Tech Runners Experience Mixed Results at Plansky Invitational

October 14, 2006

The MIT men's and women's cross country teams traveled to Williams College to run in the Plansky Invitational, hosted on the nearby Mt. Greylock High School course.  The race distances were intentionally short; 4K for the women and 6K for the men.  As teams approach the end of the season, an opportunity to get out of the rut of running the same distances week after week and race a slightly faster pace is an attractive one.

With just having run a major race the week before and with the conference championship two weeks away, the team welcomed the shorter distance and the opportunity to run against powerhouses, Williams and Tufts on the women's side and Williams on the men's side.  Both men's and women's teams finished third and for different reasons look forward to the conference championship in two weeks at Mt. Holyoke College.

The women had a choice of running a 5K or 4K race.  Williams and Tufts split up their teams but running more of their better runners in the 4K. MIT, running without their freshmen, number one and two runners, Maria Monks and Jacqui Wentz.  The remaining varsity runners accepted the challenge of taking up the slack and performed very well.  Elizabeth Finn, still getting in top form after a very low mileage summer, hung behind MIT lead runners, Jennifer Doyle and Hana Adaniya until the end when she out sprinted both to the finish line to finish seventh with a fine time of 15:15.  Doyle was right behind at 15:15. Adaniya, bothered by stomach problems, was unable to finish as strong, running 15:22, but finishing ninth.  Rachel Niehuus continued to race well, finishing tenth in 15:23. Alisha Schor closed out the scoring with a 19th place finish in 15:48.

At the conference championship MIT intends on being at full strength and will need to do so to upset last year's champion, Wellesley College.  Also looking very good are last year's second place team, Wheaton College as well as much improved Coast Guard Academy.

The men had only one choice, the 6K race.  Finishing only four points behind Williams last week in the New England Championships, it was logical to think the Engineers could run with the Ephs.  Williams College, last week running without Stephen Wills, was at full strength and had a message to deliver.  MIT runners, with the exception of star sophomore, Jake Ruzevick, never seemed in contention.  Ruzevick suffered a quadriceps strain halfway through the race and just tried to hang on without further damage.  The rest of the varsity runners never challenged the Williams leaders, letting them go at the start.  The message sent by Williams was received loud and clear, they are still the team to go through if you want to win the New England Division III Championship in four weeks.

For the immediate future, MIT will attempt to remain the only team to ever win the NEWMAC, going for their ninth consecutive title.  The perennial challenger to the crown remains the Coast Guard Academy.  Tech knows it must compete much better in two weeks if they hope to keep the upset minded Coast Guard team at bay.

RETURN TO CROSS COUNTRY