Men and Women Dominate Alumni Meet

 

September 2, 2016

Although a few individuals came into the pre-season with injuries sustained over the summer, the Engineers appear deep enough to weather the storm.  The men's and women's Alumni -Varsity races were 5K's (actually 3.2) held at historic Franklin Park on a sunny mid-70 degree day. The Engineers swept both races, winning by a score of 15 to 50 over the alumni in each race.

The nationally 7th ranked women raced first.  Megan McCandless '20 and Jenna Melanson '20 wasted no time taking control of the pace.  Although a little too fast, the freshman duo had a comfortable lead at the mile mark as they came through in 5:37.  Leandra Zimmermann '19 and Mary Eccles '18 working together were :14 back in third and fourth.  The alums, either out of race shape, or recovering from recent longer races, were more towards the back of the pack.

McCandless opened up a :22 second lead on Melanson in the second mile as she attacked the major hill on the course to maintain her race effort.  Zimmermann and Eccles were now :12 behind Melanson, and Katie Bacher '20, Jenny Xu '19, Marissa McPhillips '20 and Bailee Margolis '19 were another :15 back with no alums in front of them.

In the final 1.2 miles, McCandless continued to widen the gap, eventually winning in 18:10 with a :50 lead.  Melanson outkicked Zimmermann and Eccles as they ran 19:00, 19:00 and 19:06 respectively.  Bacher closed out the scoring with a 19:12.  Xu was also timed in 19:12 and McPhillips was 19:18.

Alina Gatowski '11 led the Alumnae with a 20:01 performance in 9th place.  Louise van den Heuvel '14 finished in 11th place in 20:05, just ahead of Nicole Zeinstra '16, also timed in 20:05.  Brooke Johnson '13 placed 16th in 20:37 and Alexandra Taylor '14 placed 19th in 21:57 to close out the scoring.  Maggie Lloyd '12 and Stephanie Marzen '15 were the final alumnae competitors in 22:16 and 22:38 respectively.

The nationally 7th ranked men raced second.  Similar to the women, the alums took a cautious approach to the race.  Dennis Maloney '19 wasted no time getting out front.  At the mile mark, Matt Deyo 'G joined him at 4:44.  Josh Derrick '20 and Ben Freed '18 were very close at 4:46 with Daniel Weiss '19 one second back. 

At the end of the second mile, Maloney had separated himself from the pack at 9:58, a four second lead over Deyo, Derrick and Freed.  Weiss fell back to 10:10 as Steven Goldy '20 moved past him at 10:07.  Tech had seven more runners between 10:12 and 10:22, showing their depth.

Maloney allegedly made a wrong turn somewhere allowing the gap to close in the final mile.  Nevertheless he maintained his lead to the end, winning in 15:45.  Deyo did his best to close, finishing in second at 15:47.  Derrick was third in 15:49 and Freed fourth at 15:54.  Goldy was unable to close the gap over the last mile, but did not lose much either, finishing fifth in 16:01.  A 12 second gap separated Goldy from the sixth man, Alex Knoedler '18. David Walter '18 was seventh at 16:16 and Colin Godwin '17 was eighth at 16:18.  Freshman Nate Foss '20 was one second back.

The alums top finisher was Benji Xie '15, who finished 17th overall in 16:52.  Roy Wedge '14 was 19th at 17:41, while Matt Jordan '15 was 20th in 17:48.  The remaining alums were Logan Trimble '13 in 18:11, Eric Khatchadourian '06 in 18:37, Joe Roy-Mayhew '08 in 19:26 and Bob Collins '82 in 21:03.

MIT will not be back in action until September 24 when they race in the Purple Valley Classic at Williams College where many nationally ranked teams will do battle over the hilly 6K and 8K courses.

 

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