WOMEN WIN PRE-NATS DESPITE INJURIES AND ILLNESS

October 4, 2008

The MIT Women's Cross Country team took their undefeated record to Hanover College, the site of the pre-nationals for Division III and left the site with their undefeated record still intact. Minus their number four and five runners due to an IT band injury and a severe cold, the Engineers persevered over nationally ranked Bethel College and DePauw University by a mere two and 15 points respectively and the rest of the 16 team field.

On the hot and dry day with the sun blistering, the runners raced their first 6K of the season and were determined to win the race. Jacqui Wentz '10, led the way for Tech with an eighth place finish in 22:47. Following close behind were a trio of MIT runners, Anna Holt-Gosselin '11 in 13th in 23:05, Andrea Bradshaw '09, in 14th in 23:08 and Janice O'Brien '12, in 15th in 23:10. The fifth runner was freshman Tania Morimoto in 29th in 23:58. O'Brien and Morimoto were the second and third best freshmen in the entire field of 172 runners.

Wentz and Holt-Gosselin pushed the pace from the beginning, coming through the first mile in 5:53. At the second mile, which Wentz and Holt-Gosselin came through in 11:59, O'Brien moved up to the duo with a great second mile to come through in 12:06. Fellow freshman, Alicia Kaestli also ran a great second mile, coming through in 12:12. Bradshaw and Morimoto were close behind in 12:18 and 12:23 respectively. The third mile took its toll on Kaestli and Morimoto, who fell back, but was great for Bradshaw, who moved up to fourth on the team. A strong finish by Wentz and Bradshaw was the difference in the race for first place. Katy Gordon, Tech's seventh runner two weeks ago while at full strength, battled injured calves for much of the race before having to back off in the final 800 meters. Adrienne Bolger, MIT's second runner two weeks ago, went out much too fast in the first 400 meters and paid dearly on the long course on such a hot day.

The women who had a good race were able to run between six to nine seconds per mile slower than their best 5K time on a flat course. Others allowed the heat, fast pace and extra distance get to them mentally. Despite some not having a good race and others being out, the Engineers found a way to win.

On the men's side of the ledger, the desire to win the race was overcome by the need to survive for most on the team, ending in a disappointing sixth place finish with 180 points in the 20 team field. Those who ran within a minute of their performance from the very flat UMass Dartmouth course competed reasonably well, but many on the team were near or over 1:30 slower than two weeks ago, a clear indication that they may have run hard, but never competed for the win. The lack of aggressiveness took them out of the race at the beginning.

Hemu Arumugam '10, led the Engineers with a 12th place finish in 26:08. Arumugam started way back but had a mere :12 deviation between his fastest and slowest mile that moved him through the field. Jake Ruzevick '09, ran his first race of the year and competed well as he dusted off the competitive cobwebs. Ruzevick put himself in good position in the first and second mile, but grew cautious in the third and fourth mile before finishing strong to place 15th in 26:10. Freshman Dan Harper was the third freshman finisher in the race at 26:42 in 38th place, but also lost a lot in the third and fourth miles. Yermie Cohen '09, competed very well in the first two miles, then backed off a little and got a side stitch, which caused him to lose a lot of ground. Grad. student, Chris Wong, ran his best race of the season as he came through as MIT's fifth man in 59th place in 27:01. Paul Welle '11, and Gihan Amarasiriwardena '11, let a series of negative thoughts prevent them from being aggressive at the early parts of the race and were unable to find it later as both suffered poor races.

At this point, a very talented men's team needs to find their focus if they hope to reach their goal of defending their conference title in four weeks over a favored Coast Guard Academy and having a chance at making the NCAA Championship out of a very competitive region in six weeks. The women need to focus on continuing to get better as there is plenty of improvement to be had by the country's 10th ranked team. Next week, both teams get the opportunity to improve when they race in the All Division New England Championship at Franklin Park.