Saturday, October 2, 2010

Paul Short post-meet analysis

Men’s team standings:

1-Virginia 132, 2-Georgetown 149, 3-William and Mary 170, 4-Dartmouth 179, 5-Guelph 206, 6-Richmond 224, 7-Columbia 227, 8-Liberty 308, 9-Cornell 321, 10-Binghamton 335, 11-Navy 356, 12-Lock Haven 413, 13-Tennessee 436, 14-High Point 461, 15-Penn 464, 16-New Mexico State 485, 17-La Salle 486, 18-Appalachian State 510, 19-Duquesne 542, 20-Maryland 559, 21-Allegheny 615, 22-St. Lawrence 619, 23-Brown 640, 24-Haverford 655, 25 (tie)-Marist and Kent State, 27-Delaware 709, 28-Stonehill 758, 29-Iona 765, 30-U Mass 800, 31-St. Joseph’s 801, 32-Lehigh 802, 33-Army 846, 34-Temple 886, 35-UMBC 920, 36-VCU 966, 37-Plattsburgh 1048, 38-Rochester 1053, 39-Stony Brook 1063, 40-Bucknell 1071, 41-Pittsburgh 1078, 42-Rider 1081

Commentary on men’s team standings:

It’s really easy to play the “what-if” game of how Matt Flint would have done, had other potentially varsity runners having run faster, etc. I used to do that all the time, and all it does is add gray hairs to the increasing collection on my skull. OK, well, I sometimes still do it in my head. But not here, and not now.

Looking at this field, I think it’s safe to say this may be the strongest and deepest Paul Short Run field in all the years we have been attending. We did pretty well against schools in the Northeast Region. But I will not read too much into this – positive or negative.

OK, on with the quick individual comments

Will Griffin 25:05: Excellent debut and validation for all the hard work you have been doing. Can be better with aggressive race strategy from the start. But for a start, this was good stuff.

Adam Vess 25:06: Out hard, face-planting in the middle, struggling at the end. Yup, that kind of day. Time to start cashing those training chips and getting faster.

Ken Walshak 25:25: Performance of the day. A minute improvement from one 8km to the next. Keep doing that and you'll be faster than the bus. Solid effort start to finish.

Tim Keegan 25:48: Tremendous bounce-back effort. Great to have you back in the mix!

Nick Webster 25:57: Excellent step in the right direction. Your presence in the scoring pack is crucial.

Arquimedes DelaCruz 26:01: A total off day after a struggling few weeks of training. Time to get back on board with hard work. Your base is great; you will soon be great again as well.

Tommy Lipari 26:07: Out way too hard. With reduced volume, you will be able to handle fast early pace. Again, reduction in volume will do you wonders.

Nick Hughes 26:43: Still trying to figure out this 8km thing. Not great, but your training is excellent and results should soon follow.

Pat Duggan 26:47: Another solid and strong effort. Goal now is to close gap on the scoring pack. You do it in training. Time to reel em in in races.

Kevin O’Sullivan 26:59: Great effort and best race of the year to date. Look for big improvement at Albany.

Mike Nicoletti 27:00: Ditto Kevin. You looked strong throughout and really tough at the end.

Joel Moss 27:07: Great PR under terrible conditions all around. Definitely a big step in the right direction.

Brian Townsend 27:17: Really tough and strong effort, indicative of the excellent shape you are in and hard work you have put in.

Billy Posch 27:22: Another clunker of an effort; however, my faith in your ability to race fast remains strong. We will fix this!

Ryan Scrudato 27:27: All things considered, a solid effort, something to build upon. But it can get much better.

Ryan Brown 27:30: Ditto Scrudato. Solid. Strong. Can be better.

Zak Smetana 27:57: You were caught off-guard by the last-minute nature of the meet more than most. You didn’t even have a uniform! Look at this as a workout and nothing more.

Matt Panebianco 28:07: Nowhere near what we are hoping for or where you are. Turnover and reduced volume will wake you up.

Ryan Fitzsimons 28:22: You symbolically got to the finish line with your hospital bracelet from 6 days ago still on your wrist. I’m proud of your bounce-back ability and effort. While the time was disappointing, the effort was as far from that word as you can get.

Mike Clausen 28:37: Better than Fairfield, but still flat and blah. You are in fine shape and it will show in the next few weeks.

Kyle Havard 28:45: Finishing without any injuries is a great thing. It’s a victory in and of itself.

DNFs (too many for my liking, but it happens ...)
Matt Flint
: An unfortunate turn with breathing, illness and stomach issues, all of which need to get addressed and should improve with time.
Chris Reynolds, AJ James, Ben Windisch, Danny Mendoza: A forgettable day that must be put behind us; lick your wounds and get ready for strong efforts at Albany.

General analysis:

It is interesting to note that most (but not all) runners who ran Iona MOC two weeks prior had very positive performances. I find that fascinating. The guys who doubled back from Fairfield all dealt with the suddenness of no warmup and an emergency trip to the starting line, so I cannot accurately judge those efforts. Most made the best of unfortunate circumstances.

What’s next, training
: Training takes a turn around a new bend. Much like the weather is changing to fall and the leaves will soon be changing, so too will the men’s XC training paradigm as we head into Phase 2, which features slightly reduced volume and increased intensity (speed) in workouts. It's not rocket science, boys. You have built a great base, now it's time to get fast.

What’s next, racing: We have a small but spirited (and YOUNG!) squad headed down to the Met Championships at VCP on Friday (men’s race, 1:30 p.m., for those keeping score at home). Then, on Saturday, Oct. 16, we split the squad with 7 men heading to Penn State for the National Meet there, with the rest of the men (a fine assemblage, to be sure!) taking aim at high team placement at the Albany Invy.

Women’s results

Team standings
: 1-Georgetown 34, 2-Virginia 98, 3-James Madison 169, 4-Cornell 198, 5-Columbia 205, 6-Guelph 207, 7-Richmond 222, 8-La Salle 315, 9-New Hampshire 352, 10-Colgate 377, 11-William and Mary 381, 12-Brown 389, 13-Liberty 411, 14-Bucknell 451, 15-Penn 493, 16-Dartmouth 497, 17-Appalachian State 501, 18-Maryland 504, 19-New Mexico State 505, 20-(tie) Iona and Vermont 596, 22-Towson 597, 23-St. Joseph’s 628, 24-Lehigh 652, 25-Quinnipiac 668, 26-Kent State 680, 27-St. Lawrence 700, 28-Army 719, 29-Binghamton 749, 30-High Point 792, 31-Duquesne 804, 32-U Mass 814, 33-Marist 857, 34-South Carolina 993, 35-UMBC 1003, 36-Queen’s 1045, 37-VCU 1109, 38-Tennessee 1127, 39-Villanova 1143, 40-Delaware 1190, 41-Mount St. Mary’s 1216

Commentary on women’s team standings:

We held our own in a highly competitive field. We would have liked to have been in the “Brown” race, and we tried to get switched to it. But we were told we were a “bubble” team and our original race declaration was the Gold race (my bad, I did that in the summer). Again, we made the best of it, got our work in, and did a nice job with it, top to bottom.

I think our women who were to have run in the 10 a.m. Open Race that we missed, as I fretted and paced on the traffic-snarled bus on Exit 67, suffered most from having to race in this buzzsaw atmosphere. Again, all things considered, a solid effort top to bottom.

Coach Pete comments on individual races
:

As always, I defer to Chuck to give detailed one-on-one analysis with our women’s team. Here are a few things from this old coach’s perspective …

Kiersten and Addie have been battling various physical ailments and ran very tough races. ... Katie had a strong bounce-back effort and seemed strong after the race as well. ... Erin and Bree and Jill had their usual solid scoring effort. ... Kathryn is off where she should be, but this was a much more positive effort than Fairfield. ... Strong efforts from Kara and Kelley G. ... Julie was doing great but faded toward the end, great effort though! ... Becca bounced back from a tough week physically and had a solid race. ...

And lastly, I would like to apologize for my usual, bumbling goofiness in cheering on the ladies. With the race field so big, I often could not find our Foxettes out there, and mistakenly thought we had some DNFs. A few frantic texts to Chuck midrace were wildly inaccurate.

Again, all things considered, as a program we handled less-than-ideal scenarios as well as can be expected.

Individual results, 6,000-meter course


Kiersten Anderson 22:11
Addie DiFrancesco 22:49
Katie Messina 22:57
Erin O’Reilly 23:06
Briana Crowe 23:14
Jillian Corley 23:27
Kathryn Sheehan 23:43
Kara Lightowler 24:12
Julie Hudak 24:20
Kelley Gould 24:28
Dayna McLaughlin 24:33
Rebecca Denise 24:38
Allyson O’Brien 24:42
Tara Nuccitelli 25:18
Elizabeth O’Brien 25:25
Kim Bartlett 25:38
Colleen Smith 26:01
Laura Lindsley 26:02
Rachel Lichtenwalner 27:20

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