Track and Field Articles By Dan Suher

In the limited formal journalism education I have (a few classes in high school), I was always taught that the first few sentences in an article should answer the important questions everyone could have given the headline....the Who, What, Where, When, Why and How. However given that I am considered by FloTrack to be a columnist, I felt it more important to begin with a brief explanation about the absence of my article from the site on Mondays when most of you were used to reading it. I struggled with how to go about writing an article on track, because simply posting marks that… more »

Wow 364 Days have gone by in 2008 and now its just about time to review all the D3 running happenings of the year, but where do I begin? Well perhaps January 1st is a good starting point, but unfortunately not a whole lot of D3 action was taking place, other than perhaps a Alum or two taking place in the Emerald Nuts 4-miler in Central Park. Machiria Yuot a multi-time national champion at Widener took second overall in a time of 18.33 on yes, his birthday (January 1 not Dec 31st which is when the race is depending on… more »

All across the country student-athletes are heading into Winter Break or Holiday Break or whatever it is their school calls it. Since I am no longer in college, I do not have this luxury, however my Flotracking has had a bit of a break since the cross country season came to a close, and so I have missed about 2 weeks of indoor action. This article is less of an actual article and more of me simply reaching out to you the readers. Indoor track is a much different beast than XC in terms of covering the events. While there… more »

So Nationals came and went, and while I was unable to attend, there is some pretty good footage that was put up by a flotrack user...you may need to search for it, although as of press time it is on the front page under user videos.  As for the results, surprises were kept to a minimum for the most part for both genders individually and for the team scores. Here are your results http://finishtiming.com/2008/11-22/index.htm The Men's Podium featured first time Champion SUNY Cortland, followed by North Central, Williams and Steven's Point leaving Calvin off the podium for the first time… more »

With the conference championships done, most teams took the week off (ECAC's aside) and so the focus is now onto the eight regional meets and getting into one of the 32 starting line blocks (per gender) in Hanover for the 22nd. Since most teams just send their JV runners to ECAC I have decided to not give the race much attention other than stating the winners (Williams Men and Women). Now onto the regional previews (new national rankings came out this week, so the ranked teams will be reflected in the previews. ATLANTIC MEN Leading the way is #1 ranked… more »

Ok so I did not get as many conference previews up last week as I wanted to, however, I did call many of the upsets both team and individual. The one team champion I did not call was from my old conference (how about that). I will admit I had a good feeling that NYU would pull it out, but I just could not get myself to say the words, but congrats to the Violets as Coach Mcdonough and his squad did it again.  I did not have an interview this week...again, my bad, but this coming week is an… more »

For those of you expecting an interview this week, I decided to switch back to my old time schedule for these, so that means no interview this week, but I should have one for you in my post conference meet article. I do how ever want to introduce some commentary into my article, about things that are more or less on my mind right now, most are related to running, but some are not. If most of you guys are not fans, well then I will not include it in next week's edition.  So here goes, while I will not… more »

So this week was another great week for D3 XC, in fact it caught me a bit by surprise. I knew the Oshkosh meet would be fast, it always is, but some of the other meets around the country featured some big time faceoffs that should mix up the rankings a bit. New rankings came out again this week, with only a few changes in the overall picture of who will and will not make nationals. On the women's side, the Northeast and Central regions each has 7 teams crack the top 35, however since only 5 teams per region… more »

Before I get started I have to say one thing...MAINE IS THE GREATEST STATE IN AMERICA, IT IS CERTAINLY BETTER THAN DELAWARE. For those of you wondering what this has to do with D3 running, the answer is nothing. So why am I writing this at the top of my article...I lost a bet. Since most of you would have no way of knowing this, While I went to school outside of Boston, I was born and raised in Delaware, while Ryan Fenton grew up in Maine (went to Clemson). Maine played Delaware in football this weekend, and if Maine… more »

So another big week in XC across all divisions...those that did not participate in Griak last weekend, were at some of the nations other big meets this weekend with Paul Short, Notre Dame, Pre Nationals, Cowboy Jamboree and more. Upsets were a plenty this weekend and so the National Rankings should see some large adjustments once again this week. This week I conducted my third interview, and as promised I have kept moving around the country, this time a female from the West region, scroll down past the recap to skip to the interview. Speaking of the recap, here goes.… more »

Yes I know, there were other races this weekend other than Griak across all divisions, but I really want to thank the people at Minnesotta and the various athletic directors across D3 who sent their teams to Griak for making my life a heck of a lot easier this week. Also before I break into recapping this week's action, I must clarify a few errors from last week, one was my own, another was a scoring screw up by meet software. First I was yelled at for saying that Wash U had their full team in when they were beat… more »

Even though it is already the fourth week of the season, this weekend marked the real start of the march toward november for many of the nations top teams. Many regional rivals squared off for the first time giving the eight regional voters in the coaches' poll a good look at who was overrated and who was overlooked. After the recap of this weekend's results and its impact on the nationals scene, keep reading for an interview with one of the nation's top male xc/track runners - UW Oshkosh's Willy Kaul. RECAP: MEN -  1st ranked SUNY Cortland tied for… more »

Three weeks into the season and things are really starting to heat up, as more teams have common meets on their schedules we get to see small previews of regional meets to come. Before i start on this week's recap, I want to apologize for those that had to continually scroll across the screen to view last week's article. Something was messed up with the format, and I hope that this week will not have the same problem. On Thursday, the National Coaches Association released their second poll of 2008 and their first of the regular season. Not a whole… more »

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… more »

As the 2008 cross country season began it became apparent that there was a lack of D3 coverage on Flotrack. D1 meets and runners are covered semi regularly, and there was already a weekly article on D2, however the NCAA’s third division (which is also its largest) lacks any type of regular coverage. So I begin my quest to bring to you a recap of the previous weekend’s meets every week, and at least every other week an interview with one of the division’s top runners or coaches. My hope is that everyone can gain a little insight about what… more »