NCAA Regionals: Additional thoughts

A few parting thoughts from the NCAA Regional meet yesterday at Van Cortlandt Park:

--The day at Van Cortlandt Park started with a pleasant surprise visit from Marist Track/XC Royalty Girma Segni, who still lives in Kingsbridge, about a mile away from Van Cortlandt. Girma was a multiple school record holder during his time at Marist, and he still holds the VCP school record for 5 miles as well as the indoor 5km mark. Although none of our current athletes had met him, they sure knew about it and viewed him with a mix of reverence and awe. They know of his legacy, and a huge picture of him racing is outside my office in McCann. One by one, the men were introduced to Girma or introduced themselves to him. He talked to them, took an interest in their training and racing, and even imparted some wisdom as to how to race at the famed course. Having him there was a treat and it showed our athletes the connectivity of past, current and future generations of Running Red Foxes. He’s one of the greatest we’ve ever had, for sure. We hope to see him again next week for the season ending IC4A/ECAC meet back at Van Cortlandt.

--Our men equaled the 2015 performance at this meet, almost to the point total. While we were slightly disappointed to have just missed out on 15^th place, we were thrilled with the effort in this highly competitive field. The sentiment is similar to what we felt after the MAAC Championships two weeks prior at Disney: Fell just short of our very aggressive goal, but proud of the effort and the execution of the race. Glass half full, for sure.

--The regional meet is a pressure cooker atmosphere unlike even the MAAC Championships, because of the sheer number of teams on the starting line – 41 for men, 40 for women. Trying to gauge how your team is doing is very difficult. I try to count places as best as possible. But nothing can prepare you for THIS: When the men came out of the back the second time, around the halfway point of the 10km race, I’m looking beyond the lead pack for our lead runner, Matt Baffuto. Hmm. Where IS he. Where IS he? Oh. Wait. There he is. In the lead pack, the place we’d least expect to find him. LEADING THE RACE. Huh? What’s the big IDEA? Yeah. Not the smartest of moves, but the early pace was slow and Matt was feeling it, tasting it. Of course, he didn’t maintain it, but his finishing time was a PR (not that times matter, but that’s impressive) and his finishing place was the best we’ve had in four years, since Quimes DelaCruz’s 26^th place finish in 2012. Good stuff.

--Once again, unfortunately, our women’s team performance was below what we were expecting for sure. We are all searching for answers as to why these past two meets have not gone according to plan. We know it’s not a lack of effort. This is a great group of ladies. They work hard, do what we ask of them, and care an awful lot about what they do. The results just have not mirrored that, and for that we are truly bummed. However! We do have one more meet in which to end the season on a positive note, and that is what we are aiming for, next Saturday at the ECAC Championships.

--Speaking of that: It’s next Saturday, November 19, at Van Cortlandt Park. Race times for our team: women’s open 5km, 9:15 a.m.; men’s open 5-mile, 9:30 a.m.; men’s University 5-mile, 11:30 a.m.; women’s University 5km, 12:15 p.m.