Finally, after many years, we have found an early indoor track meet in December worthy of wasting a perfectly good Saturday: the Yale Season Opener at good old Coxe Cage in New Haven.
It's Yale, so you know it's going to be a well-run meet with some good competition. And I haven't been back to Coxe Cage in years, since they installed a pretty cool banked 4-lane track. Banked track. Yale. Sounded good to me. And so we went. It was worth the short trip for several reasons.
-- We were able to see some of the new track athletes who have been working extremely hard under the expert direction of new assistant coach Terry Horton for the past few months. Terry is a good friend, has a wealth of coaching experience and the athletes have been drawn to his detail-oriented approach.
-- We were able to get a few distance guys some nice PRs and early-season efforts on the track.
-- Because it was a short meet and a relatively short trip, I was able to bring my 9-year-old son with me. Joey had a thrilling time, and actually helped me out with recording of all the splits that will be posted here right now.
5,000-meter run
11th place, Brian Townsend, 15:52.01
Splits
35.5, 73.3 (37.8), 1:51.6 (38.6), 2:28.2 (36.6), 3:05.0 (36.8), 3:41.9 (36.9), 4:19.3 (37.4), 4:56.6 (37.3), 5:33.9 (37.3), 6:11.5 (37.6), 6:49.2 (37.7), 7:26.8 (37.6), 8:04.8 (38.0), 8:43.4 (38.6), 9:22.5 (39.1), 10:02.0 (39.5), 10:41.0 (39.0), 11:20.0 (39.0), 11:59.5 (39.5), 12:39.2 (39.7), 13:18.7 (39.5), 13:58.6 (39.9), 14:38.6 (40.0), 15:18.2 (39.6), 15:52.01 (33.81).
1km: 3:05.0; 2km: 6:11.5 (3:06.5); 3km: 9:22.5 (3:11.0); 4km: 12:39.2 (3:16.7); 5km: 15:52.01 (3:12.81)
1600m: 4:56.6; 3200m: 10:02.0 (5:05.4); 4800m: 15:18.2 (5:16.2)
Comments: A nice, solid debut from Brian at this distance! When last we saw him on the cross country trail, he was winning the Coaches Association race at IC4As in 26:53. We felt he hadn't quite peaked with that effort and thought it would be good to carry through with this meet just to see where he was at. He feels he can go faster and that he went out a bit too quick (which he had to, given the field and the fact he was in last place at the time). His splits followed a typical pattern for a newcomer to 5km, but he raced tough. Good job, Brian.
Mile run
1st place, Adam Vess, 4:13.39. School record. IC4A qualifier
Splits
31 (209 meters), 61 (30), 1:33 (32), 2:05 (32), 2:37 (32), 3:10 (33), 3:42 (32), 4:13.39 (31.39).
Comments: Led wire to wire and we got exactly what we wanted out of this. An early season time trial that took nothing out of him, got a qualifying mark out of the way and now we have a gauge with which to work and plan some workouts. Adam ran this race solely off mileage and hill training. Of course, Vess being Vess, thought he ran like "a pussy," and he was equally vilified by family members who will accept nothing short of national-caliber material from him. I'm beginning to learn this vernacular. My first thought after his race was, "geez, he only closed in 63point." But what the heck, he ran wire to wire in front. We'll take it. For now.
10th place, Brian McCormick, 4:34.06. Personal-best time
Splits
34 (209 meters), 67 (33), 1:40 (33), 2:14 (34), 2:48 (34), 3:23 (35), missed split; 4:34.06 (71.06 final 400m)
Comments: This was a really neat race to watch. Terry has been working with Brian and his been telling me all fall that he's got a lot of potential for the middle distance crew. I am a true believer now. Brian is from Alli Kline's old high school in the woods of western Mass., and we're happy he's on the team.
14th place, Alex Cuesta, 4:46.33. Yuk.
Splits
34 (209 meters), 68 (34), 1:42 (34), 2:17 (35), 2:54 (37), 3:33 (39), missed split; 4:46.33 (73.33 final 400m)
Comments: See above. Vess' goal was to lap his teammate. It didn't work out. But it was close.
3000-meter run
10th place, Matt Janczyk, 9:06.79. Personal-best time
Splits
35.6, 71.8 (36.2), 1:46.6 (34.8), 2:22.6 (36.0), 2:59.8 (37.2), 3:36.6 (36.8), 4:12.8 (36.2), 4:49.8 (37.0), 5:24.6 (34.8), 6:00.4 (35.8), 6:36.8 (36.4), 7:14.0 (37.2), 7:52.0 (38.0), 8:30.6 (38.6), 9:06.79 (36.19).
1km: 2:59.8; 2km: 6:00.4 (3:00.6); 3km: 9:06.79 (3:06.39)
Comments: Nicely done with a PR in a weird event to be running coming off xc season. Same as Brian, I felt Matt had a little more juice in the tank. Tough race as they crammed 22 bodies onto the tiny track, so there was a lot of shoving. Janzo was tripped up more than once and surged at questionable times, a la Girma. However, he did what he had to do to get himself in place for a sub-9:00, and he just ran out of steam over the final 550 meters or so. A strong run and worthy effort.
4x800 relay (all doubling back): Splits courtesy of Joey
John Carabetta: 29, 60, 1:31, 2:04.2
Greg Dubois: 29, 60, 1:31, 2:01.7
Alex Cuesta: 30, 61, 1:32, 2:04.6 (note: after bashing Cuesta above, I give him credit for this ballsy leg when his legs were shot)
Brian McCormick: 27, 57, 1:31, 2:04.8 (yikes! a little excited there, huh? great to see though!!)
3rd place, 8:15.26
4x400 relay (all doubling back): Splits courtesy of Joey
John Kristie: 25, 53.7
Colin Frederickson: 25, 53.5
Mike Cocca: 25, 52.6
Neal Viets: 27, 58.4
3:38.41
Also: Pole vaulter Max Carow was 6th in 4.05 meters, just 10 centimeters off his school record. Not bad for no facilities/no practice!
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