Women Ninth At NEWMAC Championships

Paxton, Mass. – Three-time defending champion MIT had five runners finish in the top eight – including a pair of freshmen - and the Engineers won their fourth straight New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) women's cross country championship on Saturday afternoon at Moore State Park.

MIT, which finished with 24 points, had runners finish second, third and fourth, with second place finisher Katherine Eve (Fremont, Calif.) wrapping up the 5K layout nearly eight seconds behind individual champion Randelle Boots (Seekonk, Mass.) of Wellesley.

Junior Isabel Burgess (Cumberland Foreside, Maine) was Clark's top finisher in 47th place with a time of 21:01.31.

The course ran exceptionally fast as the top 17 finishers all ran times faster than the previous course record.

In addition to Eve, Engineer teammates Tania Morimoto (Mountain View, Calif.) (18:38.41) and Alina Gatowski (Beverly Hills, Mich.), (18:39.21) turned in top five performances.

Boots' teammates, Camille Basurto (Wilton, Conn.), who was fifth with a time of 18:53.02 and Leah Clement (East Lyme, Conn.), who was sixth with a 18:56.15 performance, helped the Blue to a second place team finish with 31 points.

MIT freshman Martina de Geus was the race's top freshman finisher in seventh place with a time of 19:03.75 to earn the 2010 NEWMAC Rookie of the Year award.

Wellesley was followed by Smith (121), Springfield and Coast Guard (136), Wheaton (152) and WPI (180). Mount Holyoke (203), Clark (231) and Wheaton (274) rounded out the field.

2010 NEWMAC Women's Cross Country First-Team All-Conference
Randelle Boots, Wellesley
Katherine Eve, MIT
Tania Morimoto, MIT
Alina Gatowski, MIT
Camille Basurto, Wellesley
Leah Clement, Wellesley
Martina de Geus, MIT

2010 NEWMAC Women's Cross Country Second-Team All-Conference
Clair O'Connell, MIT
Cristina Lucas, Wellesley
Molly Shanley, Wellesley
Charlotte Margel, Babson
Lacey Cartier, Springfield
Sarah Sprague, MIT
Vicky Hewey, WPI

2010 NEWMAC Women's Cross Country Athlete of the Year
Randelle Boots, Wellesley

2010 NEWMAC Women's Cross Country Rookie of the Year
Martina de Geus, MIT