This past weekend, the Men's Cross Country Team placed 13th out of 18 teams in the Jim Drew's Invitational at LaCrosse, Wisconsin. MIT competed in the seeded division which included 3 top ranked NCAA Division II colleges, as well as well as 11 top 20 ranked Division III colleges. Just prior to the seeded race, an unseeded race was held to accomodate the large field of teams. MIT's times would have been good enough to win the unseeded race and defeat Division III ranked Luther College which placed third in their race.

The site of last year's National Championship, the course was challenging, but fast. The winning time of 24:13 by Ambo Bati of Augustana College defeated last year's National Runner-up, Matt Brill of North Central College by 4 seconds. MIT's first finisher was Arnold Seto 'G in 25:52 for 43rd place. Close behind was Josh Feldman '97 in 25:59 for 53rd place, and Mike Parkins '99 in 26:01 for 56th place. Rounding out the scoring for MIT were freshman Chris McGuire in 26:21 for 80th place, and Dan Helgesen '97 in 26:50 for 111th place. The grouping of the top 4 was encouraging. Placing 4 within 30 seconds is always indicative of a successful team, but the loss of a close 5th man hurt the Engineers a lot. Placing another of MIT's very capable runners within the current top 4 would have earned them a 10th place finish ahead of 5th ranked RIT.

Also making the trip and running for MIT was Gabe White '00 in 27:20, Rich Rosalez '98 in 27:21, Leif Seed '99 in 27:23, and Frank Johnston '00 in 27:45.

The top group for the Engineers broke apart right at the start. Leif Seed went out a little fast for his level of experience and by himself in about 40th position. Seto, Parkins, and McGuire were about 4 seconds behind at the mile mark, coming through in 4:56. Behind them the group was running alone as Helgesen, and Feldman tried to keep up. Josh runs a very steady race, moving up from the rear with great success. The plan according to Coach Halston Taylor was for Josh to lead the group throughout the race. The first mile destroyed that plan, but nevertheless the team ran well.

The second group of Rosalez, White, and Johnston, stayed together perfectly. The only problem was that even though they ran together, they did not communicate and ran more of a single-file style, which does not facilitate good team running.

Overall, the team ran more aggresively than previous meets, and seemed to be more in focus all through the race. With 4 weeks to go until the National Qualifying Meet, MIT has some definite work to do to run their best race. "I think the team will realize their goals when the time comes, says Coach Taylor, I just hope they realize that they want it badly enough to make it happen."

The next meet will be on Friday the 18th at Franklin Park for the NEIAAA Championships, which features all of the colleges in New England for Divisions I, II, and III. This is typically a good test to see how well the team would place at the Division III Nationals.