FEW RUNNERS, GREAT RESULTS

Gatowski, Arumugam Have Outstanding Races

September 26, 2009

MIT went across town to Franklin Park to race in the Codfish Bowl with only a handful of individuals, using only two of the top seven for the men and women respectively. The 65 degree temperatures were conducive to some outstanding performances and the Engineers took advantage. Despite the lack of their top runners, MIT showed their depth, placing third in the women's race with only five runners, scoring 129 points and fourth in the men's race with 96 points.

The women raced first. An aggressive pace was set by the ladies from Division I power, Stony Brook University, with the leaders going out in 5:18 for the first mile. Trailing pretty far behind, but nevertheless extremely fast for her, Alina Gatowski '11, flew through in 5:41, looking strong. The other four runners for MIT, Katherine Eve '12, Missy Showers '13, Alicia Kaestli '12, and Janice O'Brien '12, came through in 6:00 with O'Brien appearing not quite ready for her first race of the season.

The leaders slowed significantly, running over 6:00 for the second mile while Gatowski passed a lot of runners, splitting 11:48. Eve, Showers and Kaestli worked well together but lost another 20 seconds to Gatowski. O'Brien, having stomach problems, was losing ground fast.

In the final part of the race, Gatowski continued to pass people, placing seventh in a huge Franklin Park personal best of 18:30. Eve finished very strong, also moving up a lot to 16th place while Showers was right behind in her MIT debut with a 19:26 for 18th place. Kaestli finished in 25th place, losing a lot in the final mile. O'Brien continued to fade, racing nothing like she would if not sick, placing 71st.

The men ran a more sensibly paced race but not by much. Hemu Arumugam '10, and Dawit Zewdie '13, paced Tech with a 5:00 first mile. Richard Prevost '11, and Dmitrij Petters '13, followed in 5:05 while Stephen Serene '12, and Matt Weaver '12, ran a conservative 5:10. Adam Delton '13, John LaColla '12, and Logan Daum '11, brought up the rear for the Engineers in 5:16.

Arumugam raced an excellent race, moving up tremendously throughout the last four miles. By mile two he was in the top 15, splitting 10:15. Zewdie, fresh off his 25:41 race at UMass Dartmouth, tried to stay with Arumugam and succeeded through the second mile. Serene moved up well, closing to within two seconds of Petters and Prevost at 10:38.

Arumugam broke Zewdie in the third mile and Serene moved past Petters and Prevost but all were running well. Arumugam continued to move up and speed up, splitting 5:13, 5:11 and 4:48 in the final three miles. Likewise Zewdie finished with a 4:57 and Serene a 4:56 to move up to finish 14th and 23rd respectively. Petters finished in 33rd with a 5:08 last mile while Prevost closed strong with a 4:53 after lackluster third and fourth miles. Delton came back very well after backing off way too much in the second mile, running 16:00 over the final three miles.

Next week, MIT heads north to Keene State College in Keene, NH where they will participate in a small invitational. The goal for this week is to just get everyone back from the colds and flu half the team has been suffering.

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