WOMEN PLACE 10TH AT NCAA DIVISION III CHAMPIONSHIP
November 22, 2008
The Lady Harriers, at the "big show", the NCAA Division III Cross Country Championship, for the first time, did not have stage fright. Indeed, they followed up last week's third place regional outing with an encore of placing 10th on the national stage with 354 points. Junior, Jacqui Wentz led the way as she has done all season, with a blistering personal best of 22:04 on the 6K course, averaging 5:55 per mile to place 54th overall.
Instructed to get out fast to move into the top third of the 280 competitor / 32 team race and fight for every position, the team did just that. The top five were all out in the top 115 runners at the mile mark with splits ranging from 5:42 for Wentz to 5:51 for Anna Holt-Gosselin '11. By mile two, Wentz had solidified her position in the top 60 while Holt-Gosselin moved hard into second place for the team with a 5:57 second mile split. Jennifer Doyle '09, slowed down after a terrific first mile to move back to fifth on the team. Andrea Bradshaw '09, and Janice O'Brien '12, were only four and six seconds behind Holt-Gosselin, giving MIT a strong five just past the half-way point in the race. Katherine Eve '12 and Maria Monks '10, who was suffering from a lower leg injury, were having a difficult time moving up but were giving it all they had.
In the last half of the race, Doyle again made her patented charge to the front. Even though everyone was slowing down, she was slowing down at a lesser rate, moving her past O'Brien and Bradshaw in the final three quarters of a mile to finish in a personal best of 22:35, the same time as Holt-Gosselin but two places behind her in 113 overall. Bradshaw was right behind in 120th in a PR of her own in 22:37. O'Brien faded a bit but also finished in a personal best of 22:53, earning her 150th position and closing out the scoring for MIT. After subtracting the individuals not on teams in the race gave MIT the score of 354, just three points out of ninth and a measly 44 points out of 5th, which would have put them on the awards stand.
Given that the women had never before been to the national championship as a team, they performed brilliantly. A strong core of returning runners with national experience, combined with what appears to be a very exceptional recruiting class, could make the Engineers a regular at this prestigious event.