"HAS BEENS" SPANK THE VARSITY IN THE ANNUAL ALUMNI MEET

September 6, 2008

It was an extremely muggy, hot day for the beginning of the annual Alumni/ae Meet. By the time the horn sounded for the start of the women's race it had begun to rain as New England felt the lingering effects of Gustav. When the men toed the starting line the rain had begun to come down hard, the course was a bit muddy and the wind was turning umbrellas inside out as well as slowing the runners down.

Despite the best efforts of Erika Erickson '08, Hana Adaniya '07 and Alisha Schor '07, the alumnae did not have any other entrants in the race, thus were unable to score as a team. The varsity showed their talent and depth as only half of the team raced and still managed to sweep the top five places with a :13 delta. Sophomore Anna Holt-Gosselin led from start to finish, running a :34 PR on the Franklin Park course. Falling behind by 15 seconds at the three mile mark, Adrienne Bolger '09, made a dash for the finish over the final tenth of a mile, closing to within :04 to finish in 20:16. Following close behind were three freshmen, Janice O'Brien 20:22, Tania Morimoto 20:23 and Katherine Eve 20:25, with Morimoto and Eve both showing strong kicks to the finish line.

In the men's race, the "has-beens" brought together a formidable team. The varsity squad, showcasing many of the freshmen and trusting the skills of seniors Yermie Cohen and Chris Wong to lead the way, was severely over matched as the alumni won by a decisive score of 20-35. Fivos Constantinou '06, Eric Khatchadourian '06, and Ben Schmeckpeper '05, remembered their group running tactics, taking the lead at the start and controlled the pace of the race from start to finish. Constantinou pulled away during the third mile and never looked back, finishing in 26:58. Schmeckpeper, suffering a bad blister, had to back off but still managed a fifth place in 27:49. Khatchadourian held on well to give the alums a 1-2 finish in 27:26. Pulling up at the end, Joe Roy-Mayhew '08, passed Schmeckpeper at the finish in 27:48. Finishing the scoring for the alumni was Craig Wildman '03, in eighth place in 28:04.

Freshman, Dan Harper was the only member of the varsity squad who seemed interested in trying to stop the alumni from running away with the meet. Harper valiantly tried to hold on, but saved too much during the third and fourth miles. He was able to drop a 4:59 final mile but was unable to make up enough ground to move up higher than his third place in 27:33. The varsity finished their scoring with Jack Bourbonnais '10, (27:53), in sixth, Michael Puncel '12, (28:04) in seventh, John LaColla '12, (28:16) in ninth and co-captain, Chris Wong '08, (28:23) placing 10th.

Other alumni participating in the race, in order of finish, were Brian Jacokes '08, (28:37), Bob Collins '82, (29:12), Todd Rosenfield '01, (29:46), Josh Feldman '97, (29:48), Rocco Repetski '08, (30:15), Peter Mulligan '08, (31:32), Kevin DiGenova '07, (31:35), Mike Lyons '85, (34:56) and Don Shobrys '75, (34:56).

Coach Taylor's comments regarding his team's efforts focused on the women learning how to run in groups, and for the men to just be competitive. Next week, MIT is at home against RPI and WPI in the annual Engineer's Cup at 1:00.