MIT BOWS TO WILLIAMS, FINISHING SECOND IN 4-WAY MEET
January 21, 2006
Despite the fact that this is the weakest MIT team in many years, remaining undefeated seemed a real possibility for the Engineers as they took their 2-0 record to Williamstown to face Williams, RPI and Westfield State. Showing no fear of the heavily favored Ephs from Williams, MIT maintained the lead until three events to go when the strength of Williams finally prevailed. Williams finished with 207 points to MIT's 192. Both teams far outdistanced the larger team from RPI, finishing with a score of 109 as well as the Owls from Westfield State, finishing with 90 points.
Tech came ready to compete despite their small numbers, bringing only 29 competitors to the meet. MIT was led by Omari Stephens with 19 points. The scoring in the four-way meet was 9 points for first and 7-6-5-4-3-2-1 for second through eighth places. In addition to winning the 55HH in a personal best of 8.15 in the trials and 8.17 in the finals, the sophomore claimed second in the pole vault at 13-5 3/4 and sixth in the triple jump with a leap of 40-2 3/4.
As expected, Uzoma Orji won his two events, remaining undefeated for the season. In the shot put, Orji threw 56-8 3/4 and followed that up with a facility record of 62-3 3/4 in the weight throw. In the shot put, Orji was supported by freshman standout, James Oleinik, who threw a personal best of 47-10.
Nate Ball also remained undefeated, claiming first in the pole vault, clearing a season best of 15-9. Ball narrowly missed 16-3 1/2 on his final attempt. The vault is MIT's strongest event this season, scoring 39 of a possible 55 points. Supporting Ball and Stephens were Patrick Barragan and Nate Sharpe, earning seventh and eighth places respectively.
The only other victory for MIT was run by Eric Khatchadourian, who took the 3000 from gun to finish line on the undersized, flat track. Khatchadourian ran 9:00.07 to win by a little less than one second. MIT scored well in this event, getting season bests from Joe Roy-Mayhew, Tyler Abrams and Chris Wong as they placed third, sixth and eighth respectively.
Freshman stalwart, Jake Ruzevick, did not win any races, but ran an outstanding triple, placing second each time as he ran indoor personal bests in the mile (4:25.06) and the 800 (1:58.42) and anchored the 4x800 relay with a 1:58.9 leg. Fivos Constantinou, normally right with or just ahead of Ruzevick, was unable to compete due to a sore hamstring. Nevertheless, Ruzevick was supported well by his teammates. In the mile, Chris Bruce ran 4:31.82 to place fifth and Trevor Rundell ran 4:37.28 to finish seventh. In the 800, Dan Rodgers ran a season best of 2:01.17, earning third place and Dave Reshef placed fifth in 2:04.66. The 4x800 relay, running to win, and set a freshman record, was poorly run despite Ruzevick's efforts. The first three legs, ran an abysmal 6:17, averaging over 2:05 each.
Also having outstanding performances in the jumps were; Anthony Teixeira, jumping well and placing third in the triple jump with a leap of 41-11 1/2, Chris Bateman in the long jump with a fifth place effort of 20-0 1/2 and Obinna Anyanwu with a huge personal best in the long jump of 19-11 3/4.
On the track, outstanding performances were turned in by David Blau with a 6.64 in the 55 dash, Aron Walker, who ran 1:26.92 in the 600 and Alex Rothberg in the 400 with a second place time of 53.86.
Next week, MIT travels north to Bowdoin College for a 1:00 start against Bowdoin, Springfield and Tufts. Tech will be looking forward to getting back on a 200 meter track after two consecutive meets on small tracks.