MIT RETAINS POSSESSION OF ENGINEER'S CUP

September 13, 2008

Racing most of the half of the team who did not race last week, MIT was still able to dominate the Engineer's Cup with convincing wins over RPI and WPI in both the men's and women's races. With 80 degree temperatures and humid conditions, the lady Engineers nearly ran the table, missing a perfect score by one place, scoring 16 points to 51 for RPI and 72 for WPI. On the men's side of the competition the results were not quite as convincing as Tech has still not raced their top three runners, but nevertheless score 22 points to 45 for RPI and 71 for WPI.

The women from MIT ran a conservative first mile, coming through in 6:10 with Jacqui Wentz '10, Andrea Bradshaw '09 and Jennifer Doyle '09 following a pair of RPI harriers and in the middle of a couple more. Following close behind the some more RPI runners, MIT's second pack of Elizabeth Finn '09, Katy Gordon '11 and Alicia Kaestli '12 came through in 6:15. By mile two Wentz had pulled away from everyone as Bradshaw and Doyle were unwilling to hold the pace. The previous leader from RPI, Erin Kyle, was still in second but MIT had solidified the next five places. By the end, Bradshaw (19:48), Finn (19:56) and Doyle (19:58) had moved past Kyle to earn a 1-4 finish led by Wentz in 19: 21 with Gordon (20:13) in sixth and Kaestli (20:23) in seventh. Four runners under 20:00 for the 5K this early in the season and in such conditions bodes well for the Engineers.

The men went out much slower than planned, running 15 seconds off of WPI's Kevin Jillson's 5:03 opening mile and behind a pack of five RPI runners. At the end of the second mile, Jillson still maintained a 15 second lead, but now only two RPI runners were ahead of six MIT runners, led by a pack of Hemagiri Arumugam '10, Gihan Amarasiriwardena '11, Paul Welle '11 and Bill Phipps '10. Jillson fell off the pace during the third mile and Arumugam picked it up considerably, joining Jillson and Chris Donais from RPI in 16:10 at the three mile mark. While MIT owned the next three places, RPI had four runners within MIT's top eight with another three from RPI within striking distance. However, a strong fourth mile saw Arumugam open up a 10 second lead over Donais and Jillson with MIT claiming the next three positions and four of the next six positions. Arumugam won by 13 seconds with a time of 26:33. Amarasiriwardena (27:06), Welle (27:09), Phipps (27:12) and Kleinguetl '11 (27:17) claimed fourth through seventh to ice the victory.

Next week, MIT travel to UMass Dartmouth for their first invitational of the season. It will be nice to see how well the Engineers handle the quality and depth of such a large field. The men' sub varsity race begins at 10:30, followed by the men's varsity at 11:15, women's varsity at 12:00 and women's sub varsity at 12:45.