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Alumni and Varsity Split Victories in Virtual Meet
November 14, 2020
10 months into the coronavirus, and eight months since any of our teams have had actual in-person, team competition, the MIT Cross Country men's and women's teams had a virtual battle with their alumni, affectionately known as the "Has Beens".
The race distance was 5K and could be run anywhere as long as the finish was not at a lower elevation than the start. To encourage alumni participation, age-grading adjustments were made through http://www.mastersathletics.net/index.php?id=2595. The event saw 23 women and 22 men participate for the alumni. The most ever for the alumni cross country event. This may become a permanent part of the Cross Country Alumni Meet, even when back in-person.
Prior to the season starting, a few of the incoming freshmen took a gap year (three men, one woman) and a number of the upper-classmen took a leave of absence (three men, one woman). In addition, some simply sat out the season as they did not want to go through rigorous virtual training without actual competition (three men, three women). With the numbers down they went through a season of building mileage individually, not doing workouts until peak mileage had been reached, and waited three more weeks before adding a second workout per week, which some have still not achieved. The idea was to be cautious, and allow each person to be ready when everything was in place for them.
With seniors being the only ones allowed to live on campus, no one healthy and participating on the team was living on campus, which means no one had access to MIT facilities, including our athletic trainers. Even though two thirds of our team were living in Cambridge, they were not permitted in-person coaching, either on campus or off campus, for reasons of following protocol for containing the coronavirus.
The women's varsity team lost two of their best runners a couple weeks prior to the race, as Olivia Rosenstein '24 sprained her ankle and Izzi Gengaro '22 was cautious due to some leg pain. Along with some other ailments on the team and the aforementioned training schedule, the varsity was only able to produce four runners. Earlier in the season, Olivia had run 16:40 for 4800, Lily Janjigian '24 18:01, and Izzi 18:11. What would have been an outstanding battle never came to fruition.
Jenna Melanson '20 ran 17:13 for a personal best and first place honors. She is using her last cross country season of eligibility at the University of British Columbia as she begins graduate school. Katie Collins '21 came in first for the varsity and second overall with a 17:27. Louise van den Heuvel '14 found a local track and ran 17:47 for third place overall. Andrea Bradshaw '09 was the first one to gain a time advantage from age-adjustment. She ran 17:52, which was converted to 17:49, good for fourth place overall. Margaret Trautner '20, down at Cal Tech to use her remaining eligibility while in graduate school, ran 18:43 for fifth place, and close out the scoring if only scoring four runners to benefit the Varsity. Filling out the scoring for the Varsity were Archana Mohandas '24 19:11, Anna Chau '23 19:19 and Anna Haddad '23 19:44.
Others competing, and their age-adjusted times were: Mary Eccles '18 19:04, Leandra Zimmermann '19 19:53, Marissa McPhillips '20 20:02, Alina Gatowski '11 20:06, Katie Bacher '20 20:14, Janis Eisenberg '98 20:14, Elaine McVay '15 20:46, Jennifer Doyle '09 20:57, Margaret Leibovic '10 21:18, Bailey Tregoning '18 21:36, Andrea Staid '07 22:26, Kali Benavides '15 22:26, Megan McCandless '20 22:52, Camila Thanos '19, 24:24, Alisha Schor '07 24:55, Maggie Lloyd '12 24:58, Debbie Won '00 27:31, Becky Romatoski '06 and Danaka Porter '10 31:43.
Leandra was the furthest away, competing in Germany. Andrea Staid deserves congratulations as she competed while 17 weeks pregnant. Margaret Leibovic has successfully made the transition from sprinter to distance runner. Maggie had the best pic with the National Mall in the background. Pictures can be viewed at http://scripts.mit.edu/~hwtaylor/xc/2020/pics/Alumni/alumni.php.
Finn Jacobson-Schulte '21 stepped up big for the varsity, securing his first cross country victory with his 14:57 PR. Fivos Constantinou '06 put on his old man shoes and did the alums proud with an age-adjusted 15:11. Sanjay Raman '23 put aside his inconsistent training and let his talent and competitiveness do his talking, running 15:12 for third overall and second for the varsity. Vedang Lad '23 was the third finisher for the varsity with his 15:14. Carlos Renjifo '04, not quite as old as Fivos ran 15:29 for fifth overall and second for the Has-Beens. The varsity closed out the scoring with Steven Goldy '21 (15:35) and Nate Sesti '24 (15:39). Completing the scoring for the alums were Jared Forman '13 in 15:53 (the fastest alumni non-adjusted time), Rory Beyer '17 in 15:58 and Josh Derrick '20 in 16:00.
Others competing, and their age-adjusted times were: Ethan Crain '96 16:03, Matt Deyo '16 16:05, Ben Schmeckpeper '07 16:16, Brian Gilligan '17 16:24, David Walter '18 16:36, Sam Parker '15 16:39, Rob Casadonte '94 17:21, Alex Knoedler '19 17:34, Justin Bullock '14 17:36, Bob Collins '82 17:37, Bob Zak '86 17:55, Eric Khatchadourian '06 18:27, David Kelman '99 18:32, Cody Bratten '19 24:09, Bill Bruno '85 28:48, and Arinze Okeke '16 33:20.
It must be pointed out that David Westenberg '79 also competed, but did not see the rule forbidding a downhill course. David ran a 17:28 5K at age 62 with a small decline overall, which converts to an amazing 13:41.
Cody is quickly leaving the ranks of the throwers and finding his salvation as a distance runner. Arinze is probably still sleeping from his 5K and may not be recovered in time for the 12/12 Alumni/ae meet. Bill Bruno may have raced at the highest altitude (7,000 ft.).
Everyone won today. The alums getting to connect virtually, the student-athletes getting to measure where they are and doing there first actual team performance, and most of all, Coach Halston Taylor getting to connect with so many of those he has coached over the decades.
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