ONEY PULLS OUT VICTORY FOR VARSITY
Morton Sets Two Meet Records in Sprints
January 12, 2008
The 34th annual Alumni meet was pretty even throughout the day with each team taking their turn with the lead. Going into the 4x200 relay, the final event, the varsity was up by four points. Winner take all, and the alumni were certain they had the victory once it was learned that sprinting phenom, Stephen Morton, had been pulled from the relay. The varsity squad was not to be shaken by the confidence of the alums even though their lineup was changing by the minute as another member honestly stated his legs were still fatigued from the 200. Behind from the start and still in the rear going into the final leg, Stephen Oney was determined to set things right. Oney tried to pass on the bach stretch but was unable to do so. Getting hung up on the curve did not deter Oney as he pushed even harder from lane two. Finally as they hit the home straight Oney pulled ahead and despite his failing form he maintains his lead through the finish line to pull out the 70-61 victory.
The meet began at 9:00 in the morning with the pentathlon. Ravi Sastry '99 and Bill Singhose '90 represented the "Has Beens". Sastry took the lead in the 55HH and never looked back, winning easily with 2726 points, 300 points ahead of the varsity's Nick Leonard. With a 5-4 lead going into the regular meet, Uzoma Orji '06, and Todd Chamoy '98, went 1-2 in the weight throw to expand the lead to 13-5. The long jump was going on at the same time and Morton gave the varsity a boost with a 21-6 1/4 victory despite a short approach and an outstanding jump of 21-2 1/2 by Thad Wozniak '06.
With his team behind by a score of 17-10, Jake Ruzevick was determined to finally defeat Ben Schmeckpeper '05, in a race, at any distance. Ruzevick took the lead, running a very conservative pace coming through quarter splits of 67 and 2:13. Just before the 800 mark, Johannes Schneider took the lead to make the pace a little more honest. Failing to pick the pace up and coming through the 1200 in 3:20, Ruzevick took the lead on the back stretch and was immediately followed by Schmeckpeper, Fivos Constantinou '06, and freshman, Paul Welle. Ruzevick ran a 62 final 400 to finish in 4:22.71, a new meet record. Schmeckpeper held off a fast closing Welle for second place. The 6-3 event score moved the varsity closer at 20-16, still in favor of the alums.
The 55HH brought another meet record as Rick Rajter '03, ran a personal best of 7.77 to easily win ahead of Anthony Teixeira (8.05) and Dave Fernholz (8.40). At this same time the alumni were sweeping the high jump as the varsity had no entries. Rajter won this event also with he and teammate Craig Mielcarz '03, just jumping high enough to win at 6' 2". Now the lead was up to 34-20.
With Orji throwing the shot the varsity had little to no shot of winning the event, but James Oleinik and Tony McDonald did the next best thing by getting second and third to limit the damage. The same thing happened in the pole vault with Nate Ball '05, setting a meet record in winning the vault at 16-0 3/4. The expanded lead was now 44-28. Back on the track things slowly began to turn towards the varsity. In the 400, Oney got the break over Matt Lehman '04, and held the lead for the victory. Morton was back to work in the 55 and he silenced the trash talking alums with a humbling 6.55 meet record and personal best. The next event, the 800, balanced the results of the high jump as Ruzevick led a sweep, running 1:59.96 for the victory. The varsity had closed the score to 51-48, still in favor of the alumni.
The 200 was a chance for Zach Traina '05, and David Blau '06, to get back at Stephen Morton. Morton took one triple jump before going to the line, which was good enough for third place behind teammate, freshman, Mattias Flander who jumped an amazing 45-0 1/4 on a short approach. Morton tore around the track in a meet record 22.58, leaving Traina and Blau to look back as they knew they were not catching Morton (Traina looking back to make sure no one was going to catch him and Blau to taunt fourth place Ulzie Rea).
The 5000 was the next to last event and unless the varsity were to get 1-2 in the event then the meet would come down to the relay. Chris Wong took the lead for the varsity, keeping the pace somewhat honest at 75 for the first 400. Schmeckpeper and Yermie Cohen passed him after the 800 mark, which had picked up to 2:29. Cohen followed Schmeckpeper through a moderate pace through 1 3/4 miles. Sensing he could take the lead and hold it, Cohen started throwing down 72s for the next 800 and finished with a :33 final 200 to win in 15:18.70. Schmeckpeper fought off Brian Jacokes for second place.
Also competing for the alumni were the following: Ned Rich '72 and Gary Wilkes '74, Chris Bateman '07 (2nd in triple jump, 3rd long jump and high jump), Ethan Crain '96, Craig Wildman '03, Terry McNatt '87, Josh Feldman '97, David Moyle '94, Josh Chartier '06, Eric Khatchadourian '06, Bob Collins '82 and Kevin DiGenova '07. Running the open mile was Bob Walmsley '84 and in attendance was Steve Stoddard, nursing a knee injury.
Next week, MIT begins facing intercollegiate competition when they face Bates and Colby at home on Saturday at noon.