Men's IC4A results, some commentary

OK, the kids are settled and I have a little bit of computer time, so here goes ...

Men's team standings, IC4A Championship Division

1. Duke 41, 2. William and Mary 67, 3. George Mason 113, 4. LaSalle 130, 5. Columbia 150, 6. Marist 153, 7. Syracuse 193, 8. Princeton 213, 9. Delaware 230, 10. UMass 240, 11. St. Joseph’s 242, 12. Duquesne 318, 13. Harvard 320

Marist Individual results (5-mile course)

12-Matt Flint 25:48.5 *IC4A All-East
23-Will Griffin 26:07.7 *IC4A All-East
27-Curtis Jensen 26:12.6
39-Tim Keegan 26:26.2
52-Conor Shelley 26:35.1
71-Nick Webster 26:55.0
80-Zak Smetana 27:04.5
83-Tom Lipari 27:07.0
86-Sam McMullen 27:11.3
89-Sean Nestor 27:16.4
94-Pat Duggan 27:23.7
100-Matt Janczyk 27:36.7

Coaches Association race (5-mile course)

6-Mike Nicoletti 27:55.8
10-Billy Posch 28:04.8
11-Kyle Havard 28:07.6
16-Ryan Brown 28:40.7
20-Joel Moss 29:01.7
21-Colin Johnson 29:11.7
25-Michael Keegan 29;32.5
26-Ryan Fitzsimons 29:54.2
30-Greg Masto 30:25.8
33-Brendan Green 30:53.4

Notes on the team standings: Most of the teams in this race were not playing with a full deck, so to speak. That includes us, as we were sitting out Vess and Quimes, who are nursing injuries. We proved we could hang in this crowd, even without all our horses. Nicely done.

Notes on the course: This was still the "construction" VCP course, meaning the hills were condensed and thus making it tougher than the the "original" VCP course. However, this course was slightly shorter than the "construction" VCP course that was run at MAACs. What does this mean? Who knows. My guess it is what about 15-20 seconds SLOWER than the "original" VCP course. I will admit that the changing face of the VCP course is slightly annoying, given our meticulous school records at Vanny. But such is life. We can only run the race, and the course, that we are in. And today, we did that quite nicely.

Some notes on how our individuals ran, varsity: Flint proved to nail it pretty nicely at the end of the season; Will was still feeling the obvious effects of a serious flu illness; Curtis ran very strong and turned around what had been a 2-race slump of sorts; Zak and Duggan finished up strong, consistent seasons, their best ever in XC; same with Sam; Lipari had his best effort of the year; Keeg and Web ran well but definitely can do better, we will have to discuss and analyze things a little, but your value to our team is unquestioned; Nestor had a pretty typical freshman XC season, with some flashes of great things to come.

Some notes on how our individuals ran, JV: Obviously the times were faster; but in most cases, the effort and race was far superior to the MAAC meet. Among the big stars: Kyle Havard (huge!), Nicoletti, Posch, Brownie, Joel, Brendan; Meegan did fairly well in his first VCP; Fitz was not happy with how it went.

Some notes on our XC Seniors: Much like recent seniors, these men will be remembered as much for the tone they set OFF the xc course as the effort they put out ON the course. Future team successes will be rooted in all that you guys accomplished, both on and off the practice and race venues. It will never be forgotten by your old coach. Captain Conor, Captain Janzo, Masto, Colin: THANK YOU, MEN!

Sorry for the long post. Thanks for reading.