Today, the long-standing (how many years has it been now, Schabby?) tradition of the midterm week AAU Championships at the McCann Center track was continued, with some truly inspirational performances.
For those not in the know, the AAU Championships is a 2x3200-meter workout/race on the 160-meter McCann Track. Typically, we do this workout right before spring break. Not everybody takes part in this workout, and in many cases we only want to see guys do one of the 3,200-meter “intervals.” But today, the majority of the distance guys did take part in the festivities – while others lounged on the high jump mats and shouted "encouragement."
Today, we even had a special guest appearance by Curtis “Batman” Jensen, who helped with the timing and recording of results. Of course, our favorite cell phone prankster FORGOT to record unsung hero Joel Moss’ time. But otherwise, Curt was flawless. I guess.
Traditionally, most guys will wear their cheesiest high school uniforms to add a special atmosphere to the proceedings. In some cases, guys will race as hard as they can in order to achieve longstanding goals. Exhibit A in that category today was Billy “Fresh” Hild, our Spackenkill Spartan Hero, who broke 10:00 for the first time and looked great doing it.
Fifth-year senior Conor Shelley posted what is believed to be an AAU/McCann record for his scintillating double of 9:27 and 9:38 (10-minute recovery jog between races is the usual protocol …). Senior captain Pat Duggan’s 9:35/9:43 double was tremendous as well, as was his throwback Oregon singlet.
Other stars of the day included Zak Smetana, Meegan (“Mike Keegan”), Ryan Brown and Joel Moss – all of whom posted back-to-back sub-10:00s. Freshman Kevin O’Sullivan was close to pulling off that trick. Sophomore Mike Nicoletti had a solid 9:56/10:13 and is having a hard time keeping the “I’m not that fast on the track, bro” reputation of his.
Otherwise, it was good clean fun, as always.
Here are the numbers …
AAU Championships
Thursday, March 10, 2011
McCann Center Track
2x3200 meters, 10 minute recovery
Conor Shelley 9:27/9:38, 19:05
Pat Duggan 9:35/9:43, 19:18
Zak Smetana 9:49/9:50, 19:39
Joel Moss 9:52/9:56, 19:48
Mike Keegan 9:56/9:55, 19:51
Ryan Brown 9:56/9:56, 19:52
Kevin O’Sullivan 9:56/10:05, 20:01
Nick Webster 9:52/10:09, 20:01
Mike Nicoletti 9:56/10:13, 20:09
Brian Townsend 10:03/10:13, 20:16
Will Schanz 10:06/10:21, 20:27
Mike Clausen 10:18/10:16, 20:34
Doug Ainscow 10:28/10:32, 21:00
Andrew James 9:52/DNS
Nick Salek 9:56/DNF
Ben Windisch 9:57/DNF
Billy Hild 9:57/DNF
Chris Reynolds 10:05/DNS
Ryan Scrudato 10:24/DNS
Danny Mendoza 10:27/DNS
4 comments:
When Shelley told me his splits earlier over the phone I thought he was joking. Great job to my favorite fifth year senior!
Got to love the AAU. Way to continue on the tradition. I remember being introduced to it as a frosh, but then having to wait a year for the official AAU (since, as Shabby and Prinz told me, the AAU is only official every other year).
Great effort out there guys across the board, especially to Shelley, Dugs and Zak. Can't wait to see what you guys do outdoors.
March 13, 2003 - 2x2mile,mile (threshold workout that started talks of AAU)
Inaugural AAU Champs:
January 22, 2004
Run during week off between NYU Invite and Terrier(Boston). Moved back to March following years.
Nicely Done All - shaved 7sec off Roleks 08 performance/most under the combined 20min mark
The legendary workout lives on another year. Very happy to hear that high school uniforms are still required!
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