Home meet results analysis

One of the great things about a home cross country meet is the short commute home. Instead of a lot of time in a bus, followed by wrapping things up at the McCann Center, followed by a short trip home, you get just the short trip home. Pretty neat.

Today’s meet was excellent on a lot of levels.

--The women raced exceedingly well. Despite the fact that we were not racing some of our top athletes, due to a variety of reasons, we still dominated the meet. This was somewhat surprising, in a positive way. Fairfield, under our good pal coach John Sagnelli, is much improved on the both the men’s and women’s sides. And the Stags will only get better under Sags (yes, a planned pun!). Our girls really stepped up and did a great job.

--Interestingly, some women who ran really well and competed excellently ran a bit slower or not too much faster than in the past. We attribute this to two factors: 1. Chuck has been training them harder than ever; 2. The oppressive heat of the past few weeks (not to mention the whole summer) has taken its toll. Actually, 1 and 2 combine to make for a bit of sluggishness, which is not all that bad on September 4.

--On the men’s side, with the size of our team of course we had some injury and illness issues to deal with. Overall, it was a strong day with some solid to eye-popping (Luke!) PRs. Like the ladies, the guys are working extremely hard and literally running ragged. Again, this is fine for September 4.

--As so often happened to Phil and I through the years, the men’s and women’s end results were remarkably, eerily really, symmetrical. Women: Marist 16, Fairfield 46; men: Marist 16, Fairfield 48. Women’s race: Marist 1 through 4; Fairfield 5; Marist 6-7; Men’s race: Marist 1 through 4; Fairfield 5; Marist 6-7. Both races: Marist had 7 of the top 10, Fairfield the other 3 spots. You can’t make this stuff up!

OK then. Here are the results again, with notations of previous performances on the course. For the freshmen, I was too lazy to look up their high school PRs at Bowdoin, which wouldn’t be relevant since those PRs were probably set in colder weather toward the end of their seasons when they were trying to peak, as opposed to an early-season summer time-trial meet, which is what today was.

Women’s results/history
Kiersten Anderson 19:13 *meet record (freshman, first collegiate time at Bowdoin)
Katie Messina 20:27 (2009 time: 20:04)
Briana Crowe 20:35 (2009: Did Not Race; 2008 time: 21:38)
Julie Hudak 20:58 (2009 time: 20:26; 2008 time: 21:39)
Erin O’Reilly 21:01 (2009 time: 21:45)
Dayna McLaughlin 21:08 (2009 time: 21:53; 2008 time: 21:44)
Kara Lightowler 21:16 (2009 time: 21:19; 2008: DNR)
Jillian Corley 21:27 (2009 time: 21:23; 2008 time: 22:59)
Tara Nuccitelli 21:31 (freshman, first collegiate time at Bowdoin)
Kelley Hanifin 22:03 (2009: DNR; 2008 time: 22:12)
Kelley Gould 22:05 (2009 time: 23:08)
Allyson O’Brien 22:11 (2009 time: 22:05; 2008 time: 23:33)
Rebecca Denise 22:15 (2009 time: 22:58)
Miy Mahran 22:21 (freshman, first collegiate time at Bowdoin)
Laura Lindsley 22:42 (2009: DNR)
Kim Bartlett 22:56 (2009 and 2008: DNR)
Elizabeth O’Brien 22:56 (2009 time: 23:53; 2008: DNR)
Colleen Smith 23:09 (2009 time: 22:41)
Natalie Rowland 23:18 (freshman, first collegiate time at Bowdoin)
Rachel Lichtenwalner 23:25 (2009 time: 24:12)
Ashley Jensen 24:33 (2009 time: 21:21)


Men’s results/history
Adam Vess 15:59 *meet record (2009: 16:12; 2008: DNR)
Matt Flint 15:59 *meet record (2009: 16:17; 2008: 16:49)
Arquimedes DelaCruz 16:28 (2009: 16:49)
Ken Walshak 16:39 (freshman, first collegiate time at Bowdoin)
Nick Hughes 16:41 (freshman, first collegiate time at Bowdoin)
Tom Lipari 16:42 (2009: 17:06; 2008: 17:09)
Nick Webster 16:48 (2009: 16:41; 2008: 16:50)
Sam McMullen 16:51 (2009: 16:56; 2008: 17:33)
Patrick Duggan 16:55 (2009: 17:18; 2008: 17:55)
Ben Windisch 16:58 (freshman, first collegiate time at Bowdoin)
Billy Posch 16:59 (2009: 17:07)
Kevin O’Sullivan 17:01 (freshman, first collegiate time at Bowdoin)
Joel Moss 17:11 (2009: 17:30)
Mike Nicoletti 17:12 (2009: 17:31)
Matt Panebianco 17:17 (2009: 17:37)
Chris Reynolds 17:21 (freshman, first collegiate time at Bowdoin)
Ryan Brown 17:30 (2009: 17:56; 2008: 18:30)
Nick Salek 17:34 (freshman, first collegiate time at Bowdoin)
Brian Townsend 17:35 (2009: DNR; 2008: 16:56)
Kyle Havard 17:39 (2009: DNF; 2008: 18:40)
Ryan Fitzsimons 17:48 (2009: 17:52)
Zak Smetana 17:49 (2009: 16:50; 2008: 17:36)
Billy Hild 18:03 (freshman, first collegiate time at Bowdoin)
Doug Ainscow 18:06 (freshman, first collegiate time at Bowdoin)
Isaiah Miller 18:18 (freshman, first collegiate time at Bowdoin)
Mike Keegan 18:27 (2009: 17:50)
Luke Shane 18:30 (2009: 20:01)
Will Schanz 18:37 (2009: DNR)
Brendan Green 19:26 (2009: 19:28)