2007 Alumni/ae Meet
@ Franklin Park
September 1, 2007
The varsity women and men ran away from their former teammates and older alums in the annual Alumni/ae meet held at Franklin Park to claim victories for both programs. The women lined up first on this beautiful, sunny day. The varsity women won the meet 17 to 23 scoring four runners. The varsity men won in a sweep 15 to 49, but if scored using age-graded tables the meet was bit closer with the varsity pulling it out 27 to 32.
Holding out a number of their runners the varsity ran a patient and conservative race to gradually put themselves in command halfway through the race. The alumnae were represented by only four runners but those four ran very well. Betsy Eames claimed first place honors with a 19:56 performance. Martha Buckley held on for third place in 20:21, almost running down freshman Katy Gordon, who ran 20:17, for second. Margaret Nervegna and Jen Gaugler, deciding to race at the last minute, made a valliant effort early in the race but were unable to hold onto their positions. The varsity was able to pack in their runners fourth through eighth to secure the victory. Finishing fourth was another freshman, Anna Holt-Gosselin in 20:46. Liz Labuz completed the race in fifth overall in 20:55. Adrienne Bolger, Kirsten Aarsvold and Jennifer Doyle finished up the varsity team, running 21:10, 21:11 and 21:24 respectively.
The men's race had many more competitors (39) with the alumni being represented by 14 "Has-Beens". With Jake Ruzevick and Yermie Cohen taking the day off from racing, Joe Roy-Mayhew took control of the race right from the gun, coming through the first mile alone in 5:04. Eric Khatchadourian, Ethan Crain and Terry McNatt made the most of it for the alumni in the first mile by giving chase and putting themselves in a position to control the race. However, the perseverance and even pacing of the varsity was too much for the old-timers as they were caught one by one. Trevor Rundell ran an outstanding race to finish in second place to Roy-Mayhew 26:39 to 26:20. Following Rundell were Brian Jacokes in 26:44, Chris Bruce in 26:47 and Tyler Abrams in 26:52 to finish up the sweep with a :32 delta. Top freshman honors went to Gihan Amarasiriwardena in 26:57. The varsity showed their depth with nine more runners under 28:00.
In age-graded scoring Sumner Brown, class of 1966, earned first place honors, earning a 25:24 conversion from his 32:26 performance. Bob Collins '82 also received a big bonus from the scoring tables, moving from 29:09 to 26:06 to earn third place overall. Terry McNatt '87 moved up to 5th place overall with 26:20 conversion from 28:18. Eric Khatchadourian '07 received no bonus at 27:00. Finishing up the scoring for the alums was Ethan Crain '95 who ran 27:37, converting to 27:09.
Other alumni competing were:
Eugene Tung
Bob Zak
Ian Driver
Fivos Constantinou
John Brewer
Sean Montgomery
Kevin DiGenova
Yuval Mazor
Jeff Lucas
Josh Feldman and David Moyle had every intention of racing but both faced unbelievable traffic on the way to Boston, both arriving late for the start.
Next week, both the men and women travel to Smith College to run in the Smith College Invitational. The Engineer's Cup, involving MIT, RPI and WPI, will be scored out of the Invitational. Both teams will need to step up their effort. The women in particular need to close down their top five delta, which in this past race was :54 without the top two runners.