Saturday, April 17, 2010

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.

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