September 2, 2000

Franklin Park

MIT's varsity cross country team ran past the alumni team, breaking the leaders for the Alumni in the 4th mile, en route to a sweep with a score of 15-46. Dan Feldman '02, led the Varsity with a start to finish victory in 26:00 on the 8K course. Dan was followed by Ed Keehr '01, Sean Nolan '03, Mark Strauss '02, and Liyan Guo '01, all within 28 seconds of Dan. The wet course, particularly the area back in the wilderness loop, slowed the runners significantly, accounting for the slow times.

The Alumni were represented by only 5 individuals, but those individuals had certainly made their mark on MIT cross country when they were training consistently. Jesse Darley led the way for the "Has Beens" with a 26:41, and was followed by Arnold Seto in 27:12, placing 6th and 7th respectively. Frank Johnston ran 28:21, Mike Piepergerdes 29:11, and Chris McGuire 29:36 to complete the Alumni score.

Sean Nolan had the largest improvement on his Franklin Park best time as he went from a best of 27:53 to 26:20. Albert Liu '03, also demonstrated what high mileage can do as he moved his best from 28:21 to 27:19. Also making a big improvement was George Hanson '03, who improved his Franklin Park best by 1:12, running 28:29. Brian Anderson '04, and Craig Wildman '03 made their college cross country debuts, finishing 7th and 8th respectively in 27:20 and 28:11. Sean Montgomery '01, a consistent part of the top 5 last year, has been slow to get into race shape thus far, finishing in 12th place with a time of 28:14.

Next week, MIT travels to WPI to defend the Engineer's Cup against RPI and WPI. The men will race on campus at 12:45.