MIT Engineers Finish 5th of 37 teams at NEICAAA Championships

WESTFIELD, Mass. – At the NEICAAA Championships that took place on Sunday afternoon at Stanley Park, MIT women's cross country team finished fifth out of 37 teams behind Boston College, Vermont, Dartmouth and Scared Heart, but 50 points and three places ahead of Division III No. 1 ranked Williams College.

Freshman Sarah Quinn (Watchung, N.J.) finished 17th in the 5k varsity run (17:49.67), the highest finish for the Engineers, with sophomore Elaine McVay (San Ramon, Calif.) crossing the tape less than two seconds later in 19th place (17:51.33). Sophomore Kali Benavides (Miami, Fla.) finished fourth in the sub varsity race with a time of 18:20.17.

Finishing close behind Quinn and McVay were junior Kaitlin Allen (Bedford, N.H.) in 51st place, freshman Nicole Zeinstra (Holland, Mich.) in 55th, senior Brooke Johnson (Shoreham, N.Y.) in 56th and junior Martina de Geus (Los Altos, Calif.) in 61st, all finishing within seven seconds of each other. Ten seconds later, with a time of 18:41.52, sophomore Dacie Manion (Old Town, Maine) crossed the finish line, coming in 78th place.

MIT occupied a handful of the top positions in the sub varsity race. Finishing behind Benavides in 12th place with a time of 18:37.82 was junior Alexandra Taylor (Harbor Springs, Mich.), followed by freshman Allison Hallock (Boulder, Colo.) in 17th, junior Marie Burkland (Almont Mich.) in 21st and sophomore Cindy Huang (San Jose, Calif.) in 22nd. Junior Louise van den Heuvel (Nashua, N.H.) followed quickly after Huang and sophomore Shivani Kaushal (Grand Blanc, Mich.) was not far behind, crossing the line with times of 19:06.26 and 19:22.81 respectively.

MIT will have almost three weeks break before it travels to Northampton, Mass. to take part in the NEWMAC Championships on Saturday, Oct. 27.

Courtesy MIT