MIT Dominates NEWMAC Championship

Men Win 15th Consecutive, Women Win 7th

April 25, 2015

Despite the unusually high frequency of injuries and illnesses to strike the Men's and Women's Track & Field teams this Spring, the remaining corp of healthy individuals did what many MIT Track & Field championship teams in the past have done--step up and get the job done. The men did so in convincing fashion despite being down by ~80 points due to injury, winning the NEWMAC Track & Field Championship at their home track, with a meet record 309 points to 212.5 for second place WPI. The women nearly doubled the score of the second place team, winning with 249 point to 125 for WPI.

MIT's men's team, typically look past this meet to the upcoming championships, particularly the New England Division III Championship the following weekend. However, with their depleted team and the knowledge that WPI would be coming after them with the passion a team can bring when they are hungry to win a championship and can sense the weakness of their opponent, MIT knew they could not look past this meet.

With temperatures in the upper 50's, and winds generally about 15 mph, the Engineers focused on competing, not on performance. The results were the proof of their success. The men won 13 of 20 events and took another 12 second places in a meet where all teams were limited to only four entries per event.

Winning two of those events and setting a personal best in getting second in another, Ken Cooper '15 earned the NEWMAC Male Field Athlete of the Year. Losing by only 14", Cooper's hammer throw of 193-9 3/4 was a big personal best, putting him at sixth on the NCAA list. Cooper's victories were in the Shot Put and Discus.

Equally impressive on the track, Michael Kaba '16 competed in four events, winning or helping to win three of them while finishing second in another, also performing a big personal best. Kaba began his day anchoring the winning 4x100 Relay team, comprised of Tre Albritten '18, Luca Cacopardo '18 and States Lee '16, to a season best 42.35 victory. After successful trial heats in the 110HH and 100, the junior stepped up to a personal best 14.85 victory in the 110HH. Two events later he ran a wind-aided 10.82 second place in the 100, another personal best. Again, two events later, Kaba led a 1-2-3 sweep in the 400IH with a 54.49 first place time. For his efforts, Kaba was awarded the NEWMAC Male Track Athlete of the Year.

Sweeping the top three places occurred in three more events for Tech. The horizontal jumpers dominated the day, taking two of those three sweeps, doing so in the Long and Triple Jumps. In the Long Jump, Carrington Motley '16 got it done on his final jump, claiming victory with his 21-10 3/4 effort. Just behind him, Arinze Okeke '17 jumped 21-8 1/4 for second place. Billy Ruschel '18 took third at 21-2 3/4. The same individuals provided the same end results in the Triple Jump, but the order was not the same. Nearly fouling out, Ruschel came back to win the event with a personal best 46-11. Motley took second with 46-6 1/4 and Okeke third at 46-0 3/4. For his impressive performances, Ruschel was honored with the NEWMAC Male Rookie of the Year award.

The other 1-2-3 sweep was in the 5K. Already having won the 1500 in a PR of 3:57.79, but needing a 5K qualifying time for next week's championship, Matt Deyo '16 allowed teammates Allen Leung '15 and Cooper Sloan '18 to help pace him through 3600 before taking the pace himself to win in 15:06.44. Leung, having placed fifth in the 1500 earlier in 4:01.70, was second in 15:20.21 as he backed off once his job was done. Sloan also backed off, just making sure he maintained third place in 15:29.59.

The most impressive performance came in the Pole Vault. Marshall Wentworth '15 provided the ultimate "stepping up" moment when he went from his default mid-13' vault status, to first setting a personal best of 14-7 1/4 and then capping that off with a 14-11 clear for the victory. Sam Ravnaas '18 showed last week's improvement was no fluke as he took second place honors with 14-7 1/4. Joining in the mix, Jorge Gonzalez '18 jumped a collegiate best 14-1 1/4 to take fifth and Decathlete Luke Gray '18 cleared 13-1 1/2 for eighth.

Other victories were claimed by States Lee '16 in the 200 and Nicholas Waltman '18 in the 10K. Lee had a busy day, first as a member of the winning 4x100 Relay team, then trials and finals in the 100 Meter Dash where he finished third, tying his personal best of 10.88. Lee took the time to secure first place in the 200 with a time of 22.12 before leading off the victorious 4x400 Relay team with a 48.9 split. The other members of that winning 4x400 Relay team were Danny Newman '18 running second, Cacopardo running third and Derek Barnes '15 bringing home the victory with a 49.2 anchor for a 3:19.47 overall time. Waltman and Alex Knoedler '18 were the only entries for MIT in the 10K and knew with that being the first event of the meet they needed to do better than their first and sixth seeds. Fortunately the pace was solid as nearly the entire field went through the first four miles with splits of 5:13, 5:16, 5:17 and 5:21. At that point Waltman took over, throwing down a 73 quarter before settling in at 77 second pace, finishing in a solid 32:32.76 PR victory. Knoedler, unable to follow his teammate, had a nice battle with a Coast Guard runner for two miles of 78 second pace before losing in the final half lap, but holding on for a solid third in a PR of 32:45.76.

All NEWMAC selections went to the top two finishers in each event. Other MIT athletes receiving that award were John Thomas '15 for his very well timed season best of 6-4 in the High Jump, earning second place, Cody Bratten '18 taking second place in the Discus with a throw of 134-4, Chris Sweeney '18 running a personal best of 15.33 to claim second in the 110HH, Luca Cacopardo '18, taking second place in the 400IH with a 54.66 performance, Sam Parker '15 running 1:55.55 to take second in the 800 and Ben Freed '18 running 9:35.17 in the 3000 Steeplechase for second place.

The women's meet was never in doubt, which led to a slightly lower level of expectation by the MIT women, particularly in the middle-distance events. Certainly the field event performers were extremely well focused going into the meet, and it only seemed more intense as the meet went on. Leading the charge was Jackie Vahey '17. Vahey won the Discus with a season best 138-3, took third in the Shot Put with a season best 37-9 1/2 and took second in the Hammer with a super personal best of 167-5 1/4, number 16 on the NCAA list. Vahey was awarded the NEWMAC Female Field Athlete of the Year for her performances.

Ashley Wheeler '15 and Michelle Johnson '15 both set MIT records in claiming victories in their respective events. Wheeler threw 174-3 1/4 in the Hammer Throw to move up to number seven on the NCAA list as she added five feet to her previous best. Similarly, Johnson added over a half foot to her previous Triple Jump best. On her final jump she produced a 38-5 1/2 record setting effort for the victory.

The only 1-2-3 sweeps earned by the Engineers were in the Hammer Throw and the Pole Vault. Joining Wheeler and Vahey, Ellen Liverpool '15 took third with a solid throw of 161-8. Additionally, Isabella Stuopis '16, who also won the Shot Put with a throw of 40-9 and placed sixth in the Javelin with a throw of 98-11 1/4, threw 134-6 for sixth place. Cimmy Virdi '16 remained undefeated this season, winning the vault at 13-1 1/2 and was followed by sophomore Jen Tylock's second place personal best vault of 11-9 3/4 and freshman Maeve Devlin's third place vault of 11-5 3/4.

Tilly Taylor '15 threw her season best and second best throw ever in the Javelin Throw, winning the event with 141-8 3/4 to give MIT six wins in the eight field events.

On the track, Mary Eccles '18 got things going with the first event, the 10K. Seeded with no time since she had never before competed in a 10K, Eccles nevertheless was determined to win the event. Knowing she had a heavy competitive schedule the next weekend, Eccles did not want to go out and lead the race, but neither was she comfortable with the resulting pedestrian pace set by the leaders. After an initial lap at 1:42, the pace picked up marginally to 1:36 per lap. After 4800 meters of this Eccles took off with an 87 lap and no one went with her. She continued with 89-90 second place the rest of the way to win in 38:46.29.

Maryann Gong '17 won the 1500 in 4:34.06, easily her season best. She spent the first 900 meters in the pack because the pace was fast enough with splits of 72 and 2:26. Gong moved hard, running 3:38 and closing with a 56 final 300.

Elaine McVay '15 trying to come back from a back injury, needed to qualify in the 5K for next week's championship. Nicole Zeinstra '16 and Anna Frederich '18 were in there to help with the pace and get in a solid effort. After a slow initial quarter, the trio dropped the pace to 84 and were rather erratic, the pace ranging from 83 to 86 until McVay closed it out with 80 second pace for the final 600 meters, winning in 17:38.18. Zeinstra backed off with 1000 meters to go, taking second in 17:41.11. Frederich, who had earlier taken seventh in the 1500 with a 4:50.42, finished in fourth with 18:30.30.

Hannah Chen '18 started her day by leading Veronica Szklarzewski '15, Nneoma Okonkwo '18 and Kendra Knittel '17 to victory in the 4x100 Relay with a superb anchor leg and 48.87 performance. The trials and finals in the 100HH did not go as hoped, but still netted Chen a 15.60 fifth place finish. She came back to dominate her primary event, the 400IH, in 62.05 despite stuttering on hurdles six, seven and eight. Chen finished her day in anchoring the 4x400 Relay with a 58.6 for a season best 4:00.96 third place finish.

Other All Conference honors were won by Szklarzewski in the 100, running a PR of 12.35 for second place and Preethi Vaidyanathan '15 taking second place in the High Jump, clearing 5-4 1/4.

Next weekend MIT will host the New England Division III Championships. Both teams will be attempting to defend their titles from last year. The men's meet begins on Thursday with the decathlon, concluding on Saturday while the women begin competition on Friday.

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