Alumni soar at Scott’s race

The 14^th annual Scott’s Race at Clove Lakes Park in Staten Island has become a great family affair for the Marist Alumni Racing Team. Of course, the event is near and dear to our hearts, as the race honors the memory of FDNY hero Scott LaPiedra, who perished in the line of duty in 1998. He was the father of Marist Running Alum Scotty LaPiedra, who now serves in the FDNY as well.

The Marist Alumni Racing Team took the team title on the strength of a top-3 sweep that went like this:

1-Matt Walsh: 15:59.52

2-Matt “CT” Szymaszek: 16:11.57

3-Mike Schab: 16:56.68

Rounding out the scoring:

15-Tom “T-Dix” Dixon: 18:24.40

16-DJ Paulson: 18:29.44

Scotty La led the winning firefighter team (E80 L23) with his 24^th place finish of 19:32.52.

Other Marist Alumni Racing Team racers:

59-Chris Baum: 22:11.29

137-Bryan Quinn: 25:55.00

The fast times and the team titles are nice and excellent and we are proud of it all.

More important are the lifelong friendships that are forged and reunited each year at Clove Lakes, in memory of a true American hero.

Yale Springtime Invitational

Full official results have yet to be posted, but below are the results we were able to piece together at the meet – with excellent assistance from injured team member Andrew James, who helped with splits as well. Thanks AJ!

Among the highlights:

• Jesse Aprile had a phenomenal day, with two personal-best performances (100 dash and long jump)
• Senior Tommy Lipari got his second individual steeple title of his career at this meet. This was Tommy’s first steeple of the season, and he did a great job with it!
• The 5km men competed extremely well in a strong, late-afternoon wind. They worked together in a pack and posted some solid performances. Most notable would be Billy Hild’s PR of 15:38. Nicely done.
• Quimes DelaCruz played middle distance guy for a day and got two PRs, including a second-place time of 4:00.00 in the 1,500.
• On the women’s side, Michelle Gaye led from wire to wire in the aforementioned strong wind gusts and won the women’s 3km. In the same race, Becca Denise and Rachel Bremer had outstanding PR efforts. Great job, ladies!

Will post updated/final results (and splits) at some point on Monday.

Yale Springtime Invitational

Sunday, April 29, 2012

New Haven, CT

Men’s results

100-meter dash

6. Jesse Aprile 11.18 (personal best)

16. Darren Bushey 11.72

19. Mike McCloskey 11.85

31. Neal Viets 12.71

200-meter dash

19. Darren Bushey 23.72

40. Neal Viets 26.01

400-meter dash

15. Dan Conklin 53.17

800-meter run

9. Matt Panebianco 1:58.24

10. Chris Vanzetta 1:58.62

11. Kyle Havard 1:58.66

15. Arquimedes DelaCruz 1:59.04 (personal best)

25. Bryan Buttigieg 2:01.17

37. Adam Osowski 2:13.61

1,500-meter run

2. Arquimedes DelaCruz 4:00.00 (personal best)

16. Ken Walshak 4:08.12 (personal best)

23. Patrick Rynkowski 4:14.66

26. Matt Flint 4:15.92

5,000-meter run

4. Ryan Scrudato 15:29.37

5. Ian Dorset 15:30.74

6. Brian Townsend 15:32.82

9. Billy Hild 15:38.24 (personal best)

16. Justin Tampellini 15:55.83

18. Nick Salek 16:04.66

24. Tommy Lappas 16:25.18

28. Rob Gorski 16:36.43

31. Pat Deedy 16:41.99

33. Doug Ainscow 16:46.64

400-meter hurdles

5. Mike Clifford 58.80

3,000-meter steeplechase

1-Tom Lipari 9:36.63 (personal best)

4. Nick Hughes 9:55.98

6. Chris Reynolds 10:02.42

400-meter relay

5. Marist (Mike McCloskey, Connor Dodge, Darren Bushey, Jesse Aprile) 44.56

Long jump

4. Jesse Aprile 6.60 meters (21 feet, 8 inches) (personal best)

Javelin

7. Jake Akey 38.89 meters

Women’s results

100-meter dash

14. Nicole Scicolone 13.12

16. Amanda Luccarelli 13.28

20. Taylor Mead 14.15

200-meter dash

30. Taylor Mead 24.15

400-meter dash

24. Katie McEvoy 1:07.92

800-meter run

7. Briana Crowe 2:19.02

23. Christine Coughlin 2:26.01

37. Kara Lightowler 2:31.20

38. Erin O’Reilly 2:31.94

39. Rachael Peterson 2:32.29

1,500-meter run

11. Erin O’Reilly 4:52.31

13. Kathryn Sheehan 4:53.87

16. Kara Lightowler 4:06.24

45. Allyson O’Brien 5:22.80

3,000-meter run

1-Michelle Gaye 10:16.59

5. Rebecca Denise 10:34.99 (personal best)

7. Brianna Freestone 10:43.23

9. Rachel Bremer 10:50.86 (personal best)

13. Kelley Gould 11:15.56

20. Rachel Lichtenwalner 11:25.30

3,000-meter steeplechase

6. Dayna McLaughlin 12:22.30

1,600-meter relay

7. Marist (Briana Crowe, Christine Coughlin, Colleen Meenan, Katie McEvoy) 4:28.92

Long jump

10. Nicole Scicolone 5.20 meters (17 feet, 0.75 inches)

19. Brooke Kristensen 4.59 meters (15 feet, 0.75 inches)

Penn Relays: 4x100 relay

The 400-meter relay team of Mike McCloskey, Connor Dodge, Darren Bushey and Jesse Aprile competed at Penn Relays on Friday afternoon. Racing in Heat 10, the guys got fifth and were the 76^th team out of 88 teams entered with a time of 44.07 seconds. The time was 1.07 seconds slower than the school record of 43.00 set at the Vassar meet two weeks ago.

Here is the play-by-play of today’s relay:

• McCloskey led off without blocks, as per Penn policy with most of the heats. This was a slight disadvantage, but an even bigger disadvantage happened when Mike took off at the gun, as he was buffeted by a stiff headwind that pretty much stood him up. This slowed him down dramatically, but he did his best and handed off to …
• Connor Dodge, a late replacement for Tyler Schwarz, who has been nursing a hamstring injury. Connor ran very well in his first sprint relay of the year. He received the baton well from Mike, accelerated down the backstretch and handed off successfully to …
• Darren Bushey, who continued to run the team back into the race on the curve. After Darren’s strong leg, he executed a near flawless handoff (he said the best of the season so far) to … 
• Anchor leg Jesse Aprile, who brought it home strongly into that same headwind that Mike fought into at the start. Jesse’s form looked great as he sprinted the team through the line at 44.07.

All things considered, there were more positives than negatives to take out of this. And overall, our small squad of athletes that competed at Penn on Thursday and Friday did the program proud.

Next stop: Yale on Sunday.

Penn Relays: Thursday night race splits

Thanks to freshman steepler Mark Valentino for getting soaked and recording Joel Moss’ 10km splits in the pouring rain.

Men’s 10,000-meter run, college championship

26. Joel Moss 31:08.95 (personal best)

77, 2:28 (71), 3:41 (73), 4:55 (74)

6:10 (75), 7:25 (75), 8:41 (76), 9:56 (75)

11:11 (75), 12:26 (75), 13:41 (75), 14:56 (75)

16:10 (74), 17:24 (74), 18:39 (75), 19:55 (76)

21:11 (76), 22:26 (75), 23:41 (75), 24:56 (76)

26:12 (76), 27:28 (76), 28:43 (75), 29:57 (74)

31:08.95 (71.95)

First 5km: 15:35; second 5km: 15:33.95

Men’s 3,000-meter steeplechase, college

14. Mark Valentino 9:32.46 (personal best)

74.9, 2:30.7 (75.8), 3:46.6 (76.9), 5:03.8 (77.2), 6:22.5 (78.7), 9:02.3 (79.7), 9:32.46 (30.46)

Women’s 5,000-meter run, Olympic Development

24. Brittany Burns (Syracuse Chargers) 17:32.58

83, 2:46 (83), 4:08 (82), 5:30 (82)

6:55 (85), 8:19 (84), 9:44 (85), 11:10 (86)

12:37 (87), 14:03 (86), 15:29 (86), 16:54 (85)

17:32.58 (38.58)

Penn Relays: Chillin’ with a future doc

Marist Running Alum Alex Emerel (Class of 2009) lives in Philly and stopped by to spend the better part of Thursday night under the lights with us at Franklin Field. Although Emerel did not run on the team with Joel Moss or Mark Valentino, he showed that we all connect through the generations of Marist Running, and he hung out to cheer on Joel during his scintillating 25-lap race.

We are very proud of Alex. He is in the later stages of his studies at Temple University’s School of Podiatry. In less than two years, he will be Dr. Emerel, DPM. How cool is that? During our down time at the meet, we were discussing foot biomechanics, injuries and other stuff. We reminisced about the old days and meets of yesteryear.

And Emerel admitted to being quite jealous of the current Marist Track Nike SWAG. His classmate Kris Geist (aka Mr. Nike) would be in heaven on the team now, as all our gear is Nike.

Anyway, it was great hanging with Emerel and sharing Joel’s 10km race with him. He helped me spot Joel in the rain-soaked crowd on the track, and he was getting into Joel’s chase of a strong PR effort. Fun times!

Penn Relays: Thursday night results

It was a strong night of racing under the lights at Franklin Field for the Marist Running family – past and present. The weather was perfect – until the start of Joel Moss’ 10km, when the clouds opened up and the wind picked up.

Despite the wet weather, Joel’s race was the highlight of the night. The Big Man ran a nearly 30-second PR in the 10,000 and missed an IC4A qualifying mark by less than 1 second! The standard is 31:08.00. While that is excruciating, both Joel and I agreed that it should not take away from a career effort.

Earlier in the evening, freshman Mark Valentino lowered his PR in the 3,000 steeplechase by five seconds. Tino had already qualified for USA Junior Nationals. Tonight’s race was an opportunity to expose him to the “big stage” competition, and he did well. The crowded field made it difficult for him to run with his usually great form. But we’ll take a 5-second PR any day.

In the Olympic Development 5km for women, Marist Running Alum Brittany Burns ran a solid effort and placed 24 th in a competitive field. Below are the results. 

Check back for splits later. It is WAY past my bedtime …

Men’s 10,000-meter run, college championship

26. Joel Moss 31:08.95 (personal best)

Men’s 3,000-meter steeplechase, college

14. Mark Valentino 9:32.46 (personal best)

Women’s 5,000-meter run, Olympic Development

24. Brittany Burns (Syracuse Chargers) 17:32.58

Power play

For some odd reason, my taste is reading lately has steered toward books dealing with social science research. And so it was with great interest on my way home from jogging with the boys this morning that I listened to a fascinating story on NPR’s Morning Edition about a study done on penalties in the NHL.

I will preface this by saying I know almost nothing about the NHL anymore. I was into hockey – sort of -- back when the Rangers won their Cup back in 1994, and back when I traveled on a more regular basis with Coach Emeritus Phil Kelly – Phil is an avid hockey fan and former player. And then there is current team member Billy Hild, who is sporting an absolute hideous “playoff beard” in honor of his beloved Rangers (side note: I am the resident expert on hideous beards …).

Anyway, this study, done over the past decade, posits that players who wear darker jerseys in the NHL get penalized and sent to the penalty box with far more frequency than players wearing white jerseys. The difference was something like 20 percent – statistically significant in a major way.

Making this study even more scientifically grounded was the fact that, about 8 years ago, the NHL changed the format of which team wears which color uniform. I’m probably going to screw this up, but I think now the home team wears the dark-colored jerseys while the road team wears the white. Before 2004, it was the opposite.

This made the empirical nature of the data even more concrete. The study found that teams that wear black jerseys get penalized with the greatest frequency. The study just laid out the facts. The “whys” were not really explored but some hypotheses were made. One theory had to do with “cognitive bias” against dark colors and in favor of light colors, patterns that are deeply ingrained in our psyche.

Who knows? I thought it was fascinating, and it made me think that I am glad our sport does not have a “penalty box” or situations where “cognitive bias” comes into play. Lastly, for all of those pining for the long-lost days of the black Marist singlets … maybe this is a good reason not to go back to the future (or black to the future?). We don’t need our relay zone handoffs more closely scrutinized because of the color of our shirts.

Go Rangers.

Team travel schedule this week

The busy, late spring track travel schedule continues this week.

Thursday, Penn Relays:

• Freshman Mark Valentino in the 3,000-meter steeplechase, scheduled for 7:40 p.m.;
• Junior Joel Moss in the 10,000-meter run, scheduled for 10:55 p.m.; 
• Graduate and Marist Running Alum Brittany Burns in the Olympic Development 5,000-meter run, representing our friends at the Syracuse Chargers track club, scheduled for 9:00 p.m.

Friday, Penn Relays: Men’s 400-meter relay team, scheduled for 12:40 p.m..

Sunday, Yale Springtime Invitational: The majority of the roster will be in action in New Haven. Meet starts at 10 a.m.

Sam’s splits and photo

Here are Sam McMullen’s fantastic splits from the Glass City Marathon in Toledo.

Mile 1: 6:06

Mile 2: 5:54

Mile 3: 5:50

Mile 4: 5:50

Mile 5: 6:04

Mile 6: 5:51

Mile 7: 6:01

Mile 8: 6:04

Mile 9: 5:58

Mile 10: 6:01

Mile 11: 6:01

Mile 12: 5:54

Mile 13: 6:07

Mile 14: 6:03

Mile 15: 5:54

Mile 16: 5:53

Mile 17: 5:55

Mile 18: 5:52

Mile 19: 5:52

Mile 20: 6:03

Mile 21: 6:05

Mile 22: 6:03

Mile 23: 6:05

Mile 24: 6:15

Mile 25: 6:21

Mile 26.2: 7:36