BOSTON, OCTOBER 17 -- Racing on a classic autumn afternoon, on a bone-dry, even dusty, Franklin Park, the MIT Men's Cross-Country Team launched an assault on the school's all-time time list for the standardized course. Eighteen of the twenty-two competitors recorded personal best times, many of then by more than thirty seconds.

Team-wise, the Beavers placed 14th in a 36-team field that included the best Division I showing in several years. Brown took home the title with 55 points, with Dartmouth (90), Boston College (118), and Providence (134) giving best pursuit.

In the Division III arena, Brandeis continued their strong running, placing 8th overall with 269 points (edging out Harvard's 271) to start the D3 parade. Williams was 10th (274), Tufts 11th (317), Amherst 12th (388) mainly on the strength of Rob Mitchell's 3rd-place individual finish in 24:03, Bates 13th (402), and MIT 14th (409).

The Beavers demonstrated remarkable team running. Throughout the crowded field (251 runners), junior co-captain Mike Parkins and sophomore Chris McGuire raced shoulder-to-shoulder, pushing each other to personal record [PR] times of 24:58 and 25:00. Only Ethan Crain's 24:40 (good for 7th place) in the 1994 New Englands is faster on the MIT list. Both runners moved ahead of Jesse Darley's 25:08, record in the same race (17th). McGuire took 34th place to Parkins' 36th.

Freshman Mark Strauss, who had run one of his strongest races on this course in the Pre-Nationals two weeks before, just didn't have all tumblers clicking and ran 25:50 for 91st. [His PR 25:34 would have netted him 70th.]

The next wave of Beavers was led by co-captain Rich Rosalez's 26:16 PR (123rd), a 45-second best for him on this course. Freshman Phil Loiselle (26:21 PR, 129th) continues to impress, using his miler's speed to pull away from senior teammate Sohail Husain (26:30 PR, 139th) in the final flat field. Sophomore Frank Johnston once again flirted with his PR (set last year in NE's, 16:48) but came up a few seconds shy (16:52, 163rd).

The J.V. race continued the onslaught of time breakthroughs, with freshman Liyan Guo setting the tone with his 26:40 PR (by 1:34!) in 41st place (out of 222 runners). Sophomore Ray Molnar just keeps getting better as well, with his 27:14 lopping another 36 seconds off his personal best (Ray's best as a freshman was 29:33). Another substantial drop was posted by freshman Ken Walker, whose 27:36 clocking was a PR by 34 seconds, and a 1:32 improvement from the season opener.

Other noteworthy bests were recorded by Jeff Billing '01 (27:38), Ed Keehr '01 (28:02), indoor track co-captain Chuck VanBuren '98 (28:04), Gus Blomquist '99 (28:22), and Ryan Peoples '00 (28:28).

The next race for the Beaver Harriers will be Saturday, 25 October, in a 5000-meter clash with Bowdoin, Bates, and Colby in Brunswick, Maine. The meet figures to a battle among the 4th-, 5th-, and 6th-ranked teams in New England, with Bates rated ahead of MIT and Bowdoin. The race begins at 12:00 noon, and Bowdoin's Field House.