WOMEN PLACE 3RD IN REGION TO ADVANCE TO NCAA CHAMPIONSHIP
November 15, 2008
The NCAA Division III New England Regional course was already difficult at the hilly Mt. Greylock course, hosted by Williams College, but add rain on an already soaked course and high winds and you have a really challenging course. The women's team from MIT ran a strong race, battling the 330 runners from 49 teams for a third place finish with 161 points and a trip to the NCAA Division III Championship next weekend at Hanover, Indiana. The women placed three among the top 35 to earn all region honors; Jacqui Wentz in 19th, Andrea Bradshaw in 20th and Maria Monks in 29th. The men's team did not fare so well. Seeded fifth going into the race, the men did not follow the plan and had difficulty putting themselves into a position to race for one of the top team positions and a possible trip to Indiana. They finished a disappointing eighth place with only Yermie Cohen earning all region honors.
Wentz went out well in the first mile, in the back of the lead pack in 14th place, far removed from the first two runners, who came through the mile 18 seconds in front of the lead pack. Bradshaw and Anna Holt-Gosselin were about 10 seconds behind Wentz in 36th and 38th place respectively. Monks was back in 52nd place with Jennifer Doyle starting slowly in 64th place. By the two mile mark Wentz had faded back to 20th place, with two Amherst runners, including Elise Tropiano, the individual leader and eventual winner, two Colby and two Tufts runners ahead of her. Bradshaw and Monks were together at 25th and 26th position with one more Colby runner in front of them and another Tufts and Amherst runner behind them. Holt Gosselin and Janice O'Brien were in 44th and 45th places respectively, giving MIT a pretty solid group. However, two more Colby and Amherst runners were close behind and Doyle was in 64th place still and not looking very strong. At the three mile mark Wentz was still in 20th, and while she looked strong, she did not seem to have the attitude that she belonged among the elite and go catch either the two Colby or two Tufts runners. Bradshaw had moved up to 22nd, just passing the third Colby runner and second Amherst runner. Monks had fallen back to 35th, possibly losing a little focus in the third mile. Doyle finally began to move, passing runners to get into 51st place as Holt-Gosselin was fading, finding herself back in 57th position. In the final 3/4 of a mile, to assist Wentz, Bradshaw and Monks, Doyle moved up to 37th place while Holt-Gosselin "slowed the bleeding", willing herself to 56th place to give MIT a nine point lead over Colby, 13 over Amherst and 36 ahead of Tufts.
The men were supposed to follow Williams College out from the start, and while they were following, with the exception of Jake Ruzevick in 10th place, they were 11 second off of the lead Williams trio and four seconds behind the sixth and seventh runners from Williams, back in 55th to 65th place. By mile two, Ruzevick had fallen back to 31st place, but Trevor Rundell moved up to 38th place and Hemu Arumugam and Yermie Cohen had moved to 42nd and 43rd places respectively. Gihan Amarasiriwardena was in 50th place but MIT was well behind team wise with Williams having six runners ahead of Ruzevick, Amherst putting five in front of Arumugam and Trinity with four in the top 20 and Brandeis closing in. There was still time to get the job done but a net forward movement through the pack did not continue. After four miles, Cohen had moved up to 32nd place and Arumugam to 34th but Rundell and Ruzevick had fallen back to 44th and 46th place respectively. Amarasiriwardena was now in 57th place while Williams, Amherst and Trinity were holding to their positions and Brandeis and Bowdoin Colleges were continuing to move up. These trends continued with Cohen finishing in 29th place while Arumugam placed 46th and Ruzevick holding onto 49th place. Amarasiriwardena moved up to 51st place and Richard Prevost moved up well to claim 52nd place to give MIT a total of 227 points.
This will be the lady Engineer's first trip to nationals as a team and they hope to place among the first half of the 32 teams fighting it out for the NCAA title.