Video Feature: The CMS-ence of Benjamin Iten

CLAREMONT, Calif. - Senior Benjamin Iten is the veteran leader of a young men's cross country team, which sent five freshmen and a sophomore with him to the NCAA West Regionals last weekend and came away with a first-place tie. He's also an engineering major at Harvey Mudd who worked this summer at the Intel Corporation helping to design technology to enhance the television viewing experience for sports fans.

The NCAA Regionals featured an unusual amount of drama as CMS and Pomona-Pitzer ended up tied for first place with 54 points. The live results (which are always unofficial) first had CMS finishing one point ahead, then switched to Pomona-Pitzer one point ahead, but when the photo finishes were calculated and the official results tallied, both teams ended up with exactly 54 points. 

Iten's effort to get to the finish line at the end of the 8K race provided the final one-point swing that turned the result into a tie. Trailing a Pomona-Pitzer runner down the stretch, he bore down and was able to come back and win a photo finish by a tenth of a second to end the meet in 25th place. Had he been a fraction of a stride later (after the thousands of strides it took him to reach the line), CMS would have had 55 points and ended in second. However, he refuses to take any more credit than anyone else on the team, especially since three of his teammates also had winning margins of 1.3 seconds or less ahead of the runner behind them. 

"I had no idea what the score was, it's not like I had a scoreboard in my head," said Iten. "Any of the four people who had photo finishes saved the title, I just happened to be the last one. Everyone that scored did their part, it was just nice to see that final turn go our way." 

If you wonder what it must have felt like to be in Iten's shoes and see the finish line approaching, he actually spent this summer working on the technology that could one day help viewers have just that sort of experience. An engineering major at Harvey Mudd, Iten interned in the sports division at the Intel Corporation in Portland, helping to design technology that could allow fans a variety of perspectives for televised sporting events, making the viewing experience more immersive.

To learn about the CMS-ence of Ben Iten, click play above, or visit our YouTube page.