Sports

MIT Track and Field Routs Opponents In First Meet of Season

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Phillip D. Hunt ‘12 is pole vaulting over the bar. He tied for fourth place in the event at the tri-meet held by MIT on Jan. 16 versus Bates College and Colby College. Both men’s and women’s team won.
Elijah Mena—The Tech

In its season opening meet, the MIT Men’s and Women’s Track & Field teams took on Bates and Colby Saturday afternoon.

The women picked up where they left off last season, winning 10 of 12 events to outlast Bates, 160-127. Colby took third with 97 points.

Portia M. Jones ‘12 helped lead the way with three individual wins while Jacqueline M. Wentz ‘10 added two event victories.

Wentz gave the Cardinal and Gray first-place points in both the 800m, with a time of 2:22.75, and the mile, finishing in 5:15.61. Other event wins came from Jamie L. Simmons ‘12 in the 600m (1:38.67), Brooke C. Johnson ‘13 at 3000m (10:18.92) and Alina E. Gatowski ‘11 in the 5000m (18:31.05).

The Engineers captured both relay events, with Kirsten H. Aarsvold ‘11, Emily Kuo ‘13, Martha M. Gross ‘12 and Simmons winning the 4x400m in 4:14.79 and Marie N. Burkland ‘13, Tania K. Morimoto ‘12, Alicia J. Kaestli ‘12 and Johnson beating out Colby by over 10 seconds in the 4x800m.

On the men’s side, Tech easily beat both opponents, winning all but one track event.

The Cardinal and Gray dominated the shorter sprints, placing four in the top six of the 55m hurdles and five of six in the 55m dash. Brian C. Djaja ‘13 led the way in the hurdles with a personal-best time of 8.01 seconds. Each of the other three hurdles, Nicholas W. Leonard ‘11 (8.17), Andrew J. Musacchio ‘13 (8.20) and Joshua D. Duncavage ‘13 (8.50), would also set personal records. Morton ran 6.64 seconds in the 55m, as Tech took the top six spots in the event.

Morton also secured individual wins in the 200m (23.02), long jump (22-2.50 feet) and triple jump (47-8.00 feet). Teammate Mattias S. Flander ‘11 was the runner-up to Morton in both jumps.

Daniel J. Ronde ‘11 (52.24) and Leonard (52.79) went one-two in the 400-meters. John A. Granata ‘11 took first in the 600-meters with a time of 1:25.33 while Gilbert D. O’Neil ‘13 paced the field in the 800m, finishing in 1:58.23.

Tech teammates also finished one-two in the mile and 3000m. Kyle J. Hannon ‘13’s time of 4:26.13 was just over two and a half seconds better than Hemagiri Arumugam ‘10 in the mile. Paul D. Welle ‘11 ran 3000-meters in 8:52.47 to best Richard J. Prevost ‘11. Gihan S. Amarasiriwarden ‘11 was the top finisher in the 5000m, with his time of 15:38.83.

MIT will be back in action at a pair of meets next weekend, hosting its own Coed Invitational on Saturday, January 23 while also competing in the Terrier Classic at Boston University on Friday and Saturday.