May 8, 1999

Eleven out of 24 performances produced personal bests to lead MIT from a predicted third place finish to a 2nd place trophy with 74 points. Williams College won as expected with 102 1/2 points. Wheaton College, seeded 2nd among the 29 participating teams, failed to live up to expectations, finishing a disappointing 8th place.

The New England Division III Championships is a Men's only meet, which is competed in 1 day except for the Decathlon. The trials are in the morning and finals in the afternoon for a total of 5 hours. Scoring goes 8 deep with points awarded 10-8-6-5-4-3-2-1.

MIT had not had things go their way going into the competition. Sophomore, Nikos Michalakis, the 2nd ranked javelin thrower in the region, was unable to compete because of a back injury sustained while throwing. In addition, all but one of the distance runners seeded to score had been sick recently with walking pneumonia or strep throat. Nevertheless, the Engineers lived up to their reputation of never giving up, scoring in all but three of the events entered.

Peter Bluvas '01, led things off with a stirring 2nd place finish in the decathlon, which was held on Thursday and Friday. Peter, seeded 7th, came from last place after the Long Jump, and won four of the next eight events with 6 personal bests to move into 2nd place. Going into the 1500, the last event, Peter needed to be within 26 seconds of his closest competitors. The two competitors in 3rd and 4th happened to be excellent middle distance runners. Aware of their plight, they both went out hard for the first quarter (66 seconds). This pulled Peter out a little too hard even though he slowed down at the 200 mark. The second quarter was painful for Peter as he slowed to an 81 pace while the two who were trying to beat him came through the half in 2:21. Peter could do no better than another 81 for the third quarter as the two in front opened up a 14 second lead. In the last 300 meters Peter gave it all he had, finishing in 4:45 to 4:27 and 4:28 for his rivals, giving Peter 2nd place.

With the 8 points in hand, Tech set off on Saturday to get the job done. The first event was the 10K. Chris McGuire '00, was seeded 3rd but was still feeling the effects from his strep throat. Chris battled hard for the first two miles (9:53), but began running 79 pace by the end of mile 3. Nevertheless, Chris held on to 4th place to give MIT 5 more points.

Ravi Sastry '98, was next up in the Long Jump where he was seeded 3rd behind two 24 foot jumpers. Ravi put together some good jumps but nothing over 22-11 3/4, which netted him the expected 3rd place.

The Pole Vault, Triple Jump, and High Jump all began about the same time. The three entered MIT vaulters were all recovering from injuries and were not expected to place. Sam Thibault, Tech's best vaulter was at home with an injured hamstring. Matt Potts had an injured heel and only jumped 12-3. Dan Kwon (back), and Sam Sidiqi (quad) managed 12-9 but could not break into the scoring. Jordan Alperin '02, came back from an early season injury and cleared 6-3 in the High Jump for a personal best to claim 3rd place when the top jumper no-heighted at 6-7. Kalpak Kothari '01, finally reversed the tables on his opponents, coming from behind on his last jump to set a personal best of 45-3 3/4 to win the Triple Jump.

On the track, the 400 Relay was the first final of the afternoon. Seeded 11th, MIT was in the first and slowest section. Although they won their section with a season best of 43.78, they were not able to beat any times from the fast section where the 8th place team ran 43.19.

In the Steeplechase, Mike Parkins '99, was seeded 4th and Mark Strauss '01, 5th. The early pace was very fast, with the leaders going out in sub 4:50 for the 1600. Parkins held on through 5 laps but then faded to third. On the last straight, two more opponents passed Mike to put him in 5th with a season best of 9:19.88. Mark did not hold on to the early pace and finished in 9:44.51, out of the scoring.

The 1500 was next, and much of MIT's hopes were in this event. Sean Montgomery '01, was seeded 3rd, and Leif Seed '99, was seeded 5th. The early pace was very fast as Geoff Getz from Brandeis took it out in 59 at the quarter. Slowing down, but not significantly, they all came through the 800 in 2:03. Sean appeared to want to take the lead but remembered the race plan and held back. When they came through he 1200 in 3:07, Getz got a jump on Sean and Leif. Sean made an attempt to reel him in, but gave up in the last 100 as his legs no longer wanted to respond. Sean finished in 2nd with a PR of 3:53.58, good enough to rank him 9th nationally in Division III. Leif finished in 4th with a 3:55.59, also good enough to qualify provisionally for Nationals.

Sastry and Alperin made the finals of the 110HH, Jordan running a PR of 15.68 in the trials. Ravi got out behind at the start and was never able to quite make up the difference, even though he ran a .16 PR of 15.02. Jordan was not able to match his trials performance but scored nevertheless, giving MIT 2nd and 8th in the event.

Sean and Leif were back on the track 40 minutes after their 1500 to race in the 800. Against Coach Taylor's better judgment, he, Sean and Leif agreed to try and go for the double in hopes of helping MIT catch Williams. Unfortunately, these decisions have to be made earlier in the week, and scratching from an event disqualifies that athlete from the meet. Putting his best foot forward, Leif stuck with the pack through the first quarter of 55 seconds. However, in the last 400, Leif faded to last before sprinting hard to the finish to end up 6th in his section with a 1:55.18. Two athletes beat him out of the slow section to push him back to 8th. Sean did not fare so well, finishing in 2:00 and out of the money.

Dan Feldman, recovering from his walking pneumonia, but not 100%, ran a good race in the 5000 to finish 3rd in 15:15.96. Dan made the error of leading the first mile in very windy conditions. Although the pack came through the mile in 4:44, the leaders seemed comfortable. The next mile slowed somewhat, but the leaders still ran a 4:50 second mile. Dan fell off the pace and could only maintain 76 pace for the final mile.

The final event was the 1600 Relay. MIT was ahead of Colby by 10 points going into the race. Colby, having one of the top teams, needed to win the event, and hope that MIT did not score in order to tie for 2nd place overall. With two of MIT's key legs on the relay being Sean and Leif, that particular scenario was not unrealistic. Coach Taylor was indeed kicking himself for having doubled the two runners in the 800. Yuval Mazor '02, continued to show improvement as he came in with the leaders in 50.5 for the leadoff. Leif took the baton and moved into 2nd place on the backstretch. Coming into the finish, two opposing runners passed Leif and boxed him in, forcing him to split them and risk disqualification. Fortunately, Leif got by without harm, running a 49.8, and made a great exchange to Neal Karchem. Neal took his leg out hard, battling for 2nd the entire way to run a great 49.7 split. Sean took the baton virtually even with three other teams. Sean moved into 2nd behind Amherst on the backstretch but lost it on the final curve. Making a comeback, Sean passed Williams for 3rd but did not quite have enough to catch Colby for 2nd. Nevertheless, the quartet ran an MIT best since 1990 with a 3:19.94 clocking.

Next week, MIT travels back to Maine for the All Division New England Championships being held at the University of Maine on Friday and Saturday, the 14th and 15th of May. Only those hoping to qualify for Nationals or improve their national qualifying marks on going for MIT. Currently, MIT has 6 individuals qualified for Nationals, and the hopes of a couple more qualifying in a definite possibility.