MIT Fails to Improve Marks in ECAC Championship
May 18-19, 2006
In the midst of final projects being due and preparing for exams, a small contingent of MIT track and field athletes made the trek west to Springfield College with the hopes of improving on performances in order to earn a ticket to the NCAA Division III Championships next week.
Uzoma Orji, already automatically qualified in both the hammer and shot put for the NCAA Championship, was hoping to fix some technical issues that appeared in the past week. Coincidentally, these technical problems started showing up when the lack of sleep due to the final project deadlines began to catch up with him. Orji managed to have some very good warmups and a couple of near misses in the competition to give him the confidence that it is right there. Orji won both the hammer and shot with marks of 184-3 and 55-8 1/4 respectively.
David Blau, perhaps the most improved sprinter in MIT history, had the unfortunate situation of having to race into a strong headwind in both the 100 and 200. Few tracks have the starting and finish lines arranged to be able to switch directions to accommodate the wind and unfortunately, Springfield is not one of them. Blau had perhaps his best 100 ever but was only clocked in 11.13. In the 200 Blau made up the stagger immediately but was unable to close the race out, finishing in 22.60, again into the wind.
Thad Wozniak went to the runway for the final time as an MIT athlete in the long jump. Not quite able to get his hips up at takeoff, Wozniak had to settle for eighth place, but at 21-4 1/4, a lesser mark than he was expecting.
Orji will make the trip to Benedictine University in Lisle, Illinois by himself next week where he will try to add to his three national titles and 10 all america honors.