THE BASICS:
 
- Location: Wellesley, Mass. (Nehoiden Golf Course)
 
- The Lead: For the 23rd straight season, the No. 4 ranked MIT men's cross country team captured the 2021 NEWMAC Championship by a 50-point margin over WPI on a rainy Saturday morning. The Engineers finished with a perfect score of 15 points as the team swept the top eight spots overall, had 15 of the top 20 finishers and 11 All-Conference performers.
 
HOW IT HAPPENED:
 
- Senior Ryan Wilson (Redwood City, Calif.) captured the NEWMAC individual title and Athlete of the Year honors as he crossed in a time of 24:58.8. Placing second was 2019 NEWMAC champion Andrew Mah (Newton, Mass.) at 25:08.5, followed closely in third by junior Matthew Kearney (Austin, Texas) in 25:09.7. Graduate student Finn Jacobson-Schulte (Lakeville, Minn.) was fourth in 25:13.4, with junior Sam Acquaviva (Newburyport, Mass.) as the final scoring runner for MIT in fifth with a time of 25:19.1.
 
- Junior Lowell Hensgen (Raleigh, N.C.) placed sixth in 25:23.6, with junior Vedang Lad (Plainsboro, N.J.) in seventh at 25:29.5 and graduate student Reid Kovacs (Palo Alto, Calif.) capping a sweep of the top eight spots with a time of 25:30.7. Overall, the MIT scoring top five had a spread of just 20 seconds.
 
- Junior Sanjay Raman (Seattle, Wash.) capped the top 10 with a time of 25:40.9, followed by sophomore Jacob Hansen (Bountiful, Utah) in 12th at 25:48.5 and sophomore Cameron Kleiman (Austin, Texas) in 13th at 25:51.9. Other top-20 finishers included sophomore Raymond Brookman (Santa Cruz, Calif.) at 15th in 26:01.3, first-year Pablo Arroyo (Richardson, Texas) in 16th at 26:03.5, sophomore Nate Sesti (Clarkston, Mich.) in 18th in 26:15.9 and sophomore Henry Hardart (Annapolis, Md.) in 19th place with a time of 26:18.4. Arroyo was named as the NEWMAC Rookie of the Year as he was the top first-year finisher at the championship.
 
- First-year Simon Opsahl (Redlands, Calif.) placed 21st in 26:37.2, along with first-year Sam Coutts (Pacific Grove, Calif.) in 26th at 26:50.4 and first-year Pau Ilerbaig-Bajona (Toronto, Canada) rounding out the MIT finishers in 36th with a time of 27:16.3.
 
UP NEXT:
 
- MIT returns to action on Saturday, November 13th as the Engineers travel to nearby Franklin Park for the NCAA Division III East Regional Championship.
 
STAY CONNECTED:
 
For the latest on MIT Athletics, follow the Engineers via social media on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.