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Engineers Dominate NEWMAC Championship
October 30, 2021
MIT entered the cross country championship season yesterday with the NEWMAC Conference Championship, excited to earn their 23rd consecutive conference championship on the men's side and 14th straight in the women's competition.
Only having lost to Williams College this year, MIT was clearly the favorite, but things can go wrong. MIT's 12th ranked women's team has battled bouts of mono, low serum ferritin, as well as the normal nagging injuries and illnesses, all season. In addition, the weather promised precipitation all day, on a course the Engineers had never seen. The golf course made for a beautiful cross country course with plenty of hills, some rather dramatic in gradient. Although it did not rain significantly (more like a mist), the wet course was going to provide true cross country.
The 4th ranked men were set to defend their title in the first race. The downhill start had a difficult mogul like beginning for teams on the left side, which is where MIT started in box number two. MIT navigated the start successfully, settling in behind the fast starting runners from Springfield and WPI. Once past the start, Dominic Sclafani of Wheaton charged to the front for a commanding lead, running sub 5:00 for the opening mile and 10:10 at mile two, while the glut of MIT runners were at 5:10 and 10:30. Either Sclafani was for real or he did not understand the physics of energy return from a soft, wet course. Whichever, it was a gutsy move.
After the halfway point Andrew Mah '23 led the charge to close the gap. At the two mile mark when the Engineers came through in 10:30, 16 of them were in a tight cluster, 20 seconds out of first place. After a 4:51 third mile by Mah the gap was now cut to five seconds. Mah's move strung out the chase pack, but not by much. Matthew Kearney '22 was two seconds back, while Ryan Wilson '22, Finn Jacobson-Schulte 'G, Sam Acquaviva '23 and Lowell Hensgen '23 were three seconds behind Mah, and Vedang Lad '23 was one more second back. Just behind the MIT chase pack were Anthony Rodriguez of Babson and David Reynolds or WPI. Outside of those opposing runners it was all MIT.
By the four mile mark, MIT had taken over the top seven places, maintaining the same order, having run between a 4:57 to 5:00 fourth mile. This is where Ryan Wilson decided it was his turn to win a race. The top MIT runner had been someone different each race with Kearney being the first MIT runner at Purple Valley, Mah at Pre-Nationals, and Acquaviva at Conn. College. Wilson, having run a 3:47 1500 last spring, threw down a 4:37 last mile to open up a 10 second lead as he cruised through the line in 24:58. Mah closed in 4:50 to finish second. Kearney dropped a 4:46 to finish third in 25:09. Following Keearney was Jacobson-Schulte in 25:13, Acquaviva in 25:19, Hensgen in 25:23, Lad in 25:29 and Reid Kovacs 'G in 25:30. The men's team had swept the top five places two other times in the history of the meet, but never the top eight places, which was truly a site to behold if you were an MIT fan. To run sub 25:00 on this course, on this day and still finish with a :22 second delta through eight runners is a testament to how strong this team truly is. In addition, MIT had three more all-conference runners (top 14); Sanjay Raman '23 (10th), Jacob Hansen '24 (12th), and Cameron Kleiman '23 (13th), as well as the Rookie of the Year, Pablo Arroyo '25, finishing 16th in 26:03.
The most remarkable component of this team is how a different runner in the group has a strong day and someone else has a bad day each race, but they all fight hard and work together, continuously finishing fast with a 20-30 second spread every race. This is a dangerous team.
The women were up next, with the plan being similar to the men's in being cautious early on to save the legs for the second half of the race. Interestingly, no one took the race out. Ari Marks of host Wellesley and Lauren Selkin of Mt. Holyoke were pre-race favorites. Selkin had beaten all MIT runners on 9/25 and all but Izzi Gengaro '22 two weeks ago. The Engineers had not faced Marks, but she had defeated Selkin in an earlier race by :03 seconds.
Apparently no one wanted the lead early on. Gengaro, knowing the plan was to be cautious, hit the mile mark in 5:58 and actually had the lead with Marks and Selkin there as well as a number of Smith and Mt. Holyoke runners. MIT had a strong cluster of four runners two seconds behind Gengaro; Olivia Rosenstein '24, Sarah Bentley '24, Gillian Roeder '24 and Einat Gavish '22. By the two mile mark, a few of the non-favorites had fallen off the pace as Gengaro and the front runners came through in 12:10. Rosenstein and Bentley were one second back, with Roeder one more second back. However, Gavish, suffering from a couple soft tissue issues, had fallen off and was five seconds behind Roeder. At that point in the race, the team scores had MIT at 37, Smith at 43 and Wellesley with 101.
In the final 1.73 miles, Wellesley moved up significantly while Smith faded an equal amount. MIT stayed the same, although the personnel changed. Gavish's injuries took their toll, although she still finished well in 18th. Roeder injured her foot, possibly breaking a bone, but still finishing in 23rd.
Marks pulled ahead for a significant victory, running 21:48 for the 6K course. Gengaro finished second in 22:13 with Rosenstien in third, one second back. Bentley, injured much of the season is still getting race ready, but nevertheless finished sixth in 22:47. Anna Chau '23 and Anna Haddad '23 came through big with nice races, finishing 11th in 23:10 and 12th in 23:13 respectively. MIT put five runners across before any other team's third runner. Archana Mohandas '24 had a great race, placing 14th in 23:20 to round out MIT's all-conference runners.
MIT, with 34 points won their 14th NEWMAC title in succession and 16th overall. Wellesley finished well, scoring 63 points, just 16 points ahead of Smith with 79.
The Engineers are off next weekend, not competing again until 11/13 at Franklin Park for the NCAA Division III East Region Championship. |
