingly so as Tech scored 69 points to WPI's 52. In the Long Jump, Triple Jump and Pole Vault all four entries for MIT scored. The rules of the meet are that every team has a four entry limit per event. The scoring for men and women was 10-8-6-5-4-3-2-1 for each event.

MIT did not win any of the field events, but took second in the Pole Vault, Long Jump and Triple Jump. Cyrus Vafadari '13 led the way for the Engineers in the vault, clearing 15-1 and losing on misses. Ben Schreck '15 earned third at 14-1 1/4, Yida Gao '13 took fourth at the same height and Marshall Wentworth '16 claimed sixth at 13-1 1/2.

Carrington Motley '16 and Arinze Okeke '16 took second and third respectively in the Long Jump, both jumping PR's of 21-7 1/2. Jackson Wirekoh '13 also jumped a season best, taking fourth at 20-8 and Angel Echevarria '16 had a season best for sixth with 20-5. The same quartet returned in the Triple Jump but changed the order of finish a bit. Echevarria took second with a PR of 44-3 1/4 and Motley claimed third just behind at 44-0 1/2. Okeke placed fifth with a leap of 42-7 and Wirekoh finished in sixth at 42-1 1/4.

Coming out of the field events WPI had a 124 to 81 lead. This was okay because MIT won all but three running events and could have won all but one, totaling 209 points for Tech on the track despite getting DQ' d in the 4x400 Relay due to an overzealous maneuver by DJ Ronde '13 when he cut in on a Coast Guard runner in the first turn of the third leg.

Tyler Singer-Clark '14 continued to be unbeaten since the Spring Trip, winning the 100 (10.98, but 10.89 in trials) and 200 (21.95) while also anchoring the 4x100 Relay (States Lee '16, Michael Kaba '16, Nick Diamantoni '15) to victory in a season best 42.52. Supporting Singer-Clark in the 100, Michael DuPlessis '14 placed third in 11.18 (11.08 in trials) and Josh Duncavage '13 finished fifth in 11.26 (11.21 in trials). For both DuPlessis and Duncavage it was their first race of the season. In the 200 Diamantoni pulled out of the event as well as the 400 due to a very bad chest cold, but Lee and Derek Barnes '16 added a second and a third in 22.38 and 22.44.

Lee finally took down fellow freshman Barnes in the 400 as he won the event in 49.11. Barnes slipped to third in 49.61. MIT also took seventh with Mac Gager '14 running 51.35.

Michael Kaba almost had as strong a day as Singer-Clark. In addition to being on the winning 4x100 team, Kaba won the 400IH in a MIT freshman and meet record 53.63. In the 110 High Hurdles he took second place in another MIT freshman record in 14.94. For his efforts Kaba was honored with the NEWMAC Male Rookie of the Year Award. Adrian Samsel '16 supported Kaba in both events, earning fifth in the High Hurdles with a PR of 15.90 and taking third in the 400IH with a 55.36 performance. Another freshman, Richard Lu, added fourth place in the 400IH at 56.15.

The 800 was Tech's only 1-2-3-4 sweep and was a thing of beauty. Sam Parker '15, competing for the first time this season due to injury, had to race out of the slower section due to having no time. He knew he needed a fast time in order to get into next week's fast section at the New England Division III Championship. He basically ran a time trial, going out in 55, but with no one to race he slowed even though he was feeling strong, but still managed a solid 1:55.55. The fast section went out slower, but thanks to Chadd Kiggins '15 it was fast enough at 56 seconds. Pat Marx '13 took over with three hundred to go, pulling away to win in 1:53.21. Kiggins held on to claim second in 1:55.23 and Harrison Hunter '15 took fourth overall in 1:55.76. Parker's time earned him third place.

Kyle Hannon '13 was injured and not able to finish the 1500, but Justin Bullock '14 claimed the victory in a PR of 3:55.62 as he led from start to finish. Bullock went out in 61, but slowed to 2:06. He picked it up a bit to 3:10, but was still not pushing the pace. Fortunately he finished with a 45 final 300, but it was obvious he is back and ready to run fast. Jay McKenna '14 added a fourth in 4:03.12 and Ian Tolan '16 took seventh in 4:09.66.

Logan Trimble '13 ran a personal best en route to victory in the 3000 Steeplechase. Trimble also led from start to finish, going out in 72 for the first 400, slowing to 80 in the middle and then closing well in 35 seconds over the final 200. He can most definitely run faster if necessary, and it will be necessary next week. Edgar Gridello '16, running for the first time this season, and his first steeple ever, placed fourth in 9:53.19. Gridello showed outstanding water jumps but poor hurdling as he continually got too close to the barriers. Eric Safai '14 earned eighth after giving up due to a fast start, which he was unable to hold on this particular day.

In the 10K, the first running event of the meet, Matt Deyo '16 and Allen Leung '15 followed the leaders who were gracious enough to take the pace through 1600's of 5:20, 5:18, 5:19 and 5:18 before taking the lead. Leung took control, running 5:12 and then 5:05 before Deyo closed in 73 to win in 32:45.69. Leung claimed second in 32:48.38.

With the meet in hand and 10K's and 5K's looming for next Friday and Saturday, the only purpose of the 5K for MIT was for Roy Wedge '14 to qualify for next week's Championship. Benji Xie '15 and Matt Jordan '15 set out to help Wedge achieve his goal and then back off once they felt they were having to work hard. Anthony Salvucci '13 of Springfield did the work of setting the early pace at 72 seconds per 400 and after the halfway point in the race, put on a surge to open up a gap. MIT runners had no plan to run faster than 72's with next weekend's task on the horizon so they let Salvucci go. Jordan backed off of helping Wedge around the halfway point and Xie backed off after hitting the 3200 in 9:41. Wedge continued on his own, placing second in 15:09.45. Xie earned third in 15:28.93 and Jordan eased up to take fifth in 15:47.06.

MIT's women had a balanced attack, but did have much more depth in the field events than the running events, scoring 71.5 in the jumps and 48 in the throwing events for a 119.5 total and over half of their overall points. The women's premier event, the Pole Vault, was no disappointment. Lauren Kuntz '13 took first place at 12-1 1/2. Cimmy Virdi '16 placed second and set the MIT rookie record at 11-7 3/4. Sherry Wan vaulted a PR of 10-8 and Joanna Chen cleared 10-0 to tie for fourth.

The other field event in which MIT placed all four participants was the Triple Jump. Michelle Johnson '15, not only won and set a PR of 37-9 1/4, but she also set the MIT record. Stephanie Birkhimer '14 supported with a sixth place at 34-1 1/2 and was followed by Katharina Ross '16 in seventh, also at 34-1 1/2 and Veronica Szklarzewski '15 at 34-0 3/4.

The other field event victory was earned by Isabella Stuopis '16 in the Shot Put with a winning throw of 40-5. Christine Labaza '14 placed seventh with a put of 36-0.

Tech took second in four other field events. Johnson took second in the Long Jump with a personal best of 17-1 1/2. Jackie Brew placed third at 17-0 1/2 and Szklarzewski claimed fourth with a jump of 16-4 1/4. Tilly Taylor '15 injured her groin, but still placed second in the Javelin at 119-2. Stephanie Riocci '16 had a PR of 109-0 to place sixth. Labaza threw a PR of 127-3 in the Discus to place second. Stuopis also threw a PR, a mark of 113-7 to place fifth. Ashley Wheeler '15, in addition to gaining a sixth place in the Discus, also placed second with a huge personal best in the Hammer of 152-3. Ellen Liverpool '15 did not have her best day but still earned seventh at 130-11. While not placing very high, the quality of the jumps in the High Jump was impressive. Jackie Konopka '14 tied her PR of 5-2 1/4 to place fifth. Preethi Vaidyanathan '15 earned sixth at 5-1 and Szklarzewski placed eighth with a season best of 4-11.

Lacking sprinters, the Engineers scored very few points in events below 800 meters. Brew earned most of them by placing second in the 400IH with a personal best of 64.73 and earning seventh in both the 100HH (14.99 in the trials) and the 200 (26.74). In addition, Brew ran but did not place in the 100 and led off the third place 4x100 relay team that ran a season best 49.52. Also scoring in the High Hurdles was Konopka, who ran a PR of 15.22 to place fourth. Konopka was the anchor on the 4x100 team and Szklarzewski and Johnson were the middle legs.

In the middle distance events, the best event was the 1500. Sarah Quinn '16 won the event by running a 71 third quarter and finishing the final 300 in 54 seconds for a 4:37.33. Louise van den Heuvel '14 took second after taking over the lead when it was obvious the pace was much too slow, to bring the first quarter in at a respectable 77. Her time was 4:38.78. Brooke Johnson '13 placed third in 4:38.82 even though she was suffering from a bad chest cold. Alexandra Taylor '14 fell off the pace in the third quarter, but sprinted back to place fifth in 4:41.54.

Martina de Geus '14 won the 3000 Steeplechase by 27 seconds as she casually managed the barriers and water jumps in 11:07.97. de Geus also came back to finish seventh in the 400IH. Also running a fairly comfortable race was Kaitlin Allen '14, who took first place honors in the 5K with a sit and kick effort of 18:08.26. With the meet already won, MIT rested Elaine McVay '15 and Quinn.

In the 800, after pulling Brooke Johnson, and with Taylor not competing to her ability, Cindy Huang '15 and van den Heuvel had to get the job done. Huang, following through a first lap of 67 went to go for the lead with 250 to go, but tried to pass on the inside, got shut down, and was unable to get back up to speed. Huang settled for third in 2:16.80. van den Heuvel ran from the back, taking a cautious approach and nearly even-split a seventh place 2:19.82.

In the 10K, again trying to save energy for next weekend, the ladies let Jordan Silva of Wheaton go, but maintained the planned 96-97 quarter pace, hitting 1600 splits of 6:22, 6:30, 6:29, 6:29, 6:26 and 6:28. Shivani Kaushal '15 kicked a bit to place second in 40:14.71. Dacie Manion '15 placed third in 40:14.80 and Kali Benavides '15 finished fourth in 40:15.24. Also placing was Allison Hallock in 43:21.80 for sixth place.

The final event was the 4x400 relay. Isabel Crystal '16, who earlier had placed seventh in the 400, led off with a 61.2 leg. Huang ran a fine 60.4 to put MIT in a very competitive position. van den Heuvel had a tough time, running 64.0 to lose a lot of ground. Taylor finished in 59.9 to bring MIT to fifth place in 4:07.11.

Next Friday and Saturday, MIT travels to Colby College in Waterville, ME for the New England Division III Championship. The men will try to defend their outdoor title and add to the indoor title earned this February. The women last won in 2011, placing second last year, and hope to get back to the top spot on the victory stand.

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