Running Red Foxes Halloween on Staten Island

Thanks to loyal blog follower and even more loyal Marist Running alum Marty McGowan for sending me this outstanding picture from his home on Staten Island, along with this email: “Hope the NCAA doesn't consider ET helping give out Halloween candy as a recruiting violation. Thanks to the Alumni jersey, I met three Marist grads who I didn't know before. They were trick or treating with their kids along East Raleigh Avenue. Great afternoon. We gave away 650 pieces of candy between 3:30 and 5:30, when we ran out of candy!”

Running to the vote

Sometimes, the conversations we have with our athletes at practice simply blow me away. I get surprised every day about something. On Tuesday, the topic was the upcoming midterm elections. Two of our athletes were discussing their plans to go home and vote, because they did not send in their absentee ballots. One of our young voters lives on Long Island; the other in the Syracuse area. It is so important to them, that they feel the need to drive a fair amount of miles to get back home and cast their ballots. Of course, the coach in me is concerned; that’s a workout day! Will they be back in time for the workout in the afternoon? To the outside observer (and to me, thinking logically as I type this), this is flawed thinking. So many young folks are not engaged in the process – not registered to vote, not up on the current events, none of it. So to have two young women who care enough about the process to go home and cast their ballots … come on, man, I shouldn’t be worrying about some random Tuesday workout now, should I? Good for them. Our political system is deeply flawed, but our right to vote is ingrained in our country’s DNA. That these two ladies would go out of their way to vote means a lot. Nicely done.

MAAC XC meet: Women's results

MAAC Cross Country Championships

Saturday, October 27, 2018

The Crossings of Colonie

Host = Siena College

Women’s team standings

1-Iona 21, 2. Marist 85, 3. Siena 114, 4. Quinnipiac 127, 5. Canisius 129, 6. Monmouth 154, 7. Manhattan 158, 8. Rider 188, 9. Fairfield 267, 10. Niagara 302, 11. St. Peter’s 360

Women’s individual results, 6km course

13. Gianna Tedeschi 22:23.2 *All-MAAC

17. Maria Smith 22:32.6

19. Emily Burns 22:34.5

20. Hayley Collins 22:34.9

22. Shea Bohan 22:37.5

24. Denise Grohn 22:40.8

27. Rebecca Walters 22:49.6

31. Gianna Mastromatteo 23:11.7

36. Jordan Casey 23:20.5

44. Kerry Gaye 23:34.0

74. Maddie Tooker 24:33.3

80. Jess Howe 24:52.6

93. Jill Laliberte 25:10.9

99. Kayla Sexton 25:25.2

100. Ashley Wallace 25:28.3

112. Hannah Albert 26:01.5

126. Katie Miale 26:48.0

149 finishers

MAAC XC meet: Men's results

MAAC Cross Country Championships

Saturday, October 27, 2018

The Crossings of Colonie

Host = Siena College

Men’s team standings

1-Iona 35, 2. Siena 77, 3. Monmouth 88, 4. Quinnipiac 101, 5. Manhattan 120, 6. Marist 127, 7. Canisius 163, 8. Rider 211, 9. Fairfield 274, 10. Niagara 330, 11. St. Peter’s 357

Men’s individual results, 8km course

8. Michael Kennedy 25:38.2 *All-MAAC

24. James Draney 26:10.0

29. Palmer Weimann 26:13.7

32. Conor Stack 26:24.9

34. Riley Hughes 26:29.1

36. Christopher Rivas 26:35.0

43. James Moehringer 26:39.1

45. Alexander Hogue 26:42.2

47. Dan Hillman 26:44.3

52. Christopher Tibbetts 26:52.2

53. Elias Platanias 26:53.0

56. Connor Levins 26:59.6

61. Graham Strzelecki 27:07.7

62. Brendan Zeng 27:08.2

63. Eamonn Beers 27:09.1

64. Brad Rynkowski 27:09.6

65. Aidan Sweeney 27:10.9

75. Will Esposito 27:19.9

76. Matthew Ronan 27:23.0

102. Connor Fitzpatrick 28:15.6

104. Mark Cappuccitti 28:31.4

107. Sam Goldzweig 28:35.8

109. Trevor Garrity 28:42.6

115. Patrick Kutch 29:11.3

118. Charles Roy 29:16.9

126. Matthew Hawker 30:02.5

128. Marc Bakia 30:12.1

140 finishers

MAAC XC meet: Overview impressions

Whew. What a wild, wet and miserable weather day up at the Crossings of Colonie. True cross country. It was, in a perverse way, a lot of fun. For someone like me, who hates being cold and wet, I had fun being cold and wet today. No. Really! We huddled in tents, got soaked in the windswept rain, and shivered through the real-feel 20s cold and wet day, alternating between the soggy tent grounds and the warm JTR buses, whose engines never stopped running. Out on the course, our women placed a strong, decisive and dominant second to a truly dominant (and looking like a potential NCAA qualifying) Iona squad. We were hoping to put a bit more of a scare in the Gaels, but it wasn’t to be on this day; they just ran really well. Our 1-5 spread was a remarkable 14.3 seconds. Stretch that out to 1-7 and it was a still tight compression of 26.7 seconds. That’s amazing and that’s dominant in our own right. Nicely done, ladies! For the men, we’re so very proud of senior Mike Kennedy, who notched the first top-10/single-digit MAAC finish in seven (7!) years and did us all proud by placing eight overall. While our men’s team finish was a slightly disappointing sixth, the overall effort was strong and gutty and I’m proud of the grit the men showed out there. After Kennedy, our 2-5 spread was a tight 19.1 seconds – they were just a bit too far back in the pack. We were pleased at our parental, family and alumni support. Thanks especially to Palmer Weimann’s parents, Martha and Ted, for their organization of the tailgate, and to Martha for supplying a lot of the pictures you’ll see in the upcoming posts (including this one). Even in that slop, it was another Great Day To Be a Red Fox.

MAAC XC meet: Award-winning finishers

Our All-MAAC (top-15) runners were Mike Kennedy (8^th in men’s field) and Gianna Tedeschi (13^th in women’s field). We had two All-Rookie runners on the women’s side: Rebecca Walters and Gianna Mastromatteo.

MAAC XC meet: First place in the classroom. Again.

Before we delve deep into results from the emotional (and very wet) MAAC meet today, first we post about the most important first-place finish of every year. Our men’s team had, by far, the most number of MAAC All-Academic Team selections at 21; second place was a distance 13. On the women’s side, we were first in the MAAC with 19 All-Academic selections. While we dream of a first-place result in the finish chute, these ones are pretty sweet as well.

MAAC XC meet: Weather or not

An astute (?) loyal follower of our program texted me last night, asking if the MAAC XC meet was still going to run as scheduled on Saturday morning. Dude. Really? The weather is going to suck, big time, with a nor'easter barreling down on the region. But it's not like we're getting a foot of snow, or severe thunder and lightning. It's going to be cold, rainy and windy. Truly downright miserable. To which Marty McGowan emailed this morning: Welcome to Cross Country in the Northeast. Indeed. Pack that Gore-Tex, umbrella and dry socks for the ride home. We're going to get wet and we're going to be cold, and we're going to love every minute of it. Men's race at 11 a.m. Women's race at 12 noon. Away we go.

MAAC buddies

Upon arriving at the bus this afternoon, the men's cross country team was greeted with the Royal Treatment by their buddy team, women's soccer. The ladies provided each runner (and coach!) with personalized small Gatorades, which had "winner" medals on them, and they made some excellent signs as well. Really awesome stuff from a really awesome team.

MAAC themed practice week: White out day

The theme on Wednesday was white out and you can see our ladies striking a pose at 11a practice. Thursday was Hawaiian day but I didn't snap a picture of that, sorry. It was a great, fun week of practice leading up to the beginning of Championship Season.

MAAC themed practice week: Ranch day

Our women's team had themes for each day of the week, leading up to MAACs. On Tuesday, it was "ranch" day and you can see that flannel shirts were all the rage (not to mention Denise's excellent lasso!).

MAAC XC meet information

The MAAC cross country championships are Saturday at the Crossings of Colonie (Albany area, Siena College is the host). Men's race at 11 a.m., women's race at 12 noon. Note to parents: Palmer Weimann's mom, Martha, will be organizing a tailgate. Contact her at whctgirl@gmail.com or by cell/text at 860 803 8198. The meet address = 580 Albany Shaker Rd, Loudonville, NY 12211.

Class of 1968 at Homecoming Weekend

It’s always nice when Homecoming (Alumni) Weekend coincides with an off (bye) weekend for our cross country team. This allows us to visit with the many loyal alumni – not only of the college, but especially of our cross country and track teams. We saw the usual amalgam of relatively young Forever Foxes around campus on Friday and Saturday. A special treat was a visit by several members of the Class of 1968, men who were among the founding fathers of the track program here at Marist. Do the math. The Class of 1968, those of whom are still around, are in the early 70s. They showed up at our Cross Country and Track Alumni Tent (yes, we had that this year, in the middle of campus, and it was neat) and offered us some history lessons, complete with great stories and great photos from a loooooong time ago. Some of those photos are shared here. Marty McGowan (Marty! We missed you!) has provided me with some great historical photos (like these) from his attic.

One great story of which I was not aware: In the winter of 1967, the men of the cross country team staged a 100-hour relay as they embarked on forming a student-run track team. This four-plus-day relay was a big deal and got a lot of attention in The Circle and the Poughkeepsie Journal. All these years later, these guys were proud of their efforts in this 100-hour relay and they made their dream of putting together a track team a reality. Like the loyal alums they are, they groused about the fact that we still don’t have a track on campus. But it was great to meet these truly great men – John Forbes, Charlie DiSogra, Brendan Burke, Dan Kuffner (who lives locally and who I’ve gotten to know very well through the years) and others. Ours is a rich history, one that we are trying to keep building each year, and we are very proud of it.

Omar wins in Rhinebeck!

Congrats to Marist Running Alum Omar Perez for his great victory at Sunday's Fall Foliage Half Marathon in Rhinebeck. Omar ran 1:17:24 on the hilly 13.1-mile course as he continues his steady training for the NYC Marathon. Omar runs for the Fleet Feet Elite Racing Team in Poughkeepsie, and we are glad and honored he wore the new Marist Alumni Racing Team singlet on Sunday in Rhinebeck. Nicely done!

Staten Island Half Marathon: Strong races for many!

Marist Running was well represented at this morning’s Staten Island Half Marathon, which featured perfect racing conditions after a week of heat and rain.

--Dietrich Mosel, racing for NYAC, had a stellar 13.1-mile PR of 1:08:42 (5:15 pace), good for 10^th place overall and first in his age group. Nicely done, Deet! Ry

--Ryan Fitzsimons, racing for Central Park Track Club, soared to a 1:13:29 (5:37 pace) as he gears up for the marathon in a few weeks.

--Luke Shane, proudly racing for the Marist Alumni Racing Team, ran a PR by nearly a minute, 1:15:29 (5:46 pace).

--Kyle Hannafin, also sporting the MART colors, repped his hometown with a strong 1:18:38 (6:00 pace).

--Bryn Gorberg, racing for the Gotham City Runners (GCR), had a great race – 1:25:08 (6:30 pace).

--Bianca Luparello, wearing the Marist colors, also had a great race – 1:27:35 (6:41 pace).

Nicely done, one and all!

Hartford Marathon: Tim Johnson (!) and Schab

In the most random pairing of Marist Running Alums, I present to you two finishers from Saturday’s Hartford Marathon: Tim Johnson and Mike Schab. Alert blog followers (not to mention Coach Horton and this old guy) wistfully recall Tim as a record-setting sprinter (yes, that’s right, SPRINTER) and the heart and soul of our track team (yes, that’s right, TRACK team). For Tim, a short sprinter through and through, a four-lap cooldown at the track would have constituted a marathon during his stellar four-year stint on the team. But alas on Saturday, our hero completed the entire 26.2 miles in the pouring rain in a very respectable 3:49:45 (8:46 pace). Nicely done, Tim!

As for Schab, he continues to pile up the racing stats, more than a decade after graduating from Marist. We’re a little behind on his race reporting, but we’ll start from the most recent: At Hartford, Schabby ran 3:11:36 (7:19 pace) and got 11^th in the 30-34 division. Of course, this was his third race in 14 days – Bronx 10-miler (1:03:54, neg split 32:46/31:08), Chicago Marathon (3:07:58). He also completed two marathons in the spring – Football Hall of Fame in Ohio and Shiprock in New Mexico, now having knocked off 28 states in his 50-state quest, all in the Marist Alumni Racing Team singlet. Nicely done!

Lafayette Leopard Invitational: Women's results

Another dominant day for our women's team in a meet where we were hoping for a little bit more of a competitive field. No worries there, we'll have our fair share of competition over the next month! Most of the women handled the wet and chilly conditions well. Onward and upward to championships ...

Leopard Invitational

Lafayette College, Metzgar Field

Easton, PA

Saturday, October 13, 2018

Women’s team standings

1-Marist 15, 2-Lafayette 54, 3-Lehigh 87, 4-St. Joseph’s (PA) 107, 5-Loyola MD 140, 6-Pace 186, 7-Keystone 200

Women’s individual results, 6km course

1-Gianna Tedeschi 22:14.45

2-Shea Bohan 22:37.88

3-Hayley Collins 22:49.50

4-Emily Burns 23:02.84

5-Denise Grohn 23:06.50

6-Maria Smith 23:18.78

8-Kerry Gaye 23:42.73

9-Rebecca Walters 23:52.38

11-Gianna Mastromatteo 24:03.96

13-Jordan Casey 24:09.27

19-Maddie Tooker 24:38.88

20-Samantha DeStefani 24:50.79

26-Ashley Wallace 25:22.39

27-Kayla Sexton 25:26.79

30-Jillian Laliberte 25:39.99

31-Jess Howe 25:45.08

36-Hannah Albert 26:03.08

43-Katie Miale 26:24.03

49-Erin Flynn 26:50.77

53-Lauren Harris 27:17.57

73 finishers

Lafayette Leopard Invitational: Men's results

After extended warm weather stretching into October, Saturday morning's cold rain was a shock to everyone's system. The guys managed well on a slippery grass course. Several guys "bit it" -- vernacular for wiping out in the wet grass and mud. But overall, the men handled the crazy ups and downs and turns and wet course well today. A good tuneup for upcoming championships.

Leopard Invitational

Lafayette College, Metzgar Field

Easton, PA

Saturday, October 13, 2018

Men’s team standings

1-Marist 15, 2-Lafayette 65, 3-St. Joseph’s PA 70, 4-Loyola MD 103, 5-Pace 151, 6-Keystone 178, 7-Monmouth INC

Men’s individual results, 8km course

1-Michael Kennedy 26:19.34

2-James Draney 26:28.80

3-Alexander Hogue 26:29.71

4-Riley Hughes 26:34.23

5-James Moehringer 26:43.98

7-Christopher Tibbetts 26:50.71

8-Conor Stack 26:53.71

9-Eamonn Beers 26:58.89

11-Brendan Zeng 27:06.40

12-Dan Hillman 27:06.81

13-Connor Levins 27:11.78

20-Brad Rynkowski 27:33.13

22-Will Esposito 27:34.27

24-Aidan Sweeney 27:44.61

31-Sam Goldzweig 28:05.22

45-Charles Roy 28:42.91

47-Connor Fitzpatrick 28:49.08

48-Matthew Hawker 29:10.77

68 finishers

What's next: Lafayette meet

We are looking forward to a new meet on our schedule, the Leopard Invitational at Lafayette College on Saturday morning. Race times are as follows: Men's 8km at 10 a.m.; women's 6km at 10:45 a.m. Race venue is Metzgar Fields, 3412 Sullivan Trail, Easton, PA 18040. This is a small but competitive meet on a course that promises to be a rollercoaster true XC course. Parts of the course have names like the "Laf Ness Monster" and the "Bermuda Quadrangle" and the "Twilight Zone" and the "Flying Saucer Loop" ... should be interesting!

Getting their kicks ...

Nice to see our track team out supporting the women's soccer team in tonight's game vs. Monmouth at Tenney Stadium. The athletic department has "buddy teams" in which men's and women's teams are paired up to support each other. Men's track/XC's buddy team is women's soccer. It was a nice, warm night for it. Unfortunately, the home team dropped a hard-fought 1-0 game.

Bike mania

Can’t decide if I’m extremely proud or extremely pissed. Probably a little bit of both, with the needle slightly pointed toward the “proud” side (or, at the very least, mildly amused). I’ll explain. Upon waking up at 4:50 a.m. for our usual Friday morning group run from Marist, I saw a missed called and a text from Henderson. The after-midnight text (and really, does anything good happen in the wee hours after midnight?) was accompanied by this photo and read as follows: “350 mile comeback in 4 hours for the victory!!” Of course, I knew exactly what this meant and the shenanigans of these men on a Thursday night in college. It’s the Expresso Bike Challenge, a nationwide contest among colleges with these type of stationary bikes in which you log in and log as many miles. Marist advanced to the mano a mano elimination round, versus a relatively obscure but big state school from the Midwest. Let’s just say the energy level among Marist students for this contest was lacking. Not among the track/cross country team, though, and the boys rallied to advance to next week’s round. Which is good news and bad news. The good news is, they bucked up and prevailed. The bad news is, we have a hard tempo workout scheduled for this morning, and next week we have an important meet at Lafayette. This is where the “pissed” part comes in; are we gonna be facing tired legs this morning? Next week? Shouldn’t these idiots be resting up for today’s workout? Next week’s meet? As I complained about this at home, my wife made an astute comment: “Hey, they could be out drinking all night.” Fair point. This group selfie could be from Darby’s or some other place that I don’t want my athletes to be on a Thursday (or any) night, in which case: a. I would most certainly not have received it and b. I would most certainly not post it on this blog. But still, discretion needs to be used next week. Or, at the very least, let’s get the crew team or some other, out-of-season athletes on the bikes. Geez?

Record boards

Among all the construction in the McCann Center this past summer, we proactively had our track record boards removed from the wall in the hallway leading to the locker rooms and training room in the building. With all the banging and the dust, we wanted to preserve these precious boards. So for the past several months, the record boards have been hiding behind the door to my office. Now that the locker room construction has been completed and the hallway is freshly painted, our record boards are back up on the wall and fully updated with the many – and I do mean MANY – school records that were set or broken in 2018 and 2017. Walking past that record board every day gives our athletes incentive to Be Better, and we’re glad the visual is back up there. Records are made to be broken, and the old marks are now in a small cardboard box on the desk in my office. I don’t have the heart to throw them away – the records are broken, but the memories of the athletes who set them remain strong.

Alumni racing update: Mike G at Maine Marathon

Marist Running Alum Mike Guarascio proudly sported the new red Marist Alumni Racing Team singlet at Sunday’s Maine Marathon, where he finished 18^th overall in 2:54:51 and second in the 35-39 division, missing his PR by just 1 minute, 30 seconds. He texted: “Was on pace for sub-2:50 through 21 or so when some leg cramping got to me. Fun to get back out there – first full marathon since Boston 2011!” Next up, he’s hoping to race at Chicago Marathon in 2019. Nicely done, Mike G!

Alumni racing update: Kyle Hannafin

This is a bit overdue, but we got a nice email update a few weeks back from Marist Running Alum Kyle Hannafin of Staten Island, who proudly wears the Marist Alumni Racing Team singlet. Earlier in September, he got first in his age group at the Celic Run 4-miler in Clove Lakes Park – with loyal Marist alum Marty McGowan at the finish line cheering him on. This past weekend, Kyle got second in the Tunnel to Towers 5K in New York City. The race has special meaning, as it traces the final steps of FDNY Stephen Siller, who strapped on his gear on 9/11, ran through the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel to the Twin Towers. Kyle is now an assistant xc/track coach at his SI alma mater, Curtis HS. Nicely done, Kyle!

Alumni racing update: Bronx 10-miler

Congrats to Marist Running Alums Dietrich Mosel and Luke Shane for their outstanding races on Sunday at the Bronx 10-miler. Dietrich, racing for NYAC, placed 11th in a stellar time of 52:21 (5:15 pace), third American finisher). Luke, racing for the Marist Alumni Racing Team, ran a stellar PR of 56:17 (5:38 pace), good for 46th place.

Yet another alumni wedding

Although it was a lot of miles on my Subaru – driving to Lehigh, then to Long Island, and finally home – it was worth every Waze direction to make it to Pat Duggan’s wedding on Saturday night, after the Paul Short meet. Always great to see Forever Foxes (see picture) there to celebrate with the Duggans – recent alum Will Duggan was the best man and had a great best man speech. All alumni weddings are special, and getting to them is worth the extra effort.

Are we in Kansas?

The license plates on our leased vans say “Kansas” … and today, during our afternoon practice, it sure seemed like Kansas in the middle of the summer (oh wait, isn't it October?). We were up at Farm Lane in Hyde Park, preparing for a workout, when the ominous clouds started lurking. Our women went for their warmup run, and soon thereafter, the clouds opened up, and the thunder came, and it became obvious we would have to come up with a Plan B – which, regrettably, involves treadmills. As the ladies scurried back to the vans in the deluge, a blaring alert came across my phone, via the Accuweather app: “Tornado warning until 3 p.m., in Haviland, NY.”  Haviland is the Hyde Park hamlet in which we live; Farm Lane happens to be about 1.6 miles (roughly 3km) away. Whoa. Is this Kansas? So, we hustled back to campus, hoping not to see any twisters. We didn’t.

The women hopped on the treadmills in South Field Fitness (“the tent”). It seemed like a raucous wedding reception as Music of Questionable Taste (for this 54-year-old) blared from the big speaker. The sweaty workout resumed, after a “tornado delay” – another in a series of firsts that we seem to be experiencing during this 2018 cross country season.