MIT SWEEPS MEN'S AND WOMEN'S NEWMAC TITLES
Ruzevick Leads the Men to 10th Consecutive Championship
October 27, 2007
It was raining, the course was muddy, but nothing could slow down the MIT harriers. Both the women and men ran to victory at the NEWMAC Conference Championship hosted by Smith College, giving the men their 10th championship in as many years. MIT is the only team to have ever won the men's championship. The women scored 50 points, 22 points more than their closest opponent, Wheaton College. The men recorded 18 points in their effort, defeating the next closest team, The Coast Guard Academy, by 34 points.
In the women's race, Maria Monks did not get out with the leaders, spent the next three miles trying to make it up but was nine seconds back of two Smith College runners, Nora Youngs and Anna Cressotti, by the mile mark at 6:06. They were followed five seconds back by two Springfield runners, two Wheaton runners and one from Wellesley and Clark. MIT's pack of Liz Labuz, Elizabeth Finn, Katy Gordon and Adrienne Bolger were 16 seconds back of Monks in 12th - 15th place. Jacqui Wentz and Jennifer Doyle were in 19th and 20th place respectively for MIT.
By the two mile mark, Youngs remained nine seconds ahead of Monks, but Cressotti had dropped back with her. Finn moved up to eighth while Gordon, Bolger and Labuz were 11th, 14th and 16th respectively. Wentz and Doyle dropped back four places each but looked pretty strong. However, both Wheaton and Wellesley had their strong runners in the lead group and their trail runners just behind Wentz and Doyle.
At the finish, Wheaton placed second and third, just in front of Monks and Finn and then another runner in ninth. Fortunately, Doyle, Gordon and Bolger closed in 12th, 14th and 15th respectively to win it for MIT, giving the team a 28 second delta. Wellesley was never able to close, only putting one runner in front of MIT's top five. For her efforts, Gordon was named Rookie of the Year as the top freshman in the race. This was MIT's third NEWMAC title, last winning in 2003.
In the men's race, Jake Ruzevick and Yermie Cohen took the lead early and led the pace at the mile in 5:17. Coast Guard had four runners and WPI three runners in front of MIT's next runners, who were 11 seconds back. Both teams had three more ahead of MIT's sixth runner, making it a very even first mile.
At mile two, Ruzevick had broken away by a small amount with Cohen trailing in third, five seconds behind a runner from Springfield. One runner from Coast Guard and WPI were ahead of MIT's third through seventh runners; Brian Jacokes, Jack Bourbonnais, Trevor Rundell, Joe Roy-Mayhew and Chris Bruce. Trying to catch this group were MIT runners Gihan Amarasiriwardena, Hemu Arumugam and Paul Welle, all within seven seconds of MIT's pack.
By mile three the race was put away as both trail groups merged and the Springfield runner fell out of contention. By the finish, Ruzevick ran away with a 23 second victory, earning NEWMAC Runner of the Year. Cohen pulled back to second. Following a single Coast Guard runner, MIT packed in the next five runners; Roy-Mayhew, Arumugam, Bourbonnais, Rundell and Jacokes. One more Coast Guard runner broke up MIT's dominance but was closely followed by NEWMAC Rookie of the Year, Amarasiriwardena, Welle and Bruce to give MIT 10 of the top 12 runners and a 56 second delta through those 10 runners.
MIT's next race is in two weeks at the NCAA Division III Regional Qualifier at Harkness Memorial State Park in Waterford, CT. The top two teams automatically move on to the NCAA Division III Championships the following weekend at the St. Olaf College in Northfield, MN.