WOMEN HARRIERS RACE TO FOURTH PLACE FINISH AT NATIONAL PREVIEW
September 22, 2006
The weather did everything possible to make what should have been a very fast course, a very average one at the National Preview Championship hosted by Wilmington College at Voice of America Park in Mason, Ohio. The two inches of rain that fell the night before and morning of the championship combined with the winds caused many runners to struggle and run perhaps a minute slower than they would have on a packed, dry course.
A group that did not seem to be too affected were the MIT women. Placing fourth among 15 teams, five of which were ranked nationally, the women harriers took down #19 Allegheny and #22 Wheaton (IL) while losing to #1 Geneseo, #2 Washington University of St. Louis and narrowly to #33 Depauw.
Leading the way for the Engineers was freshman Maria Monks. Monks went with the lead pack at the beginning, following the two lead Geneseo runners, Elizabeth Montgomery and Shannon Griggs. At the two mile mark of the 6K course, Monks had begun to pull away from the chase group, eventually leading them to the finish line by five seconds for third place in 22:10.
Despite having a cold that kept her unsure as to whether she would be able to run or not until she had warmed up, fellow freshman Jacqui Wentz moved up through the pack after mile one to eventually garner 19th place with a remarkable race.
MIT's pack consisting of Elizabeth Finn, Jennifer Doyle and Hana Adaniya placed 27th, 29th and 30th in the 181 runner field, moved up well throughout the last two and three quarter miles, finishing only seven seconds apart. Close behind was Rachel Niehuus (37th) and Alisha Schor (60th).
Running at this level is a first for MIT women's cross country and the team hopes it is only a hint of things to come.
The men's contingent did not have quite as good a result. Getting out in the back of the pack and unable to move up on the soft, wet course, the Engineers finished 11th out of 16 teams for their worst outing of the young season. Despite number two man, Kevin Brulois not racing due to academic conflicts, the harriers expected to do much better.
Jake Ruzevick led MIT with a 37th place finish in 26:33 on the 8K course. Although Tech had a tight delta of 33 seconds through four runners, the next man was 22 places back. Joe Roy-Mayhew ran second for MIT for the first time with a 26:52 for 51st place. Close behind was Trevor Rundell in 57th, running 26:58. Freshman Johannes Schneider ran a solid race, finishing 69th in 27:06. Freshman Jack Bourbonnais rounded out MIT's scoring with a 27:29 in 91st place.
The men need to run with more hunger and greater passion if they hope to reach their potential this season.
Both teams travel to the Mt. Holyoke Invitational next Saturday with the men running at 11:00 and the women at 12:00. Those racing at Pre-nationals will be taking the weekend off at Mt. Holyoke giving the second units the opportunity to win the race.