4x800m Relay Sets Division III Mark to Lead No. 4 Men's Track & Field at NE DIII Championships

BOSTON, Mass. — The No. 4 MIT men's track & field team's 4x800m Relay set a Division III Indoor Record and junior Jackson Bliey (Talleyville, Del.) set a meet and program indoor record in the High Jump to lead the No. 4 MIT men's track & field team to a runner-up finish at the 2025 New England Division III Indoor Track & Field Championships on Saturday at The TRACK at New Balance.

THE BASICS:

MIT Team Score: 2nd of 21 (92 points)
Top-Five Team Scores: 1. Amherst (109); 2. MIT (92); 3. Tufts (82); 4. MIddlebury (70.33); 5. Bates (57)

HOW IT HAPPENED - TRACK EVENTS:

60m Hurdles: Senior Walter Truitt (Houston, Texas) finished second with a time of 8.13 seconds.
60m: Junior Patrick Haertel (Cumming, Ga.) was seventh in 6.98 seconds.
Mile: Junior Charlie Glass (Austin, Texas) finished 16th in 4:26.36.
400m: Sophomore Davis Lee (Mountain Brook, Ala.) took 20th in 49.45, junior Kristian Praizner (Folsom, Pa.) was 29th in 50.11 and sophomore Connor Sterling (New Milford, Conn.) was 37th in 50.74.
800m: MIT had four of the top six finisher, paced by senior Ziyad Hassan's (Ashburn, Va.) winning time of 1:51.30. Sophomore David Whitaker (Northville, Mich.) was third in 1:52.11, Junior Jared Steins (Chino Hills, Calif.) was fourth in 1:52.18 and senior Simon Opsahl (Redlands, Calif.) was sixth in 1:52.54.
200m: Grad student Will Liu (San Marino, Calif.) was tops among six MIT competitors, finishing 16th in 22.12. Junior Nolan Clement (Fullerton, Calif.) added a 23rd place finish in 22.31 seconds.
3000m: First year Renne Cooper (Austin, Texas) was third in 8:22.12, while classmate Owen Sondag (Fargo, N.D.) finished eighth in 8:27.35.
4x800m Relay: First year Christopher Chan (San Antonio, Texas), Glass, Whitaker and Opsahl took down the meet and national record by over five seconds, posting the best time in Division III history in 7:36.36.
Distance Medley Relay: First year Luke Rupert (Hill City, S.D.), Spears, sophomore Hunter Miller (Greencastle, Ind.), first year Landon Hering (Minnetonka, Minn.) finished 12th in 10:40.74 seconds.

HOW IT HAPPENED - FIELD EVENTS:

Triple Jump: Junior Sean Huckleberry (San Francisco, Calif.) won the event with a mark of 14.20m (46' 7 1/4").
Weight Throw: Sophomore Justin Buonato (Horsham, Pa. ) was 18th with a mark of 14.65m (48' 0 3/4"). Sophomore Connor Kalvar (Floyd's Knobs, Ind.) was 20th with a mark of 14.60m.
Pole Vault: First year Jaden McKee (Riverside, Calif.) took third, clearing 4.74m (15' 6 1/2") and classmate Ethan Soderbloom (Stoughton, Wis.) was 19th, clearing a height of 4.14m (13'7").
High Jump: Bliey was dominant, clearing 2.18m (7" 1 3/4") to win the event. Sophomore Anthony Meg (Scottsdale, Ariz.) was fourth, clearing 2.02m (6' 7 1/2")

INSIDE THE NUMBERS:

All New England honors were awarded to top eight finishers in each event.
Opsahl's time in the 800m jumped him up to 27th on the Division III national list and fifth in the region. Hassan, Whitaker and Steins are all ranked in the top 14 nationally, with Hassan still holding the top 800m time in the country from earlier this year at the John Thomas Terrier Classic.
Bliey now owns the top mark in the nation in the high jump.
Huckleberry is now 34th nationally and second regionally in the Triple Jump following Saturday.
Liu is now 17th in the region in the 200m.
Lee holds the 13th best time in the region in the 400m.
Cooper and Sondag are now seventh and tenth, respectively, the regionally 3000m rankings.

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