As Hurricane/Tropical Storm Hanna swooped up the Eastern Seaboard, many D3 teams fought the elements to commence their seasons, including defending champions Amherst College and NYU. Based on the results from this past weekend, it would appear that a number of the top teams are holding out their “big guns” until later in the season, perhaps due to injury, but more than likely in an effort to continue strong training blocks. Other coaches chose to race their top runners, but at a more “tempo” like effort, rather than an all out race. Here is a recap of how the nationally ranked teams faired in week two (Interview with Steph Herrick of TCNJ follows weekend recap scroll down to skip to the interview).

Women:

The Defending Champion and number 1 ranked Amherst Lord Jeffs defended their home turf against a variety of local Western Massachusetts competition with a large pack in the high 20-minute range over the 5K course. The pack, which one can only assume was using the race as a workout/tempo, was led by Senior Captain Caitlin McDermott Murphy.

2^nd ranked Luther College was victorious at 5K at the Central College invite

3^rd ranked Eau Claire lost to in-state rival River Falls in a relay dual meet 28-11 (scoring 4 runners, 6 for displacement) although according to the school’s press release they held out a number of their top runners.

7^th ranked Depauw finished second to Indiana Tech at the Wabash relay meet

The number 8 ranked Williams Ephs raced against Division 1 competition in the Bronx at storied Van Cortland Park at the Fordham Fiasco (editor’s note: what a meet name), finishing fourth behind Navy, Quinnipiac and St. Joe’s.

Number 11 Ithaca took the win at Suny Oneonta with a team score of 23 points

Middlebury, ranked 14^th preseason competed at the Plattsburgh Classic, and tied the host Cardinals with 28 points, despite having top runner Alexandra Krieg take the individual title. NCAA rules say that ties are to be left unbroken, unless it must be to determine qualification, however if the NCAA’s tie-breaker rule was to be used, Middlebury would be victorious having the faster runner at 3 of the top 5 spots.

Number 17 John Hopkins won the Baltimore Metro Meet, defeating D1 Towson, led by Paulson who was 2^nd overall and bettered the old course record.

Heading down South, 19^th ranked Emory finished second at the University of the South invite, behind only D1 Mississippi State.

At the Carroll invite, 21^st ranked Wisconsin Oshkosh placed 6 in the top 8 to win with 21 points.

24^th ranked Whitman ran shorthanded, and finished 3^rd at home behind NAIA Lewis-Clark State and D3 rival Whitworth.

Number 29 Kenyon College racing for the second weekend in a row, finished 4^th at Cincinnati, behind the host bearcats, and D1 A-10 conference Dayton and Xavier. 

Washington & Lee, ranked 32^nd finished 1^st at home.

Rounding out the top 35 action for the women, 33^rd ranked Claremont Mudd Scripps defeated Santa Barbara 21-35. 

Men:

With the top three teams off this week, 4^th Ranked Stevens Point was the top team to compete, getting to preview the course to be used for Nationals at the Hanover Invitational. The Pointers are officially undefeated on the Championship course defeating 9^th ranked Ohio Northern in the process which finished 3^rd behind UWSP and D2 Bellarmine (KY).

6^th ranked Williams College was down at Van Cortland at the Fordham Fiasco (editor’s note: still diggin’ the name) The Eph men finished 3^rd behind Champions Navy and second place Quinnipiac (by 1 point). However in the first shake up of the season, Williams led by individual meet champion Kosgey (not to be confused with Hamilton’s Kosgei) defeated Pitt, which beat 5^th ranked Carnegie Mellon at last weekends Duquesne Duals. 

8^th ranked Amherst, tied for the win at home with D2 Merrimack.

13^th ranked Wisconsin Oshkosh led by two freshmen, won the Carroll College invite with a team score of 32 points. 

As the season rolls on, more meets will be filled with multiple ranked teams. Along with the Hanover Invite, Trinity College ranked 15^th in the preseason hosted its own invite with multiple nationally ranked teams from Divisions 3 and 2. D2 UMass Lowell took home first prize, followed by the host Bantams, and 20^th ranked Keene State in 3^rd.

16^th ranked Luther finished 6^th over a 6K course, presumably without some of their top runners.

21^st ranked Dickinson College also most likely without their top runners finished 7^th at the Lebanon Valley invite. 

While the current number 1 was idle this week, defending champion and 26^th ranked NYU had their first meet on the season, finishing second behind the D1 hosts at the Marist invitational. Performances of note would include that the presumed top runner for the Violets Jesse Schneider finished behind teammate Calvin Lee. 

28^th ranked Claremont Mudd Scripps defeated Santa Barbara 17-41

29^th ranked Texas Tyler took 8 of the top 10 spots to win their home invitational with 15 points

31^st ranked Mt. Union took first at the Tommy Evans invite over the 4 mile course

32^nd ranked Johns Hopkins finished second overall at the Baltimore Metro Meet but was first among local schools finishing behind D1 Binghamton. 

Rounding out the top 35 results, 34^th ranked Eau Claire defeated River Falls 14-22 in a relay meet that scored 4 runners. 

That wraps up results for week 2, again if I missed any, my apologies. Starting most likely by week 4, I will be able to bring you my take on how the results from each week will impact the national rankings, and how if at all they help/hurt a region in terms of qualifying teams for nationals. 

 Please keep reading for an interview with 7-time D3 All American Steph Herrick of the College of New Jersey. 

 

Interview with Steph Herrick of The College of New Jersey 

 

Captain of the 15^th ranked TCNJ lions, Steph is a 7 time All American. Having finished 127^th overall at the 2007 XC championships at St. Olaf, Steph looks to improve on that performance this year as she leads TCNJ into the 2008 season. Steph graciously agreed to be my first interview, and shares with you how she started in the sport, her goals for the XC season and much more.

 

 

Since many people reading this article may not know who Steph Herrick is, tell them a little about yourself, where you grew up, how you began running (did you play any other sports before you started running)?

My name is Steph, I just turned 21, and I’m a senior communication studies major at TCNJ.  I grew up in Wayne, NJ. I’m a pretty laid back person.  I like to have a good time, and pretend I don’t suck at guitar.  I’ve played other sports since I was 4 or 5.  I played club soccer year round, basketball in the winter and then softball in the spring.  I realized that I didn’t get as tired as everyone else, and actually enjoyed the fitness days at practice, which I’m guessing isn’t normal. In high school I played basketball my freshman year and soccer for my frosh and soph years.  I started running track spring of my freshman year, and didn’t know indoor track was even a sport until they had a pizza party at the beginning of spring track to celebrate the end of the season.  When I started track I tried everything from throws to hurdles to jumps, and then also ended up training with the distance team by the end of the season.   For most of high school I was more of a multi-event person and thought that was what I was going to do in college, but as high school went on I spent more and more of my time with the distance team and developed a love for running. 

Since summer just came to an end, what did you do this summer, running and otherwise?

 This summer was pretty relaxing for me.  I hung out with my friends, ran, and worked.  I became a total track junkie as the Olympic Trials and Olympics were going on most of the summer, which actually helped get me excited for the upcoming season.  I started my summer with a week of short runs just to get back into running, and then slowly built my mileage up to around 65 mpw.  I ran about 50-60 mins most days and Sunday long runs of 90-100 mins.  Towards the end of the summer I did short tempo and fartlek type workouts to turn my legs over a little bit, and added in morning runs twice a week.  I did some lifting and strength training also, nothing too crazy.   To make some money I babysat and was the Assistant Manager at an ice cream place, which was nice because I have an unhealthy addiction to ice cream.  My family rented a house at the beach for a week for vacation.  I also worked as a counselor at a running camp, which was an awesome experience. 

What made you decide to attend/run for TCNJ? When you were deciding on schools what was your view of D3 and how has that changed now?

Originally I didn’t want to look at TCNJ, but my mom convinced me to go visit the campus.  After walking around and meeting a few people I liked it a lot.   The campus is pretty, and has a great academic reputation.  I ended up visiting two more times and really liking the team, and felt comfortable there.  As for running there I was actually recruited to be a Heptathlete, so the coach at the time contacted me and said I could run XC if I wanted to, but didn’t have to.  I really liked the team atmosphere of XC in high school and improved my times a lot after running it, so I decided I would run XC.  My decision came down to two DIII schools, both were good academically and had good XC programs but TCNJ had a stronger track program, so chose to attend TCNJ.

      When I was looking at schools I looked at both DI and DIII schools, but was unsure if I would be a better fit at a DI or a DIII program.  I wanted to go somewhere where I would be happy with academics and athletics.  I like the fact that in DIII everyone who is on the team truly wants to be on the team, and you can focus on school while still being able to run.  I’m really glad I chose DIII because it’s allowed me to grow as a person and a runner, where I could have gotten lost in the mix at a DI school.  I am also grateful that I’ve gotten to experience competing at National Championships since my freshman year, which I wouldn’t get at a DI level.  For someone that is unsure of which way to go, I would probably suggest DIII after my experience. 

What were your PRs in High School in XC and Track, and what are they now?

H.S. 400m-58, 800m- 2:14, 1600m- 5:26, XC 5k- 20:50 I think. 

College 400m 57.1(split), 800m- 2:08.42, mile- 4:56, 1500m- 4:36, 5k xc-18:30, 6k 
xc- 23:09 ? I’m not sure

To date, much of your success has come on the track rather than XC, how do you view the fall season?

I am really looking forward to the fall season and I feel confident in saying I am in the best shape I have ever been in, and the atmosphere of the team is the best it has been since I started.  In track I am used to just focusing for a short amount of time and giving everything I have.  XC is really different in that you have to focus for longer, and deal with being uncomfortable for an extended period of time. I hope to make myself stronger mentally, and become better at focusing and staying confident during the race. 

Being the captain of a top 15-ranked team, what does that mean to you, and how does the team treat/feel about this distinction?

As a team we elect 2 captains basically to have someone lead warm up, and give the underclassman someone to turn to.  We have a really strong group of seniors on the team this year, and I think all of us contribute something in our own way.  I hope to set a good example for all of my teammates, and also create a positive atmosphere.  It’s really important to me that the team be close and enjoying themselves because I feel that will result in all of us performing our best throughout the season, and maintain the strong history of our program.

As a team we try not to pay much attention to the rankings.  Most of the team probably doesn't even know we are ranked 15th at the moment.  I think it is a good start to be ranked in the top 15, and is one of our season goals to finish in the upper half at nationals.  It's still really early, but hopefully we can stay in that top half.

What if any pre race and post race rituals do you and your team have? 

In cross if it is a big meet we will premeet the course as a team the day before the race, stretch and then take turns describing the different parts.  During this time we also discuss strategy, and things to look out for.  If it’s a smaller meet we will just talk about the course in practice, and then run it as a warm up the day of the race.  We sometimes go out to dinner at an Italian place and order dinner and stuff our faces with the bread that comes as an appetizer.  In both XC and track we get the day before the meet to ourselves so we can run our premeet at our own pace, and do whatever it is we need to do before a race.  Personally I like to make the day before my race as stress free as possible.  I go for an easy run and do striders on the track.  I won’t do any school work, and like to just stay relaxed by listening to music or hanging out with friends.  Before I go to bed I stretch and run through different scenarios so I can be prepared for whatever might come on race day.  At the bigger meets like Nationals I will sometimes skim through my running log, which just a notebook that has everything I’ve done since I’ve come to college written in it.  On the cover I have my goals written out, and it’s just a little reminder of all the things I’ve done all season to get to where I am. 

What goals do you have for yourself this year, in both XC and track?

For XC I would like to make it to nationals as a team, and for myself I want to make the All-Regional Team, and my reach goal for the season is to become an All-American in XC.  I honestly haven’t given a lot of thought into the track season yet, but some goals I’ve had for awhile are to win national championship, run the US Nationals Standard of 2:06.5 for the 800, and start to work on improving my mile time.

Your time this past spring over 800 meters was just 2 seconds shy of the Olympic Trials “B” standard. Did you have any thoughts of going after the time, and do you have any plans to run after graduation this spring. 

At Outdoor nationals I was talking to my coach and joking around about how I didn’t want to stop running and take a break before training for XC just yet.  He suggested trying to hit the B standard.  At first I thought it was 2:04, so I was like maybe we’ll see.  I found out it was 2:06.5, and immediately changed my mind.  My coach and I found a race in NJ about two weeks after nationals and decided to give it a shot.  Those 
two weeks completely changed my attitude towards training, and I am really glad I went for it.  I wasn’t really running for a team anymore, but rather for myself and this huge goal.  I found myself just enjoying training and looking at it from a completely different perspective.   I ended up running just a few hundredths off my PR, which was a real confidence booster going into summer training, and has caused me to stop putting limits on what I think I can do.  I wasn’t bummed that I didn’t hit the standard, but more motivated by the whole experience.  I will definitely keep running after graduation.  I am unsure of how competitively or where to go after college with running, but I’ll figure it out when the time comes.  At the moment I am hoping to attend grad school and getting a job as a grad assistant in the XC/track program. 

TCNJ is a bit of an athletic power in D3, routinely finishing in the top 10 or 5 in the Director’s Cup standings (best overall athletic institution), how are the XC and track teams viewed by the student body and other athletes?

Friends of mine involved in other sports will stop by at our home track meets, and ask how are seasons are going.  They also like to call us crazy for what we do.  Even though our programs do pretty well, running isn’t always the most popular sport, but people will ask us how the season is going and say good luck. 

Is there anything else you think FloTrackers should know about you?

Thanks! It’s pretty sweet to see some DIII coverage

-Steph

No, Thank you Steph, for a great interview and good luck to you and the TCNJ Lions this season.

I hope everyone out there enjoyed this article. Again, if you have suggestions on how to make this article better or if you would like to nominate/suggest someone for me to interview, drop a comment under the article or shoot me a message. On to week three!