THE BASICS:
 
- Location: New Balance Track at Virtue Fieldhouse (Middlebury, Vt.)
 
- The Lead: For the third straight year and the 19th time overall, the No. 7 ranked MIT men's track and field team captured the New England Division III Indoor Track and Field Championship as the Engineers totaled 152 points over the two-day event. MIT outdistanced No. 3 ranked Williams by an 83-point margin to win the title. Overall, the Engineers had 27 All-New England D3 performances and earned five New England D3 titles.
 
HOW IT HAPPENED ON FRIDAY:
 
- In the 5,000 meters, junior Matthew Kearney (Austin, Texas) finished second in a time of 14:40.08 to lead four Engineers who scored in the event. Junior Vedang Lad (Plainsboro, N.J.) was third in 14:43.04, followed by graduate student Reid Kovacs (Palo Alto, Calif.) in fifth at 14:46.39 and senior Andrew Mah (Newton, Mass.) in eighth at 14:55.34.
 
- The distance medley relay team of sophomore Henry Hardart (Annapolis, Md.), first-year Ian Koe (San Mateo, Calif.), first-year Pau Ilerbaig-Bajona (Toronto, Canada) and senior Ryan Wilson (Redwood City, Calif.) shattered the meet and facility record as the group crossed in a time of 10:03.37 to win by 3.15 seconds.
 
- Graduate student Liam Ackerman (Miami, Fla.) claimed the New England D3 title in the pole vault as he won the even by two inches with a season-best clearance of 16 feet, 4.75 inches. First-year Luka Srsic (Worthington, Ohio) finished second with a height of 15 feet, seven inches, along with senior Everett Brandyberry (Hill City, Kan.) and senior Max Hardy (Houston, Texas) clearing 14 feet, 7.25 inches to finish fifth and sixth, respectively. Junior Bryan Sperry (San Diego, Calif.) rounded out the top 10 as he cleared 14 feet, 1.25 inches to place 10th.
 
HOW IT HAPPENED ON SATURDAY:
 
- Junior Kenneth Wei (Mt. Sinai, N.Y.) picked up the win in the 60-meter hurdles as he crossed in a time of 8.14 seconds in the finals to win by a .09-second margin. He then earned a runner-up finish in the long jump at 23 feet, 6.75 inches to wrap up 18 points for the day. First-year Walter Truitt (Houston, Texas) narrowly missed the finals as he was ninth at 8.59 seconds.
 
- In the 400 meters, Koe crossed in a time of 49.87 to win the event as graduate student Benton Wilson (Dublin, Ohio) was right behind him in second at 50.40 seconds. Koe also finished third in the 200 meters as he crossed in 22.38 seconds and earned 16 points between the two races.
 
- Ryan Wilson ran a smart race and went into the final lap trailing before rallying for the 1.55-second win to capture the 800 meters and set a facility record. Senior Matt Schofield (Shorewood, Ill.) also competed in the race, finishing 13th in a time of 1:58.47.
 
- Hardart ran a time of 4:15.46 to cross in fourth in the mile as he was followed by first-year Pablo Arroyo (Richardson, Texas) in 11th place in 4:22.90. Junior Jeremiah Budiman (Plano, Texas) also placed fourth in the 60 meters, running a time of 7.01 seconds in the finals.
 
- Ilerbaig-Bajona earned the victory in the 600 meters with a time of 1:22.60, followed by junior Evan Schaefer (Frederick, Md.) in ninth at 1:24.27. In the 1,000 meters, First-year Reece Shuttleworth (Arlington, Va.) finished third in 2:32.38 to go along with a 20th-place finish by first-year Ziyad Hassan (Ashburn, Va.) in a time of 2:41.62.
 
- Vedang Lad led a trio of Engineers in the 3,000 meters in seventh place with a time of 8:35. Junior Lowell Hensgen (Raleigh, N.C.) also earned All-New England D3 honors as he was eighth in 8:40.30. Sophomore Raymond Brookman (Santa Cruz, Calif.) was just outside of the top eight in ninth with a time of 8:43.37.
 
- Sophomore Spencer Yandrofski (Chapel Hill, N.C.) earned All-New England accolades in his first New England D3 meet as he finished seventh in the high jump with a clearance of six feet, 3.25 inches. In the weight throw, senior William Woltmann (Secaucus, N.J.) finished seventh with a throw of 50 feet, four inches, followed by first-year Sam Engebretson (Sioux Falls, S.D.) in eighth at 50 feet, 3.25 inches.
 
- Engbretson led MIT in the shot put in fifth place with a throw of 48 feet, 0.50 inches. Woltmann checked in at seventh at 46 feet, 10 inches, along with an eighth-place showing by junior Henry Sobieszczyk (Newton, Mass.) with a toss of 46 feet, 4.25 inches.
 
- In the 4x400 relay, the team of sophomore Garrett Whitmore (Webster City, Iowa), Schaefer, Truitt and Wilson placed fifth in 3:26.72 to earn four points. In the 4x800, the MIT squad of Schofield, Arroyo, Hassan and Shuttleworth finished in fourth place in a time of 8:03.34 to secure five points.
 
- Below are the current top-20 rankings for the Engineers, from meets up to this point in the season as listed at www.tfrrs.org.
 
200 Meters
18. Benton Wilson - 22.09 @
 
800 Meters
2. Ryan Wilson - 1:51.74 @
20. Pau Ilerbaig-Bajona - 1:54.28 @
 
Mile
5. Ryan Wilson - 4:09.17 * @
12. Henry Hardart - 4:10.97 @
 
3,000 Meters
10. Matthew Kearney 8:18.27 @
 
5,000 Meters
13. Matthew Kearney - 14:29.84 * @
19. Andrew Mah - 14:34.82 @
 
60-Meter Hurdles
4. Kenneth Wei - 8.04 *
 
Distance Medley Relay
9. Hardart, Koe, Ilerbaig-Bajona, Wilson - 10:05.88 @
 
Long Jump
3. Kenneth Wei - 24' 2.25" *
 
Triple Jump
20. Kenneth Wei - 47' 0.75"
 
Pole Vault
5. Liam Ackerman - 16' 4.75"
11. Max Hardy - 15' 11"

* Denotes School Record
@ Denotes time converted from a banked track to flat track
 
UP NEXT:
 
- MIT returns to action on Saturday, March 5th as the Engineers travel to nearby Tufts for the Tufts Final Qualifier.
 
STAY CONNECTED:
 
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