M I T Intercollegiate Athletics M I T Intercollegiate Athletics M I T Intercollegiate Athletics

Department of athletics, physical education and recreation

Club Sports Highlights



Cycling - April 30, 2007
The MIT cycling team returned from the Eastern Collegiate Cycling Conference's Championships weekend with the season team omnium title for Division II, defending its victory from the previous year. The omnium includes points earned during the entire two months of the collegiate road season across the eight categories of racing, including team and individual time trials, road races, criteriums, and circuits. MIT beat Yale and Dartmouth for the top honors. The US Military Academy at Westpoint and Princeton rounded out the top five teams of the division.

In addition to the team omnium, several racers won personal season omnium titles. Zuzka Trnovcova won the women's C, and Yuri Matsumoto took second in the women's B, both in their first year of road racing. Nick Loomis captured second in the men's D category.

The championship races had challenges for climbers and sprinters alike. The road race featured 3,000 feet of climbing per loop through the Hudson River Valley. Martha Buckley proved to be an unrelenting climber, taking fourth after more than 64 miles of brutal hills. The men's B time trial squad made short work of the flat TTT course, working together in tight form to win its race. The criterium favored sprinters with an open four-corner course. A lead-out from Issao Fujiwara helped Nick Loomis place second in the men's D with Fujiwara right behind in third. Natalia Gardiol sprinted into fourth in the women's B. AJ Schrauth powered through to a fourth-place finish in the mens' B criterium after an hour of intense racing. The team came in a close second for the weekend overall.

Women's Water Polo - April 14-15, 2007
The No. 4 ranked Engineers (14-0) qualified for Club Nationals for the third straight year last month, by defeating Boston College, 6-5, in the title game.

After rallying from a three goal deficit, the Eagles almost tied the game with just twenty seconds left. However, co-captain Kelly Cavazos '07 blocked the would-be-game-tying shot to ensure MIT's victory.

"When we gained possession of the ball with six seconds left on the game clock, I was on such a high," said co-captain Lindsey Sheehan '07. "The win just meant so much more because of the challenges we've faced this year."

MIT's team effort really shone through, as six different women contributed points. Co-captain Christi Winiarz '07, Analiese DiConti '10, Kristen Cook G, Aditi Nagaraj '10, Lisa Tacoronte '10, and Sheehan each put a point on the board. Cavazos also contributed with a tournament high 13 saves which earned her "Player of the Week" for the league.

En route to the title game, MIT toppled Wellesley, 9-1, Bates, 11-2, and Boston University, 12-1.

Winiarz was the leading scorer for the weekend tallying 13 of MIT's 39 goals. Cook and DiConti also contributed seven goals apiece.

Sport Taekwondo - March 30, 2007
Over the weekend of March 30, the MIT sport taekwondo team continued its ongoing success at the National Collegiate Taekwondo Championships in College Station, Texas. This year's championships, held on the home turf of perennial rival Texas A&M University, provided several taekwondo team newcomers the opportunity to meet unknown competitors, while allowing seasoned members the opportunity to match wits with some of the nation's top athletes. By the end of the two-day event, the team had captured bronze medals in the novice (colored belt) and championship (black belt) divisions, claimed bronze in overall, and won some twenty individual awards. Most impressively, four MIT black belts - Captain John T. Wong G, Captain Erica Y. Chan '08, Alicia Zhou `07 and Sharon A. Lawrence '08 - gained the right to compete for a chance to represent the United States at the World University Games in Bangkok, Thailand.

Badminton - March 24, 2007
On the weekend of March 24, the badminton club took a team of eight students to represent MIT at the 2007 National Collegiate Badminton Championships, held at the University of California, Berkeley. Team member Lars Boyde `09 entered the championship without a rank and was up against approximately 63 other competitors in the men's singles bracket. He defeated the two players who were ranked fourth and fifth in the tournament to claim the bronze medal. The badminton team ranked ninth out of the 23 participating schools.