Thomas, Bradshaw Set Institute Records at N.E. Championship
Omari Stephens—The Tech
Omari Stephens—The Tech
While the men’s track and field team placed 20th out of thirty-eight scoring teams at the 2008 New England Intercollegiate Amateur Athletic Association Outdoor Track and Field Championships, Aline Thomas ’08 is leaving nothing in the tank for the women.
As she heads toward the end of her senior year, Thomas paced the women’s track and field team to 14th in the team standings after thundering to Institute records in the shot put and hammer throw. Thomas has improved her marks steadily all season, but Saturday’s performance was easily the best outing of her career.
Thomas topped her standing school record in the hammer with a toss of 164’7”. Netting third place in the event and tops among all Division III competitors, Thomas may have solidified her spot at the NCAA Championships with the result.
Capping the afternoon with another impressive showing, Thomas broke a six year old record in the shot put with a throw of 43’10.75”. Breaking the previous record by one-quarter of one inch, Thomas finished sixth against the field. In both events, she currently ranks among the top 15 in Division III.
Thomas wasn’t the only MIT athlete to enjoy a record-breaking meet. In what appears to be a weekly occurrence, Andrea E. Bradshaw ’09 shaved a little more time off her record in the 800-meter run. Although she finished outside of the scoring, Bradshaw completed the circuit in an Institute-record 2:16.89.
The Engineers had a few “near records” during the meet as well. Margaret C. Leibovic ’10 ran 12.75 in the 100-meter dash while Jacqueline M. Wentz ’10 authored the program’s second-fastest time in the steeplechase with a personal record of 11:07.63.
MIT secured the remainder of its points in the pole vault, where Emily Hwang ’09 tied for sixth after clearing 10’11.75”. Leanne M. Veldhuis ’08 also performed well, but missed qualifying for finals by one spot in the 400-meter hurdles after a time of 1:05.55.
Men Place 20th
Omari S. Stephens ’08 paced the Engineers at the all-divisional meet, finishing second overall in the pole vault. Stephens cleared 15’9” in the vault. Despite tying for the best jump of the day, the Tech senior settled for second place behind Southern Connecticut State’s Sutton Underwood.
James R. Oleinik ’09 enjoyed another strong performance in the shot put en route to sixth place. Oleinik set a personal record and cleared 50 feet for the first time in his career with a throw of 50’10”.
Anthony D. Teixeira ’08 was the only MIT athlete to compete in two individual events. Teixeira added to MIT’s point total with an eighth-place finish in the long jump (22’5”) while he just missed qualifying for finals in the 110-meter hurdles after a run of 15.46 seconds.
The Engineers also received good efforts from Stephen A. Morton ’10 in the triple jump (44’11.5”) and Vladimir Sobes ’11 in the javelin (177’2”), although both performances finished just outside of scoring.
The University of Rhode Island pulled away for the team championship with the University of Connecticut taking second.