The Men's Track Team traveled to Waterville, Maine this past weekend to face and defeat host Colby College, Bowdoin College, Bates College, and the University of Southern Maine by scores of 93 1/2 to 83, 63, 50, and 6 1/2 respectively. MIT competed without many of their top athletes. Some of these were due to injuries (Ravi Sastry, Matt Sandholm, Omar Saleh, and Mike DeMassa), and others were due to absences (George Torres, Jason Dailey, and Juan Carlos Fuenmayor-Soto) Perhaps the key absence was Dafe Ogagan missing the meet due to academics. Coach Halston Taylor estimates the team gave up 36 points which would have also taken away 36 points from the opposition. Scoring in the meet went 6-4-3-2-1.

The weather started out looking very promising, but soon turned cold and windy, affecting many of the performances of the day. Nevertheless, numerous personal bests were established by MIT. Qualifying for the New England Division III Championships in 4 weeks were Morio Alexander 'G in the Triple Jump (45-0), Andrew Jamieson '99 in the Pole Vault (13-0), and Lincoln Bonner '97 in the Long Jump (20-11 1/2), all winning their respective events.

MIT scored 0 points in the throwing events. In part, the blame should be placed on the three throwers who missed the bus, but the quality of the opposing team's throwers may have negated their effect anyway. Possibilities existed for Tech in the Javelin and the Discus, but it did not materialize.

In addition to the jumps already mentioned, Morio also placed 3rd in the Long Jump with 20-06 1/2. Jared Miller '98 place 5th in the Triple Jump with 39-11 1/2. Leif Seed '99 just missed scoring in the Triple Jump, but added a tie for 4th in the High Jump at 5-10. In the Pole Vault, Sam Thibault '00 vaulted 12-6 for 3rd and Matt Potts '00 came in 4th at 12-0.

Fortunately, the runners were able to establish some dominance in the distance events. Leif won the Steeple once again in 9:33.21 and was followed in 2nd by Mike Parkins '99 in 9:35.92. Both ran casually until there was 800 meters to go.

In the 1500, the next event, Chris McGuire '00 continued his undefeated season in this race with a slow-paced, strategic 4:12.29. Coming close behind in 3rd with a personal best was Sohail Husain '98 (4:14.28), and Joel Ford in 4th (4:14.53).

By the time the meet got around to the 5000, Tech just needed to make certain that no one from Colby or Bowdoin beat them. A fatigued Parkins and McGuire did what was necessary, placing 2nd and 3rd in 15:57.74 and 15:58.32. Running a personal best, just out of placing, was Frank Johnston '00 in 16:11.10.

The shorter events did not go very well for Tech for the most part. In the 100, Matt Sandholm thought he was ready to go, but 30 meters into the race, the same hamstring injury that caused him to sit our the New England Division III Championships, recurred. Brad Geilfuss 'G hung on for 3rd and Alim Needham '97 came through for 5th place.

In the 200 Meters, knowing they would not have Sandholm, Neal Karchem '99 and Geilfuss teamed up to get 4th and 5th in 23.72 and 23.79.

Karchem did much better in the 400, placing 2nd with a season best 51.50. John Kim '98 ran 53.22 to follow in 4th. The wind was having it's effect in these races.

The 800 Meters definitely did not go as planned. MIT was planning on sweeping 1,2,3 in the race, but ended up getting 3,4,5. Running out front, but not doing anything with it, or falling too far behind were MIT's errors. Tech's top two runners, Ford (3rd) and Edgar Ngwenya 'G (5th), were still feeling the effects of being sick during the week, while Martin Suresh '99 (4th), simply lost focus and fell too far behind at the beginning.

The hurdle races went better, but not great. Lincoln had a great day, as he added to 110HH victory to his Long Jump with a 15.75 effort. Dave Ratliff ran a personal best of 17.86, but did not place. Missing Ogagan and Sastry really hurt in this race. The 400IH proved too much for Bonner. Looking good until hitting the 6th hurdle, Lincoln totally fell apart and finished out of the money in 11th. Leif ran a best (58.50), but not good enough, as Colby went 1-2.

Next week, Tech hosts Tufts University on Saturday at 1:00. Last year, Tufts was the only team to defeat MIT.