MIT's Mens Track and Field Team was at home Saturday for the last time this season, hosting the final regular season contest. Their opponents were Springfield College, and the Coast Guard Academy. Going into the meet with an unblemished record, MIT managed to continue their winning streak with a 103 1/2 to 81 1/2 to 18 score over Springfield and Coast Guard respectively.
Entering the meet, still without the services of Senior sprinter, Matt Sandholm, the Engineers were about 8 point favorites. That is very little in a triangular meet where the points awarded are 5-3-2-1 for 1st-2nd-3rd and 4th. The Coast Guard Academy was without the services of their fine sprinters because of a service academy rule that maintains all of the academies must send a 400 Relay Team to the Penn Relays. This loss of sprinters actually hurt MIT significantly more than Springfield.
MIT prepared to double and triple athletes where necessary in order to win the meet, but towards the end, was able to back off and rest people as the win was secured with 2 events to go. With 27 season or personal bests, MIT athletes made certain there were no doubts about the outcome of the meet.
Once again, the throwers were at a disadvantage, this time due to the quality of the Springfield throwers, but also because of two MIT throwers who were unable to compete. Fortunately, the jumpers enjoyed the exact opposite, a large advantage.
The only score for MIT in the throws was from Pat Dannen '98 in the Discus with a 4th place effort. Coast Guard was able to take some of those points so that Springfield enjoyed a 35-1 advantage over MIT because of the throws.
In the jumps, MIT swept the Long Jump, led by Dafe Ogagan '97 with a 21-0 1/2 jump. While not sweeping the Triple Jump, Tech did secure 1st and 2nd place. Morio returned to his winning ways with a 43-1 1/4 leap, but the surprise was Sam Thibault's first jump of the year of 41-10 3/4 to garner 2nd place.
The High Jump was not supposed to be very good for Tech, but Ravi Sastry '98 returned from the injured list to jump 6-2, tying him for 3rd. Typically one of MIT's best events, the Pole Vault gave Tech 7 more points. Dafe Ogagan won his second event with a 14-0 vault and Thibault again jumped 13-6 to tie for 2nd. The jumps were won by MIT over Springfield by a score of 23 1/2 to 9 1/2, bringing the field event total to Springfield 44 1/2 to Tech's 24 1/2. Coast Guard was close behind, scoring 15 of their total 18 points.
The running events obviously went well for MIT, and began accordingly in the 400 Relay. Tech has not lost a sprint relay the entire season, even though 6 different runners have been in 4 different combinations, all due to injuries. Once again, MIT had great exchanges to bring home the victory in 44.25. This advantage was not so great because CG did not enter a team, giving Springfield 3 points just for finishing.
MIT boasts 2 of the top runners in the country for Division III in the 3000 Meter Steeplechase, and Mike Parkins '99 added to that by winning in 9:13.5 to qualify for the National Championships. Leif Seed '99, already qualified for the Nationals, led Mike through the first mile before backing off to save energy for a battle later in the day in the 800 Meters.
The 1500 Meters was basically a strategic race designed to gain MIT the first 3 places and help one of those three get a personal best. Both feats were accomplished as Joel Ford '98 and Chris McGuire '00 paced Sohail Husain '98 to a personal best of 4:11.6. Those first 3 running events gave MIT a 23 to 7 edge and brought Tech within 4 points of the lead.
The 110HH was a key event because Springfield had the Indoor 55HH Division III Champion, and MIT had an undefeated Lincoln Bonner. Lincoln won out with a huge personal best of 15.35. Dafe Ogagan claimed 3rd with a season best of 16.18. The score was now tied and Tech was on their way.
Both Springfield and Coast Guard were weak in the 400, so Coach Taylor added jumper, Alexander and middle distance man, Dan Helgesen '97 to the event in hopes of a sweep. True to form, Neal Karchem '99 led the sweep, with Helgesen running a surprising 51.67 to claim 2nd. All four Tech runners (Karchem 51.36, John Kim '98 52.21, and Alexander 52.64) ran either personal or season bests.
The 100 Meters went as predicted with Springfield claiming 1st. However, Bonner gained 2nd and Alim Needham '97 claimed 3rd with a 11.93.
The featured event of the day, the 800 Meters, did not quite live up to it's billing. Walsh of Springfield, a noted 1:53 half-miler who takes it out hard when he is not doubling back from another event, did just that and pulled away with 200 meters to go. Seed, who was supposed to go out with him, was not having a great day after hitting his knee in the Steeplechase. He did go with him, but lost focus at 400 meters and faded to 1:58.20 for 3rd. Ford charged hard at the finish to claim 2nd in 1:57.92. Edgar Ngwenya charged hard for 4th in 1:59.85. Martin Suresh ran a personal best with a 1:59.92, but did not place.
With Seed in the 800, and Bonner in the sprints, the 400IH race was left to Ogagan to try and defend. Springfield was supposed win the race and did. However, Dafe did his job, claiming 2nd with a best of 59.42.
The 200 race saw Bonner pay back, and reverse the finish from the 100 Meter Race. Lincoln ran 23.21 to defeat the Springfield runner by nearly 3 tenths of a second. MIT also placed 3rd and 4th with Karchem and Kim stepping up.
Chris McGuire ran his second race in the 5000 Meter Run. Instructed to run hard, McGuire started with 73 second quarters, and finished the same, as his biggest deviation was 1 second. Chris ran 15:17.91 for yet another 1st place finish. Frank Johnston '00 finished the freshman duet with a personal best of 16:02.92 for 3rd.
The 1600 Relay was of little consequence, so those who felt like running did so. The unlikely team of John Kim, Mike Parkins, Joel Ford, and Neal Karchem edged Springfield with a very respectable time of 3:28.64.
Tech's next meet will be the Williams' Invitational on Saturday, May 3rd. Others at the meet will be Westfield State and Middlebury College.