MIT QUALIFIES TWO TO NCAA CHAMPIONSHIPS, FINISH 7TH AS A TEAM
Nolan and Schmeckpeper Lead Way With All New England Performances
November 16, 2002
MIT Men's Cross Country team finished 7th in the 35 team New England Region field in the New England Division III Championship / NCAA Division III Regional Qualifier with 193 points. Led by national qualifiers Sean Nolan and Ben Schmeckpeper, the Tech harriers were not able to make up the gap left by injured Steve Maltas.
Thirty five degree temperatures and light snow provided a less than perfect race day at Stanley Park, across from Westfield State University. MIT's team thought they had a slim chance to secure one of the four national spots, but it would require a near perfect race to be the team to finish ahead of Bates, Connecticut College, Trinity, Tufts and the US Coast Guard Academy. The loss of Maltas, who averaged finishing :40 behind Nolan, would have made up approximately 45 points for MIT, enough to challenge Connecticut College, who finished with 151 points to finish 4th and earn the final NCAA spot behind Keene State, Bowdoin and Williams.
A somewhat slow first mile of 4:50 was dictated by national favorite Ryan Bak of Trinity. No one wanted to go in front of Bak so the pace dragged along until he was ready to move. MIT had Nolan and Schmeckpeper in the top 10 at 4:52. Even though the plan was to have the rest of the Tech runners between 10-12 seconds back of Nolan, which they did, it was too far back given the slow pace because it put them back in 60th or so place instead of the 40-45th place that was planned.
Bak and Mark Miller of Keene State made a move in the 2nd mile, opening up a 50 meter lead. Brian Anderson kept the pace of staying within :12 per mile of Nolan and Schmeckpeper, but Albert Liu and Carlos Renjifo were not able to handle the pace on this day. The splitting up of the second group made the matter worse as they were less likely to run well on their own.
By the 3rd mile mark, Nolan had moved up in the pack of 10 while Schmeckpeper fell back by :03. Anderson continued to keep pace, but the group was not seperated by twenty two seconds. Erik Khatchadourian, who had started a little slower, was moving up and closing in on Renjifo.
The 4th mile did MIT in. Nolan and Schmeckpeper continued to stay with the leaders, but Anderson lost focus and a valuable extra :10. The worst of the news was that the 5th man lost :28 in separation from Nolan just in the 4th mile. MIT closed well but was unable to close enough to make up the difference lost in the previous two miles.
Nolan, Schmeckpeper and Khatchadourian ran personal bests on the course, while Anderson ran an all-time personal best, breaking 26:00 for the first time with his 25:58.
Next Saturday, Nolan and Schmeckpeper will run in the NCAA Division III Championship held at St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota.