Status of the S5 search for compact object mergers with total mass between 25 and 100 solar masses

We present the status of the search for gravitational waves from coalescing compact binary systems with total mass between 25 and 100 solar masses in the LIGO Fifth Science run (S5) data with the goal of constraining the merger rate. In this mass regime LIGO is sensitive to the inspiral, merger and ring down phases of the coalescence. We describe our ongoing effort to incorporate models based on recent advances in numerical relativity that probe the late inspiral, merger and ring down phases.