Track and Field Blogs - Justin Kopunek

At the risk of sounding like a complete bro by quoting O.A.R., this weekend's NCAA cross country action was a crazy game of poker. Now that teams can start earning points for possible at-large bids to nationals, fans begin to get their first real look at the majority of teams eyeing Terre Haute come late November. Many top-ranked teams, however, held their cards close to their chest. They sat key team members, or trained through these meets. Quite a few runners placed worse this weekend than they did at the national championship last fall, giving us no real indication of where their fitness is at and how good many of these teams really are. Some teams, however, played some big hands and came out on top this weekend by taking down highly ranked teams and setting themselves up nicely in the at-large process.

As we get closer to the NCAA Championship, I would like to take a look at some of the county's top teams and individuals. Of course, many of us already know the credentials of runners like Sam Chelanga and Jenny Barringer and teams like Oregon and Washington. This fall I would also like to highlight the runners and teams from that are up-and-coming, as well as those that have already arrived. After some great upsets this weekend, I decided to start with a few of the teams that really shook things up and individuals who ran out of their shoes for this first installment of "Finding the Way to Terre Haute."

Teams

Indiana Hoosiers: 1st/42 at the Paul Short Invitational Gold Race

Getting things started on Friday at the Paul Short Invitational at Lehigh was Indiana University. A team that missed qualifying for the NCAA Championships last fall took down the reigning NCAA runner-up Iona and 19th ranked N.C. State. The unranked Hoosiers won with a tight pack up front made up entirely of Indiana natives. They had a 25 second 1-5 spread, but more impressively their top 4, who all finished in the top 10, were only separated by 8 seconds. Leading the charge was RS freshman Andy Bayer in third. Close behind were RS sophomore Andrew Poore, RS freshman Zach Mayhew and junior Cole Hardacre in 7th, 8th, and 9th. Rounding out the scoring with 20 points was RS sophomore Andy Weatherford. Their 6th man was their top returner from regionals last year, De’Sean Turner. The RS sophomore finished in the top 30 and is certainly capable of being higher up on the team. These 6 Hoosiers runners are no strangers to finishing this close to each other as they battled one another at their Indiana State Meets throughout high school. Turner had arguably the most accomplished high school career winning the 1,600 (4:08.34) and cross country state championships his senior year, as well as qualifying for Foot Locker Finals multiple times. Right behind Turner at the 2006 State XC Meet was Hardacre in 3rd with Poore, Weatherford, and Hardacre all finishing in the top 20. Weatherford, Poore and Mayhew all finished within 10 seconds of each other the previous year in 2005 as juniors. In 2007, Bayer and Mayhew finished 6th and 7th, respectively, in a race won by the eventual Foot Locker Champion, Mike Fout.

This Indiana team has flown under the radar until this Paul Short Invite, because many of these young runners have had low-key college careers so far. Looking at their high school credentials, you can see that Indiana has been building quite a stable of great in-state runners. All of the runners listed above, with Mayhew as the only exception, ran under 9:10 for 3,200m in high school. Their biggest pick-up in recent years, however, is one of only two runners on the roster not from Indiana. That would be Ben Hubers, who went sub-9, sub-4:05, placed 11th at Foot Locker Finals and 2nd in the NON Mile while a Georgia prep. Hubers has not raced yet this season, but will be a major asset to the squad if he is healthy and running in the red and white at the end of the season. In an interview after Paul Short, Bayer mentioned they were running without one runner and he would be returning soon. I would like to think he was referring to Hubers.

Villanova Wildcats: 1st/10 at the Bill Dillinger Invitational

Across the country that same day, the Villanova women traveled to the West Coast to handily up-end the #2 ranked Oregon Ducks at home. Leading the charge by taking the individual title over Oregon’s Alex Kosinski (8th place at NCAAs last fall) was RS sophomore Sheila Reid. Hailing from Ontario, Reid twice represented Canada at the World Junior Cross Country Championships. While a true freshman at Villanova, Reid was the top freshman at the Big East Championships by placing 7th and she qualified for the NCAA Championships as an individual when she placed 12th at the Mid-Atlantic Regional. She red-shirted the 2008 cross country season, but qualified for NCAAs in Indoor Track in the mile (4:37) and Outdoor Track in the 1,500m (4:20). The next Wildcats across the line at Dillinger were junior Amanda Marino and senior Nicole Schappart in 4th and 5th. Marino was a high school star out of New Jersey, running one of the top ten fastest times ever at Holmdel Park (17:59). Last year Marino earned All American honors placing 35th at the NCAA Cross Country Championship. In track she was 10th in the Indoor NCAA 5,000m (16:04) and qualified for the Outdoor Championships in the same event. Schappart is an All-American high school miler from Florida who transferred to Villanova from Wake Forrest. In the spring last year she ran a big PR of 4:17 in the 1,500m.

Nova’s fourth runner this weekend was sophomore Bogdana Mimic of Croatia. Mimic was the top freshman at the Mid-Atlantic Regional last fall placing 5th. She followed that up with a strong 67th place finish at the NCAA meet. Rounding out the scoring for the Wildcats in Oregon was Kaitlyn Tallman. Another Ontario native, Tallman is a returning scorer for the team after placing 7th at the Big East Champs, 13th at Regionals and 92nd at Nationals. Two other runners who have not competed yet for Villanova, but were key members on last year’s varsity squad are juniors Callie Hogan and Sarah Morrison. Hogan, a multiple High School All-American, NSIC mile champ, and NY State 3,000m champion will provide valuable experience if she competes this year. She placed 11th at Regionals and 101st at NCAAs last fall. Morrison, a PA State 1,600m champ in High School, broke the Villanova school record in the 3,000m Steeplechase last spring running 10:12. She won the Big East Title and qualified for the NCAA Championships in that event. If she runs for the Wildcats this fall, she will certainly be an asset. Last year the Nova women took a team that did not qualify for NCAAs the prior year to a top 10 team and they look like a good pick to repeat this season.

Syracuse Orange: 1st/13 at the Wisconsin adidas Invitational

On Saturday, the unranked men of Syracuse put together a great team performance to upset #10 Georgetown and the #4 host team at the Wisconsin adidas Invitational. The Orange’s team at the meet, made up entirely of sophomores and seniors, was lead by Tito Medrano (who is the former). Medrano, an Indiana native, mixed it up frequently in high school with the Indiana roster mentioned above. He was the state runner-up at 3,200m and a Foot Locker Finalist as a senior. His best race as a freshman for the Orange came at the US Cross Country Championships where he placed 6th to grab the final spot on a highly competitive Junior Men’s team that represented the US in Amman. Also qualifying for the team in that race was teammate Pat Dupont, who finished 5th. Dupont was a state champion in cross country, at 3,200m, and in the 3,000m Steeplechase while a high school senior in New York. He also placed 17th at the Foot Locker National Championship. Dupont, who lowered his steeple PR to 9:03 last spring as a freshman, finished as Syracuse’s sixth man this past weekend in Wisconsin. Also a sophomore, Griff Graves was the third man across the line for the Orange. Graves also competed in the US Junior Cross Country Championships last fall, placing an impressive 10th overall. He was also 4th in the 5,000m at the US Junior Outdoor Track and Field Champs this spring and boasted a PR of 14:20 in his freshman year. While in high school in Virginia, Graves was twice a Foot Locker Finalist.

The top senior for the team was Brad Miller who finished 5th overall (second on the team). Brad is half of the well known Miller twins out of PA. In Wisconsin, the Syracuse mile school record holder (4:00.19) outran his Badger brother by a considerable margin. Miller also qualified individually for the NCAA Champs last fall. Joining him in Terre Haute was Dan Busby, who placed 83rd at the meet last November. Busby, a New York native, has been the Orange’s most consistent performer at the regional meet, earning All North-East honors the past three years. Also bringing NCAA meet experience is Graduate Student Jeff Scull who ran there as a freshman for Colorado State, also qualified as an individual for Syracuse in 2007. From Ontario originally, Scull competed for the Canadian Senior National Team in 2006 at the World XC Championships. Rounding out the top 7 this weekend was senior Jay Koloseus. An All-American and Foot Locker Finalist as a Connecticut high school student, Koloseus was All North-East in his first season as a member of the Orange and ran a personal best 5,000m last winter at 14:15. Beyond these seven, the roster has a lot of young talent to pull from. The biggest potential may be from 2006 NTN Champ and Foot Locker third place finisher Steve Murdock of New York. Constantly hampered by injury, I know many are waiting to see if he can get healthy enough to help the Syracuse men earn their first trip to Terre Haute since Coach Fox took the reins 5 years ago.

Individuals

Jeff Thode of Iowa: Not as big a name as 2008 NXN Champ Reed Connor (now at Wisconsin) or 2008 Foot Locker Champ Solomon Haile (now at Arkansas), Thode was the top true freshman at the Wisconsin adidas Invitational, beating both names listed above by 30 seconds. The 8:57 2-miler from NON last spring had an amazing race for the Hawkeyes by placing second by less than a second to NCAA XC Top 15 performer Andrew Bumbalough of Georgetown.

Cecily Lemmon of BYU: If one looked up only results from last cross country season, Lemmon’s defeat of Illinois’ Angela Bizzarri at the Wisconsin adidas Invitational would have been a huge surprise. Bizzarri was sixth last fall at NCAAs and followed that up by winning the Outdoor NCAA 5,000m title and placing 3rd in that event at the US Championships. Lemmon, on the other hand, was only 26th at the Mountain Regional meet last fall and did not compete at the NCAA Championships. She made huge improvements in track, however, and placed a surprise second in the 10,000m at NCAAs. Clearly she has continued to progress over the summer and is primed for a strong fall.

Ryan Hill of N.C. State: As a member of Team USA for this year’s World Cross Country Championships last Winter and the Wolfpack’s third runner at NCAAs last November, Hill made a name for himself as a promising young runner. This past weekend he made a huge jump in winning the Paul Short Invitational. As a sophomore, along with senior John Martinez, Hill now looks ready to lead N.C. State on their road to Terre Haute.