TRACK TEAM COMES THROUGH BIG IN CHAMPIONSHIPS
    The MIT track team made the cross state trip to Williams College this 
weekend with the expectations of bettering their 5th place seed in the New
England Division III Championships.  Not only did they accoomplish this, but 
they finished 2nd with 58 points and an incredible 14 personal bests.
    The meet could not have begun better for Tech, as Arnie Seto '96 set a 1:19
personal best in the 10,000 Meters, placing 4th with a 31:09.38 in what may 
have been the best race of the day.  Arnie and 4 other runners in the race 
qualified provisionally for nationals.
    The next event was the Hammer, an event in which even though John Wallberg
'96 has won two of the last three championships, he was seeded second behind
Ethan Brooks of Williams.  Ethan has never beaten John and nothing changed on
this day as John threw a personal best of 194-00 to win and set a championship 
record.
    The trials in the running events went better than anyone on the MIT Team 
could hope for.  Neal Karchem '99, seeded 14th in the 400, qualified 7th to 
make the final with a personal best of 50.84.  
    In the 110 High Hurdles, Tech had 3 entries.  Two of the three, Ravi Sastry
'98 seeded 10th, and Lincoln Bonner '97 seeded 6th, made the final, although it
was the final 2 positions at 7th and 8th.
    MIT did not have an entry in the 100 Meters, but the 400 Intermediate 
Hurdles had "Bo" Light '96 seeded 13th, hoping for a successful final 
opportunity at trying to place in The Outdoor Championship.  Bo came through as
marvelously as the others, placing 2nd in his heat in a huge personal best of 
57.31 and qualifying for the finals.
    In the next event, the 800 Meters, Dan Helgesen '97 seeded 10th, ran a 2 
second best of 1:56.44 to also make the next round.
    Only one MIT runner failed to make the finals, although only 1 was seeded
to do so.  Things were on a roll, and Tech could not wait until the final
would begin.
    While all of this was going on, the field events were continuing.  In the 
Long Jump, MIT had 3 entries, but none were seeded higher than 10th.  Well, 
the magic continued.  Morio Alexander '96 had a 7 inch personal best to garner
5th place with a 21-06 3/4 jump.  Hung Hoang '96 and Sastry jumped 20-08, and
20-05 1/4, but could not place.
    The Discus and High Jump were the only events that did not go MIT's way.  
Wallberg did not have a good day in the continuous downpour, and did not make
the finals.  Hoang had an equally poor performance has he no heighted.
    With the fear that the momentum was fading away, particularly since most of
the MIT finalists were 7th or 8th and may not score in the finals, Coach 
Halston Taylor did all he could not to show concern.  Fortunately, the first
running event final was the 3000 Meter Steeplechase.  
    Even though it is Coach Taylor's philosophy not to count on freshmen, that 
is exactly what he did.  Leif Seed '99 and Mike Parkins '99, came through in 
a big way.  Both broke the freshman record, placing 2nd and 3rd respectively
with times of 9:25.68 and 9:30.57.  Leif, missing national qualifying by 2
seconds, was seeded 8th and Parkins 5th.
    The 400 Relay was up next.  Due to injuries during the season, the relay
team had gone through 4 different combinations.  Seeded 8th, Tech ran a 
flawless race in the rain and placed 5th with a season best of 43.79.
    In the 1500 Meters, Joel Ford represented MIT, but was in the slow section.
Joel ran a season best of 4:05.97, but was not able to break into the scorers.
    Now it was time to see if the finalists would put their hard training to
use and improve, yet again, on their finals position.  Sastry and Bonner were
the first to try their fortunes.  Sastry came through with a personal best of
15.80 to earn 6th place and 1 point.
    Next, Karchem showed that the freshmen would continue to hold up their
end of the bargain, placing 5th with a time of 51.18.
    In the 800 Meters, Helgesen went out very conservatively in 59.0 at the 400
mark.  However, he negative split the race, running another 1:56 to move up to
5th.
    Perhaps the biggest long shot of the day had been Bo Light in the 400IH.  
Probably only Coach Taylor, and Light himself expected even more results.  Bo
did not disappoint, running 57.51 to earn 6th place and contribute yet another
point to the cause.
    With only 4 events remaining (Triple Jump, Pole Vault, Shot Put, and 1600 
Relay) MIT was in 2nd place, but only by 2 points.  Hoang came through with a
great 6 jump series.  Hung went back and forth from 2nd to 5th through the
last jump.  Hung went from 5th to 2nd on his last jump, but got passed yet one
more time to end up with 3rd at 43-7 3/4.
    Wallberg came back in the Shot Put, an event he was seeded 6th in, to place
4th with a 46 foot put.  John was the high scorer for MIT with 12 points.
    The 1600 Meter Relay was seeded to run in the slower section, but a scratch
moved them up to the fast section.  Akin Aina '96, Marlon Osbourne '98, Seed,
and Karchem made the most of their opportunity.  Aina, running only his 2nd
400 of the year, led off with a 52.4 leg.  Osbourne continued his remarkable
improvement and ran a 51.2 400, moving MIT up to a pack of 4 in 3rd place.
Seed, psyched up from his 18 second PR in the Steeplechase, ran his season 
best, a 52.1 leg, moving MIT up to the lone team in 3rd.  Karchem ran his 3rd
400 of the day in 51.6, but succumbed to 1 runner, finishing in 4th for 4
points and a seaon best time of 3:27.39.
    With the Pole Vault remaining, MIT had secured 2nd place with 52 points to
Springfield College's 50 points.  Andrew Jamieson '99 did his best to join the
corp of freshmen contributing points, but finished 1 place out of the money.  
Andrew jumped a personal best of 13-09, but the field was of high quality, and
on this day that would not be enough.  Dafe Ogagan '97, finally back from his 
injury, cleared 14-09 to tie his best.  Dafe was over 15-03, but displaced the 
bar, settling for 3rd place.
    Next week, MIT travels back to Williamstown for the All New England
Championships.  Hoping to join Wallberg and Seto at nationals will be Ogagan,
Seed, and Parkins.  This will be the last meet before The National 
Championships.