We call the indoor track at Boston University the “magic carpet” because through the years our program has achieved numerous school records and IC4A qualifiers at that facility. It is a combination of a fast and bouncy banked track, excellent competition, well-run meets and of course highly trained athletes.
This year’s first foray to the Magic Carpet produced some amazingly thought-provoking performances across the board. I will try to convey some of my thoughts here, but much may be lost in the translation.
Basically, for the men, this was our first litmus test of racing in big-time competition without the benefit of quality, indoor track workouts (yes, this is yet another reference to the loss of our indoor track facility in the McCann Center/now Arena; sorry, but it remains relevant to us on a daily basis). The results were mixed.
Before I continue the men’s commentary, a quick comment on the women’s DMR, which was on Saturday: We just missed an ECAC qualifying mark, but not to be overlooked was the electrifying anchor leg by freshman Michelle Gaye, who split 4:56.7 on my watch. Wow! We believe this to be the fastest 1,600-meter DMR split in school history. Great stuff! Our women’s team – most notably our middle-distance runners, but really everyone – has truly benefitted from the Tuesday workouts at the SUNY New Paltz indoor track.
OK, since the rest of Saturday’s meet was men’s competition, back to that: I believe our men’s athletes – most of who are training outside every day – have adapted extremely well to the new training paradigm. I was curious how it was going to translate to the track. Again, it was mixed.
Guys that were in heats or races that might have been a bit too fast … they suffered. Tempos, fartleks and threshold workouts only go so far. When you red-lining from the gun, with no race-specific preparation, it is a difficult thing and somewhat of a shock to the system. But by and large, the guys who ran well proved that they are working very hard and they are very fit. Many of the guys that did not run well are equally fit – in some cases even more so – but the transition was a bit tougher on this day.
We will continue to move along in this new framework and learn with every meet and every race. In the meantime, here is a list of personal-best performances from Saturday’s meet.
800-meter run
33. David Marthy 1:56.24 (personal best)
Mile run
14. Arquimedes DelaCruz 4:12.43 *IC4A Qualifier (personal best)
89. Ryan Fitzsimons 4:33.73 (personal best)
3,000-meter run, seeded
38. Tom Lipari 8:38.98 (personal best)
3,000-meter run, unseeded
27. Billy Posch 8:44.69 (personal best)
30. Ian Dorset 8:48.77 (personal best)
42. Nick Salek 8:55.04 (personal best)
5,000-meter run, seeded
38. Joel Moss 14:54.57 (personal best)
5,000-meter run, unseeded
28. Kevin O’Sullivan 15:34.65 (personal best)
31. Mohamed Eid 15:36.05 (personal best)
33. Justin Tampellini 15:37.36 (personal best)
40. Billy Hild 15:49.05 (personal best)
46. Rob Gorski 16:00.83 (personal best)
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