The question came up over dinner last night with my old
friend and college roommate Christian Morrison, the longtime, excellent track
coach at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, Conn. He was wondering how many
men in Marist track school history have qualified for the USATF Junior
Championships at 10,000 meters. At the time, I did not know the answer right
then and there. But as someone who does, indeed, keep score at home, I have the
answer (14) in the form of a list:
1998: Greg Salamone
2000: Jamal Padgett
2003: Justin Harris
2004: Mark Fernandez
2005: Mike Rolek
2008: Tim Keegan
2009: Matt Flint
2010: Arquimedes
DelaCruz and Mike Nicoletti
2011: Isaiah Miller
and Nick Hughes
2013: Ryan Colabella
and Johnny Lee
2014: Spencer Johnson
We are very proud of this list, but it is not all-inclusive
of those who could have made it, and here’s why:
--In order to qualify for USATF Juniors, you cannot turn 20
in the year of the championship. As a result, some excellent freshmen runners
in the past who easily met qualifying standards – most notably Will Griffin and
Ken Walshak – could not race at this meet by virtue of their December
birthdays. They were too old to make it to the meet, by a matter of just a few
weeks.
--We have had male athletes qualify in other events as well –
several in the 3,000 steeplechase and a few in the 5,000.
OK. We leave for Hayward Field soon for Spencer’s race. It
is quite warm and sunny here, and we are hopeful that Spencer will do his
absolute best in a talented field of runners. As with all of our past
qualifiers, we are proud of their efforts and in making it to this level.
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