November 11, 2000
In a race very reminiscent of the national qualifier two years ago, MIT's Men's Cross Country team followed a very well run NEWMAC Conference Championship with a poorly run, uninspired race that saw the team finish sixth in the 35 team field, 7 points out of the 5th place necessary to return to the NCAA Division III Championship next week in Spokane.
Two years ago, MIT headed into the national qualifier as the team favored to finish 2nd and a virtual shoe-in to make the trip to nationals. That day, the two front runners perhaps went out a little too fast, and faded back to 29th and 34th place, causing Tech to finish 5th, one place out of the those advancing. This year, Dan Feldman and Sean Nolan went out in perfect position, running conservatively, seven seconds behind the leader in 4:57 at the mile mark. By the two mile mark, Dan had moved to 13th place with Sean back in 16th and both were moving on the leaders. However, by mile three, it appeared they were no longer moving well and falling back in the field. This trend continued, leaving Sean as MIT's first finisher in 25th place, followed by Dan in 37th place.
Tech's second group, consisting of Albert Liu, Sean Montgomery, and Liyan Guo, went out about 10 seconds too slow at the mile mark, placing themselves about 100 runners out in 5:17. The group made up a lot of ground, but the wet conditions and muddy course was too much to hope for a big comeback. Albert finished up with a solid race, placing 41st. Montgomery faded a bit in the last two miles, but still held on for a 47th place. Liyan ran into trouble after mile two as a stitch in his side inhibited his performance. Liyan made a valiant effort but could do no better than 60th place.
MIT's 208 points fell 7 behind Coast Guard, a team MIT defeated two weeks ago in their conference championship 32-52. Not only did the team miss nationals by 1 place, Sean Nolan also missed advancing as an individual by 1 place.
Coach Halston Taylor could not explain the poorly run race. "The injuries to Mark Strauss and Ed Keehr certainly hindered the potential of the team, but we won the conference title without either of them in the race. It seemed like the team took the trip to nationals for granted and did not prepare very well. However, even if that were the case, if the second group had been more competitive in the first mile, things should have worked out. We have to remind ourselves next year that the race not only has to be run, it has to be run well and with passion, or we will stay home again. With a returning five of Feldman, Nolan, Strauss, Liu and Montgomery, it certainly seems that the potential is there to make the trip to nationals, but only the runners will know if they want it badly enough."