HARRIERS REDEEM THEMSELVES WITH GOOD RACE AT ALBANY INVITATIONAL
October 15, 2005
The course was altered due to construction, adding approximately two miles of pavement and concrete to the course. A week of rain had what was not concrete, muddy or underwater. Wearing spikes would hurt you on the hard surfaces but wearing flats assured little to no traction in the mud and water. MIT made the decision to go with no spikes, raced much better than they did a week ago, and the results showed it. Without top man Fivos Constantinou, the Tech varsity secured seventh place in the 27 team field at the University of Albany Invitational with superb races from Eric Khatchadourian (11th), Jake Ruzevick (17th) and Kevin Brulois (20th), all running personal bests on the challenging course. If Constantinou had been racing MIT would have challenged for second place in the predominantly Division I field.
Many MIT runners performed well, but the Engineers are still in need of a fifth man. Trevor Rundell, who returned from injury to race well last week, was not able to handle the fast early pace and fell back after two miles. The top four runners are capable of running within seconds of each other and if Rundell races well the total delta for the top five can be within 45 seconds. Erik Stafl has been making a move to join the top five but is still over a minute back.
In the Sub-varsity race MIT placed sixth out of 13 teams. In this race MIT did not have any front runners, being led by Joe Roy-Mayhew in 23rd place at 27:01, but the delta for the top seven was 47 seconds.
MIT takes next weekend off from racing in preparation for the NEWMAC Conference Championship on the Smith College course. MIT has never lost the championship. Even though this is a rebuilding year and MIT's weakest in some time, the Engineers still hope to continue their streak. Their closest competitor, Coast Guard, always races well in the championship and surely has their sights on dethroning MIT.