Metro Holiday Opener: Men's results, splits, commentary

A few notes and highlights from the men’s meet today:

--A month ago, Tim Johnson had a knee injury so debilitating that we were wondering if it were season- and career-ending. Note: It’s not. He has bounced back, better than ever, and we are thrilled at this. A solid double for Tim.

--We cannot state enough how much of a travesty it is if Hakim Cunningham’s 60-meter hurdle race is forever lost in the snafu of the timing system. It could have been a borderline school record effort. The start was great; the hurdling was great; just an overall strong effort that may never be validated by something so basic to what we do: A FINISHING TIME. Undaunted, Hakim went on to race twice more. Nicely done, captain.

--Our small distance contingent repped the XC crowd well. Grad student Mark Valentino raced in a Marist singlet for the first time in more than half a year, and it was well worth the wait. Tino ran a 14-second PR in the 3km, and a great early-season time. Kudos to Sami Ellougani and Ricky Willi for PRs in the mile – Sami’s by a lot. And how about Joe Miller, with the fastest 4x800 leg, despite no real speed training in the short interval since the end of XC. Good stuff. In fact! The 4x800 relay overall, a slapped together afterthought, ran a really solid time of 8:09.

--Two more random thoughts about Ocean Breeze: With the natural lighting, the facility is reminiscent of a modern-day Coxe Cage, the ancient but still useful track at Yale University. The one slight drawback of Ocean Breeze is that it is in a remote area with no restaurants in walking distance; the Armory is smack in the middle of Washington Heights, with plenty of street vendors, delis and restaurants in the area.

Metro Holiday Season Opener

Saturday, December 5, 2015

Ocean Breeze Athletic Complex, Staten Island

Men’s results and splits

200-meter dash

24. Tim Johnson 23.26

26. Hakim Cunningham 23.37

42. Ethan Rodrigues 24.19

400-meter dash

53. Josh Hindle 53.71

62. Josh Siegel 55.77

800-meter run

10. Nestor Taylor 1:59.07

28, 58 (30), 1:28 (30), 1:59.07 (31.07)

15. Anthony Colasanto 2:00.95

28, 58 (30), 1:28 (30), 2:00.95 (32.95)

16. Nate Lungarini 2:01.03

29, 58 (29), 1:28 (30), 2:01.03 (33.03)

18. Tanner Senius 2:01.58

29, 59 (30), 1:30 (31), 2:01.58 (31.58)

20. Brian Henderson 2:01.69

30, 60 (30), 1:30 (30), 2:01.69 (31.69)

21. Drew Burns 2:01.99

30, 60 (30), 1:31 (31), 2:01.99 (30.99)

Mile run

13. Mark Vuono 4:30.22

31, 64 (33), 1:37 (33), 2:11 (34), 2:47 (36), 3:21 (34), 3:56 (35), 4:30.22 (34.22)

16. Sami Ellougani 4:31.86

34, 67 (33), 1:39 (32), 2:14 (35), 2:50 (36), 3:23 (33), 3:58 (35), 4:31.86 (33.86)

26. Ricky Willi 4:38.11

33, 68 (35), 1:44 (36), 2:18 (36), 2:55 (37), 3:32 (37), 4:05 (37), 4:38.11 (33.11)

3,000-meter run

8. Mark Valentino 8:44.25

33.4, 69.4 (36.0), 1:44.3 (35.9), 2:18.7 (34.4), 2:53.4 (34.7)

3:28.0 (34.6), 4:03.3 (35.3), 4:38.3 (35.0), 5:13.5 (35.2), 5:48.6 (35.1)

6:24.3 (35.7), 6:59.2 (34.9), 7:34.4 (35.2), 8:10.0 (35.6), 8:44.25 (34.25)

Kilometer splits: 2:53.4, 5:48.6 (2:55.2), 8:44.25 (2:55.65)

1,600-meter relay

17. Marist A (Nestor Taylor 53.4, Tim Johnson 51.5, Tanner Senius 53.1, Nate Lungarini 52.5) 3:30.77

23. Marist B (Hakim Cunningham 54.0, Ethan Rodrigues 52.9, Drew Burns 53.7, Anthony Colasanto 54.0) 3:35.02

3,200-meter relay

3. Marist (Joe Miller, Mark Vuono, Sami Ellougani, Ricky Willi) 8:09.90

Joe Miller: 1:59.7. 29, 57 (29), 1:27 (30), 1:59.7 (32.7)

Mark Vuono: 2:00.7. 28, 58 (30), 1:28 (30), 2:00.7 (32.7)

Sami Ellougani: 2:03.9. 29, 60 (31), 1:31 (31), 2:03.9 (32.9)

Ricky Willi: 2:05.2. 29, 61 (32), 1:33 (32), 2:05.2 (32.2)