Three MIT Records Bring Women to Tie for 13th

14 All America Honors for MIT Highlight NCAA's

May 23, 2014

Day one of the NCAA Division III Outdoor Track & Field Championship, hosted by Ohio Wesleyan in Delaware, Ohio, was an outstanding one for both the Men's and Women's teams from MIT. The 80 degree temperatures and sunny skies aided in producing some remarkable performances for all teams. Day two was also very warm, and although no one from MIT advanced to the finals there were some outstanding performances.

Adrian Samsel '16 began the Decathlon as the 14th seed out of the 20 competitors. He could not have expected a better start, dropping nearly .2 in the 100 to run 11.04, the fastest time run by any MIT sprinter this year. This started Samsel off in third place. In the second sub-event, the Long Jump, Samsel leaped 21-0 1/2, a bit off his usual mark and a foot and a half off his best, but he held onto fourth place. The throwing events are the big weakness in Samsel's armor, but he threw a personal best of 36-8 1/2 in the Shot Put to somewhat control the loss of places, moving him to eighth. Samsel finished day one with an outstanding 49.25 personal best in the 400, moving him back to fourth place. In the second of competition, Samsel began with a new PR in the 110HH, clocking 15.15. Unfortunately his Discus Throw was not nearly as outstanding as he only threw 93-11, putting him in seventh place. In the Pole Vault he again set a personal best, clearing 12-5 1/2, but slid to 10th place overall as there were very good vaulters among the decathletes. The Javelin portion of the dec. was next and again one of Samsel's weak events hurt him as he threw 113-11, putting him in 15th place going into the 1500. He stood virtually no chance of placing (top eight), but the plan was to try. Knowing decathletes tend to take the pace out too hard, Samsel was directed to run 72 second pace and not get pulled out too fast. He did get pulled out too fast, but had the presence of mind not to go with the leaders. His first 400 was 69, hit the 800 in 2:33 and slowed a bit too much to split 3:38 at the 1200. Samsel was already moving hard, but brought it all in the final 150 to take the lead at the tape, winning in 4:28.20. The time moved him all the way to 10th place with a new PR of 6549 points.

Meanwhile, Ben Schreck '15 was taking care of business in the Pole Vault. The 18th seeded Schreck vaulted with near perfection as he cleared 15-7 on his first attempt, 15-11 on his second attempt and 16-0 3/4, a new outdoor personal best, on his first attempt. Only seven of the 20 vaulters cleared that height and Schreck earned sixth place on misses. He is knocking on the door to clear much higher heights and should get it in his senior year.

Ken Cooper '15, representing MIT in three events, competed in the first of those, the Hammer Throw, on day one. Struggling much of the year with bringing the correct balance of technical awareness and mental aggressiveness to each of his events, Cooper did not have it figured out on this day as he threw 165-7, far from his best.

Now that the men were through vaulting, it was time for second seed, Cimmy Virdi '16 to put on a show, and what a show it was. Coming in at 12-3 1/2, Virdi and Anna Etherington, a senior from Washington University of St. Louis, joined only three others to clear that height of the 22 athletes starting the event. Both Virdi and Etherington cleared 12-11 1/2 on the first attempt, but no one else was able to even make the previous height, so it was now a battle of two. They matched each other, clearing on first attempt through 13-1 1/2, 13-3 1/2 and 13-5 1/4, a new personal best for Virdi. At 13-7 1/4, Virdi was unable to clear while Etherington succeeded. Virdi matched her seed and set a new MIT record in the process to score eight points for her team.

The Women's 3000 Meter Steeplechase trials was the first event on the track, and Martina de Geus, was completing her comeback from a torn ACL, which happened at this event a year ago. Throughout this amazing comeback, when even two months ago it did not seem possible, de Geus seemed extremely focused and determined to make it happen. She was in the first of two sections where the top five in each section and the next four fastest times would make the 14 runner final on Saturday. The early pace was appropriate, neither fast nor slow and de Geus just put herself among the top four to see what would happen. One runner opened up a lead and no one went with her. The chase pack stayed together through six laps and then de Geus and one other runner picked it up, dropping the pace from 87 seconds for the previous lap to 85 and then 82 in the final full quarter with de Geus opening up a little in the final 200 to finish second in 10:42.48 for the third fastest time going into Saturday's final.

Next up was the women's 4x100 Relay. Jackie Brew '14, Veronica Szklarzewski '15, Kendra Knittel '17 and Jackie Konopka '14 were seeded sixth going into the competition. Although the 47.55 that got them that seed had room for improvement, the ladies had run much slower the week before, making everyone anxious to see what would happen. Brew had a great start and ran the turn aggressively. However, Szklarzewski left a half step early, and with the handoff already stretched to the middle of the zone, she had to slow to get the baton from Brew. She ran an excellent straight and the handoff to Knittel was flawless. Knittel ran a powerful turn, passing runners in the final twenty meters, but ran up on a slow moving Konopka, who did not get out well as she was trying a different start. Knittel had to wait until Konopka got into the zone and Konopka had to get up to speed. Once moving she held her own, but the quartet lost a good half second on that handoff. The foursome finished fifth in their section, but beat the fourth team from the second section, putting them in eighth overall and making the final on Saturday.

Elaine McVay '15, the 18th seed in the 10K, had finished third a year ago by running a smart race, coming from behind to catch those falling off the pace at the end of the race. This race, the entire pace went out hard and she felt confident enough to go with the leaders. The first 400 was 81 seconds, and then the two leaders continued that pace while the remainder of the pack dropped back to 84's, still amazingly fast. The 1600 split was 5:34 and the 3200 11:15, much faster than McVay had ever done in a 10K. McVay was in sixth place and doing a great job of staying focused. The third mile slowed a bit, but the 5K was still 17:43 for McVay. No longer able to hold that pace after 6800 meters, McVay slowed to 89 and then 90 second quarters, which saw her slowly slip to 10th place. Despite a small and painful last two laps in 87 and 85, she could not make up the necessary ground in this very fast field that saw the winner run 34:25. McVay finished in 36:12.95, going for it right from the gun.

The final event of day one was the Men's 4x400. With Samsel fatigued and over heated from his five sub-events in the Decathlon, the decision was made to go with Harrison Hunter '15, who had also qualified in the 800, to join States Lee '16, Derek Barnes '16 and Tyler Singer-Clark '14 for the trials in the event. Assuming it would take a sub 3:14 to make finals, MIT knew Lee would have to have a big first leg and Barnes would have to have a much better handoff than is typical of the sophomore. Lee ran a very aggressive first 200, which led to a bit more fatigue than is usually seen from him in the final 100 meters. The 47.9 was solid, but not what Tech needed. Nevertheless, Barnes had an excellent handoff and took off like he had stolen something. The first 200 was exceptional, putting MIT in first at that point, and gave Barnes a best ever 48.2 second leg, putting MIT in third at the handoff. A very anxious Hunter took off too soon, realized it, slowed and got the baton at close to the standstill. However, once the 6' 7" runner got some momentum, the adrenalin kept it going as the junior ran a very unexpected 48.3 to keep MIT in third. Singer-Clark, who had had a cold for a week and still feeling the effects of it, certainly did not let that affect him mentally. However, going out to hold onto third place against some very fast anchor legs meant he had to go out a bit faster than his body was prepared for. In the final 50 meters, two teams passed Singer-Clark, one right at the finish line despite the senior's 47.8 leg and an overall time of 3:12.31. MIT had to wait a few minutes to see if their fifth place time would be faster than the previous section's fourth place time. Just as the women had done in the 4x100 Relay, the men squeaked in by .61 seconds for the eighth spot in Saturday's final.

Other than the Decathlon, Ken Cooper started off Day two with the Shot Put. On his third throw Cooper threw 53-3 1/2 to move up to 10th place. There is now video at some of the field events, which can be used in case of protests against official's calls for fouls. Two protests were filed, so initially the officials were going to take the top 11 to finals rather than the top nine, which meant Cooper would throw in the finals. After much deliberation, one foul was overturned, one denied and they decided to only take nine to the finals, leaving Cooper out by one centimeter.

In the 100HH, both Jackie Brew and Jackie Konopka had qualified among the 22 allowed in the field. Brew was seeded sixth and Konopka 17th, both with wind aided times. In the trials, neither had a tailwind, but both competed very well. Brew ran 14.34 and Konopka 14.57, the fastest non wind-aided times they have ever run. Brew ended up 10th overall and Konopka 18th.

States Lee was up in the 400 and seeded to place fourth. Lee was still hurting from going out too fast the night before in the 4x400 and backed off too much, splitting the first 200 in 23.1. Lee closed hard in the final 100, placing third in his heat, running 48.16, which placed him 10th overall, just missing finals by .07.

The final events for Tech on day two were the Men's and Women's 800. Cindy Huang '15 was seeded 14th going into the race and was ready to get the job done. Running very smart, her heat ran a very evenly split race. Huang, running in the back of the pack, split the first 400 in 66.01, moved into position on the backstretch and taking over third place on the final turn. On the final straight she lost two places, ending up fifth in her heat and 16th overall in 2:12.79 for a very well run race.

Harrison Hunter was seeded 18th of 20, and despite his 48.3 4x400 leg the night before, was ready to run a great race. Unfortunately for him, he got pulled out in the fastest heat, running 53.01 for the first 400, well off the leaders in third. Not accustomed to that quick a pace, Hunter was in a distant third at the 500 mark. At that point he started to give up, but fortunately, at 600 meters a runner came up on him, waking him up. Hunter pressed hard the final 200, closing well, but finishing fourth in his heat in 1:51.65, .01 off his PR. Hunter had the eighth fastest time overall, but the advancing formula was top two in each heat and the next two fastest, which left him out of the final.

Day three could not have started much better. Tilly Taylor '15, seeded 17th in the Javelin Throw, was not getting anything done in her first two throws of the trials and that needed to change. On her final throw she really brought her best effort, winning the flight with a new PR and MIT record of 145-7. This mark held up for fifth overall, earning Taylor her first All America award.

Cooper was in his third event, the Discus Throw, in which he was seeded 13th. He did not have an amazing throw, which it would have taken to make finals, but he did throw a solid 160-6 to finish 12th in the event.

Carrington Motley '16, seeded fourth in the Triple Jump, had trouble getting his mark for some reason, fouling his first two attempts. On his final jump he hit the sand at 45-1 1/2, failing to make finals after a very successful season. The sophomore no doubt will be sure to do better in 2015.

On the track, de Geus was up in the finals of the 3000 Steeplechase final. Her early pace was exactly the same as the trials as she hung out towards the back of the main pack. When three runners broke away, de Geus stayed back, being cautious. With 1000 meters to go she started to move a bit, pulling out to fifth place, but not speeding up, simply not slowing down as much as the others. With 600 to go she picked it up, but did not put her opponents away. With 150 to go they started coming up to de Geus, passing her on the homestretch, but she held onto seventh place in a season best 10:40.37 to earn her first All America honor. de Geus has had an amazing comeback to even be at this meet. To earn seventh place and score two points for her team at Nationals is nothing short of remarkable.

Next was the Women's 4x100 Relay. Seeded eighth going into the finals, Brew, Szklarzewski, Knittel and Konopka new they had to stretch the zones and take a chance on the handoffs. In the first exchange, Brew seemed to have a little difficulty catching Szklarzewski, but the handoff stretched the zone well and kept the speed up through the handoff. For some reason, the exchange between Szklarzewski and Knittel that worked perfectly on Thursday was awful today as Szklarzewski caught Knittel well before the zone and had to wait for her to get to the exchange area. On the other end of that exchange, Knittel could not catch Konopka as she seemed to get out early, and had to slow to make the handoff. It was quite amazing the quartet made it to Nationals and the finals, so earning All America and finishing eighth, even though they ran 48.18 has to feel very satisfying for quartet.

The women's 5K was Maryann Gong's '17 debut at outdoor nationals and she was seeded seventh in a very talented field. Gong knew this and was very anxious to race, as well as nervous about how the race might break out. Despite the 80 degree temperature and sunny skies, the pace was fast. The opening quarter was 77 and the 1600 5:15. Gong was racing in the front pack, hanging out in the fifth position most of the first two miles, which they hit in 10:39. 400 meters later the pace slowed a bit, Gong tripped a little, and began thinking she was tired because she began to hurt from the pace slowing. After two 85's, she woke up and began picking it up, which of course made her feel better. She worked her way to a 75 400, to go from ninth to eighth, and held onto it with a 37 final 200 to run 16:43.28, a new MIT varsity and freshman record.

The final event of the meet was the Men's 4x400. The decision was made to allow Samsel to take his place on the relay, meaning Hunter would be in the support role. Seeded eighth after the trials, the foursome of Lee, Barnes, Samsel and Singer-Clark knew they would have to be at their best to place higher than their seed. They also knew all the teams were tired and that they needed to be ready to take advantage of that. Out of lane one, Lee made up the three turn stagger on most teams, splitting 47.7. However, Barnes continued to misjudge the handoff, coming to a near stop before he received the baton. Once the baton was in hand, Barnes ripped the first 200, knowing the teams would close down on lane one after the first turn. He managed to position himself in third place and held that through the exchange to Samsel, splitting 48.7, due largely to the standing start after the handoff. Although that handoff was not so great, Samsel ran an excellent leg, handing off in third after a 47.9 leg. Singer-Clark received the baton in lane four despite Samsel coming in in lane three, which certainly affected the efficiency of the handoff. Pacing himself much better than two days earlier, Singer-Clark had something in the tank coming down the homestretch. He was still passed in the final 10 meters, but by only one team, giving Tech fourth place in 3:12.28 and a 47.7 split for Singer-Clark.

All in all, the Engineers finished with 14 All America honors. The women earned a tie for 13th place with 16 points and the men tied for 33rd with eight points. As the meet was ending, the team was already setting individual and team goals for next year, thinking perhaps both teams might have the opportunity to get on the podium, being one of the top four teams at this meet, which generally takes at least 30 points, and sometimes as much as 40+.

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