Sox playoff hopes dim after Rays
The Red Sox headed to Tampa Bay last weekend to take on the Rays in a pivotal three-game series. Five and a half games behind the Rays, the Red Sox needed to take at least two out of three in the series to position the team for the last month of the season. A promising start stoked playoff hopes, but the rest of the weekend left Red Sox nation in a somber state of mind. Here’s a recap of the weekend and a look ahead at what lies in store for the Sox.
The Art of UFC
I’m not a sports fanatic in any sense. I don’t follow the Red Sox or the Bruins, and I absolutely hate seeing blood or watching people get punched out.
News Briefs
At 7:20pm on Sunday, the TD Garden was in complete excitement for UFC 118. This was the first time that the UFC had been in Boston. Tickets went for anything from $75 to $4500, and some fans had even lined up outside of the box office at midnight when the tickets were released to guarantee the best seating possible for the event. According to Fightline, 15,575 fans attended the event. Official numbers will be released next week.
Getting to know the Red Sox
<i>Editor’s Note: Welcome to Boston! Since Beantown’s professional sports teams are such an integral part of its culture, we’re presenting an insider’s view — history, current state, and future expectations — of each of them. The first installment in the series features... the Red Sox, of course.</i>
Sports Shorts
Coaches Ted Benford and Andy Hilton are leaving the lightweight men’s rowing program, Director of Athletics Julie Soriero announced on Monday. Benford, who served as the Engineers’ head coach for the past five seasons, will be returning to Northeastern University as the associate head coach. Following a three-year stint at MIT, Hilton will be going back to Dartmouth College, his alma mater, as the assistant heavyweight coach.
A runner to remember
In the past few months, Jacqueline M. Wentz ’10 has completed a dizzying journey – from finishing up finals at MIT, where she graduated and double-majored in Physics and Biological Engineering, to competing in the finals of the 3000-meter women’s steeplechase at the USA Track and Field (USATF) National Championships.
Racing for the top spot
Last month the MIT Motorsports Formula SAE team competed and placed 8th in the Formula SAE West competition. Over the past two years the team has been designing and building a Formula 1 style race car. Our hard work has paid off, as MIT placed higher than ever, taking 8th place out of 80 registered teams.
Dew Tour brings world’s best to Boston
At a quarter to three on June 26, hundreds of people ran through the doors of Boston’s TD Garden and rushed up the escalator stairs to the balcony of the stadium to watch the first of five stops on the 2010 Dew Tour and IFC Skateboarding World Championships. General admission ticket holders were not guaranteed seating and therefore contributed to the dog-eat-dog situation. Why choose to risk your life in the mob? Because tickets were only $15 (cheap when compared to the $100 action zone tickets), they were perfect for the moderate fan as well as the monetarily-challenged college student.
Engineers travel overseas; claim basketball tourney title
Last month, the MIT men’s basketball team competed in the Kainan University Invitational Tournament in Taiwan. This annual event, now in its fifth season, featured mostly teams from Asian universities. Using their depth and size advantage over their opponents, the Engineers cruised through the tournament, picking up four straight wins en route to their second tournament title in two trips (They also competed in the tournament in 2006).
Are you ready for some football? (No, the other kind)
The 2010 FIFA World Cup begins on June 11 in Johannesburg as the host, South Africa, take on their Group A opponents, Mexico. It will be the first tournament to be hosted by an African country and the first in which the host nation, not the defending champions (this year Italy, which won on 2004), will play the opening match.
MIT Cycling faces ECCC rivals in Madison
Nine members of the MIT cycling team competed in the Collegiate Road Nationals, held May 7-9 in Madison, Wisconsin. The event opened on Friday with an incredibly challenging road race at Blue Mound State Park. Rain, temperatures in the 40’s, and over 8,000 feet of climbing over 70 miles made the men’s race a race of attrition, with only half the starters finishing the race. John Dreher G was MIT’s first finisher, in a solid 18th place, even though he had upgraded to A’s just three weeks before nationals. Despite riding the last 10 miles of the race with a broken shifter cable, forcing him to run up the steep hills, John Rhoden G placed 27th. After spending much of the race chasing after getting a flat tire, Tim Humpton ’10 finished in 32nd place.
US preps for World Cup against Czechs, Turks
Last week, the US Men’s National Team played two friendly matches against the Czech Republic and Turkey teams, as a tune-up for the World Cup.
Senior spotlight: Exceptional student-athletes
In the spirit of today’s commencement, the sports section has chosen to spotlight a smattering of MIT’s graduating student-athletes. It is a testament to the strength of the Institute’s athletic program that we do not have space to feature all of the seniors, though we tip our caps to every student who balanced the time commitment that a varsity sport requires with some of the nation’s most rigorous academics.
Taekwondo wins 3rd consecutive national title Six members will represent U.S. National Team at World Championship
The MIT Sport Taekwondo team, led by Head Coach Dan Chuang and captains ZheChen “Mary” Hong ’10 and Jason J. Uh ’10, faced off against the nation’s best at the 34th annual National Collegiate Taekwondo Association (NCTA) Championships at Metro State College in Denver, Colorado on April 17 and 18. The team of 34 competitors claimed their third consecutive overall collegiate national title by a lofty twelve point margin, 59 to 47 points, over Brown University.
Sisto takes 2nd place at weightlifting nationals
Last week, graduate student Gwendolyn A. Sisto G won a silver medal representing MIT at the National Collegiate Championships for Olympic weightlifting. Sanctioned by USA Weightlifting, a member of the United States Olympic Committee, the competition featured college students from across the country competing for a medal and a spot on Team USA.
Bayern Munich faces Inter Milan in Euro league finals
With the 2010 FIFA World Cup only a little over a month away, it seems like soccer is making its return into the consciousness of the American sports mind. But as large of a spectacle as the World Cup is, what the rest of the world calls “football” isn’t just something played every four years. In only two weeks, the most prestigious European soccer tournament will conclude with its final in Madrid. Last August, the UEFA Champions League began with the top teams from the top professional teams in Europe, and after many rounds of competition, only two teams remain standing in the knockout tournament: Bayern Munich and Inter Milan. They’ll face off Saturday, May 22nd in Madrid with the title of Champions of Europe on the line.
Scoreboard
Baseball Sunday, May 9 vs. Suffolk UniversityW 6-3 Men’s Track and Field Saturdady, May 7 NEICAAA Championship6th of 39 Women’s Track and Field Saturdady, May 7 NEICAAA Championship8th of 39
Track and Field teams race at New Englands
This weekend, the men’s and women’s track and field teams competed in the All-New England Championships.
A ‘neck-to-neck’ battle for 1st
The Sport Taekwondo Club traveled to the University of Pennsylvania on Saturday, April 3 to compete in the final Eastern Collegiate Taekwondo Conference (ECTC) tournament of the season. After several nail-biting forms performances and neck-to-neck sparring matches, MIT took second place at the tournament, and ended the season in second place behind Cornell University.
Men’s lacrosse is fourth seed in Pilgrim League
The men’s lacrosse team secured the fourth and final seed in the Pilgrim League postseason tournament on Saturday with a solid 10-7 victory over visiting Clark University. With the win, the Engineers closed out the regular season with a record of eight wins and six losses, and they secured a playoff spot for the second consecutive year.