MIT Finishes Ninth Overall at NEICAAA Indoor Track and Field Championships

Feb. 26, 2005

Complete Results

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. - MIT men's track and field continued its postseason run by finishing ninth out of 36 schools at the 2005 New England Intercollegiate Amateur Athletic Association (NEICAAA) Championships. Competing against teams from across all NCAA divisions, the Engineers finished first among Division III schools.

MIT employed a small contingent at the meet respectably referred to as "All-New England's", but no opportunity was wasted as four of Tech's eight representatives finished among the place-scorers. Junior Uzoma Orji led the way for MIT, securing a second-place finish in the weight throw (59'8.5") and a fourth-place finish in the shot put (54'5.25").

A week after shattering the Institute record in the pole vault, senior Nate Ball cleared 15'5.75" and finished second overall. The attempt was short of his school-record 16'1", but gave MIT its second runner-up performance in the meet.

Ben Schmeckpeper ran 14:42.36 en route to third overall in the 5000, while Zach Traina picked up critical points in the 200 with a sixth-place effort. In the preliminaries, Traina set a personal best and a new Institute record with a clip of 21.98.

Although they finished outside of the scoring, Kenny Roche and Fivos Constantinou enjoyed career races. Roche broke 50 seconds in the 400 for the first time this season, finishing 11th overall in 49.78. Constantinou also finished 11th after completing the mile in 4:16.42.