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MIT Falls to Williams at Purple Valley Thriller
September 25, 2021
Nearly two years from any previous cross country competition, MIT's Engineers had no real measure as to how they would fare against intercollegiate competition as they entered Saturday's Purple Valley Classic hosted by Williams College at Mt. Greylock High School. The only reference thus far had been a regional and national ranking based on nothing other than reputation. Both the men's and women's teams from MIT were ranked #1 in the region and #6 in the nation for NCAA Division III.
Other nationally ranked teams entered in the meet for the men among the 10 teams were host Williams at #2 and absolutely loaded with talent, and #30 Tufts University. On the women's side, among the 12 teams were Williams at #8, Tufts at #11, Middlebury at #13, and WPI at #35.
Not only was the competition stiff, but the course, always difficult, was significantly more so due to changes forced by construction on areas of the old course. The new course, with ~1,000 feet of total elevation, combined with soft and muddy conditions on part of the course due to the rain the past two days, would have to be run intelligently to secure victory.
The significance of this race went beyond who would win and who would not. This was the first weekend when out-of-region competition would be considered for deciding the at-large decisions for the NCAA Division III Championship in late November. Only one team per region would be automatically advancing and that would be by virtue of winning one of the ten regional championship. Until this year there had been eight regions. Because of the growing number of Division III teams, some regions not being as well balanced as others and some regions not having courses to accomodate 50+ teams, the decision to increase regions was made. There is no longer a New England region. Now, those New England schools to the east of the Connecticut River are in the East Region and those to the west are in the Mideast Region. Thus how MIT fared against other nationally ranked out-of-region teams at the time at-large teams are selected, if MIT does not win their region, could make or break their chances of competing at Nationals.
The women were up first in the 6K race. MIT was missing two of their top runners due to recovery from the cold that ripped through the team the past couple weeks, but was in a pretty good place. Race time temperature was in the low 70's, but high humidity and sunny skies added to the discomfort. The race pace was somewhat aggressive in the women's race with Danielle Page of Tufts going out pretty hard. This dictated MIT's strategy and was an ill-advised decision by Coach Halston Taylor, as they were pulled out too hard for their current condition. Williams College runners, on their home course, knew how this new course would run, and bided their time in the early going.
At the one mile mark, MIT occupied places 3, 7, 8, 17, 18, 19, 20, and leading the score with 53 points to 86 for Williams and 89 for Tufts. Izzi Gengaro '22 was not able to stay with the leaders but was solid in third place. Olivia Rosenstein '25 and Gillian Roeder '25 were following direction to work off of the leading team, but the Tufts runner' s early pace was too fast.
By the two mile mark things had changed significantly. MIT now had places 4, 8, 9, 14 and 21 for 56 points compared to Williams with 64 points and Tufts with 97 points. Gengaro lost a place and significant time in the second mile. Roeder and Rosenstein, just getting over a cold this week, also both lost a place, but Roeder was looking as if she was losing her focus. Sarah Bentley '25 had moved up three places and was on the move, but Einat Gavish '22 lost three places. All this time, the Williams's runners were moving up quickly.
In the final 1.73 miles the trend continued. Williams moved up to take second place as well as 10th, 11th, 14th and 15th for a total of 52 points to win the meet. MIT held steady and even gained a couple of places as Rosenstein and Bentley moved up, but Gengaro and Roeder fell back a bit. Gengaro finished sixth overall and Rosenstein placed seventh. Bentley moved up to 12th, Roeder finished 18th and Gavish stayed in 21st place. MIT claimed second overall with 64 points, and Tufts was third with 79 points. The overall delta was 1:13 for MIT through the first five runners, but given that Gengaro did not have her best race, the Engineers need to work on that.
The men toed the line 45 minutes after the women at 12:45, confronting a slightly higher temperature. The men's 8K included a significant long hill that would be run three times (as compared to the women running it twice) and had a really muddy start to that hill. MIT's men were warned about the mud and to not go out too fast. It did not take long for the race to become a dual meet between Williams and MIT. Although a couple MIT runners did not listen and did go out a little too hard, overall the team was doing well. At the two mile mark, Williams was controlling the pace with the first three places, but then dropped off with their next two in 14th and 16th for 36 points. MIT had Andrew Mah '23 right beside the three Williams front runners and immediately behind him within one second were Matt Kearney '22, Sam Acquaviva '23 and Jacob Hansen '25 in fourth through seventh places. Three places behind Hansen were the foursome of Sanjay Raman '23, Vedang Lad '23, Ryan Wilson '22 and Lowell Hensgen '23. Overall MIT was leading Williams 32 to 36 with three miles to go.
Just past the three mile mark, the front pack has separated themselves a bit, as it was now three Williams runners and three MIT runners with the third Williams runner falling back by a second or two. Aftern one runner from Middlebury, Williams had the next two runners, giving them the lead as MIT's second tier fell back significantly, essentially putting the race out of reach.
In the final two miles the race continued to spread out. Elias Lindgren outkicked Kearney for the win, with Kearney second. Mah was third with Aidan Ryan of Willams in fourth. Acquaviva secured fifth place to give MIT the edge, but then Williams placed seventh, eighth and ninth with MIT in 10th (Wilson) and 12th (Lad) to lose to Williams 29 to 32. MIT's depth was impressive with 13 runners among the top 25. MIT had a top five delta of 39 seconds, which is very impressive, and 1-13 at 1:16. However, Williams had a one through five delta of 33 seconds.
MIT has some work to do, but this was their first meet. Next week they travel to Louisville, KY for the Pre-National meet, and will then face Williams again in three weeks at the Conn. College Invite.
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