MIT ENGINEERS SWEEP OVER RPI AND WPI
September 13, 2003
Once Ben Schmeckpeper left the starting line he never saw another runner until he turned around after going through the finish chute 25:34 later. Likewise, teammates John Brewer, Kevin Brulois, Eric Khatchadourian and Brian Anderson ran together and never saw an opponent after the start of the race. The top five had a perfect score of 15 points to RPI's 48 and WPI's 84.
Tech placed eight of the first nine runners and 11 of the first 14 to totally dominate the meet. Despite going out a little too fast for their plan, but not necessarily their abilities, the engineers ran an outstanding final two miles to finish with many season and personal bests.
MIT ran well, but the overwhelming victory was due more to the fact that RPI and WPI had graduated many of its top runners and were simply not very strong. Next week, when the Tech harriers travel to the UMass Dartmouth Invitational, they will most definitely face much stiffer competition against nationally ranked Tufts University and Keene State College.
Many MIT runners posted personal bests in the mild, but muggy conditions. Brewer's 26:28 for second place was a :27 PR despite blisters received during the race. Freshman, Kevin Brulois, improved :31 to place third. Grad. student, Chris Fidkowski, had the race of the day as he ran a personal best of 27:30, 1:20 faster than his xc debut last week. Kevin DiGenova improved by :12 to place 7th on the team and 8th overall. Sam Berberian only improved :09 but ran a much better race. 800 runner, Steve Stoddard, showed he might have a future in cross country as he improved :34 to run 29:07. Jesus Alvarez ran a great race, improving by :15 in running 29:30.
MIT knows that in order to be considered a serious contender for a national birth, they need to get their delta for men one through five down to under one minute. While it is currently 1:25 it will likely get much worse as Schmeckpeper faces competition if others on the team do not improve an equal amount.