Friday, April 30, 2010

Matthew Vassar Open

Overview: I have to say that this meet is one of the most enjoyable nights of the entire track season. It’s a “home meet.” We are surrounded by teammates, friends and local running acquaintances. The weather was nice. The competition was good. And it was a quick-moving, well-run meet. What’s not to like?

Some nice PR efforts as you will see here in the splits below. Also, one name that does not make the results or splits below is Conor Shelley, who did a perfect pacing job for the New Paltz runner in the 1500 (2:07 through 800 meters, exactly as prescribed), and then hung tough to help out Duggan and later Fitz in the 5km. Nicely done!

Here are the results and splits. Thanks to Captain Janzo for helping to record the splits in the longer races.

3000 steeplechase

Colin Johnson: 10:47.75, 2nd place
78, 2:43 (85), 4:08 (85), 5:38 (90), 7:06 (88), 8:36 (90), 10:03 (87), 10:47.75 (44.75)
Coach Pete says: Form was comical to absurd in the early laps, but actually improved as the race went on. Fun to watch, and great to do!

1500 run

Brian Townsend (McCann Harriers): 4:28.70
69, 2:22 (73), 3:36 (74), 4:28.70 (70.70 last 400m)
Coach Pete says: Nice to see you back on the track! Middle laps could have been better, kick was decent. Honestly, I think you left some of the turnover on the track on Wednesday. Just a hunch. Welcome back!!

800 run

Trevor Thomas: 2:03.52
Coach Pete says: Solid race, needed a stronger finish. Opening 400 in 59.54, a little peppy.

5000 run

Pat Duggan: 15:44.82, first place
73, 2:28 (75), 3:41 (73), 4:56 (75)
6:09 (73), 7:24 (75), 8:38 (74), 9:55 (77)
11:13 (78), 12:32 (79), 13:51 (79), 15:09 (78)
15:44.82 (35.82)
Coach Pete says: Strong win, running solo from start to finish.

Ryan Brown: 15:55.31, second place, PR
78, 2:36 (78), 3:50 (74), 5:06 (76)
6:22 (76), 7:39 (77), 8:57 (78), 10:14 (77)
11:32 (78), 12:50 (78), 14:07 (77), 15:21 (74)
15:55.31 (34.31)
Coach Pete says: Another one of those “lie in the weeds and attack late” neg split type PRs for Brownie. Nicely done!

Ryan Fitzsimons: 16:12.85, fourth place
75, 2:29 (74), 3:44 (75), 5:00 (76)
6:18 (78), 7:34 (76), 8:56 (80), 10:14 (78)
11:33 (79), 12:55 (82), 14:15 (80), 15:34 (79)
16:12.85 (38.85)
Coach Pete says: Talk about prophetic. Fitz says before the race: “I want to go out at around 5:00; but I think that will put me in no-man’s land.” He did, and it did! Amazing. Mentally, I think you lost it after that 5:00 and the splits bear that out. You competed well against the NP kid, but overall this was disappointing. Should not take away from what has been a mostly positive year.

Colin Johnson: 16:33.08
78, 2:35 (77), 3:50 (75), 5:06 (76)
6:22 (76), 7:42 (80), 9:04 (82), 10:30 (86)
11:51 (81), 13:15 (84), 14:35 (80), 15:53 (78)
16:33.08 (40.08)
Coach Pete says: Who’s idea was this double, anyway! It was tough and your splits were wildly erratic. So it goes. Tough double but fun night.

10,000-meter run

Curtis Jensen (McCann Harriers): 33:26.95, 1st place
79, 2:41 (82), 4:03 (82), 5:22 (79)
6:42 (80), 8:03 (81), 9:21 (78), 10:40 (79)
11:58 (78), 13:16 (78), 14:34 (78), 15:54 (80)
17:10 (76), 18:27 (77), 19:45 (78), 21:05 (80)
22:27 (82), 23:49 (82), 25:11 (82), 26:35 (84)
27:57 (82), 29:21 (84), 30:46 (85), 32:09 (83)
33:26.95 (77.95)
First 5km: 16:32, second 5km: 16:53.95
Coach Pete says: Curt did a nice job of trying to pace Meegan to a sub-33:00. Fun to see him racing again!

Mike Keegan: 33:33.32, 2nd place
79, 2:41 (82), 4:03 (82), 5:22 (79)
6:42 (80), 8:03 (81), 9:21 (78), 10:40 (79)
11:58 (78), 13:16 (78), 14:34 (78), 15:54 (80)
17:10 (76), 18:27 (77), 19:45 (78), 21:05 (80)
22:27 (82), 23:49 (82), 25:13 (84), 26:35 (82)
27:58 (83), 29:22 (85), 30:47 (85), 32:10 (83)
33:33.32 (83.32)
First 5km: 16:32, second 5km: 17:01.32
Coach Pete says: A 30-second PR and a solid effort. Junior Nationals was a long-shot, as your base was compromised due to winter knee injury. However, your effort here was outstanding and great to see! You kept fighting and hung tough. Would have been nice if you had run .01 slower for 33:33.33, though. Great job, great season.

Will Schanz: 34:19.29, personal best
79, 2:42 (83), 4:04 (82), 5:22 (78)
6:42 (80), 8:03 (81), 9:21 (78), 10:40 (79)
11:59 (79), 13:18 (79), 14:39 (81), 16:01 (82)
17:23 (82), 18:46 (83), 20:08 (82), 21:33 (85)
22:56 (83), 24:20 (84), 25:24 (84), 27:10 (86)
27:37 (87), 30:05 (88), 31:32 (87), 32:57 (85)
34:19.29 (82.29)
First 5km: 16:42; second 5km: 17:27.29
Coach Pete says: Kind of obvious where the wheels came off the wagon. Overall, though, a strong effort. I definitely feel you have potential in this event.

Brendan Green: 36:13.76
84, 2:47 (83), 4:10 (83), 5:34 (84)
7:00 (86), 8:26 (86), 9:48 (82), 11:14 (86)
12:40 (86), 14:07 (87), 15:34 (87), 17:01 (87)
18:31 (90), 19:56 (85), 21:25 (89), 22:54 (89)
24:23 (89), 25:51 (88), 27:20 (89), 28:49 (89)
30:18 (89), 31:47 (89), 32:18 (91), 34:49 (91)
36:13.76 (84.76)
First 5km: 17:48; second 5km: 18:25.76)
Coach Pete says: Early laps were a little quick, but what could you do? You had to run with the NP kid. Otherwise, a solid effort with a few slowish laps in there.

Women’s results

1500-meter run

Becca Denise: 5:04.11, fourth place, huge PR
78, 2:41 (83), 4:05 (84), 5:04.11
Coach Pete says: Wow! Great race, excellent kick. Very exciting stuff.

Allyson O’Brien: 5:11.53
78, 2:40 (82), 4:07 (87), 5:11.53
Coach Pete says: Solid, strong race that kind of went unnoticed in the excitement of Becca’s race. Nicely done.

Kelly Gould: 5:27.56
80, 2:45 (85), 4:16 (91), 5:27.56
Coach Pete says: Solid start, but overall not great, one of those days.

5000-meter run

Addie DiFrancesco (McCann Harriers): 18:37.46, first place

84, 2:53 (89), 4:20 (87), 5:49 (89)
7:18 (89), 8:48 (90), 10:18 (90), 11:48 (90)
13:19 (91), 14:51 (92), 16:22 (91), 17:53 (91)
18:37.46 (44.46)
Coach Pete says: Great to have Addie back on the track!

MAAC meet entry list

For those interested in weekend MAAC meet entries, they are on the MAAC sports Web site. Click here for the final entry/heat list for this weekend's meet.

Vassar tonight: Who's running what

Here is tonight's schedule again for the Vassar meet, along with who is running for us in which events ...

7:15 M 3000m Steeplechase: Colin Johnson. Making his steeple debut! Should be very interesting and highly entertaining.
7:30 W 1500m: Allyson O'Brien, Kelley Gould, Becca Denise
7:45 M 1500m: Brian Townsend (McCann Harriers), Conor Shelley (McCann Harriers)
8:25 M 800m: Trevor Thomas
8:40 W 5K: Addie DiFrancesco (McCann Harriers)
9:05 M 5K: Ryan Brown, Pat Duggan, Ryan Fitzsimons, Colin Johnson (assuming no broken bones in the steeple), Conor Shelley (McCann Harriers)
9:35 Combined 10K: Brendan Green, Mike Keegan (Meegan), Will Schanz, Curtis Jensen (McCann Harriers)

Hope to see you there ...

Building a dynasty in Rhinebeck

Check out the following link to today's outstanding Poughkeepsie Journal article by my old colleague and pal Phil Strum. Phil writes about Marist alum Jason Grady and the powerhouse track program he is building at his alma mater in Rhinebeck. The article mentions Jason and his brother Jeff, another Marist Running alum, as well as Matt Pool, the current Dover coach and former Marist runner.

As I have noted before, it's great to see Marist Running alums coaching and having success at it.

It should be noted that Mr. Bucket (Dave Swift) has quietly done the same thing down the road at Spackenkill High School for more than a decade now. One of his Spartans, who also happens to be an avid blog follower, will be joining our team in the fall. Also, today is Mr. Bucket's birthday! Go on Facebook or whatever and wish him a happy 50th birthday. (Oh! He's really not 50; I think he is 36? 38? Help me out, Billy!)

Hope to see some of you tonight at Vassar ...

Thursday, April 29, 2010

Updated Vassar time schedule

We do not have any field-event entries. Here is the updated time schedule for Friday night at Vassar, based on the meet entries.

7:00 W 3000m Steeplechase
7:15 M 3000m Steeplechase
7:30 W 1500m
7:45 M 1500m
8:00 W 100m H
8:10 M 110m H
8:20 W 800m
8:25 M 800m
8:30 W 200m
8:35 M 200m
8:40 W 5K
9:05 M 5K
9:25 W 4x400m
9:30 M 4x400m
9:35 Combine 10K

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

MAAC time schedule

Saturday field

4 p.m.: Hammer men, javelin women, long jump men
5:30 p.m.: Hammer women, javelin men, long jump women

Saturday track

4:30 p.m.: 4x800 men
4:45 p.m.: 4x800 women
5:00 p.m.: Steeple men
5:15 p.m.: Steeple women
5:30 p.m.: 10km men
6:15 p.m.: 10km women

Sunday field

11 a.m.: high jump men, triple jump women, shot put men
12:30 p.m.: high jump women, triple jump men, shot put women, pole vault men
1:00 p.m.: discus men
2:00 p.m.: pole vault women
2:30 p.m.: discus women

Sunday track

12 noon: 4x100 men
12:05 p.m.: 4x100 women
12:10 p.m.: 1500 men
12:25 p.m.: 1500 women
12:35 p.m.: 110 hurdles men
12:45 p.m.: 100 hurdles women
12:55 p.m.: 400 men
1:05 p.m.: 400 women
1:15 p.m.: 100 men
1:20 p.m.: 100 women
1:30 p.m.: 800 men
1:40 p.m.: 800 women
1:50 p.m.: 400 hurdles men
2:00 p.m.: 400 hurdles women
2:10 p.m.: 200 men
2:20 p.m.: 200 women
2:30 p.m.: 5000 men
2:55 p.m.: 5000 women
3:15 p.m.: 4x400 men
3:20 p.m.: 4x400 women

The answer, my friend ...

... Is blowin' in the wind ... so sang Bob Dylan about 50 years ago.

Where was he today? Surely, he was NOT at the Vassar College track, where the weather literally "blew." Wow! How windy was it? Glad you asked. It was so windy ... that a tree in the woods -- over the fence around the 1500-meter starting line -- came tumbling down, succumbing to the stiffest of chilly breezes.

What makes this windy and chilly day interesting is that the long-range forecast for MAACs at Rider this weekend ... is calling for insanely warm temperatures in the 80s and near 90 on Sunday. Of course, being Rider, it will be windy.

Why? How can this be?

The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind ...

The workout went as well as could be expected. A personal highlight was seeing Brian Townsend step on the track for the first time in about forever (give or take a few months) to rip out some extended strides. He looked great and surprised himself and me with his speed! Good stuff. I guess you could say he "blew me away" with his performance. Come on. I had to! Too easy.

Otherwise, we just had to monitor things to make sure the effort was there, but not too laborious.

For those keeping score at home (and don't call and say otherwise, because I know you are, as Steve Somers would say), here is the order events for the Matthew Vassar Open at the Vassar track on Friday night.

Rolling schedule on the track
Starting at 7 p.m.

Women then men
3000 steeplechase
1500 meters
100/110 hurdles
800 meters
200 meters
5000 meters
4x400 meters
10000 meters

Monday, April 26, 2010

A note about Saturday at MAAC

As many of you know, I will NOT be traveling to Rider for MAAC Day 1 on Saturday. My daughter will be having her First Communion on that day and obviously I need to be home for that and for the Big Family Celebration at our house.

Coach Horton will be on the men's bus (there are two buses for travel to MAAC). Lombi (LomBRO) will be helping out with the meal money and of course with the very vital task of recording the splits and results for the Saturday races.

It will be tough not to be there for the team; I will miss supporting the men and women on the track and in the field (javelin is on Saturday). But alas, family comes first. Always.

PLEASE NOTE WELL: It is fully expected that the team will be what Marist Track Teams always are on the road: Classy and well-representative of our program. This means, in no particular order ...

--Wear Marist Track or Marist Gear at all times.
--Act respectfully and not like a bunch of goofballs. This may be difficult to do ON the bus, but it is ABSOLUTELY REQUIRED OFF THE BUS. Coach Horton, Coach Chuck (don't mess with him!) and the Captains will be enforcing. Make their jobs easy and act like grown-ups (or as close to it as possible).
--Cheer on your teammates in a classy, supportive way. Men AND women. Remember, we are one program.
--Be quiet, calm and respectful in the hotel (side note: The continental breakfast at this hotel ROCKS. French toast sticks, bacon and outstanding coffee ... this old coach will miss it!)

I will be driving down to Rider early Sunday morning in a van. Most of you will be traveling via bus on Saturday. A select few will come down with me on Sunday. I will provide a detailed list of who travels on which days later in the week.

Basically, if you are competing, you are going down on Saturday. However, if you have any questions about when you are going, check with me.

Practice schedule for a busy week ...

In an attempt to organize and clarify this very complex week of training and racing, here is a tentative breakdown of the men’s distance team day-to-day practice and competition activities below.

Complicating matters are the fact that we may not have a van to use on Tuesday and we DEFINITELY WILL NOT have any vans to use on Wednesday. So, if at all possible, please bring cars on either/both days so that we can get our work done at the track.

Any questions or corrections, call or text me.

Tuesday Road Fartlek: Brown, Duggan, Fitz, Colin, Meegan, Masto, Schanz, Keegan and Townsend (?)
Tuesday Track (Spackenkill): Cuesta, Green, Curtis, Nicoletti, Luke, Conor, Trevor, Vess, Keegan and Townsend (?)
Tuesday Track (Vassar): Coach Horton's sprint team. Note: Coach Horton WILL have a van for this practice
Wednesday track (Vassar): Quimes, Flint, Havard, Janczyk, Lipari, Masto, McMullen, Joel, Nestor, Panebianco, Posch, Girma, Zak
Thursday track (Spackenkill): Vess
Friday: Vassar meet at the track
Saturday: Bus departure, 11:30 a.m. Please arrive at 11:15 a.m.

Yale Springtime Invitational

Below are results and splits from Yale on Sunday. As stated in last night’s post, the weather was not as bad as predicted.

The weather definitely favored the longer events (mid distance and long distance) while not being ideal for sprinting. I think the results bear this out, although the sprinters had a pretty decent day overall – notwithstanding the botched 4x100 handoff on the men’s side, which we will work to perfect this week. For the Penn Relays entrants, it was a long weekend of travel and racing and they got through it well.

The season now rounds the corner and heads for the finishing stretch …

Men’s results and splits

100-meter dash


Mike McCloskey 11.90
Darrey Bushey 11.95
Miquel Requena 12.10
Neal Viets 12.43

200-meter dash

Phil Krupka 23.75
Colin Frederickson 23.85
John Kristie 24.67
Darren Bushey 24.70
Josh Lopez 24.86
Miquel Requena 25.20

400-meter dash

Chris Vanzetta 53.03 (season best)

800-meter run

Kyle Havard 1:58.57 (season best)
Coach Pete says: Best race in a while, great bounce-back effort.

Dan Conklin 2:02.08 (season best)
Coach Pete says: Great job stepping up in distance.

1,500-meter run

Tom Lipari 4:03.69 (season best)
65, 2:11 (66), 3:16 (35), 4:03.69 (last 400m in 63.69)
Coach Pete says: Strong race but kick can get better.

Sam McMullen 4:04.01 (HUGE personal best)
65, 2:12 (67), 3:15 (33), 4:04.01 (last 400m in 64.01)
Coach Pete says: Wow! Wow! Wow!

Billy Posch 4:07.63 (personal best)
65, 2:11 (66), 3:17 (66), 4:07.63
Coach Pete says: Strong race but kick can get better.

Matt Panebianco 4:08.21 (personal best)
63.6, 2:09.5 (65.9), 3:17.1 (67.6), 4:08.21 (running in fastest section)
Coach Pete says: Went out too aggressively in fast heat.

Pat Duggan 4:10.79 (HUGE personal best)
65.3, 2:12.9 (67.6), 3:20.6 (67.7), 4:10.79
Coach Pete says: Wow! Wow! Wow!

Zak Smetana 4:15.36
66, 2:12 (66), 3:19 (67), 4:15.36)

Ryan Brown 4:19.35 (personal best)
66, 2:18 (72), 3:29 (71), 4:19.35
Coach Pete says: Excellent kick and race!

Ryan Fitzsimons 4:19.73 (HUGE personal best)
66, 2:16 (70), 3:28 (72), 4:19.73
Coach Pete says: A little too slow in the middle but overall an excellent effort start to finish.

Colin Johnson 4:19.84
64, 2:14 (70), 3:25 (71), 4:19.84

3,000-meter steeplechase

Greg Masto 10:54.61
82, 2:51 (89), 4:24 (93), 5:59 (95), 7:35 (96), 9:10 (95), 10:54.61 (94.61)

5,000-meter run

(Note: Thanks to M-Diddy Panebianco and Billy Posch for helping with the splits. M-Diddy guessed his predicted order of finish and predicted finishing times. They are listed below the splits. I said before the race that I would be thrilled with his predictions, and three of the BRO freshmen actually ran FASTER than the M-Diddy prognostication)

Sean Nestor 15:25.07 (personal best)
72, 2:25 (73), 3:37 (72), 4:51 (74)
6:05 (74), 7:20 (75), 8:34 (74), 9:50 (76)
11:05 (75), 12:21 (76), 13:36 (75), 14:49 (73)
15:25.07 (36.07)
Panebianco’s prerace prediction: 15:29.4

Joel Moss 15:33.56 (personal best)
73, 2:26 (73), 3:39 (73), 4:52 (73)
6:07 (75), 7:22 (75), 8:37 (75), 9:52 (75)
11:09 (77), 12:27 (78), 13:43 (76), 14:58 (75)
15:33.56 (35.56)
Panebianco’s prerace prediction: 15:36.7
Coach Pete says: Joel’s high school 3200 PR was well over 10:00. To see him split 9:52 for 3200 and 14:58 for 4800 is truly awe-inspiring. The pride of B’ville has had himself quite a nice freshman year of collegiate running.

Mike Keegan 15:40.88 (HUGE personal best)
74, 2:27 (73), 3:41 (74), 4:56 (75)
6:10 (74), 7:27 (77), 8:43 (76), 9:59 (76)
11:14 (75), 12:31 (77), 13:47 (76), 15:04 (77)
15:40.88 (36.88)
Panebianco’s prerace prediction: 15:53.8
Coach Pete says: Meegan was a little quicker than Joel in high school, but not much. Like Joel, he was thoroughly unrecruited. To see him split 9:59 and 15:04 was equally awe-inspiring. And in one of the more unique moments in Marist racing history, Meegan actually did the Sign of the Cross as he split 15:04 with 200 meters to go -- much to the great pleasure of his teammates, who erupted in cheers as he ran toward the finish line and his massive PR, his first sub-16:00. Good stuff!

David Raucci 15:52.23
72, 2:24 (72), 3:37 (73), 4:51 (74)
6:07 (76), 7:22 (75), 8:37 (75), 9:56 (79)
11:16 (80), 12:36 (80), 13:56 (80), 15:13 (77)
15:52.23 (39.23)
Panebianco’s prerace prediction: 15:10.2
Coach Pete says: Clearly from 3000 meters to the finish, David was in dire need of a nap. Our favorite Barefoot Boy has been studying feverishly in the hopes of making the grade to get to graduation, and that is obviously his primary focus these days. Still, he was able to help the boys by being a human pacer and then target. Hopefully, David has one good race left in him before graduation.

Will Schanz 16:18.24 (personal best)
74, 2:28 (74), 3:44 (74), 5:01 (77), 6:17 (76), 7:35 (78), 8:55 (80), 10:14 (79), 11:34 (80), 12:54 (80), 14:17 (83), 15:40 (83), 16:18.24 (38.24)
Panebianco’s prerace prediction: 15:59.9
Coach Pete says: Will went out way too hard. I knew it, but apparently he did not. Too bad, as I do believe he is ready to break 16:00. Still, a PR is a PR, and we’ll take it.

400-meter intermediate hurdles
Mike Clifford 1:00.16

1,600-meter relay
Marist 3:31.61 (Josh Lopez 53.22, Colin Frederickson 51.57, Chris Vanzetta 53.12, Mike Clifford 53.24)

Women’s results and splits

100-meter dash

Kim Ladouceur 14.46

200-meter dash
Holly Burns 26.99

400-meter dash
Holly Burns 59.40

800-meter run
Brittany Burns 2:25.29
Kim Bartlett 2:26.81
Jillian Corley 2:32.21
Kelley Gould 2:40.52

1500-meter run

Brittany Burns 4:48.69
76.0, 2:33.2 (77.2), 3:50.6 (77.4), 4:48.69 (77.69 last 400m)
Coach Pete says: Excellent race as Brit continues her slow march back from mono. Strong kick!

Jillian Corley 4:57.10
78, 2:39 (81), 3:58 (79), 4:57.10 (78.10 last 400m)

Julie Hudak 5:02.69
78, 2:38 (80), 4:00 (82), 5:02.69 (81.69 last 400m)

Allyson O’Brien 5:17.39
79, 2:43 (84), 4:12 (89), 5:17.39 (88.39 last 400m)

3000-meter run

Katie Messina 10:39.10
81, 2:45 (84), 4:10 (85), 5:37 (87)
7:03 (86), 8:32 (89), 9:59 (87), 10:39.10 (40.10 last 200m)

Rachel Lichtenwalner 11:42.71
86, 2:56 (90), 4:28 (92), 6:02 (94), 7:39 (97), 9:18 (99), -- (missed split), 11:42.71

Pole vault

Justine Colabraro 2.95 meters (9 feet, 8 inches)
Coach Pete says: The pole vault was moved inside and Justine had a good day. Coach Horton would have liked it to be an even better day so he could have stayed in there longer and avoid the cold/damp weather, but in all good stuff.

Long jump
Brooke Kristensen 4.28 meters (14 feet, 0.5 inches)

Photo of alumni at Boston



Above is a picture of Pete Startz and Tom Henry from last week's Boston Marathon. As you can see, Pete is sporting the stylish new MART team uniforms while Tommy decided to go old-school. Both of them temporarily defaced the uniforms so that they could get some cheers from the raucous Boston crowd. Nicely done!

Sunday, April 25, 2010

Good day at Yale ...

Complete results, splits and other details to come at some point on Monday. For now, a short note to say that the Yale meet today was better than expected on two fronts.

1. The weather wasn't terrible. The rain was a persistent mist for the first half of the meet before tapering in the afternoon. And the wind was light. Actually, pretty decent racing conditions, especially for the longer events.
2. The times for many runners were huge season- or personal-bests. Wow! Great stuff! Wait till you see the big jumps some of the guys hit on Sunday afternoon.

Lastly, it was great seeing my nephew Doug Colaizzo running for another red-and-white team -- NJIT. Doug ran the 1500 and 800, and ran tough in both races. Luckily for all involved, Doug's running form is quite a bit better than his uncle's.

Another busy week ahead, with Vassar on Friday and MAACs on Saturday/Sunday. Because of the quirky nature of the racing schedule -- some racing on Friday, some racing on Saturday and Sunday and some just racing on Sunday -- the team training schedule will be highly disjointed this week. We are definitely in winding-down mode, though.

OK, enough for tonight, more later ...

Saturday, April 24, 2010

Women's 4x800 relay at Penn

The women's 4x800 relay team competed this afternoon at Penn Relays. The ladies did well, putting together a time of 9:31.45.

Coach Chuck reported that -- typical of Penn -- our women were stuck in the paddock area for a long time. In addition, he said leadoff leg Jackie Gamboli had to endure a physical first leg with a lot of jostling for position. Here were the splits Chuck texted me ...

Jackie Gamboli: 2:19.5
Briana Crowe: 2:21.6
Nicole Weir: 2:24.6
Kelley Hanifin: 2:24.0

Next up is a very wet day at Yale. I will have multiple layers of water resistant clothing on, and I recommend you do the same if you will be in attendance.

Will post results and splits after I dry out tomm night or Monday.

Friday, April 23, 2010

Penn Relays 4x400 relay

Got word a little while ago from Coach Horton about our men's 4x400 relay today at Penn Relays.

The men ran a season's-best time of 3:30.33, with the following splits.

Dan Conklin: 53.8
Colin Frederickson: 51.6
Phil Krupka: 51.2
John Kristie: 53.6

The women's 4x800 relay runs on Saturday at about 2 p.m. Rumor has it that afterwards freshman Jackie Gamboli will challenge Usain Bolt in a 1,500-meter race. If Jackie were fresh, I say she wins. But doubling back from the 4x800, Bolt might have a chance.

Seriously, I am sure they will enjoy watching Bolt on what should be a beautiful Saturday afternoon at the Penn Relays.

Matty and me


Thanks for QUIMES for e-mailing me this picture he took of me a few weeks ago at Bucknell, posing with the dedication to American Hero Christy Mathewson.

For those of you who haven't seen me in awhile, you'll notice that I'm wearing about 8 layers of clothing on this beautiful day, and that my beard is pretty much all gray at this point.

Yale on Sunday

Bus departure: 7:30 a.m.
Note on the weather: Wet and cool. Plan accordingly. Coxe Cage will be available for dry camp-out locations.

Order of events
Rolling schedule, starting at 11 a.m.


4x100 relay women
4x100 relay men
Steeple women
Steeple men
1500 women
1500 men
110 hurdles men
100 hurdles women
400 women
400 men
100 women
100 men
800 women
800 men
400 hurdles women
400 hurdles men
200 women
200 men
3000 women
5000 men
4x400 women
4x400 men

Thursday Night at Penn Relays

Thursday Night at Penn ... wasn’t so great for the Running Red Foxes …

We did get two personal-best performances, however slight they were. Hey. A PR is a PR. But still, overall it was a disappointing night for us. Such is life.

In the 3,000-meter steeplechase, Arquimedes DelaCruz never could get into a great rhythm and finished 13th in 9:25.28. This is slightly better than his season-opening 9:25.90 at Sam Howell/Princeton three weeks ago.

In the same event, senior captain Matt Janczyk was running well, but took a nasty spill in the water after the third lap. Later as he was approaching the fourth-lap split, he did a face-plant after tripping on one of the barriers. He struggled in, battered and bruised, much to the delight of the crowd. Like some fans of auto racing that are looking for a car wreck, the Penn crowd for the steeple loves a good tumble. So Matt was unwittingly the star of the show for these folks.

In the 5,000, Girma Segni warmed up and did some strides but opted not to race due to a severe upper respiratory infection. He wasn’t even going to make the trip, but I encouraged him to come down and give it a go. Girm is not one to back away from a challenge. He has run some of his best races while less than 100 percent. It just wasn’t happening tonight. Too bad, because we feel he is in great shape!

Adam Vess had to drop out of the second section of the 5km. He was cruising along pretty good for a little less than 2 miles, when suddenly his breathing became labored and he nearly blacked out. He got checked out by the medics at Penn, who surmised this might be a side effect from the severe anemia he has been battling since indoors. Again, Vess is not one to back away from a good race, and it was tough to see him in this state.

Matt Flint got 12th out of 41 in the 5km race with a PR time of 14:37.43. He just missed the IC4A standard of 14:36.00 – due in large part to too-slow early laps. He had a tremendous kick and was able to edge out an old high school rival of his, which was thrilling for him. But he had too much left and needed to move sooner. The PR was slightly faster than his 14:38.77 run at Bucknell two weeks ago. Again, a PR is a PR, but it was slightly disappointing to miss the IC4A standard in this event.

Here are the splits from Thursday Night at Penn:

3,000 steeple

Arquimedes DelaCruz: 9:25.28. Personal-best time
74, 2:28 (74), 3:42 (74), 4:59 (77), 6:16 (77), 7:37 (81), 8:58 (81), 9:25.28 (27.28). Note: Penn splits are WEIRD because of the odd layout of the steeple.

Matt Janczyk: 9:56.10
75, 2:30 (75), 3:44 (74), 5:04 (80) fell twice in this lap!; 6:27 (83), 7:55 (88), 9:24 (89), 9:56.10 (32.10)

5,000-meter run

Matt Flint: 14:37.43. Personal-best time
73, 2:23 (70), 3:34 (71), 4:43 (69)
5:54 (71), 7:05 (71), 8:15 (70), 9:25 (70)
10:34 (69), 11:46 (72), 12:57 (71), 14:07 (70)
14:37.43 (30.43)

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Shout-out to Schanz

Freshman Will "Never At A Loss For Words" Schanz texted me after my post earlier in the day about today's workout, pointing out -- ACCURATELY, I MIGHT ADD -- that it was HIS idea to do 400-meter repeats today. He had suggested it a few days ago.

Suggesting quarters to me is kind of like saying, "Hey coach, I've got a Dr Pepper and some fries over here, want some? For free?" I love quarters, and feel they are an excellent, all-purpose workout.

Despite his many quirks, Schanz often comes up with excellent workout suggestions and feedback. In fact, his suggested fartlek workout earlier in the winter was so good (admittedly, it is very similar to long-time fartleks I have come up with) that I have taken to naming it "The Schanz."

For the record, The Schanz consists of 5 minutes hard, 4 minutes easy, 3 minutes hard, 2 minutes easy, 1 minute hard. Pretty simple and efficient. For those daring and brave enough, two sets of the 5-3-1 with full recovery between has been dubbed (by me, of course) as "The Schanzinator."

Nice.

By the way, Schanz is running the 10k at Vassar next week. Given his penchant for highly dramatic (and tough) races, 25 laps of Will Schanz could amount to a mini-series or a twisted reality show with no commercials.

Again, thanks for the continued input. Makes the process fun, which is half the battle.

From sprinting to marathoning

Thanks to good friend and former Poughkeepsie Journal colleague Sean T. McMann (check out his fancy blog right here) for the tip on former Journal intern and Marist track sprinter Todd Bivona, who completed Monday's Boston Marathon.

Hard to believe that Todd went from the 100-meter dash up to the 26.2-mile marathon. I have not talked to him, but I heard he was doing Boston as a charity run. Todd did a great job, finishing in 3:44:37. His splits:

First 13.1 miles: 1:53:37
Second 13.1 miles: 1:51:00

Another negative split, very impressive!

Inmates running the asylum

You know, I always welcome input from my athletes in terms of their training. It is vital to the success of the coach-athlete relationship. After all, THEY are the ones doing the running, and THEY know how their bodies are feeling and what they might need.

This does not mean that an athlete can run roughshod over a coach's instructions. But sound, reasoned input can be vital.

Today as we headed out to the Vassar track for workouts, freshman Matt Panebianco made the bold move of coming up with a workout for the middle-distance men. Today's protocol called for 400s for all groups -- you know how I love the multi-purpose value of quarter-mile repeats. In truth, I did not have 100 percent confidence in the 400-repeats workout I had concocted for the middle-distance group. So M-Diddy's idea was welcomed, if not a bit brash.

He pulled out a piece of loose-leaf paper with the following workout written on it:

15-20 minute warmup
4x400 (64-68) w/90 second rest
full recovery (400 jog)
2xnegative split 400 (35, 29) with 1:30-2:00 rest
full recovery (400 jog)
2x200 (28-27), w/1:00-2:00 rest
15-20 minute cooldown


Hmm. Intriguing. While the men went out on their warmup, I thought about this workout. I liked this workout! So we scrapped the quarters in favor of this. Curtis timed this group, but I monitored it closely. Here's how it went, with some adjustments by some gray-bearded guy who was watching ...

15-20-minute warmup
200-meter stride/200-meter jog
4x400 at prescribed paces, mostly 65s. I bumped the rest up to 200-meter jog/2 minutes
2xneg split 400s, which the boys really nailed! Several of them closed in 27. Nicely done. We increased the rest to full recovery after both
Replaced the 2x200 with 1x200 stride (31-32) and 1x200 fast (27 range)


The guys did a nice job with the workout. It was hard, with a fair amount of turnover. But the weather was good, warm and little wind. And these boys are not racing till Yale on Sunday. We'll do some light, extended strides on Friday and see what happens.

Again, it's not often I scrap a workout in favor of another one written by an athlete. But today, it worked out fine.

The rest of the distance boys that did either 2 sets of 6x400 or 2 sets of 8x400 did a nice job. Conor was a good boy and did not BLOW IT BY RUNNING TOO FAST LIKE LAST WEEK. Oh. Sorry. Yeah, I'm still a little annoying about that. Anyway, it went well today, and Conor did all 16 in the prescribed paces.

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Final thoughts on Boston

Based on conversations with those who ran and looking at the results, it appears the weather was almost perfect yesterday at Boston. The men's winner, Robert Cheruiyot The Younger, is just 21 years old! In my opinion, his sub-2:06 in Boston might approach at world-best performance on a faster course (London, Berlin).

But listen. I do not want to sound like an expert, because I'm not. As stated before in this fancy blog, I'm more of a baseball fan than a track/running fan. You want legitimate running commentary and news, go to www.letsrun.com.

But allow me to pontificate about something I find fascinating with the young R. Cheruiyot's record run on Monday. The dude is 21 years old! Yes, I know I said that already. But the fact that he is so young and so good at the marathon flies in the face of conventional thinking that says distance runners should not move up to the marathon distance until they have matured and mastered their track speed and shorter-distance prowess.

And don't start with the "Oh, he's Kenyan" argument. Horsepoop. Kenyans and Ethiopians are great marathoners and distance runners for one reason: They work really, really hard in training. That is not to say that Americans are not hard workers in the sport; we are, and the results are beginning to show. In the African countries that produce great runners, the sport is a way of life, and the hard-work ethos is cultivated at an early age.

Anyway, I find it fascinating and somewhat gratifying that this young Kenyan did what he did. In my own running life, I often feel like I blew it by running my first marathon at age 19, and by running 5 marathons -- including my PR and my second-fastest time -- before the current legal drinking age. It may be part of the reason why, as I approach 46, I am basically washed up and really slow as a runner.

I still believe that it is smart to wait a while before seriously tackling the marathon distance. As a college coach, the thinking is obvious. I don't want my athletes doing marathons until after they graduate (unless their name is Luke Shane!).

And as always, I remain extremely proud of my alums who do move up to the marathon distance, no matter their motivation and results. The fact that they love running that much to do it is gratifying enough for me.

Lastly, I will leave you with the following fascinating statistics about the 1983 Boston Marathon, sent to me via e-mail from Marty McGowan ...

Longtime San Diego marathoner Craig Snapp has collected the following amazing facts about the 1983 Boston Marathon.
1. Americans grabbed 22 of the top 23 finishes, with Dean Matthews finishing 23rd in 2:14:46.
2. Overall, 84 runners broke 2:20. That still stands as a record for a single marathon. Seventy-six of the 84 were Americans. Africans: 0. Last year, by comparison, six Americans broke 2:20.
3. A total of 313 finishers broke 2:30.
4. In addition, 2,647 runners broke 3 hours. That puts the '83 Boston third in this category among all marathons ever run, including many since that were six to seven times larger.
5. The sub-3-hour finishers represented 49.1% of all finishers. Last year, 1342 runners broke 3 hours, totaling less than 5.8% of the field.
6. The average finishing time for all men was 2:59:51.
7. A decade after his win in 1973, Jon Anderson ran only 16 seconds slower than the 2:16:03 that brought him the laurel wreath in '73. This time, he finished 34th.
8. One runner changed strategy moments before the starter's gun was fired, and covered the first mile in 4:47. That runner was Joan Benoit. She broke the tape in 2:22:43, shattering the world record by 2:46. Last year, the top American woman, Kara Goucher, finished third in 2:32:35.

Final Boston stats for alumni runners

Joe Tarantello: Class of 2008
412th overall, 381st among men, 320th in age group (20-24)
Final time: 2:47:07
Half marathon split: 1:21:45

Tom Henry: Class of 2000
2597th overall, 2396 among men, 1627 in age group (30-34)
Final time: 3:09:38
Half marathon split: 1:37:27

Pete Startz: Class of 2000
14168th overall, 9337 among men, 3585 in age group (30-34)
Final time: 3:55:13
Half marathon split: 1:40:29

Monday, April 19, 2010

Penn Relays entries

Busy times coming in the next few days and weeks. Who is running at Penn? Glad you asked ...

Thursday night distance races

Steeple: Matt Janczyk, Arquimedes DelaCruz
5k: Adam Vess, Girma Segni, Matt Flint

Friday afternoon

Men's 4x400 relay (John Kristie, Dan Conklin, Phil Krupka, Colin Frederickson, Josh Lopez). Order/alternate to be determined ...

Saturday afternoon

Women's 4x800 relay (Jackie Gamboli, Briana Crowe, Nicole Weir, Kelley Hanifin)

Later Saturday afternoon: Excited Marist contingent watches Usain Bolt!

Sunday

Yale meet: Most of the rest of the team

Friday, April 30

Vassar meet: We will have a fair number of distance runners in the 1500, 5km and (yes!) 10km under the lights. Also, special guest appearances from McCann Harriers Curtis Jensen, Conor Shelley and Addie DiFrancesco. Should be a night to remember.

Tom Henry with a huge negative split at Boston!

Forgive me for these excitable posts ...

Tom Henry (Class of 2000) was a good friend to his old pal Pete Startz (class of 2000), hanging back with him for the first part of the race.

Then, TH got down to business and requalified for Boston with a 3:09:38. Check out these negative split numbers from Tom:

First 13.1: 1:37:27
Second 13.1: 1:32:11

That, my friends, just does not happen on a course like Boston.

Wow!

Joey Tat shines at Boston!

Joe Tarantello just completed Boston in 2:47:07. His half-marathon split was 1:21:45. An excellent effort for Joey Tat!

Joe T. qualified for Boston with his then-PR of 2:56:24 at Hartford. That's a more-than-9-minute improvement in less than a year -- from 6:44 pace down to 6:23 pace. Great stuff!

More results later as they come in ...

Scott's Race results

Thanks to Marty McGowan for sending me these stats ...

Marist Alumni Racing Team took the team title in a narrow margin over DK Chargers, overall time of 1:28:16 to 1:29:21

Winning team members ...

Mike Rolek 15:42.65 (first overall)
Matt Walsh 16:12.97 (second overall, in his triumphant return to the MART red-and-white)
Tom Dixon 17:28.55 (sixth overall)
DJ Paulson 19:22.22 (25th overall)
Chris Baum 19:27.31 (28th overall)

Can someone explain to me why Michael J. Bamberger (23rd overall, 19:19.65) was not on the MART team for team scoring?

Also of note: Scott LaPiedra (Scotty La) was 13th overall in 18:35.36.

Nicely done, men!

Boston Marathon today

The race is going on as we speak. I am tracking three Marist Alumni Racing Team members who are there ...

Joe Tarantello (Class of 2008)
Pete Startz (Class of 2000)
Tom Henry (Class of 2000)

Pete and Tom stopped by at Mets on Saturday en route to Boston. Great to see them!

Back later with their times ...

Sunday, April 18, 2010

Scott's Race

Rolek texted me a little while ago to tell me he was the overall champion at Scott's Race (in memory of Scotty La's father, FDNY hero Scott LaPiedra), winning the 5k on Staten Island in 15:40, despite a foot injury.

Rolek led the Marist Alumni Racing Team to the team title at Scott's Race, a fitting honor for our boys. More details as I get them. For now, what's more to say but: NICELY DONE, MEN!

Saturday, April 17, 2010

Mets results and splits

Here are today’s statistics. Lots of numbers. Thanks to Alex (LomBRO) Lombardozzi for the splits assistance. A huge help.

Men’s results and splits

100-meter dash

17. Darren Bushey 11.89 (season best)

200-meter dash
16. Darren Bushey 24.17 (season best)

400-meter run
14. Phil Krupka 51.68 (season best)
23. John Kristie 52.80 (season best)
24. Dan Conklin 53.18
25. Colin Frederickson 53.39

400-meter intermediate hurdles
16. Mike Clifford 1:02.30

800-meter run
10. Tom Lipari 1:58.36 (season best)
58, 60.36
11. Matt Panebianco 1:58.42 (season best)
57, 61.42
16. Chris Vanzetta 2:00.31 (season best)
58, 62.31
30. Trevor Thomas 2:07.86 (season best)
61, 66.86

1,500-meter run
20. Billy Posch 4:12.23 (season best)
66, 2:12 (66), 3:20 (68), 4:12.23 (52.23 last 300m)
24. Colin Johnson 4:18.34 (season best)
65, 2:13 (68), 3:23 (70), 4:18.34 (55.34 last 300m

3,000-meter steeplechase
11. Greg Masto 10:50.81 (season best)
80, 2:44 (84), 4:13 (89), 5:40 (87), 7:10 (90), 8:39 (89), 10:08 (89), 10:50.81 (42.81)

5,000-meter run
6. Sam McMullen 15:33.23 (personal best)
72, 2:29 (77), 3:43 (74), 4:56 (73)
6:11 (75), 7:26 (75), 8:39 (73), 9:54 (75)
11:10 (76), 12:28 (78), 13:44 (76), 14:58 (74)
15:33.23 (35.23)

12. Ryan Brown 15:58.78 (personal best, first sub-16:00!)
75, 2:33 (78), 3:49 (76), 5:05 (76)
6:23 (78), 7:40 (77), 8:58 (78), 10:17 (79)
11:34 (77), 12:54 (80), 14:10 (76), 15:25 (75)
15:58.78 (33.78)

13. Ryan Fitzsimons 15:59.95 (personal best, first sub-16:00!)
74, 2:31 (77), 3:47 (76), 5:03 (76)
6:20 (77), 7:36 (76), 8:54 (78), 10:11 (77)
11:31 (80), 12:48 (77), 14:08 (80), 15:24 (76)
15:59.95 (35.95)

15. Colin Johnson 16:20.30
73, 2:30 (77), 3:46 (76), 5:02 (76)
6:21 (79), 7:40 (79), 9:00 (80), 10:22 (82)
11:42 (80), 13:03 (81), 14:24 (81), 15:43 (79)
16:20.30 (37.30)

16. Will Schanz 16:23.82
73, 2:31 (78), 3:48 (77), 5:05 (77)
6:23 (78), 7:41 (78), 9:01 (80), 10:22 (81)
11:44 (82), 13:05 (81), 14:25 (80), 15:47 (82)
16:23.82 (36.82)

10,000-meter run
2. Mike Nicoletti 32:35.61 (Junior National qualifier! And 36-second personal best)
77, 2:33 (76), 3:50 (77), 5:07 (77)
6:25 (78), 7:44 (79), 9:02 (78), 10:19 (77)
11:38 (79), 12:56 (78), 14:16 (80), 15:36 (80)
16:55 (79), 18:15 (80), 19:33 (78), 20:51 (78)
22:11 (80), 23:30 (79), 24:49 (79), 26:08 (79)
27:27 (79), 28:45 (78), 30:04 (79), 31:23 (79)
32:35.61 (72.61)
First 5km: 16:15; second 5km: 16:20.61

4. Sean Nestor 33:01.09 (personal best)
76, 2:33 (77), 3:49 (76), 5:07 (78)
6:25 (78), 7:43 (78), 9:01 (78), 10:18 (78)
11:37 (79), 12:55 (78), 14:15 (80), 15:34 (79)
16:55 (79), 18:16 (81), 19:35 (79), 20:54 (79)
22:16 (82), 23:35 (79), 24:57 (82), 26:19 (82)
27:42 (83), 29:05 (83), 30:26 (81), 31:47 (81)
33:01.09 (74.09)
First 5km: 16:15; second 5km: 16:46.09

5. Joel Moss 33:15.00 (personal best)
77, 2:33 (76), 3:49 (76), 5:07 (78)
6:25 (78), 7:43 (78), 9:02 (79), 10:19 (77)
11:37 (78), 12:56 (79), 14:16 (80), 15:36 (80)
16:56 (80), 18:16 (80), 19:35 (79), 20:55 (80)
22:18 (83), 23:36 (78), 25:01 (85), 26:24 (83)
27:49 (83), 29:11 (82), 30:34 (83), 31:56 (82)
33:15.00 (79.00)
First 5km: 16:15; second 5km: 17:00.00

6. Pat Duggan 33:32.70 (season best)
76, 2:33 (77), 3:49 (76), 5:06 (77)
6:24 (78), 7:43 (79), 9:01 (78), 10:18 (77)
11:37 (79), 12:56 (79), 14:16 (80), 15:35 (79)
16:55 (80), 18:15 (80), 19:34 (79), 20:55 (81)
22:18 (83), 23:36 (78), 25:02 (86), 26:27 (85)
27:52 (85), 29:17 (85), 30:44 (87), 32:10 (86)
33:32.70 (82.70)
First 5km: 16:15; second 5km: 17:17.70

9. Mike Keegan 34:19.32 (personal best)
77, 2:34 (77), 3:50 (76), 5:08 (78)
6:26 (78), 7:45 (79), 9:04 (79), 10:20 (76)
11:41 (81), 13:02 (81), 14:23 (81), 15:45 (82)
17:08 (83), 18:33 (85), 19:57 (84), 21:21 (84)
22:47 (86), 24:12 (85), 25:37 (85), 27:04 (87)
28:29 (85), 29:57 (88), 31:25 (88), 32:52 (87)
34:19.32 (87.32)
First 5km: 16:24; second 5km: 17:55.32)

1600-meter relay
6. Marist (Dan Conklin 52.7, Colin Frederickson 52.7, Phil Krupka 52.0, John Kristie 53.4) 3:31.13

3200-meter relay
5. Marist (Kyle Havard 2:03.8, Matt Panebianco 2:00.3, Billy Posch 2:03.9, Tom Lipari 2:05.5) 8:13.95

Shot put
11. Keith Peterson 10.77 meters (personal best)

Women’s results and splits

100-meter dash

14. Holly Burns 13.31
19. Meaghann Cocca 13.89

200-meter dash
19. Holly Burns 26.86
21. Rachael Eichacker 27.67

400-meter run
16. Jackie Gamboli 1:01.85
23. Briana Crowe 1:05.36
25. Kara Lightowler 1:06.36

800-meter run
10. Nicole Weir 2:23.98 (personal best)
71, 72.98
17. Laura Lindsley 2:28.90
70, 78.90
22. Jillian Corley 2:35.27
71, 84.27
24. Kelley Gould 2:35.75
74, 81.75

1,500-meter run
4. Brittany Burns 4:55.43 (season best)
77, 2:36 (79), 3:56 (80), 4:55.43 (59.43 last 300m)
8. Dayna McLaughlin 5:03.17 (collegiate best)
79, 2:40 (81), 4:04 (84), 5:03.17 (59.17 last 300m)
9. Julie Hudak 5:04.22
78, 2:36 (78), 3:59 (83), 5:04.22 (65.22 last 300m)
11. Jillian Corley 5:08.67
76, 2:37 (81), 4:03 (86), 5:08.67 (65.67 last 300m)
21. Becca Denise 5:30.35
78, 2:43 (85), 4:17 (84), 5:30.35 (73.35 last 300m)

3,000-meter steeplechase
3. Colleen Smith 12:33.30 (collegiate best)
93, 3:09 (96), 4:47 (98), 6:29 (102), 8:13 (104), 9:56 (103), 11:40 (94), 12:33.30 (53.30)

5000-meter run
1-Katie Messina 18:48.82 (personal best)
86, 2:54 (88), 4:23 (89), 5:52 (89)
7:22 (90), 8:54 (92), 10:26 (92), 12:00 (94)
13:33 (93), 15:06 (93), 16:38 (92), 18:07 (89)
18:48.82 (41.82)

10. Rachel Lichtenwalner 20:34.95
91, 3:03 (92), 4:43 (90), 6:17 (94)
7:56 (99), 9:35 (99), 11:16 (101), 12:57 (101)
14:41 (104), 16:25 (104), 18:10 (105), 19:47 (107)
20:34.95 (47.95)

11. Rachel Bremer 21:10.54 (season best)
91, 3:04 (93), 4:41 (97), 6:20 (99)
8:00 (100), 9:43 (103), 11:27 (104), 13:12 (105)
14:57 (105), 16:45 (108), 18:33 (108), 20:19 (106)
21:10.54 (51.54)

3200-meter relay
3. Marist (Briana Crowe 2:23.5, Julie Hudak 2:28.2, Kim Bartlett 2:27.5, Kara Lightowler 2:26.7) 9:46.43

Long jump
22. Brooke Kristensen 4.06 meters

Des Moines just got a little more crowded

After close to 20 years of coaching track, it's not often that I get totally blown away by a surprise performance. Vess likes to call me a "bitter, cynical old man." And while I dispute such a label, there is some truth to it. I tend not to get nearly as worked up -- positively or negatively -- as I probably did in my younger days. Not that I'm that old.

Anyway. Saturday was one of those relatively rare moments of out-of-the-blue surprise, at the Metropolitan Championship at Ramapo College's beautiful track facility in nearby Mahwah, NJ. The first event was the 10,000 meters. As always, we loaded it up with the maximum of five men -- four of them freshmen!

The US Junior standard in the 10km is 32:45. Of the freshmen entered, two of them (Sean Nestor, Joel Moss) were "too old" in terms of their birthdates to qualify (you cannot turn 20 in the year of the championship). The other two -- Mike Nicoletti, Mike Keegan (aka Meegan) -- were of age. So to speak. I felt all of them had an outside chance at the 32:45 standard, but it was by no means guaranteed and in some cases it would have to be classified as a long shot at best.

Nicoletti ran the race of his life. He placed second overall in 32:35.61 and now joins Quimes and Jackie Gamboli as Junior National qualifiers. Here are the many reasons this was an utterly shocking performance.

-- The usual "formula" for calculating 5km times to projected 10km performances is taking the 5km time, doubling it and adding a minute. Nicoletti's PR is 16:0something, as he likes to say. Let's say it's 16:07 (I'm too lazy to look it up right now, OK?). Follow that formula and that means 33:14 is what he should run. Obviously, he did a lot better than that.
-- His 5km SPLIT was 16:15, just slightly slower than his 5km PR! He did not slow down much in the second half, running 16:20. This does not happen frequently.
-- Three weeks ago at Monmouth, he ran his first 10km and did 33:21 (pretty close to the above formula) and ran really well. You don't often get or expect to see 36-second jump in performance in that short a timeframe.
-- For the past two weeks or so, he has been bothered by a stiff and sore back. It has hampered his training. In fact, his workout at Vassar on Tuesday was not pretty -- "one of my worst ever," he surmised. I was there. I would have to agree with his gloomy assessment.
-- Going into the race, he was his usual worrisome self, telling Birthday Boy Posch that he would be lucky to finish the race and how lousy he was feeling. Blah. Blah. Blah.

Truthfully, in my mind I had him pegged for our fourth finisher in Saturday's race ... based on all the above factors.

Again, it's not often you get these sort of surprises.

So now, our trip to Iowa gets a little longer in terms of days and in terms of laps.

No complaining from this cynical, bitter old man.

Complete results and splits from today's meet to follow soon ...

Larry Ellis/Princeton Friday night fun!

Greetings from the Hampton Inn on Route 1 near Princeton, NJ. Just got back from a good night at the Larry Ellis Invitational at Princeton, followed by a late-night food run to Hoagie Haven for the hungry harriers. How's that for alliteration?

The big highlight from tonight (well, last night now): Freshman Jackie Gamboli qualified for the USA Junior Championship in the women's 1,500-meter run. Along the the Junior National qualifying mark, Jackie also set a school record in that event.

Here are the splits and the details ...

1,500-meter run, women: Jackie Gamboli, 4:39.87. 39th place. USA Junior Qualifier. School record. Old school record: Lisa D'Aniello, 2007, 4:42.32

Splits: 72.8, 2:28.7 (75.9), 3:44.5 (75.8), 4:39.87 (last 400 meters, 74.87; last 300 meters, 54.37).

Comments: Jackie went out hard and led the fourth section (of four), as per Coach Chuck's instructions. She hung tough, never faded and finished steady and strong. Nicely done! She barely exceeded the USA Junior standard of 4:40.14, which was a great relief to us all. Coach Chuck should get credit for guiding her back from battle with mono during the winter, and also for joining her on the track for most of her hard interval workouts -- including an excellent, 12x400 repeat session Tuesday afternoon at Vassar. Good stuff!!

On the men's side, there were some noteworthy efforts in the 5,000-meter run later in the evening, when the rain fell but the wind died down. This made for near ideal racing conditions, if not less-than-ideal split taking weather.

Will Griffin, who is redshirting and thus was running for the McCann Harriers, ran a personal-best time of 14:47 (do not have official time yet) in the third section of five. Will ran a solid effort. As I told him after the race, he had no terrible laps and no great laps -- as you will see below.

In the fifth and final section of the 5,000, Zak Smetana ran a strong personal-best time of 15:15.59, which was a nearly 40-second improvement over his time from last week at Bucknell. I knew Zak had a PR in him, and it was great to see him run strong. His race was definitely the highlight of the night on the men's side. In the same section, David Raucci ran a season-best time of 15:09.55.

Earlier in the night, Matt Janczyk ran the steeplechase in 9:38.31 and Adam Vess made his return to the track after a lengthy battle with injury and other issues with a 3:57.63 in the 1,500 (note: I had him on my watch at 3:55, so the official time may be adjusted, but I did not make issue with the timers on this).

Here are the splits from the men's races in the order they were run.

3000 Steeplechase

Matt Janczyk, 9:38.31
74.1, 2:27.3 (73.2), 3:42.7 (75.4), 4:59.2 (76.5), 6:17.8 (78.6), 7:34.5 (76.7), 8:53.6 (78.1), 9:38.31. Comment: Matt had a PR pace going until a late-race fade. Bummer. I know he can do better and go faster.

1500 meter run

Adam Vess, 3:57.63 (my watch said 3:55-mid)
61.7, 2:05.9 (64.2), 3:10.5 (64.6), 3:57.63 (last 400 officially at 63.63, on my watch 61-mid). Comment: Vess has a nasty bone spur on the top of his foot that he is trying to run though. He could not get up on his toes to run explosively. We will do our best to piece him through the coming weeks and salvage this season.

5000 meter run

Will Griffin (McCann Harriers): 14:47.xx (personal best, McCann Harriers record?)
70, 2:21 (71), 3:32 (71), 4:42 (70)
5:54 (72), 7:06 (72), 6:17 (71), 9:28 (71)
10:40 (72), 11:52 (72), 13:04 (72), 14:14 (70)
14:47.xx (33.xx)

David Raucci: 15:09.55 (outdoor season best)
77, 2:29 (72), 3:40 (71), 4:54 (74)
6:07 (73), 7:20 (73), 8:33 (73), 9:47 (74)
10:57 (70), 12:08 (71), 13:23 (75), missed split
15:09.55 (30.55)

Zak Smetana: 15:15.59
75, 2:27 (72), 3:39 (72), 4:52 (73)
6:05 (73), 7:17 (72), 8:31 (74), 9:44 (73)
10:58 (74), 12:11 (73), 13:25 (74), 14:39 (74)
15:15.59 (34.59)

OK. Time to get a few hours' sleep before an early-morning drive up to Ramapo College for the Met Championships.

Thursday, April 15, 2010

Save the date: Red Fox Trot 5km

I know it is well in advance, but I wanted to share with you the exciting news of a 5km road race on the Marist College campus.

On Saturday, September 11, the inaugural Red Fox Trot 5K will be held. The race will start and finish at the Boathouse at Longview Park along the beautiful Hudson River shoreline.

The idea for the race comes from the Red Fox Club, the booster club for all Marist Athletics and certainly a friend to the track and field program over the years. The Red Fox Club has donated thousands of dollars to the track teams to fund uniform purchases in the past.

Anyway, some members of the Red Fox Club approached me with the idea of a road race, and this is what we have planned. The race director will be Red Fox Club member Eileen Sylvia, a longtime member of the local running community.

I have mapped out an out-and-back course that starts and finishes down by the boathouse. I think it's a pretty good course; it will be challenging and it will encompass the entire Marist campus -- including a loop around Tenney Stadium at Leonidoff Field.

I would love for us to have a strong alumni presence at this event, and I hope you all will consider planning your schedule accordingly to be around campus on that weekend. There are also tentative plans for a Marist XC/Track Alumni Reception down at the recently restored boathouse, which is really pretty cool. All Marist alums of the program -- track and xc -- are welcome, whether or not you run the Fox Trot (Side note: Yes. Of course I came up with the name! It's an obvious pun that could not have been passed up; my original idea was "Fox Trot" but the club wanted "Red Fox Trot", which is fine with me)

There will be many updates and reminders here at Blog Central and via email and maybe even Facebook over the coming months. For now, try to keep Saturday, September 11 open for the Red Fox Trot.

Busy weekend of (probably wet) racing, will try to update when I can along the way ...

Remembering Matty

Last week's Bucknell meet was great, definitely one we will return to in future years should it fit into our schedule. It's a fantastic facility and it's great competition against schools we don't normally see too frequently. We tend to see the same old schools at the same old meets here in the NY/Metro area. So this was a nice change of pace.

Also, for a baseball history buff like me, going to Bucknell meant I got to pay homage to one of my favorite historical baseball figures: Christy Mathewson. The track/football complex is Christy Mathewson Memorial Stadium, named in honor of the great Big Six, an original Hall of Famer and one of the best Dead Ball Era pitchers and one of the pitchers of any era in baseball history.

Kevin Donner, the Bucknell coach who graciously allowed us to come to his meet, is also a baseball history buff. He told me that the beautiful Lewisburg, Pa., campus of Bucknell was first considered to be the site of the National Baseball Hall of Fame, which we all know is in Cooperstown, NY.

Just outside the stadium, there is a big gate and entrance-way that was to have served as the Hall of Fame entrance at Bucknell. It was donated by baseball in 1927 and it remains an awesome structure. It is there that Matty is buried and honored.

Coach Donner also told me something really cool about this gate. It acts as a symbolic rite of passage for Bucknell students. When they arrive as freshmen at orientation, they walk as a class through the big gates and onto the campus. When they graduate as seniors, they walk out the big gates and into the next phase of their lives.

It is an awesome and fitting tribute to the great Matty, a true role model and American hero to go along with being one of the greatest ballplayers of his and any time.

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Running billboards!

Have been meaning to mention this, but our pal Krys "Stalwart Dog" Wasielewski of Dover Plains deserves the gratitude of the Marist Alumni Racing Team.

Krys secured a sponsorship (no kidding!) for the purchase of 25 new MART singlets. Our sponsor -- Four Brothers Pizza, with several fine locations in eastern Dutchess County -- has their logo on the back. They are very sharp-looking singlets!

Rolek and Joey Tat have already sported the new MART singlets in races this spring. The Four Brothers/MART jerseys will be out in full force this weekend's at Scott's Race on Staten Island, the race in honor of Marist Running Alum Scotty LaPiedra's dad, who perished in the line of duty with FDNY more than a decade ago.

Check 'em out at a race near you!

What's next: Spring track

Busy schedule of meets in the coming weeks ...

Friday, April 16: Larry Ellis Invite, Princeton. Just a handful of distance runners.
Saturday, April 17: Metropolitan Championships. Note new venue! Ramapo College, Mahwah, NJ. Full squad.

Thursday, April 22: Penn Relays, distance races. A handful of men.
Friday, April 23: Penn Relays, men's 4x400 relay.
Saturday, April 24: Penn Relays, women's 4x800 relay.

Sunday, April 25: Yale Springtime Invitational. Full squad.

Friday, April 30: Matthew Vassar Open. As close as we get to a home track meet. Under the lights with a 7 pm start. Thanks to Coach James at Vassar for adding at 10,000 to the meet! Those athletes that are not competing at MAAC will race here.

Saturday, May 1: Day 1 of MAAC Championships. Javelin, 4x800 relay (new this year!), steeplechase and 10,000.
Sunday, May 2: Day 2 of MAAC Championships. The rest of the schedule.

There is more after this, but for the majority of the team, the MAAC meet ends the competitive season. It will be a very, very busy few weeks, as it always is this time of year.

Bucknell results from Saturday

Sorry for the delay in getting these up on the blog. It has been a busy few days, including the Admissions Open House on Sunday in which B-Dix played Dad For A Day in bringing SisterDix up for the Open House in an effort to keep the Dixon family tradition at Marist alive.

Anyway, the Saturday weather at Bucknell was much better than Friday night. The results were a bit of a mixed bag. Here you go ...

Men’s results and splits

400-meter dash


Phil Krupka 51.74
Colin Frederickson 52.18
John Kristie 53.04
Josh Lopez 54.26

400-meter hurdles

Mike Clifford 1:00.26

800-meter run

Tom Lipari 1:58.92
Chris Vanzetta 2:02.70
Billy Posch 2:05.25

1600-meter relay

Marist 3:32.00
Dan Conklin 53.91
Colin Frederickson 52.59
Phil Krupka 51.84
Josh Lopez 53.16

3200-meter relay

Marist 7:59.59
Matt Panebianco 1:58.08
Matt Janczyk 1:57.98
Billy Posch 2:01.59
Tom Lipari 2:01.53


Women’s results and splits

800-meter run


Jackie Gamboli 2:21.02
Briana Crowe 2:23.08
Kelley Hanifin 2:25.14
Nicole Weir 2:25.81
Kim Bartlett 2:26.55
Laura Lindsley 2:29.76

1600-meter relay

Marist 4:11.06
Jackie Gamboli 61.13
Nicole Weir 62.63
Kelley Hanifin 62.83
Briana Crowe 63.87

3200-meter relay

Marist 9:47.61
Julie Hudak 2:26.63
Jillian Corley 2:29.45
Kim Bartlett 2:26.05
Kara Lightowler 2:25.08

Saturday, April 10, 2010

Bucknell Friday Night results

It was very windy and very chilly at Christy Mathewson Memorial Field on Friday night for the first day of the Bucknell meet. What a great meet this is! We will definitely have to make a return trip here, next year and/or in the future.

Pretty weird that I was at Little League practice Thursday night in shorts and a T-shirt, and sweating. One night later, I am at a track meet with 5 layers, winter hat, gloves and freezing cold. Ah, spring in the Northeast ...

A few quick highlights ...

-- In the 10km, Girma Segni broke his own school record and qualified for ICs with a 4th place finish of 30:08.28 (15:06/15:02 neg split)
-- Also in 10km, Tim Keegan qualified for ICs for the second straight year in 31:03.98. Timmy went out in a suicidal pace (15:15 for 5km, which is 4 seconds faster than his 5K RACE last week at Princeton!!!). Obvious fade, but he hung on and got the job done
-- In the 5km, Matt Flint notched a 30-second PR of 14:38.77, just missing the IC4A qualifying mark in that event
-- Also in the 5km, Quimes DelaCruz ran a neg-split 15:03.14, getting a US Junior standard in that event. He now has the choice between the steeple and the 5km (or both!). He is the first athlete in school history to qualify in two US Junior events in the same season. Nicely done, Q!
-- In the 1500, Will Griffin (running unattached) got a PR of 4:00.21
-- In the 3,000 steeple, Matt Janczyk ran strong for most of the race before a slight late-race fade to 9:36.20, less than a second off his PR.
-- In the women's 1500, Kara Lightowler ran a strong PR of 4:54.61.

Editor's note: I am brain dead at this point. If I messed up splits or missed something, I'll try to fix it on the bus ride home later today and will post the remainder of the meet on the blog late Saturday or Sunday. Here goes ...

Men’s results and splits

1500-meter run

Will Griffin: 4:00.21
62, 2:08 (66), 3:13 (65), 4:00.21 (64.21 last 400 meters)

Matt Panebianco: 4:11.76
66, 2:12 (66), 3:19 (67), 4:11.76 (68.76 last 400 meters)

3000-meter steeplechase


Matt Janczyk: 9:36.20
75, 2:30 (75), 3:45 (75), 5:01 (76), 6:17 (76), 7:34 (77), 8:54 (80), 9:36.20 (42.20)

Joel Moss: 10:30.80
77, 2:36 (79), 3:58 (82), 5:24 (86), 6:52 (88), 8:20 (88), 9:47 (87), 10:30.80 (43.80)

5000-meter run


Matt Flint: 14:38.77
70, 2:20 (70), 3:29 (69), 4:40 (71)
5:48 (68), 6:59 (71), 8:11 (72), 9:22 (71)
10:32 (70), 11:43 (71), 12:56 (73), 14:07 (71)
14:38.77 (31.77)

Arquimedes DelaCruz: 15:03.14
77, 2:28 (71), 3:40 (72), 4:53 (73)
6:04 (71), 7:17 (73), 8:31 (74), 9:43 (72)
10:56 (73), 12:08 (72), 13:19 (71), 14:29 (70)
15:03.14 (34.14)

David Raucci: 15:22.65
77, 2:28 (71), 3:40 (72), 4:53 (73)
6:04 (71), 7:17 (73), 8:31 (74), 9:45 (74)
10:59 (74), 12:14 (75), 13:31 (77), -- (missed split)
15:22.65

Sean Nestor: 15:40.93
75, 2:28 (73), 3:43 (75), 4:57 (74)
6:10 (73), 7:26 (76), 8:42 (76), 9:59 (77)
11:15 (76), 12:34 (79), 13:51 (77), 15:06 (75)
15:40.93 (34.93)

Zak Smetana: 15:54.51
77, 2:29 (72), 3:43 (74), 4:56 (73)
6:12 (76), 7:26 (74), 8:41 (75), 9:57 (76)
11:15 (78), 12:33 (78), 13:51 (78), 15:13 (82)
15:54.51 (41.51)

10000-meter run

Girma Segni: 30:08.28 *School record, IC4A qualifier
71, 2:23 (72), 3:35 (72), 4:47 (72)
6:03 (76), 7:17 (74), 8:26 (69), 9:40 (74)
10:53 (73), 12:05 (72), 13:17 (72), 14:31 (74)
15:41 (70), 16:56 (75), 18:08 (72), 19:21 (73)
20:34 (73), 21:46 (72), 22:58 (72), 24:12 (74)
25:23 (71), 26:34 (71), 27:47 (73), 28:59 (72)
30:08.28 (69.28)
First 5km: 15:06; Second 5km: 15:02.28

Tim Keegan: 31:03.98 *IC4A qualifier
75, 2:28 (73), 3:41 (73), 4:56 (75)
6:09 (73), 7:22 (73), 8:34 (72), 9:48 (74)
11:00 (72), 12:13 (73), 13:25 (72), 14:37 (72)
15:51 (74), 17:03 (72), 18:17 (74), 19:33 (74)
20:48 (75), 22:03 (75), 23:18 (75), 24:35 (77)
25:53 (78), 27:10 (77), 28:28 (78), 29:47 (79)
31:03.98 (76.98)
First 5km: 15:15 (!); Second 5km: 15:48.98


Women’s results and splits

1500-meter run


Kara Lightowler: 4:54.61
77, 2:39 (82), 3:57 (78), 4:54.61 (76.71 last 400 meters)

Julie Hudak: 5:07.27
78, 2:40 (82), 4:03 (83), 5:07.27 (85.27 last 400 meters)

Jillian Corley: 5:11.51
79, 2:41 (82), 4:06 (85), 5:11.51 (87.51 last 400 meters)

Dayna McLaughlin: 5:17.86
78, 2:43 (85), 4:13 (90), 5:17.86 (87.86 last 400 meters)

Kelley Gould: 5:25.12
79, 2:43 (84), 4:12 (89), 5:25.12 (97.12 last 400 meters)

5000-meter run

Katie Messina: 18:57.15
93, 3:00 (87), 4:28 (88), 5:57 (89)
7:27 (90), 8:58 (91), 10:30 (92), 12:03 (93)
13:36 (93), 15:10 (94), 16:43 (93), 18:15 (92)
18:57.15 (42.15)

Thursday, April 8, 2010

Bucknell time schedule

Here is the updated time schedule for this weekend's meet at Bucknell ...

Friday

4:15 pm: 1500 women slow heats (5 heats)
4:45 pm: 1500 men slow heats (5 heats)
5:20 pm: Steeple women (2 heats)
5:50 pm: Steeple men (3 heats)
6:35 pm: 5000 women slow heats (2 heats)
7:15 pm: 5000 men slow heats (3 heats)
8:10 pm: Invite 1500 women (4:46 or faster, 3 heats)
8:30 pm: Invite 1500 men (3:51.9 or faster, 2 heats)
8:45 pm: Invite 5000 women (1 heat)
9:05 pm: Invite 5000 men (1 heat)
9:25 pm: 10000 women (1 heat)
10:10 pm: 10000 men (1 heat)

Saturday

11 am: women's 4x100
11:10 am: men's 4x100
11:20 am: women's 800
11:55 am: men's 800
12:30 pm: women's 100 hurdles
12:45 pm: men's 110 hurdles
1:05 pm: women's 400
1:30 pm: men's 400
1:55 pm: women's 100
2:15 pm: men's 100
2:40 pm: women's 400 hurdles
3:00 pm: men's 400 hurdles
3:15 pm: women's 200
3:35 pm: men's 200
3:55 pm: women's 4x800
4:10 pm: men's 4x800
4:25 pm: women's 4x400
4:40 pm: men's 4x400

Notes

-- Friday bus departure is 9:30 am
-- Saturday bus departure is 5:30 am
-- It is a long trip, about 3.5 hours each way. We will be getting home pretty late on Saturday
-- Weather will be decent, not bad/not great: sunny, breezy, cool (50s)
-- Next week: The Mets meet might be moving to a different venue, still in New Jersey. More on that when it is finalized ...

Hangin' with P-Diddy

A question that is often asked of me is this: Who was your favorite runner to coach through the years? While I do not have one definite answer, a name that often pops to mind prominently is Pat Driscoll.

He went by the nickname of P-Diddy, perhaps in deference to his highly questionable taste in music.

P-Diddy definitely would make my top-10 all-time favorite Running Red Foxes. He was tough and he always gave a 100-percent race effort. We clicked from the start, and he did some great things here at Marist during his four-year career that ended in 2002. I'll never forget that he was the clutch 5th man on our IC4A University XC Championship team.

We have remained close through the years and he has continued to come to our meets, long after his former teammates graduated. Now, he has an immediate connection to our team as freshman Matt Panebianco (M-Diddy?) was one of his former runners at TZ, where he does a great job coaching xc and track.

Whenever he has breaks from teaching and coaching, he tries to come up for a visit. He did so last Thursday afternoon, and he hung out with me and the team for the better part of the warm day. It was great to see him and I remain proud of all he has done and will do. He continues to train and race well on the roads -- not an easy task when you are teaching and coaching three high school seasons.

I'll probably see P-Diddy at Penn. And with any luck and hard work, we can get M-Diddy to break his old coach's college PRs. That would be pretty cool, but it will take some work!

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

No parking in McCann Lot this weekend

Sorry for the rapid-fire posts. I was busy with family matters the past few days and now I am catching up on things ...

For those of you traveling to Bucknell this weekend -- Friday bus departure is 9:45 a.m. and Saturday bus departure is 5:30 a.m. -- absolutely DO NOT drive down to the McCann Center and park here. It is Admissions Open House weekend and the lots are CLOSED. If you park down here you will be ticketed and/or booted. Walk down.

Please pass this message along to any and all team members that drive and that may or may not read this fancy blog.

Run, Rehydrate, Run Some More!

Hot, hot, hot

Wow! Last week at Vassar for our Thursday workout, I was wearing a hoodie and my hands were so cold I had to borrow gloves from Vess.

Today? It felt like 100 degrees out on the track, and many of our workout groups suffered from the severe conditions.

Not to worry. The weather will get back to Northeast Normal at Bucknell this weekend.

That means: Wind, rain and chilly temperatures.

Hard to believe now, but it's true.

Nice tube socks, dude



A regular reader of this blog had a great observation for me during one of our endless indoor track meets at the Armory this past winter. He saw me hanging around with a handful of Running Red Fox alums who were there either running as part of the Alumni Racing Team or cheering on the current Red Foxes.

Although it may not be a 100 percent accurate, direct quote, he told me something like this: "You may never get rich (monetarily) being a coach, but with the lifelong connections you make with your former athletes, you will grow old being a very rich man in terms of these lasting friendships."

Again, some of the words may have been lost in the translation, but that was the gist of what he said. I agree. I cherish the close ties forged with our running alums old, older and not so old. And I am always proud of the efforts of the Marist Alumni Racing Team, which keeps those ties fresh and strong.

Those ties now get multiplied by two as I have started working more directly with the women's program over the past few years. One of our women's alums -- Lisa D'Aniello -- stopped by our home on Saturday afternoon with her boyfriend Justin Corelli, a legendary Section 2 runner out of Shaker High School and later Princeton University. We had a nice visit on one of these ridiculously warm early-April days (NOT THAT I AM COMPLAINING!!)

For those that do not know or remember Lisa (what the heck, she only graduated in 2008!), she is perhaps the most prolific two-sport women's athlete that Marist has ever had. She was a record-breaking runner on the track -- that we all remember. And she was an excellent rower on MAAC champion crew teams. She was such an amazing rower and athlete that two summers ago she qualified for the US U23 National Rowing Team that competed at the World Rowing Championships in Germany. Tell me how many athletes were that good in two sports!

Anyway, here are a couple of pictures from her visit. In case you were wondering, the goofball with the cool tube socks is me.

Saturday, April 3, 2010

Sam Howell Invitational

Beautiful weather at Princeton on Friday night. Here are the results, splits and some commentary.

Happy Easter, everyone.

In the order they were raced ...

3,000-meter steeplechase

Arquimedes DelaCruz: 9:25.90, 14th place.
76, 2:28 (72), 3:42 (74), 4:57 (75), 6:12 (75), 7:29 (77), 8:46 (77), 9:25.90 (39.90)
Comments: USA Junior Qualifier (meet is at Des Moines, Iowa, in late June); fastest debut steeplechase race in Marist history; 9-second PR for Quimes. Race started slowly in the first lap but picked up. Quimes raced well but his form was a bit choppy, which is to be expected in first steeple of the year. Nicely done.

1,500-meter run (men)

Matt Flint: 3:54.53, 14th place.
63.2, 2:07.0 (63.8), 3:10.0 (63.0), 3:54.53 (44.53 last 300; 61.0 last 400)
Comments: Big PR. Equates to 4:11.57 for a full mile. Second-fastest individual performer in school history, trailing only school record holder Adam Vess. Great race, but could have been better. A little bit of boxing issues, and could have gotten out through 800 meters a little quicker. Still, an excellent effort for "training through" the meet. Nicely done, Matt!
Quick note: Vess was a late scratch due to a foot injury. We are hoping it is not too serious.

1,500-meter run (women)

Jackie Gamboli: 4:44.57, 29th place
74.2, 2:30.5 (76.3), 3:48.6 (78.1), 4:44.57 (55.97 last 300; 76.57 last 400)
Comments: Converts to 5:05.24 for a full mile. This was a three-second improvement from just six days earlier at Monmouth and a great step in the right direction.

5,000-meter run

Tim Keegan: 15:19.60, 36th place
73, 2:28 (75), 3:36 (72), 4:48 (72)
5:57 (69), 7:11 (74), 8:24 (73), 9:35 (71)
10:49 (74), 12:04 (75), 13:21 (77), 14:40 (79)
15:19.60 (39.60)
Comments: If all goes well, this time will be a SPLIT for Keegs in the 10km later in the season. He was bothered by some stomach issues, the details of which do not need to be expanded upon here. We will hope for better results next week at Bucknell.
Quick note: Mike Rolek was also entered in the race and he finished in a disappointing 15:44.17. Great to see him and I know he will do great on the roads in the coming weeks and months.

10,000-meter run

David Raucci: 32:08.44, 15th place.
76, 2:30 (74), 3:43 (73), 4:59 (76)
6:14 (75), 7:31 (77), 8:45 (74), 10:02 (77)
11:20 (78), 12:35 (75), 13:50 (75), 15:07 (77)
16:21 (74), 17:38 (77), 18:53 (75), 20:07 (74)
21:14 (77), 22:45 (81), 24:05 (80), 25:28 (83)
26:51 (83), 28:12 (81), 29:34 (82), 30:51 (77)
32:08.44 (77.44)
First 5km: 15:43; Second 5km: 16:25.44.
Comments: Race was going well for the first 4-plus miles and then the wheels came off, big time, due to a cramp. I think David can do well in this event in a few weeks.