May 15-16

MIT Track and Field had a great weekend at the All Division New England Championship hosted by the University of Maine. While many MIT athletes could not attend due to end of term academic projects and exam preparation, those who were able to go made the most of the opportunity.

On Friday, Sean Montgomery led things off in the 1500 Trials with his best race ever. Sean went with the leaders through splits of 61, 2:04, and 3:07. With 300 to go, the lead group took off with Sean among them. Sean finished 4th in his heat with an automatic qualifying time of 3:51.89. Only three from each heat automatically advanced to the finals, but Sean ended up being in the fastest heat and had the 4th fastest time of the day, easily advancing to the finals.

Leif Seed took the line next in the 800 trials. Leif's heat went out in a casual 56 at the 400 and he stayed with the leaders. When the leader went, Leif went also, finishing 2nd in his heat with a 1:53.23, which qualified him for the finals.

The 5000 final was the first running event final. Mark Strauss was the lone MIT entry and scored the first MIT points with a 6th place finish. Mark began the race conservatively and worked his way up in the pack for the first mile of the race, but gradually began to lose ground to the leaders. Mark came back in the 3rd mile with a strong last two laps, but could not quite reel in 5th place. Mark finished with an outdoor best of 15:01.78.

The last race of the day was the 10,000 Meter race. Freshman Dan Feldman, having a great rookie year in both Cross Country and Indoor Track, has been sick for most of the Outdoor Track season. Even though he had placed in both the NEWMAC and New England Division III Championships, Dan did not feel he had had a good outdoor season. Feeling almost healthy for the first time this season, Dan went with the leaders in a perfect 5:00 per mile pace. At three miles, Dan was still uncharacteristically settled in behind a group of three other runners as they came through in 15:02. At four miles they were in 20:06 and the lead runner broke away. The other two and Dan battled it out for a couple of laps until one fell a little back, leaving just Dan and a runner from Yale to battle it out for 2nd. At five miles they slowed slightly to 25:09, but Dan was determined to hold on and try to qualify for Nationals. Pushing his body to the max, Dan tried to break away with 2 laps to go. However, in the last lap his opponent broke away, beating Dan by 3 seconds 31:23 to 31:26. Nevertheless, Dan did finish 3rd, qualify provisionally for Nationals next weekend and smashed his own freshman record by nearly a minute. Dan is currently ranked 25th in all of Division III in the 10K.

Saturday began with Sean in the 1500 final. The pace was quick and Sean was with the leaders as they came through the quarter in 60. The second lap slowed to 2:03 and the lead pack bunched up, which of course caused the pace to pick up again. With a lap to go Sean slowed a little when the leaders bunched up, which at that phase of the race can be deadly. Instead of moving Sean settled. The leaders took off with 300 to go, but Sean did not go with them. Failing to capitalize on the opportunity, Sean appeared to give up, falling to 10th place in 3:54.34.

Leif came to the rescue in the 800. Coming through a quick 53.3 in the 400, Leif was sitting in 4th with the lead group. At 600, Leif had closed to about 10 meters of the lead and looked ready to go for the victory. Showing his inexperience, Leif hesitated and lost the small window of opportunity. However, Leif did go with them when they accelerated, holding onto 5th place in 1:51.10, ranking him 3rd in the country for Division 3.

Mike Parkins was next up in the 3000 Steeplechase. Mike had already qualified provisionally for Nationals but was hoping to return to his sophomore year form when he ran 9:12 in this event. The pace was perfect and Mike started in the back to insure to not go out too fast. Mike was running 74 pace through the first mile, setting himself up for a great time. However, he too failed to move when the opportunity was there. Instead, he slowed to 76 pace for his 6th and 7th laps. Mike did finish with a strong last 200 to improve his time to 3:17.9 and place 8th, but his time may not be enough to get him into Nationals.

The final event for Tech and the meet was the 1600 Meter Relay. MIT was hoping to qualify provisionally for Nationals with a 3:17 clocking. Having already run 3:19 with both Leif and Sean having run the 1500 and 800 within 1:30 of their relay legs, the quartet thought they could get the job done. Yuval Mazor led the way with a 50.6, which made their chances pretty sliim. Leif was able to bring the stick in in 49.6, but it was not enough for a chance of qualifying. Neal Karchem, not accustomed to sitting around for two days without racing, seemed stale with his 50.0 leg, and Sean was unable to provide the miracle that was needed as the team finished in 3:20.07.

Seven individuals have qualified for Nationals, either automatically or provisionally. On Wednesday, those who get accepted into the field will depart for Baldwin Wallace College in Berea, Ohio for the National Championships.