MIT Wins Three of Four Races at UMass Dartmouth Invitational
Wentz Leads Way With 17:40
September 19, 2009
MIT took advantage of the best race day weather so far this season, winning three of four races at the UMass Dartmouth Invitational. The 65-70 degree sunny day with strong winds made for excellent racing on the flat course.
Individual victories highlighted each of the team victories. Marie Burkland '13, started things off with a 19:03 PR, leading the sub-varsity ladies to a perfect 15 point score among the 21 complete teams. Next, Jacqui Wentz '10, raced to a 17:40 PR to lead the varsity to a 60 point victory over 41 other teams. In the final race of the day, Dawit Zewdie '13, ran a two minute PR, racing to a 25:40 to win the sub-varsity 8K race and lead the team to victory with 41 points to beat out 17 other teams.
In the women's sub-varsity race, Alex Westbrook '13, took the pace out a little too hard in 6:01 at the mile mark, but Burkland along with Alicia Kaestli '12, and Lauren Allen '13 were right behind her. By the two mile mark, Burkland had taken a commanding lead at 12:15 and the MIT women were uncharacteristically spread out but claiming the top five places. During the third mile, Burkland continued to pull away as she put in another 6:13 effort. Kaestli, who had fallen off the pace in the second mile, caught back up to Westbrook and passed her at the finish. A runner from Brandeis, which did not field a complete team, moved past both of them with a vicious final mile to claim second overall. Allen ran 19:30 to claim fifth and Lloyd moved up very well after a more practical first mile of 6:10 to finish in 19:31. Also running well and claiming eighth and ninth in the race respectively were Juliann Lajoie '13, Sarah Sprague '13. The domination by MIT certainly says a lot about the future for MIT.
The women's varsity race was next and they wasted little time establishing their position. Wentz went out strong in 5:39, about 10 meters off the leaders at the mile mark. The varsity ladies did not follow the plan at all, stringing themselves out right away due to a couple of them being stopped by a fallen runner right in front of them. With 301 runners in the field the quickly narrowing course made it difficult to advance, but the Tech runners raced very well despite being strung out. Maria Monks '10, ran her plan by hitting the mile in 5:45. Freshman, Brooke Johnson '13, suffering from an aching back, ignored the pain and went out in 5:49, causing the others in her group to play catchup. By the two mile mark, Wentz had taken the lead as she came through the mark in 11:25. Monks had moved up to fifth and Alina Gatowski '11, had moved up just behind Johnson. Wentz went on to win by 19 seconds with a 17:40 for the 5K, the fastest time ever for an MIT cross country runner for the 5K. Monks finished well but remained in fifth in 18:08. Gatowski passed Johnson in the final straight as they finished 10th and 11th respectively in 18:31 and 18:32. Chandler Burfield '13, had a great race after her initial delayed start, running 19:14 for 32nd place. Many MIT runners were missing from a bout of flu that hit the campus and a couple others were not ready to race due to early season training breaks. The depth and quality of the women's team makes this team one to be watched on the NCAA Division III front.
The men's varsity race was next. The men have a young and talented team but are being brought around slowly. They also were missing quite a few runners due to the flu, including top freshman, Kyle Hannon. Hemu Arumugam '10, led the way for MIT through the entire race, starting off with a 5:04 first mile. The rest of the varsity, Dan Harper '12, Jacob Young '13, Ben Mattocks '12, Bill Phipps '10, Paul Welle '11, and Gihan Amarasiriwardena '11, were just one to two seconds back running in a tight pack. By the two mile mark, Arumugam had distanced himself from his teammates, coming through in 10:14. Welle and Phipps were fairly close with the others about five seconds back. Arumugam then threw down a 5:07 on the slightly uphill third mile and a 4:44 coming down the same hill to move up into the top 10 runners. Harper Young, Mattocks and Phipps faded quite a bit in the third mile and were not able to capitalize as much on the downhill mile as they should have been able to. Finishing strong, Arumugam claimed seventh place in a personal best of 25:05. Harper, running his first race of the season, finished in 30th in 25:35. Young, Mattocks and Phipps were close behind, claiming 35th, 38th and 39th in 25:45, 25:47 and 25:48, all fine times for the 8K course. The varsity men claimed sixth place with 145 points, finishing behind three other division III teams and two division II teams.
In the final race, the Engineers showed their dominance right from the start. Andrew Erickson '12, coming off a bad cold, led Zewdie, Logan Trimble '13, Stephen Serene '12 and Richard Prevost '11, through a 5:09-5:11 first mile. By mile two Zewdie was among the front group of runners along with Trimble and Serene. Prevost and Erickson, feeling the effects of his illness, fell back by a few seconds but others were beginning to move up. Nothing changed significantly during the uphill third mile, but in the downhill fourth mile, Zewdie and one other runner had separated themselves from the pack with a 4:49 split. Along with Trimble and Serene making strong moves, Jack Bourbonnais '10, and Matt Weaver '12 were passing a lot of people. In the final mile, Zewdie opened up a nice four second lead to win in 25:40. Trimble finished in 26:12 for fifth place and Serene was right behind him in sixth place in 26:13. Bourbonnais continued to move up, placing 12th in 26:37. Weaver ran a nice PR of 26:50 to claim 17th place, just one place ahead of Prevost in 26:52. Freshmen Pat Marx and David Way, 400-800 runners in track, ran extremely well, placing 20th and 21st in 26:55 and 26:56 respectively.
Next week, MIT will again split their squad at the Codfish Bowl Invitational at Franklin Park. Hopefully, those suffering from the flu will be back and ready to race.
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