September 28, 2000

Assuming, perhaps prematurely, they will qualify for the NCAA Cross Country Championships in November, MIT made their annual trek to the National Preview Invitational. In a small field of nine teams, including defending national champion North Central College, MIT placed 4th with 101 points behind North Central (55), Nebraska Wesleyan (65), and Lewis and Clark University (71).

Ranked as high as 7th in NCAA Division III this season, MIT has begun to slip as injuries to Mark Strauss and Liyan Guo, coupled with no one on the team stepping up to help the consistent running of Dan Feldman, Ed Keehr, and Sean Nolan, has proven the team is not a top 10 team and may have some work to do if they want to make nationals. In this meet, Nolan, finishing 11th for MIT behind Feldman in 5th, and Keehr in 10th, placed higher than any other teams 3rd man. Tech then had to wait over a minute for their next finisher, Albert Liu, as 26 runners crossed the line. Albert and Sean Montgomery ran together for most of the race and finished together in 26:49, placing 37 and 38 respectively.

On a basically flat course, the leaders went out in a crisp but conservative 4:54 for the first mile. Feldman was among the leaders right at the start as a group of six runners broke away from the rest of the field. Keehr and Nolan were in about 15th position at the mile mark. Liu and Montgomery, running conservatively with a 5:10 1st mile, moved up to around 35th position by the 2 mile mark. Places did not change much for the remainder of the race, although collectively, Tech did lose 13 points in the final 3 miles.

Coach Halston Taylor feels his harriers continue to go out a little too fast at the start. However, he also says, "We can compete with anyone in Division III through our first 3 runners. I have faith the team will step up when the time comes."

For the second week in succession, Ray Molnar has shown he wants to be in the top 7 at the end of the season as he finished 6th for the Engineers in 46th place. Three places back, Craig Wildman also ran well to finish as MIT's 7th man.

If MIT can get their missing runners healthy, and close the gap between their current 3 and 4 runners, they will indeed be a team to reckon with. As it is, they are a good team that is missing a piece of the puzzle.

Next week, those not racing in Spokane this weekend, will make the trip to Rhode Island for the Bryant College Invitational. The varsity will rest up for the All New England Championship on October 13.