Track and Field Blogs - Justin Kopunek

With Pre-Nationals behind us, fans got their first real look at how the many of the top teams in each region measure up to each other. Perennial powerhouses and last year's top dogs were all back at it, while many other teams and individuals showed they are ready to make some waves this year, either on the regional or national scene. For this second installment, we are going to look at the those who took one step closer to NCAA's this year by picking up some experience, confidence, head-to-head wins and possible at-large points as we head into the championship portion of the season. You can check out Part I here.

Teams

Arizona State Sun Devils: 6th/35 in the Brooks ISU Pre-National Men’s White Race

Leading the ASU team this year is a man that needs little background information, Brandon Bethke. A well known name since winning California State titles and placing 11th at the Foot Locker Championships as a high school senior, Bethke is running his first cross country season as a Sun Devil. He transferred from Wisconsin after Coach Jerry Schumacher’s departure and placed 4th in the NCAA Outdoor 5,000m in his first season as a Sun Devil (he was also an All American on the track at Wisconsin). After Bethke’s strong 6th place finish at Pre-Nats, RS Junior Ben Engelhardt was the next across the line in 26th. Engelhardt, who was also ASU’s second man last year, has show great improvement already this season by placing 55 places higher at Pre-Nationals. The Ohio native who set a steeplechase PR of 9:03 last spring is showing major improvements in fitness. He placed 15th at the Notre Dame Invitational 2 weeks ago. The Sun Devil’s third man was another RS Junior, Jeff Helmer. The 9:02 8-lapper and Foot Locker Finalist out of Washington has been a varsity contributor on the XC team since his freshman season and he touts a 14:01 PR for 5,000m indoors. The 4th man for ASU was the 3rd RS Junior and 2nd Californian finishing for the team. Patrick Milloy was last year's #1 Sun Devil in XC and he got his 5k time down to 14:05 this past winter and 10k time down to 30:25 in the spring.

Rounding out the scoring this season as 5th man has been true freshman Nick Happe. Missouri State 1,600m and 3,200m Champion with PRs of 4:13 and 8:58 as a high school senior, Happe will be integral to the team in his rookie season. The final runners for ASU were RS Sophomore Dylan Hatcher and freshman Doug Smith. Hatcher ran for the decorated Mead, Washington High School program where he finished in the top 20 at Nike Team Nationals. In college he placed 11th in the 2008 USA Cross Country Championships Junior Race and lowered his 3,000m best to 8:20. Smith is coming off a successful high school career in New Jersey where he placed 2nd in the NON 5,000m as a sophomore and qualified for the Milrose Mile twice. Junior Zeke Van Patten was in the top 7 for Arizona State at the Notre Dame Invite, but did not compete at Pre-Nats. Van Patten is a DII All American at 800m from his tenure at Western Oregon University and is a recent transfer to ASU. Looking to get back to Terre Haute after a brief hiatus in 2008, the Sun Devils will be ready to do what is necessary to secure a spot at NCAAs. Coming out of a deep conference and region, this team will have to be on the top of its game to pick up at-large points. There performance at Pre-Nationals may have got them a few by defeating teams like Florida State and New Mexico.

Princeton Tigers: 3rd/37 in the Brooks ISU Pre-National Women’s White Race

Again leading the Princeton women this year is senior Liz Costello, who placed 6th at Pre-Nationals this past Saturday. Since being a top recruit out of Pennsylvania, Costello has been a mainstay a top the strong Tiger’s squad. She has been an All American indoors in the DMR and last fall in cross country when she placed 15th at NCAAs. It was her third consecutive appearance at the NCAA XC meet. Two juniors also placed in the top 25 at Pre-Nats for Princeton, Sarah Cummings and Ashley Higginson. Cummings, who had success at Corona del Mar High School, CA running at NTN and Foot Locker Finals, was an All American last spring at 10,000m and ran for Princeton at the last two NCAA Cross Country Championships. Higginson was also a Foot Locker Finalist and was the NTN, NSIC 2-mile, Penn Relays 3k, and NON 2-mile champion while at Colts Neck HS in New Jersey. As a college freshman, she was 69th at NCAAs in Cross Country and qualified for the NCAA Outdoor Championship at 5,000m (16:22). Last spring as a sophomore, she qualified for the NCAA Championships with a school record in the steeplechase of 10:12. The 4th finisher at Pre-Nats for the Lady Tiger’s was Reilly Kiernan of Pelham, New York. Last fall at her first NCAA meet, Kiernan was Princeton’s 5th finisher in 77th place. She followed that up indoors by running a PR of 16:22 in the 5,000m.

Wrapping up the scoring this weekend for Princeton was sophomore Alex Banfich. Last year while a freshman coming out of Indiana as a 4:52 miler who placed 21st at Foot Locker, Banfich was 3rd for the Tigers in Terre Haute placing 62nd in her first collegiate season. In track she lowered her bests to 4:29 for 1,500m and 16:23 for 5,000m. At Pre-Nationals, a bit behind a solid top-5, were Princeton’s 6 and 7 runners Mel Newbery and Liz Dier. A freshman, Newbery is a 4:35 1,500m runner from England. Junior Dier was a New York State Steeplechase Champion and Foot Locker Finalist in High School. Although she did not run at Pre-Nats, Alexa Glencer is likely to be in the top 7 if she is healthy. The Michigan native was sixth Princeton women at Notre Dame earlier this season and has 2 years experience at the NCAA Cross Country Championships (2006, 2008). Princeton runs in the very competitive Mid-Atlantic region which had 3 of the top 5 and 5 of the top 16 ranked teams in the NCAA going into Pre-Nationals. Currently ranked 3rd regionally, the Tigers will have to be ready come Regionals in order to ensure another trip to Terre Haute. Beating teams like Syracuse, Illinois, and Minnesota this past weekend will be important if they finish outside the top 2 in their region.

William & Mary Tribe: 4th/34 in the Brooks ISU Pre-National Men’s Blue Race

Tribe is the perfect mascot for this team. While many teams rely heavily on low-scoring front-runners, William & Mary’s strength comes from its tight-knit and deep pack. That is not to say these guys are incapable of running up front at big meets. The Tribe leader so far this year, Jon Grey, placed a stellar 5th at Pre-Nationals. Grey is a senior from Pennsylvania in his second cross country season for W&M after running for Oklahoma freshman year. Last fall, Grey was the Tribe’s second finisher at NCAAs placing 78th. In track he continued progressing, qualifying for the NCAA 10,000m by running 28:55 and he set a new 5,000m PR of 14:03. Close behind at Terre Haute this past weekend was Patterson Wilhelm who placed 12th. The junior led the Tribe last year with a 69th place finish at NCAAs. Indoors the native Virginian ran times of 14:05 and 8:08 for 5k and 3k, respectively and again ran 14:05 outdoors while competing unattached. Third man for the team this year and last is senior Colin Leak, who was 94th in Terre Haute last November. Originally from Pennsylvania, last year Leak had a breakthrough on the track by running PRs of 8:15 indoors and 14:06 and 29:43 outdoors. Finishing out the Pre-Nationals scoring for W&M were Zack Gates and Charlie Swartz. Gates, a RS freshman from Fishers, Indiana, has been a useful addition to the Tribe in his first XC season in the W&M uniform. Competing for them on the track last spring, he ran 30:29 in the 10,000m and 14:32 in the 5,000m. Swartz, a senior from Virginia, will also be looking to make his first trip with the Tribe to the Big Dance this year. He has a 5k PR of 14:21.

Senior Ben Massam and junior Lewis Woodard were fourth and fifth, respectively, for W&M at NCAAs last fall and the OSU Cowboy Jamboree earlier this season. Massam had an off day at Pre-Nats and Woodard did not run, but expect these two to be key components to the Tribe’s success later in the season. With these two solidifying the scoring at OSU two weeks ago, they managed to keep the 5-man spread to a mere 22 seconds. Massam, the 2006 Nike Outdoor National 5,000m Champ as a New Jersey high school senior, lowered his 5,000m best down to 14:05 last spring and ran a 29:28 in the 10,000m to boot. Hailing from North Carolina, Woodard is the miler on the Tribe’s XC team running 4:08 last winter, but he also boasts a 14:17 5k PR. The 7th man at Pre-Nats for W&M was Brian Sklodowski of Tatnall in Delaware. He may be the quickest of the bunch running 2:26 (1,000m) and 1:53 (800m) indoors and 3:46 (1,500m) and 14:16 (5,000m) outdoors. After returning everyone from team that placed 16th at NCAAs last year, you know the Green and Gold will be looking to make a run for the top 10. So far, the Tribe has qualified for nationals every year this decade except one, but only placied in the top 10 in 2006 (8th). Come November, this solid pack of runners will certainly be looking to top that performance.

Individuals

Dan Chenoweth of Harvard: Coming out of Geneseo, Illinois where he was 24th at Foot Locker Nationals as a senior, Chenoweth made an instant impact on the Crimson as a freshman. He ran impressive first year times of 8:04 (3,000m) and 14:07 (5,000m) and earned All-East honors by placing 2nd in the 3k at the IC4A Indoor Championships. His sophomore year he made his debut on the national scene, qualifying for the NCAA Cross Country Championships as an individual. He missed All-American by 2 spots by placing 42nd in that race. Indoors he won his first Ivy League Championship in the 3,000m. Now in his junior season, Chenoweth is showing he is ready to become competitive nationally. In the Blue Race at this past weekend’s Pre-National meet, he placed an impressive 8th, running 24:01 for the 8k course.

Kristin Sutherland of Illinois: An in-state girl, Sutherland was an Illinois State Champion in cross country and track who quickly jumped into an important role as a freshman last year. Finishing between the 2 and 4 spots for the Fighting Illini, she placed 19th at Big 10s and 17th at the Midwest Regional meet. Sutherland finished the season as the team’s 3rd finisher at the NCAA Championships. On the track in the 5,000m, Sutherland provisionally qualified for NCAAs indoors running 16:42 and qualified for NCAA Regionals outdoors running 16:43. Now in her sophomore season, Sutherland has stepped up into the consistent 2 spot and has closed the gap considerably between herself and the team’s #1, NCAA 5,000m Champion Angela Bizzarri. At Pre-Nationals this weekend, Sutherland placed a much improved 7th (she was 29th in 2008), only 22 seconds behind her teammate and race winner, Bizzarri.

Christian Thompson of Colorado: Not as well known as his All-American teammates, Thompson showed he will be one of the top runners for a strong Colorado team this season. Coming out of a small school in upstate New York, Thompson won multiple state titles in cross country and the 3,000m Steeplechase. As a senior, he finished just outside of qualifying for Foot Locker Finals by placing 11th at the Northeast Regional. He was also 3rd in the steeplechase at the USA Junior National Championships that year. As a RS freshman for the Buffaloes last fall, Thompson was in the top-7 at Big 12s, Regionals, and NCAAs. He was 208th in the latter most, their 6th man. In the spring, he took a leap forward when he clocked 8:49 for the 3,000m Steeplechase and qualified for the Outdoor NCAA Championships. Continuing to progress, Thompson was the top finisher for the Buffaloes as the team placed 2nd in the Pre-National White Race. His 14th place finish, an improvement of 65 places from last fall, helped buoy the team as All-Americans Jordan Kyle and Kenyon Neuman had off races. Improved performances from this pair added to the leap made by Thompson makes for a very formidable Colorado team.