April 24, 1999

The first NEWMAC (New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference) Track and Field Championship was held this past Saturday at Smith College. MIT used strength in the middle distance and distance events along with some key points in the jumps and javelin to outscore Wheaton College by 36 points , 189-153. Finishing in third was Springfield with 132, Coast Guard in 4th with 96, and WPI with 48.

On paper, the meet appeared to be Wheaton's jumpers and sprinters vs. MIT's middle distance and distance runners. It turned out that the paper version was pretty close to the real thing. With a 10-8-6-4-2-1 scoring format, Wheaton scored 80 points in the 100, 200, Long Jump, Triple Jump, and High Jump. Whereas MIT scored 95 points in the 800, 1500, 3000 Steeplechase, 5000, and 10,000 meter events. The difference may have been that MIT scored 20 in the five favorite Wheaton events, while Wheaton could only manage 10 in MIT's favored events.

Individually, MIT had many bright spots. In the field events, Ravi Sastry continued to jump well as he had a 23-2 effort in the Long Jump, good enough for 2nd place. Robbie Gray also added a point with a PR of 20-6 1/2. Kalpak Kothari put aside his ankle woes and jumped to a PR in the Triple Jump with a 44-10 1/4 effort, sufficient for 3rd place. In the Javelin, Nikos Michalakis came through on his final effort with a 194-7 throw for the win.

In the running events, MIT started things off with 25 points in the 10K as Chris McGuire led the way with a national qualifying provisional time of 31:23.73 to win. Following were Dan Feldman in 2nd, setting a freshman record with a 32:21.11, Liyan Guo in 3rd with a 32:59.65, and Ed Keehr in 6th with a 33:46.55.

Next on the track was the 3000 Steeplechase. MIT went 1-2 with Mike Parkins, and Mark Strauss doing the honors in 9:35.34 and 9:40.38 respectively. Phil Loiselle added a 5th with a time of 10:03.18.

In the 400 Relay, the foursome of Gray, Neal Karchem, Todd Rosenfield, and Sastry ran a season best of 44.05 to place second to Wheaton.

The 1500 provided another showcase for MIT's dominance in the distance events. Sean Montgomery and Leif Seed sat on the pack until 200 meters were left and then opened up an easy 2 second gap to go 1-2. Kenny Walker had a great run to claim 5th with a 4:10.70.

The High Hurdles was an exciting race that showcased two of the top hurdlers in New England Division 3. Ravi Sastry, last years New England Division 3 Champion was seeded behind the Wheaton College hurdler. Ravi ran a PR of 15.18 in the finals but finished second to his opponent who ran a 14.94. Jordan Alperin placed 5th in the final with a 15.96 but pulled his hamstring on the 7th hurdle. Jordan had earlier run a PR of 15.79 in the trials.

The trio of Karchem, Yuval Mazor, and Rosenfield placed 3-4-5 in the 400, and came back in the 200 to all run season bests of 23.37, 23.74, and 23.81 respectively.

With Wheaton only 15 points behind going into the 5000, MIT distance runners returned to the track for a casual effort just to make certain the Wheaton runners did not claim any points that may jeopardize MIT's lead. Jogging in a pack for most of the way, MIT runners Parkins, Feldman, and McGuire let the lead runner go at the start, and finished a tired but comfortable 2-3-4 to lock up the team victory.

In the final event, the 1600 Relay team of Rosenfield, Yuval Mazor, Karchem, and Seed ran to an easy victory with a slow 3:28.14.

Next week, MIT will rest their tired and wounded when they travel to Williams College for a non-scoring invitational.