Engineers Move to 6-0 With Sweep of NEWMAC Opponents
Jan. 14, 2007
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. - Senior Craig Edwards and Freshman Rastislav Racz each picked up two individual victories to push MIT (6-0, 4-0 NEWMAC) to victory over New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference foes Springfield College and the United States Coast Guard Academy on Sunday afternoon. The Engineers downed the Pride, 185-114, and the Bears, 163-134.
Coast Guard (4-2, 3-1 NEWMAC) overcame Springfield (3-7, 1-2 NEWMAC), 194.50-105.50, in the day's other meeting.
Edwards took the 100-yard (53.54) and 200-yard (1:56.45) backstrokes, while Racz touched the wall ahead of his opponents in both the 100-yard (58.95) and 200-yard (2:10.76) breaststrokes.
The Cardinal and Gray picked up a number of other individual victories on the day to propel the squad to victory over its conference foes. Sophomore Deke Hu won the 200-yard butterfly with a time of 1:59.79, while Jeff Zhou took the 100-yard butterfly (53.11) and Kalvin Kao touched the wall first in the 200-yard individual medley (2:00.72).
Zhou was also instrumental in Tech finishing 1-2 in the 50-yard freestyle, earning maximum points in the 50-yard freestyle with a winning time of 21.86. He barely edged out teammate Luke Cummings, who clocked in at 21.96 for the second-place finish.
The Engineers relay teams earned two victories, as well. The 200-yard medley relay team of Zhou, Racz, Hu and Cummings took the top spot with a time of 1:36.19, while the 400-yard free relay squad of Peter Wellings, Cummings, Zhou and Edwards touched the wall at 3:11.66 to finish first.
Head coach Dawn Gerken was pleased by how well her team performed, saying that "today's tri-meet was a competitive match-up that could have gone either way. We were fortunate to win a few close races, but the real key to our victory was depth," she added.
She concluded, "I am proud of how well we raced, but, more importantly, I am proud of the way the team supported one another."
Coast Guard showed its prowess in the freestyle events by taking first-place finishes in four of five. Junior Bobby Brown won the 200-yard (1:44.14), 100-yard (47.90) and the 500-yard (4:51.29), while Doug Fallon rounded out the domination by taking maximum points in the 1000-yard (10:01.44).
Springfield was buoyed by Matt Fitzgerald, who took the one-meter diving competition with a score of 244.90.
MIT will return to action on Saturday, Jan. 20, when it hosts Tufts University at 1:00 p.m. Springfield will hit the road on that same day to take on Williams College at 1:00 p.m., while Coast Guard travels to Babson on Tuesday, Jan. 16 at 5:00 p.m.
