November 13, 1999

MIT Men's Cross Country team ran to 5 personal bests, and another season best en route to placing 5th in the New England Division III Championship / NCAA Division III Regional Qualifier. New England boasts the strongest region in the country, which has earned it the right to qualify five teams to Nationals. The five teams that have been nationally ranked all season were the same to earn their way to Wisconsin next Saturday.

Keene State, showing why they are ranked in the top 5 in the country, scored 59 points to run away with the team title. Tufts University ran a very aggressive race right from the start and held on to second place in spite of the fast closing teams. Williams College, winners of this race for the past seven years, showed what losing two All-Americans can do to a team. Nevertheless, the Ephmen held on for third place. Bates College, boasting two runners in the top 5, had to wait until their second pack of runners came in together at 35, 38, and 39th places before they could be sure they would hold on to 4th place.

MIT came into the meet knowing that Phil Loiselle, Tech's 4th - 5th man most of the season, trying for the last month to come back from an achilles tendon injury, had to finally pack it in. Ed Keehr, the Engineer's #2 runner all season, who has been battling fatigue all season, as well as a recent hip injury, was not able to fight the obstacles and finished 7th for Tech. Ed, expected to finish in the top 20, fell back right from the start, ending up 108th place.

Racing with a plan to run a paced race, MIT came through the first mile with times ranging from 4:46 for Dan Feldman, to 5:07 for freshman Sean Nolan (substituting for Loiselle). What the Engineers did not expect was to be so far back with those times. Feldman was running with the first group of 15, but Chris McGuire, Sean Montgomery, Liyan Guo, Frank Johnston, and Keehr were all between 80th and 110th place.

The Tech runners did not panic, running the 2nd and more difficult mile in 4:59 - 5:15. At the two mile split, MIT had collectively passed about 50 runners. The third mile, which possessed the only real hill on the course, was certainly the slowest. However, by pacing the first two miles, MIT's first four runners were able to run the split between 5:12 and 5:17, moving McGuire, Montgomery, and Guo into the top 35 runners.

By the fourth mile, it was apparent that MIT would be in the thick of things. The big question was, would Johnston be able to finish high enough to assure MIT a place at next week's National Championship. During the last mile, McGuire, Montgomery, and Guo all moved up quite a few more places. However, Johnston went from about 50th place to 56th place. At the finish, behind Keene State, the next four teams were all within eight points through 4 runners. Tufts had 72, MIT 76 with a time delta of :42, and Bates and Williams 80. MIT lost the battle of #5 runners and finished 5th.

Next week, the Engineers hope to rest and cut mileage for the first time this season. If everyone continues to improve and either Johnston or Nolan can put together a great race, MIT should be able to place among the top 15 teams at Nationals. Keehr may be able to recover in time to reclaim his place among the top 5, but if not, Chris Testa will take his place at Oshkosh.