MIT Men's Cross Country Opens Season with a First-Place Finish at the USM Invitational

PORTLAND, Maine - MIT men's cross country officially opened the season at the Southern Maine Invitational Cross Country Meet on Saturday afternoon, a pre-regional meet hosted to give New England teams the opportunity to see the course prior to the NCAA Division III Regional meet in November.

MIT finished first out of 19 teams with 37 points, ahead of No. 7 nationally ranked Bates College, who finished in second place with 85 points, and No. 5 Bowdoin College, who was third with 86 points. Senior Roy Wedge (Lawrence, Kan.) crossed the line first for the Engineers, coming in third place with his time of 25:20.11 on the five mile course, just nine seconds out of first place.

Finishing almost directly behind Wedge was junior Benji Xie (El Dorado Hills, Calif.), who logged a time of 25:23.30 to come in fifth. At the annual Alumni Meet that was held at the end of last month, Xie came in first place in the 5000m with a 16:00.00. In his first meet as part of MIT's team, freshman Rory Beyer (San Mateo, Calif.) took sixth place with his time of 25:37.88. Junior Allen Leung (Arcadia, Calif.) closed out the top 10 with his time of 25:47.60, finishing a few seconds ahead of the next runner from Amherst.

MIT will return to the cross country trail next weekend when it travels to Williams College for the Purple Valley Invitational, which will take place on Saturday, Sept. 28 at 12:00 p.m.

Courtesy MIT