THE BASICS:
 
- Location: Woodruff P.E. Center Track (Atlanta, Ga.)
 
- The Lead: In the opening meet of the outdoor season, the MIT men's track and field team earned four event victories and finished second out of 22 teams with a total of 124.5 points at the Emory Thrills in the Hills Open.
 
HOW IT HAPPENED:
 
- Graduate student Liam Ackerman (Miami, Fla.) led three Engineers in the pole vault as he won the event with a height of 15 feet, 9.25 inches. Senior Max Hardy (Houston, Texas) was second at 14 feet, 7.25 inches, along with a tie for fourth by senior Everett Brandyberry (Hill City, Kan.) at 14 feet, 1.25 inches. Ackerman is currently ranked fifth nationally, while Hardy is 17th.
 
- First-year Sam Engebretson (Sioux Falls, S.D.) won the discus with a throw of 159 feet, six inches and is ranked third in the country. Senior Nathan Basinger (Dalton, Ohio) was third in the event and is No. 10 nationally with a toss of 151 feet, eight inches. Engebretson finished second in the hammer throw with a distance of 169 feet, eight inches and currently sits at No. 7 nationally. Basinger was third at 166 feet, three inches, followed by junior Henry Sobieszczyk (Newton, Mass.) in eighth place with a toss of 135 feet, five inches.
 
- The trio also competed in the shot put with Basinger in third (46' 8.75"), Engebretson in fourth (45' 6.25") and Sobieszczyk in fifth (44' 4").
 
- Junior Kenneth Wei (Mt. Sinai, N.Y.) picked up a pair of wins in the 110-meter hurdles and the long jump and is ranked in the top-10 nationally in both. After running a time of 14.87 seconds in the prelims (which is sixth nationally), Wei won the hurdles in a wind-aided time of 14.54 seconds. First-year Walter Truitt (Houston, Texas) was sixth in the prelims at 15.76 seconds, while finishing third in the final in 14.97 seconds.
 
- Wei took the long jump with a leap of 23 feet, 8.25 inches and is ranked fourth in the country. Sophomore Spencer Yandrofski (Chapel Hill, N.C.) was 14th in the long jump at 19 feet, 11 inches, along with a fourth-place finish in the high jump at six feet, 0.75 inches.
 
- The Engineers finished third and are No. 6 in the country in the 4x400 relay as the team of first-year Ian Koe (San Mateo, Calif.), graduate student Benton Wilson (Dublin, Ohio), Truitt and junior Evan Schaefer (Frederick, Md.) ran a time of 3:21.24.
 
- Koe led three Engineers in the 400 meters as he was third in 49.69 seconds and is 18th in the country. Schaefer finished fifth in 50.00 seconds, along with Wilson in seventh at 50.13. Wilson was also fourth in the 200 meters in 21.98 seconds, followed by Koe in fifth at 22.00 seconds.
 
- 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.
 
400 Meters
18. Ian Koe - 49.69
 
110-Meter Hurdles
6. Kenneth Wei - 14.87
 
4x400 Relay
6. Ian Koe, Benton Wilson, Walter Truitt, Evan Schaefer - 3:21.24
 
Pole Vault
5. Liam Ackerman - 15' 9.25"
17. Max Hardy - 14' 7.25"
 
Long Jump
4. Kenneth Wei - 23' 8.25"
 
Discus
3. Sam Engebretson - 159' 6"
10. Nathan Basinger - 151' 8"
 
Hammer Throw
7. Sam Engebretson - 169' 8"
14. Nathan Basinger - 166' 3"
 
UP NEXT:
 
- MIT returns to action on Saturday, April 2nd as the Engineers travel to nearby Tufts for the Snowflake Invitational.
 
STAY CONNECTED:
 
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