Hannon and Showers Lead the Way For MIT

MIT Runs Hard, but Fails to Compete

October 3, 2009

The rain held off, the course was flat and the temperatures mild, but MIT left their competitive instincts at home, failing to defeat any of the teams ranked ahead of them in the New England rankings, and in fact, losing to two on the women's side in the 15th annual Keene State Invitational. The women, led by Missy Showers '13, finished third out of 12 teams with 90 points, falling to a very talented Amherst College team with 25 points and host Keene State with 85. The men, led by Kyle Hannon '13, finished fifth out of 11 teams with 114 points, far behind host Keene State with 44, Dartmouth College with 65, Amherst with 69 and Southern Maine with 70.

MIT did not run their top five women, but still had the expectation to challenge for the victory. However, the Engineers, all freshmen and sophomores, did not get out well, finding themselves far behind the front runners. With plenty of time after everyone settled in, the lady Engineers still did not move. Only Tania Morimoto '11, challenged the front runners with a 5:55 first mile on the wet course. The rest of the MIT pack were back at 6:20, virtually giving up any chance of victory. Showers, Marie Burkland '13, Chandler Burfield '13, Lauren Allen '13, and Maggie Lloyd '12, moved up through the waves of runners in the second and third miles but were unable to catch Keene State, who were missing one of their top runners and had another top runner twist an ankle and drop out during the race. Showers ended up catching a fading Morimoto in the final half mile, finishing in 13 place in 19:34. Morimoto struggled to the line in 19:44, losing nine seconds in just the final tenth of a mile. Burkland finished in 21st in 19:50 and was followed by Burfield and Allen in 22nd and 23rd place respectively, both timed in 19:54.

You would think the men would learn from watching the women make the mistake of getting out too cautiously, but they turned around and made the exact same mistake. Only holding out two of their top five, MIT was expecting to give Keene State a run for the title. At least that was Coach Halston Taylor's expectation, if not the teams.

Even though MIT was pretty far behind the leaders, they were still within striking distance at 5:08 for the top four and had four more miles to get it done. However, instead of moving up on the leaders, MIT slowed to 5:22 pace and only Hannon broke 5:20 for any of the final four miles. It just appeared they were spectators that were comfortable with their seat and did not want to move.

Hannon, out for nearly three weeks with a severe cold or flu, showed his spirit by trying to move up and succeeding at catching many of his competitors, finishing in 13th place with a 26:29. Dan Harper '12, completed the five miles in 26:49 in 22nd place. Bill Phipps '10, finished in 24th with a time of 26:55. Jacob Young '13, nursing a lower leg soreness placed 27th in 27:09 and Gihan Amarasiriwardena was 33rd in 27:15.

Next week, MIT hopes to rebound and show what they are made of in the All New England Championships at Franklin Park with the first race at noon.

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