MIT RACES TO NEWMAC TITLE
Placing 6 in First 10 Gives Engineers 5th Consecutive Title
November 2, 2002
In what turned out to be basically a dual meet, MIT ran past Coast Guard to remain the only team to ever win the New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) Men's Cross Country Championship with their 5th consecutive win. MIT placed 6 of their runners in the top 10 to score 25 points to Coast Guard's 38. In a close battle for 3rd, Babson College outpointed Wheaton, WPI and Springfield 114 to 120 to 122 for both WPI and Springfield. Clark brought up the rear with 220 points.
With a plan to go out hard on the 5.1 mile, hilly course, Sean Nolan and Ben Schmeckpeper took the lead and set a hard pace on the slow course with a 4:52 first mile. As expected, the top Coast Guard runners followed, but were soon strung out as they were not all able to hold the pace. MIT's second group, starting out a little slower than expected, nevertheless set to their task of picking off the tiring runners. By the 2 mile mark, the plan showed signs of success as MIT's second group has indeed closed on Coast Guard's 3rd runner and had positioned 5 runners ahead of Coast Guard's 4th.
Up front, Sean Nolan and Ben Schmeckpeper led a determined Ian Bartonicek from Coast Guard over the many loops of the golf course. Just before the 3 mile mark, Schmeckpeper began to fall off the fast pace. For the next 1 1/2 miles Bartonicek was Nolan's shadow. Coming down the final hill, Nolan opened up a lead that expanded to 4 seconds at the finish line in 26:10.
Schmeckpeper held on for 3rd, :22 ahead of Dowthit of Coast Guard. Albert Liu showed he is determined to finish his career in style as he finished in 5th ahead of a Babson College runner (the only non MIT / Coast Guard runner in the top 11) he had never beaten. Freshman Eric Khatchadourian ran the race of the year with a beautifully paced race to finish 7th overall. Carlos Renjifo finished 9th, just behind the 3rd Coast Guard runner to close out MIT's top 5. Brian Anderson also finished in the top 10, just behind Renjifo.
MIT is still hoping to return #3 runner, freshman Steve Maltas to action in time for the NCAA Regional Qualifier on 11/16. In case Maltas does not make it back from his lower back injury, the supporting members of the MIT harriers seem to be determined to get the job done regardless. With 4 spots allotted for advancement to Nationals from the New England Region and with dominant teams like Keene State, Bowdoin and Williams almost assured of one of the four spots, teams like Bates, Tufts, Trinity, Connecticut College and MIT will see who wants it the most on race day.