CAMBRIDGE – Senior Charles Pennington and junior Kevin Quisumbing both hit PRs in their events as the Jumbo men's outdoor track & field team competed at MIT's Final Qualifying Meet on Thursday.
The competition was a last chance for competitors to record national qualifying times or marks for the NCAA Division III Championships coming up next week (May 23-25) in Geneva, Ohio.
Quisumbing threw the shot put a career-best 52'0" (15.85m) Thursday for the #29 national ranking in Division III. It was the second straight week he posted a PR, topping last week's 51'8 1/2" (15.75m). Considering 20 national qualifiers were accepted in the event last year, he appears to be on the outside looking in as far as an NCAA berth. However, final declarations for NCAA's are due Friday night and he could move up if others ahead of him choose not to compete in the shot.
Pennington's 6'7" (2.01m) clearance in the high jump is the #37 mark in Division III. He won the event out of seven competitors at MIT on Thursday. His previous outdoor career-best of 6'5" (1.96m) also had come last week.
Others competing for the Jumbos on Thursday were senior Anthony Kardonsky in the 100 (11.00) and 200 (21.97), senior Nico Agosti in the 100 (11.81), senior Brandon Levenstein in the 100 (11.86), senior Tom Doyle in the 400 (49.44), senior Hiroto Watanabe in the 800 (1:54.41), freshman Riley Patten in the 400-meter hurdles (55.21), junior Billy Witrock in the 400 hurdles (56.87), sophomore Matt Manteiga in the long jump (21'4 ¾" – 6.52m) and freshman Ben Stein in the long jump (20'10" – 6.35m).
Jumbo seniors Josh Etkind in the 110-meter hurdles, Henry Hintermeister in the javelin and Benji Wallace in the pole vault appear to be safely among the top 20 to qualify for NCAA's in their respective events. The final NCAA field of competitors will be announced by Saturday morning.
