MIDDLETOWN, Conn. -- Junior Yichen Sun finished in third place to lead the No. 16 MIT men's cross country team to a second-place finish at the 8k Cardinal Invitational, hosted by Wesleyan University on Saturday at the Wes Fuhrman '05 Trails Cross Country Course.
The Engineers and the host Cardinals finished in a 44-point tie for the top spot in the team standings, but the hosts ultimately captured the title thanks to the head-to-head tiebreaker comparing the top five runners for each team.
THE BASICS:
- Winning Team Score: No. 20 Wesleyan with 44 points (wins tiebreaker with MIT)
- MIT Team Score: 44 points, second place
- Top Finisher: Dylan Cote, Wesleyan (24:37.8)
- Top MIT Finisher: Yichen Sun, 3rd (24:43.4)
HOW IT HAPPENED:
- Sun and sophomore Renne Cooper each finished in the top five for MIT, with Cooper taking fifth place in 24:46.8.
- All five of MIT's scoring runners finished in the top 13 overall. Sophomore Landon Hering was just off the pace of Sun and Cooper, taking 11th in 24:58.3.
- Hering paced a pack of three MIT runners, as senior Tim Neumann took 12th in 25:01.4 and classmate Jake Cobb was 13th in 25:05.3.
INSIDE THE NUMBERS:
- Sun, who earned two top ten finishes in 2024, has his first of the season. His 3rd place finish was a collegiate best.
- Cooper finished in the top five in his second straight season opener after winning in his collegiate debut last fall at the Maribel Sanchez Souther Invite.
- First years Sam Hansen and Dylan Fiegner finished 16th and 17th respectively, in their collegiate debuts to round out the top seven for MIT.
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