TERRE HAUTE, Indiana – Senior Sam Coutts (Pacific Grove, Calif.) finished with an All-American time of 24:32.6 to lead the MIT men's cross country team to a 13th place finish at the NCAA Division III National Championships on Saturday at the LaVern Gibson Cross Country Course. 

THE BASICS:

• Top-Five Team Scores: 1. Wisconsin La Crose (77); 2. Wartburg (173), 3. Pomona-Pitzer (182); 4. Wisconsin –Whitewater (219); 5. NYU (220) 
• Top Overall Finisher: Christian Patzka of Wisconsin Whitewater in 24:01.6 
• Top MIT Finisher: Coutts in 24:32.6 (21st) 

HOW IT HAPPENED:

• Coutts got out quick for MIT, running in the top five through the first 1K of the 8K course. The Engineers were in 15th overall, with runners spread between Coutts in fifth place and junior Jake Cobb (West Deptford, N.J.) in the middle of the pack.  
• By the 2K mark, the Engineers had worked their way up to 11th in the team standings, Coutts was only off the pace of overall leader Xander Gottner from Milwaukee School of Engineering. 
• The Engineers were consistent through the middle portion of the course, holding in 12th place, with both Coutts (14th) and senior Samir Amin (Olympia, Wash.) running in the top 50. Amin would go on to finish 101st in 25:12.7. 
• MIT held steady over the remainder of the race, dropping to 13th in the team standings at the 5K mark before making a move up to 12th at the 6.5K mark. The Engineers would finish back at 13th in the team standings, trailing Lynchburg but ahead of Johns Hopkins.  
• Cobb worked his way through the pack to finish second among MIT runners, taking 77th place with a time of 25:02.4. Senior Pablo Arroyo (Richardson, Texas) was one spot back of Cobb, finishing 78th in 25:02.7. 

INSIDE THE NUMBERS:

• Coutts earned his first All-American nod following a season that included All-Region and NEWMAC Athlete of the Year accolades.
• Sophomore Yichen Sun (Chapel Hill, N.C.) completed MIT's team score with a time of 25:22.8. Sun was 130th overall.
• Sophomore Tim Neumann (Downers Grove, Ill.) and NEWMAC Rookie of the Year Renne Cooper (Austin, Texas) were the final two runners for MIT. Neumann was 201st with a time of 25:47.6 and Copper finished 212th in 25:51.5.
• MIT finished with an average time of 25:02.7 and a total time of 2:05:13.2. The Engineers spread increased from 7.0 at the 1K mark to 50.2 at the finish line. 

• 21) Sam Coutts (24:32.6)

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