ENGINEERS DESIGN VICTORY OVER BATES AND COAST GUARD
Double Victories by Blau, Constantinou and Orji Lead Way
January 14, 2006
MIT had not lost a regular season meet to Bates since 1983 and it has been even longer since the Engineers have lost to the Coast Guard Academy. The meet took place at the Coast Guard Academy's 180 meter track in New London, CT. Bates gave MIT a difficult time through the early part of the meet before MIT turned on the competitive spirit and pulled away, winning the meet 160 to 98 for Bates and 96 for Coast Guard.
The meet opened up with the field events (35lb. weight throw, long jump, high jump, pole vault). The first event to have the results in was the long jump. The gravity must have been turned up in New London because no one seemed able to jump very far and only Macbeth of Bates was able to come close to 20'. MIT secured the 3-4-5 spots to stay close to Bates' 1-2 finish using the 7-5-4-3-2-1 scoring system. The weight throw, won by Uzoma Orji with a toss of 60-9 1/2, also went to Bates as their 2-3 finish outscored MIT's 1-6 finish by one point. The high jump, a miserable event for MIT the past two years, favored Bates and Coast Guard. MIT managed a sixth place from Chris Bateman while Bates picked up nine points for second and third places. MIT was behind by a score of 30-18 at this point in the meet. In the pole vault, MIT turned things around a bit when Patrick Barragan made his season debut with a 11-5 3/4 effort, joining Omari Stephens and Nate Ball, who took the top two places at 13-5 1/4 and 15-6 1/4 respectively. Bates earned fourth and sixth places as MIT gained 10 points on the Bobcats.
On the track, the first event was the mile run. After an initial battle with runners from Coast Guard, Fivos Constantinou, Jake Ruzevick and Eric Khatchadourian took control and raced to a 1-2-3 victory with Bates settling for a 4-5 finish. Constantinou, who had given up in the middle of the race, surged at the end to win in 4:25.01, just edging out Ruzevick. MIT had now pulled ahead 48 to 39.
In the 55HH, Stephens joined with Anthony Teixeira and Thad Wozniak to place 2-4-5 while Bates placed first only. MIT continued to pull ahead, now leading 58 to 46.
The 400 and 600 meter events barely went in MIT's favor. In the 400, Bates ran away with a 1-2 finish while MIT suffered a poor outing, only placing 3-4. However, in the 600, Dan Rodgers remained undefeated by winning in 1:26.34. Dave Reshef supported Rodgers' effort with a fourth place finish out of the slow section while Bates settled for third. The two events went to MIT 17-16, giving MIT an overall lead 75 to 62.
The triple jump and shot put were finishing up about this time and also helped MIT's cause. Orji's expected victory, was made sweeter by the fact that he threw his season best of 58-9 1/4 as he continues to lead the country for Division III athletes. Freshman, James Oleinik, continued to surprise as he blasted a 47-3 3/4 put to claim second place and give MIT 12 more points. Bates had to settle for five points and a 87 to 67 point deficit. The triple jump saw Teixeira come back at the end of the event to claim second place to lead Bateman and Stephens, who placed fourth and fifth respectively. Eventhough Drabo of Bates won the event, MIT outscored the Bobcats 10-8.
With the meet pretty well in hand, MIT's middle-distance runners went back to the track. Constantinou led from the gun in the 800 with a 2:02.20 victory. Matt Bieniosek assisted with a third place. The next event, the 1000, was won by All America runner, Mike Flint of the Coast Guard Academy in 2:33.12 but MIT managed 2-3-4, led by Ruzevick in 2:37.83.
David Blau won his two events quite easily. In the 55 he won by .23 in 6.69. Drawing lane six in the 200, Blau ran start to finish without ever seeing an opponent, winning in 23.14. Blau's closest competitor was teammate Wozniak in 23.93.
In the final individual event of the day, Trevor Rundell and Chris Bruce allowed Jeremy Yandell to do most of the work before taking the lead with about 800 meters to go. Rundell pulled away in the final laps, running 9:02.38 to Bruce's 9:05.61.
While MIT looked horrible in the 4x400 relay and did not place, they put in a valiant effort in the 4x800. Bieniosek led off with a fine 2:03.6 leg to give MIT the lead. Yermie Cohen found his comfort zone and ran a fine 2:01.3 to open up the lead. John McGonagle, running the 800 for the first time, went out well in 62, but faded in the end to give up the lead to Coast Guard. Dave Reshef made a great effort to make up the difference, bringing everyone at the meet to their feet before running out of gas in the final 150, allowing Coast Guard the event victory.
Next week, MIT will face a much stiffer challenge in defending New England Division III champions, Williams College on their home track. RPI will join the mix and add another difficult challenge. Westfield State, boasting very few athletes will not likely be a factor in the team scoring even though they have some impressive individuals.