No. 12 Men's Cross Country Runs to Seventh Place Finish at Conn College Invitational

NEW LONDON, Conn. -- The No. 12 ranked MIT men's cross country team finished in seventh in the team standings in the 8k Blue Race at the Connecticut College Invitational. The Engineers also finished first in the day's opening 8k White Race.

The Blue Race featured the top qualifiers from each of the competing schools. Senior Sam Coutts (Pacific Grove, Calif.) had the top MIT time in the championship race, finishing in 18th with a time of 24:39.00.

THE BASICS:

Top-Five Team Scores:
- Blue Race: 1. NYU (80); 2. St. Olaf (95); 3. Williams (127); 4. Amherst (134); 5. Middlebury (134)
- White Race: 1. MIT (26); 2. Williams (44); 3. Tufts (82); 4. NYU (112); 5. Bates (117)
Top Finisher:
- Blue Race: Nathan Tassey of Roger Williams in 24:05.30
- White Race: Jacob Hansen of MIT in 25:01.60
Top MIT Finisher:
- Blue Race: Sam Coutts in 24:39.00 (18th)
- White Race: Hansen in 25:01.60 (1st)

HOW IT HAPPENED:

Coutts was one of four MIT runners in the top 50 in the Blue Race. Pablo Arroyo (Richardson, Texas) was 23rd with a time of 24:48.9, while senior Samir Amin (Olympia, Wash) took 34th in 24:56.2 and first year Renne Cooper (Austin, Texas) was 44th in 25:11.8.
Sophomore Yichen Sun (Chapel Hill, N.C.) completed the MIT team score in 54th place with a time of 25:22.3. In all, MIT's top five scoring runners finished with an average time of 24:59.
Junior Jake Cobb (West Deptford, N.J.), first year Owen Sondag (Fargo, N.D.), and senior Ziyad Hassan (Ashburn, Va.) rounded out the field for the Engineers. Cobb was 69th in 25:36.10, while Sondag took 107th in 26:05.60 and Hassan finished in 111th place in 26:07.80.
MIT finished with all five scoring runners in the top ten to win the White Race. Hansen set the pace but he was followed by graduate student Nicholas Medearis (Palo Alto, Calif.) and first year Adarsh Iyer (San Jose, Calif.) who finished fourth and fifth, respectively. Medearis had a time of 25:07.50 and Iyer finished in 25:11.50.
Junior Tim Neumann (Downers Grove, Ill.) and first year Luke Rupert (Hill City, S.D.) closed out the win for the Engineers in the White Race. Neumann was seventh in 25:17.50 and Rupert was ninth in 25:36.30.

INSIDE THE NUMBERS:

Coutts' time was an 8k collegiate personal record for the senior. Arroyo, Amin, and Cooper also posted collegiate PRs on Saturday.
Coutts has been the top finisher for MIT in each of his last two starts.
MIT improved on its finish in both races from last year, where the Engineers were 8th in the White Race and 12th in the Blue Race.

UP NEXT:

MIT will run at the 2024 NEWMAC Cross Country Championships on Saturday, November 2 at Wellesley College. The men's championship race is scheduled to begin at noon, following the conclusion of the women's championship.

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