The Rensselaer cross country team recently opened their 2003 season with an excellent performance. On Saturday, September 13 the team traveled to Boston to compete in the Engineers Cup against rivals MIT and WPI.
The women’s team, tying MIT for first place with 30 points, made a significant improvement over last year’s race results. Everyone on the team achieved a time faster or equivalent to that of last year. Several individuals set personal records and Senior Rebecca Rosenberg-Beran won the race with a time of 19:12.04. This accomplishment earned Rosenberg-Beran the title of UCAA Performer of the Week. Senior Claire Lears also finished strong in third place with a time of 19:52.57 and freshman Lauren Carter demonstrated her strength placing sixth with a time of 20:20.37. With equally impressive performances, the teams remaining scoring athletes include seniors Cara O’Toole finishing eighth in the time of 20:34.83 and Leah Underwood placing 12th with 21:15.01.
On the men’s team, the scoring runners all finished within 46 seconds of each other to achieve second place in the meet with a team score of 48 points. Senior Dave Hurtado led the RPI team with a sixth place finish in the time of 27:15.06. Sophomore John Evans was the second team member to finish, placing 10th in the time of 27:44.79. Fellow sophomore Matt Haringa, who significantly improved his previous seasons’ time, placed 12th with the time of 27:52.37. Scoring the remaining points for the team were senior John Bonnet placing 15th in 28:00.32 and junior Bob Baniak placing 16th in 28:01.06.
The meet was a big success for both of the RPI teams and is most likely only a preview for a strong and exciting 2003 season.
The cross country Purple Valley Classic was held on Saturday at Williams College. The women’s team ran the classic 5K event while the men’s team was split between the 5K and 8K races. Among the teams competing in the events with RPI were Geneseo, Hamilton, Messiah, Middlebury, RIT, Southern Connecticut, St. Joseph’s, St. Michael’s, and Union.
The RPI 8K team placed seventh among their competitors with an overall team score of 161 points. Hurtado, placing 19th, once again led the team with a time of 27:58. Bonnett, in 27th place, was the next to finish for RPI with 28:24 and following his lead was sophomore Haringa, placing 32nd with a time of 28:34. Also contributing to the team score were sophomore Evans, placing 38th in 28:59, and freshman Will Kohut placing 45th in 29:10.
In the men’s 5K event, the RPI team consisted entirely of freshman runners who earned 115 points for a rank of fourth place in the team scoring. Leading this group was Stan Vinokur, finishing in 13th with the time of 18:07. The next two teammates to finish, Jeff Foran in 21st and Greg Nuber in 22nd, were only a second apart with respective times of 18:28 and 18:29. The athletes scoring the remaining points in this event were Bobby Bloor placing 29th in 19:11 and Ryan Connor placing 30th in 19:16.
The women’s team, running the usual 5K, faced tough competition from Middlebury and Williams, whose teams currently hold the top two rankings in NCAA Division III. The RPI team, however, scored a total of 165 points in the meet and earned fifth place overall with senior Rosenberg-Beran leading the team with a time of 20:08 to place 15th. Seniors Lears placed 27th in 20:56 and O’Toole placed 36th in 21:23. Just behind O’Toole was freshman Carter in 37th place with a time of 21:24 and completing the top five was Underwood, placing 50th with a time of 21:53.
Overall, the teams ran well despite the heavy competition and the poor racing conditions of the day. Next week a majority of the team will be resting and training before the UCAA meet while a small team of freshmen compete in the Jumbo Invitational 8K hosted by Tufts University.
