en-us Copyright 2006-2009 Flocasts Inc Fri, 20 Nov 2009 16:18:20 -0500 http://www.flotrack.org/assets/portal/simple30/images/logos/flotrack-logo.gif http://www.flotrack.org/blogs/blogger/Bx_Runner/9387-2009-ncaa-cross-country-championships-preview The most exciting single race of the season for runners is only days away and there looks to be some awesome performances and battles you will not want to miss. Below I look at many of the top contenders for Monday with four titles up for grabs. I did not make any concrete rankings, or predictions as to not influence anyone who still may not have posted their picks for the Saucony NCAA Prediction Contest. Women's Team Race - 2008 Champions: Washington On the Podium: Oregon, Florida State, West Virginia This decade has been all about the repeat champions and the back-to-back wins for the women's team title at NCAAs. Since 2000, BYU won twice (in a row), Colorado won twice, Stanford won four times in 5 years, and Washington won last year. Based on this season's results so far, the Huskies look ready to close out the decade with another repeat team win. They return their 1-4 from last year's winning team and that is always a good sign that a back-to-back win is in the cards. They are undefeated this year and have 5 girls capable of placing in the top 25. Speaking of repeats, the Oregon women were runners-up the past two years and certainly do not want to play second fiddle for the third consecutive year. They have 3 potential top-10 girls (realistically, probably only 2 would end up there) and at Pac-10s they were the closest any team has gotten to Washington in the past 2 seasons; seven points back. The Ducks have not won a major meet yet this year and if nationals is their first team victory of the season, it will certainly be considered an upset for the ages. The team that seems most capable of dethroning Washington is Villanova. They are the only other undefeated team in the country. They crushed Oregon early at their home and destroyed one of the most competitive conferences and regions for women this year. At the Mid-Atlantic Regional, the Wildcats put 4 in front of Princeton’s #1. This is notable because Princeton is ranked #3 nationally, went 1-5 at the Heptagonal Championships, and their #1 runner was 15th at NCAAs last fall. To be that dominant over a team that has podium potential, like Princeton does, certainly sends a message that they will not concede the title in Terre Haute to the defending champs. Princeton has been close to the podium in recent years and that is certainly the objective for the Tigers this weekend. At regionals they beat a very good West Virginia team, which grabbed the last podium spot last year over Princeton. The Florida Gators beat Princeton at Pre-Nationals and Florida State at regionals. Florida State ran without their top runner at regionals, but this should not take away from the Gators’ win, as FSU would have lost even with her. The Colorado women surprised everyone when they easily beat Florida State at Pre-Nats. They faltered at the Big 12 Championships and lost to a very strong Texas Tech squad, but reversed the results at the Mountain Regional. The Buffaloes are certainly a team that has surprised people at nationals in years past and this team has some very low scorers among them. That is a key component to getting on the podium and winning a national title. Stanford also has a very solid team on paper, but injuries have set them back all season. They would need all their girls healthy and fit on the line Monday for a chance to do some real damage. <HR> Women's Individual Race - 2008 Champion: Sally Kipyego, Texas Tech Top Returners: Susan Kuijken, Florida St (2nd), Angela Bizzarri, Illinois (6th), Christine Babcock, Washington (7th), Alex Kosinski, Oregon (8th), Nicole Blood, Oregon (10th), Jenny Barringer, Colorado (2nd ’06 & ’07) It is like déjà vu. Again a Big 12/Mountain Region runner is as much of a lock for the title as one can be in cross country and Florida State’s Susan Kuijken is the only one people are considering will have a chance to stick near her. Colorado’s Jenny Barringer of Colorado has been runner-up twice in this race (2006 and 2007) and she is running this fall as a Buffalo for one purpose; to win an NCAA Cross Country title to go with her 4 NCAA track titles and many NCAA records. It is the only accolade missing from her resume that will put her atop the list of greatest female distance runners in NCAA history. Kuijken has unfortunate timing as the only thing keeping her from multiple NCAA XC titles are 2 of the NCAA’s best in history (Sally Kipyego and Barringer). Do not get me wrong, Kuijken has 2 NCAA track titles, was 27th in cross as a frosh, 3rd the next year and 2nd last year. If she were to place second this Monday, she would easily have one of the most impressive NCAA Cross Country records that one could have, regardless of the fact that the women she lost to were so good. The only person other than Barringer that is undefeated this year is Villanova’s Sheila Reid. She is certainly a dark horse in this race and could turn some heads. Any of the Washington women’s top-5 is a top-10 threat. Christine Babcock was 7th last year and Kendra Schaaf has been their top runner most of the year. Schaaf likes to run in the front and push from the gun. Sometimes this works to her advantage, sometimes it does not. At Pac-10’s Oregon’s Nicole Blood ran her down and Angela Bizzarri of Illinois did the same at Pre-Nats. Blood has been top 10 in this race the past two years and her teammate Alex Kosinski joined her there last year. Even with that, neither may be the first Duck across the line as freshman phenom Jordan Hasay has been Oregon’s most consistent runner this season. Hasay looks to be the top true-frosh in the NCAA, but will get some competition form Colorado’s Allie McLaughlin who was 2nd in the Big 12 and 3rd in the Mountain Region. Bizzarri is also a returning top-10 finisher and has been having a good season so far. She did, however, lose the Big Ten crown to World Team member Bridget Franek of Penn State. Franek was back in fourth at the Mid-Atlantic Regional behind Reid and Amanda Marino of Villanova and Emily Infeld of Georgetown. Needless to say, there has been a lot of flip-flopping all season which means that there are a large number of girls capable of being in the top-10, but it will come down to who has it on Monday. Also in the running for a top spot based on their consistently good performances this fall are Megan Duwell of Minnesota, Catherine White of Virginia, Cecily Lemmon of BYU, Rebecca Lowe and Charlotte Browning of Florida, Risper Kimaiyo of UTEP, Lillian Badaru or Texas Tech, Emily MacLeod of Michigan State, Lisa Koll of Iowa State, and Janet Jesang of Western Kentucky. <HR> Men's Team Race - 2008 Champions: Oregon On the Podium: Iona, Stanford, Wisconsin The men’s race is definitely more wide open than the women’s race. The defending champions Oregon have lost a lot off the top and are very heavy with 1,500m runners this time around. Come track season, they will probably have killer relays, but on Monday the 10,000m distance will likely keep them from a ‘three-peat’. There are two teams, who have yet to race at the same meet, that look like the clear favorites to duke it out for that title. Stanford has been ranked #1 for most of the season and for good reason. This team has shown up to three of the most competitive races in the country (Pre-Nationals, Pac-10s, West Regional) and made it look like they were racing in dual meets. 28 points at Pac-10s! 27 points at the West Regional! In fact, if you scored the West Regional out like a dual meet of Stanford v. The Rest of the West, Stanford wins 29-30. That is ridiculous! This team has low scorers and depth, everything that makes up a national championship team. How will this not be a blow out for the Cardinal you may wonder? Well, Oklahoma State also has low scorers and depth. This team was supposed to make a run at Oregon last fall, but many feel they under-performed (a DNF did not help). This fall, with a magical 6th year for an All-American veteran and the arrival of an All-American sophomore transfer, they appear stronger than last year. The Cowboys have kept their cards close to their chest. While Stanford can not avoid heavy competition in their conference and region, OSU has gone the rout of pack running in its races this season. This has made it difficult to see just where their fitness is at. We can not tell who was close to maximum effort in these races and who was tempoing. They won their conference and region relatively easily and are certainly the team with the most unknowns going in to Monday. Beyond the top two, Oregon is still a very strong team with podium potential. They beat NCAA #3 ranked Alabama when they won their Pre-Nats race, but lost to Portland last weekend at regionals. Taking down the defending champs was definitely a confidence boost for the Pilots who got a help this season from two solid true freshmen. Alabama is also very good, but they will be hurt if some of the other teams get 2, 3, or even 4 in before their #1. The top four Mountain Region teams have been one giant jumble all year. It seems they have all beaten each other and been beaten by each other. BYU came out on top at regionals, but Colorado was only 1 point back and did not run one of their top runners. NAU is a great team on paper, but has had inconsistent performances from its scorers throughout the season, making it hard pinpoint just how high up they can place. New Mexico took down BYU at their conference meet, but may lack the low-scorers to end up the top Mountain Region team in Terre Haute. William & Mary and Syracuse are both strong pack teams that will not have guys in the top 15, but can stick five in the thick of the race with a very small spread. They will need that to be around the All-American cutoff to have a shot at the podium. The Tribe looked very good at the Southeast Regional and could be a threat come Monday. Iona and Wisconsin were podium teams last year, but have not been quite as good this season. Iona is rebuilding after the graduation on three All-Americans, however, they always peak well for NCAAs. Wisconsin has been steadily improving throughout the year and should place higher than their #10 ranking suggests they would. Both of these teams have been podium mainstays these past few years and know what they need to do to get the job done Monday. <HR> Men's Individual Race - 2008 Champion: Galen Rupp, Oregon Top Returners: Sam Chelanga, Liberty (2nd), Luke Puskedra, Oregon (5th), Chris Derrick, Stanford (7th), John Kosgei, Oklahoma St (8th), Andrew Bumbalough, Georgetown (13th), Jordan Kyle, Colorado (14th) Like last year, Liberty’s Sam Chelanga is one of the favorites to win individually, but his main competition is different this year. Only a sophomore, Stanford’s Chris Derrick is riding high on an undefeated season. One of his wins, at Pre-Nationals, came as he ran down Chelanga in the home stretch. Many feel if Chelanga runs with smarter race tactics, he would certainly come home with the title. History, however, has shown us that he loves to open a gap early and push. Derrick was patient at Pre-Nats and when he saw Chelanga coming back to him, made a strong move. When he passed by, Chelanga had nothing left to respond with. I do not know if Derrick has shown us an all out effort yet this season. If Chelanga, the NCAA 10,000m record holder, tries to run away from the field early, he may experience some déjà vu in the final half mile. Stanford also has a great supporting cast behind Derrick. From Pre-Nats on, Elliot Heath has only lost to Derrick, Chelanga, and Brandon Bethke of ASU. Bethke is a 13:27 5k runner who certainly has top-10 potential. This mean with Heath, Stanford looks to put 2 in the top-10. The Cardinal also have Jake Riley and Justin Marpole-Bird who are having breakout seasons. Oregon’s Luke Puskedra is a top returner and looked great winning his race at Pre-Nationals, but has looked flat since. Do not count him out, however. He is a talented runner who performs well at Terre Haute. Any of Oklahoma State’s scorers look like they could be in the mix up front. John Kosgei was 8th last year, Ryan Vail has been in the top 21 the past 2 years, Colby Lowe is having an outstanding season, and NCAA 1,500m Champ German Fernandez’s fitness is improving rapidly after a slow start. NAU’s David McNeill was 10th in 2007 and 15th in 2008 and is coming off a win in the Mountain region where he topped the solid trio of Miles Batty (BYU), Jacob Kirwa (New Mexico), and Jordan Kyle (Colorado). When McNeill struggled at Pre-Nats, NAU was buoyed by strong races from Jordan Chipangama and Diego Estrada. Estrada did not run at regionals, however, and Chipangama was off his game. Another top returner is Georgetown’s Andrew Bumbalough who has been battling much of the post season with Villanova’s new edition Mathew Mildenhall. They are both very strong contenders, but were taken down by Louisville’s Cory Thorne at Big East. Barnabas Kirui of Ole Miss did not compete last fall, but he won the NCAA steeplechase title as a freshman and is always a threat. He was beaten at regionals by the very good Felix Kibioywo of Auburn. Iona’s Ryan Sheridan won the NE Region and was the 6th fastest at Pre-Nats. He jokingly commented that his goal for this race is to beat Andy Baker, who has beaten him in close races in the past. Butler’s Baker is twice an All-American in XC and was the 5th fastest at Pre-Nats, although his regional performance was not his best. Minnesota’s Hassan Mead is a regional champion and has been at top form all season. Dorian Ulrey of Arkansas is also a regional champ. A World Team Member at 1,500m, he is a dark horse in this 10,000m race. Also very good this fall and should be looking for a top spot are Ben Cheruiyot of Auburn, Tyson David of Alabama, Jeff See of Ohio State, Wesley Rutton of Eastern Kentucky, Lee Carey and David McCarthy of Providence, Ryan Hill of NC State, Kenyon Neuman of Colorado, Jeff Schirmer of Southern Illinois, Landon Peacock of Wisconsin, Alfred Kipchumba of Portland, Dan Chenoweth of Harvard, Scott Smith of UC Santa Barbara, John Beattie of Tulsa, and Jon Grey of William & Mary. Bx_Runner http://www.flotrack.org/blogs/blogger/Bx_Runner/9387-2009-ncaa-cross-country-championships-preview Fri, 20 Nov 2009 00:09:00 -0500 http://www.flotrack.org/blogs/blogger/Elitestatus/9363-ing-nyc-marathon-in-my-mind November 1st, 2009 – New York City 10:56am – All I can hear is my steady breathing and Pat Tarpy’s footsteps. Its quiet up here, almost eerie. *beep* I hit the split on my watch at the 15 mile mark; 5:11, slow, but not bad considering we’re heading up the Queensboro Bridge. I can feel a strong crosswind pushing us from right to left. I’m not looking forward to this inevitable headwind heading up 1st Ave. into the Bronx. Doubt starts to creep in. My legs start to feel sluggish. I need to regroup. I look up ahead I can see Pete Gilmore just cresting the top of the bridge. –New Goal– Catch Gilmore as soon as possible. 11:06am – Now I can hardly hear myself think. People are everywhere. Gilmore and Tarpy are right with me. The crowds on each side of 1st Ave. are at least 3 people deep as far as I can see. Up ahead I can see little dots of red, orange, and blue. Those have to be the leaders. What place am I in right now? How many more am I going to be able to catch? *beep* 17 mile split, 5:00, going to have to pick it up if I want to get away from these guys. Maybe its too windy, I’ll just tuck in behind Tarpy and Gilmore for a minute, let them take a little bit of the wind. 11:16am – I’m all alone now, I can’t hear or feel anyone near me anymore it about time to start grinding it out to the finish. *beep* 5:06 for the 19th mile. I smile at myself. Just like in practice every time I take a fluid bottle I accelerate and pull away from Brian. Now I did the same thing, pulled away from those guys and passing Bolota at the same time. Bolota didn’t look too good. He started walking right at the fluid station. I’m glad I didn’t collide with him or anything. Time to get going. 11:36am – Pain. Excruciating pain. Why does this 23rd mile have so much uphill? Each block seems like forever. Focus on orange. Focus on Lehmkuhle’s Jersey. Bring him back to you. *beep* Mile 23, 5:04, still the toughest 3 miles to run. Just get into the park and you will be home free. I can hear Kevin. What is he saying? It sounds like German, I’ll try to decipher it later. It was something about 10 and 11. Is that what place I’m in? Or is that what the guys I can see about a minute ahead of me are? Almost to the top. Focus, Focus, Focus. 11:58am – Here it is! Finally, The Finish! I just passed Abdi, and I feel kinda bad snaking him with only a 1/4 mile to go. Was that Torres that just finished? I forgot that he was still up there. Doesn’t matter now, look at the clock! 2:13:40….41…42…43! Whoo! Finally I’m going to get out of the 2:16s! 2:13:46. And I’m done! Stumble a little ways past the finish line. A cloud has come over me and I am in a dream. Mary Wittenburg comes over to congratulate me. I see Jorge and Ryan with flag draped around them. I don’t get a flag….does that mean I’m 4th? Sam Grotewald says something to me and I throw my hands up! Whooo! What did he say? Something about a pr. That’s right. Now I hear that Meb won! All this information is just blowing my mind. I’m Ecstatic! We should do that again! Elitestatus http://www.flotrack.org/blogs/blogger/Elitestatus/9363-ing-nyc-marathon-in-my-mind Wed, 18 Nov 2009 10:11:00 -0500 http://www.flotrack.org/blogs/blogger/Sage/9353-places-to-train-near-rochester-hills-mi-stoney-creek-metropark In his work Walden Henry David Thoreau writes about his experience living in natural seclusion: “…I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived….” He goes on to emphasize the importance of maintaining simplicity in life, and how individuals have become caught up in details and distractions from technology and the rest of society. In this day and age running has become an outlet for one to practice some of Thoreau’s philosophy by finding harmony within nature and for embracing the beauty of simplicity. Fortunately for me and the rest of the Hansons-Brooks team, the Rochester Hills area has a plethora of running trails that snake through scenic wooded forests, creeks, and lakes. Nearly every run we take can meander onto forest trails or dirt roads. In this blog I am going to write about just one of those venues: the trail system at Stoney Creek Metro Park. Stoney Creek Metropark is a part of the Huron-Clinton Metropark regional park system which is present in five counties throughout the state of Michigan. Funding for this 13 park system began in 1942 with local property taxes and park admission fees derived from activities such as golf, boat launching, and bike rentals to name a few. Nestled in Shelby Township, MI, Stoney Creek has 4461 acres of recreational moraine land including wooded areas, open fields and a man-made lake. In terms of providing an area to train, Stoney Creek is ideal in that it has a paved, slightly rolling 6 mile loop going around the lake. Starting near the boat launch area, this path is marked every quarter mile, and provides an excellent venue for tempo run workouts, progression runs, and any workout where distance and pace must be monitored closely. Dirt trails branching off the paved sections of the park wind throughout the varied landscape providing many interesting routes full of wildlife. When running through these trails one can often find many white-tailed deer, wild turkeys and other various creatures. In fact, there is a nature center near the back end of the park that is a good educational resource. Here, wooded trails (some with bridges to cross swampy areas) provide access to areas for bird watching. Finally, on another side of the park is the shelten estate trail system which includes over 14 miles of paths ideal for running, hiking, and mountain biking on. This area of land used to belong to Allan and Elizabeth Warren Shelten (1894-1982) who had an estate built on the 850 acres of land that they owned there. The Shelten family eventually donated their land to the metro park. Evidence of the estate (taken down in 1981) can still be seen in the remaining house foundations, an old tennis court area, and stone stairwells. The surrounding area contains many wooded areas with mountain biking trails and rolling hills. The trail system at Stoney Creek Metro Park provides thousands of acres to explore, run, and bike. It is a relatively large park that offers one the opportunity to experience several naturalistic settings, and enjoy the beauty from their surroundings. These types of areas are essential for populations to have as they offer not only recreational activities, but they also serve as destinations for relaxation and escape from the complexities in life. The restorative qualities of nature, as hinted by Thoreau and later proven through scientific studies, can improve your sense of well-being and overall health. So next time you find yourself stressed out and caught-up with obligations from work, be sure to schedule some time for yourself to run and relax (or meditate) in a scenic, natural environment. You’ll find that this opportunity to unwind is well worthwhile in the other long run known as “life.” ? ? sources to check out for additional info: ? http://www.metroparks.com/parks/pk_stony_creek.php http://shelden-estate.blogspot.com/ model runner in photos: Nick Arciniaga Sage http://www.flotrack.org/blogs/blogger/Sage/9353-places-to-train-near-rochester-hills-mi-stoney-creek-metropark Tue, 17 Nov 2009 18:19:00 -0500 http://www.flotrack.org/blogs/blogger/Allenw/9293-the-ing-nyc-marathon There are only two events where runners of all abilities get together to test their true grit. One is cross-country and the other is the marathon. The most talented, fastest, and toughest runners can be brought to their knees in these two great events. Yes cross-country is amazing and yes the US Champ in Cross is also the US Marathon Champ but the marathon is what I know so this is what my blog is about. The greatest public stage for runners to display their talent is the marathon. This stage, this grand example of the struggle of man's willingness to push himself farther, faster and higher is shared by the last person who takes six hours to finish 26 miles and the prodigy who takes just over two hours. Why is the marathon the greatest test of a runner, because never has a human been able to confront his own weakness at his greatest moment of pain and realize that he must still go 10 more kilometers. Then and only then is the deepest most primal emotions evoked, flight or fight! That is 15,000 years of hunting animals for survival. As my venerable Coach Jay Birmingham would say you are the product of many generations of success you the reader are a miracle of your ancestors. Just the possibility that you the reader exist is because of the success of your ancestors surviving all of the hardships that besought them. When do you lose your innocence when do you lose your child like optimism of the world? How does modern man protected by its first world society test itself? it is the bone grinding, stomach wrenching reality of bringing your body to the brink of failure after twenty-two miles of self-flagellation. Then and only then you realize there is no help there is no haven there is only your self resolve to grind on towards the finish. Right before you reach the end the purification process of your suffering is complete and a singular thought is born into your consciousness and this thought is the only thing that kept you going. What is more crazy is at the beginning of your 26.2 mile journey you the runner have no idea that this little thought worked its way through the most primal regions of your mind, through the cortex, and through the limbic region to flash like lightening into your frontal lobe before your final foot strikes and then sweet body collapsing elation! You cross the finish line and overwhelmed you realize what kept you going the whole time. You the human the flesh and blood success of your ancestors confronted failure looked it right in its damned eyes and prevailed you made it you crossed the line. Self-realization achieved and a flood of emotions breaks down the front door of your mind and you realize that you made it, all your struggles all your doubts every negative thought laid to rest. You have made good on the hopes and dreams that came to rest upon you at your birth. You became a miracle you are a success. This is how I felt at NYC Marathon and I just want to express my thoughts on the whole process. This may well be just the rambling of a man under the influence of high mileage. Many blessings to all you runners out there in the ether!       Allenw http://www.flotrack.org/blogs/blogger/Allenw/9293-the-ing-nyc-marathon Sat, 14 Nov 2009 18:19:00 -0500 http://www.flotrack.org/blogs/blogger/Rowbury/9245-what-it-felt-like-to-win-a-bronze-medal-at-the-world-championships-in-track Hey guys, this is a blog I wrote for The Huffington Post and thought it would be cool to share with you. Standing on the awards podium, I look out over the Berlin Olympic Stadium. I am on a promontory that juts out over the stands, the same space where Hitler spoke during the 1936 Olympic Games and where Jesse Owens' received his four gold medals, each of which shot a hole in the myth of Aryan supremacy. The power of this spot is palpable and, with only the blue track below me and the blue sky above, I feel as if I am floating on air. In the distance three flags are being raised, one of which is American, and in that moment it sinks in that that flag is for me. The moment I just described, where I received my bronze medal for the women's 1500m at the IAAF World Championships, was be the pinnacle of my athletic career thus so far. In fact, in terms of best life moments, it ties with marching into the Beijing National Stadium with my fellow countrymen for the Olympic Opening Ceremonies. Yet it's funny, because although I have fantasized my entire life about what it would feel like to own a medal, not much has changed now that I have one. As soon as the awards ceremony was over, I had to rush to do my cool-down and to go to drug testing. Less than a week after that, I was racing again in Zurich. Now that I'm home, my medal sits on my dresser in the tin case it came in and I'm back to base training in preparation for the 2010 track season. In this way, I have come to realize that it's not about the medal at all. Instead, what matters most is the sense of pride in accomplishing a goal I had worked so long towards and the joy of sharing that success with the people that helped me to achieve it. It would be impossible to pinpoint the moment when I started working for a medal. I think experiences in life create dreams, which then become goals, and all along the way everything you do affects your journey towards them. If you are lucky, you have friends and family who encourage you, mentors who show you the right path, and doctors and trainers who make it possible for you to follow that path to completion. Had I not broken my leg in kindergarten, my Grandma might not have started me in Irish dancing, which developed my leg strength and speed, and which in turn helped me become a successful runner. Then again, maybe I would have, because there are so many paths that can lead to the same place. When I look back at how things turned out this past summer, it is amazing for me to think that I actually am a bronze medalist. I am not particularly superstitious, but I was beginning to think that the world had it out for me. My month started with a surprise breakup, which left me feeling emotionally wrecked. When I reached Berlin, my bed had bed bugs and I found myself covered with red bumps from head to toe. The medical staff cringed when they saw me and everyone else probably thought I suffered from some form of pox. When the racing finally started things were not much better. I was tripped in the quarterfinal and moved on to the next round only through appeals. In the final, another girl was knocked down. I had to leap over her, which meant I ran out of gas the last 50m, and crossed the line in 4th. But, since the winner had caused the fall and then stepped on the inside of the track, she was disqualified and I am now a bronze medalist. For me, it was a very rocky road to bronze, but I wouldn't change a moment of it. I learned so much about myself through those hardships. I have always believed that the most challenging situations are the most educational. While I do not enjoy going through hard times, it is from those experiences that I have seen what I am truly made of and what matters most, and in the end, success feels that much sweeter. While my resume now says "World Bronze Medalist," I think it is important to realize that for every success a person has, there is always a story behind it. Whether that person is an international figure or an average Joe, their achievements were preceded by some combination of self-determination, struggles, and a lot of support. The common factor, however, is persistence in their pursuit, and that is something that everyone is capable of. www.twitter.com/ShannonRowbury Rowbury http://www.flotrack.org/blogs/blogger/Rowbury/9245-what-it-felt-like-to-win-a-bronze-medal-at-the-world-championships-in-track Fri, 13 Nov 2009 23:01:00 -0500 http://www.flotrack.org/blogs/blogger/Bx_Runner/9249-ncaa-regional-preview-6-womens-south-central-mountain-and-west Women's South Central Regional – 2009 Ranked Teams: SMU #25, Arkansas #28, Baylor Others Receiving Votes 2008 Automatic Qualifying Teams: Arkansas, Baylor 2008 At-Large Teams: Rice, SMU 2008 Individual Champion: Nicole Mericle, Rice Team Outlook in 2009: Similarly to the Men’s South Central Region, the women’s is rather weak this year. The top ranked team in the region is SMU. They are new to their perch atop the South Central and did not move up there until last week when they won the Conference USA title with an impressive 28 points. They were solid all season, placing fifth at the Chili Pepper Festival and eighth at Notre Dame. Arkansas beat SMU head-to-head at Chili Pepper, placing third. The Lady Razorbacks were third again at the SEC Championships. The Baylor women were considered the best team in the region for most of the year and on paper they are. They were ranked as high as 12th nationally, but fell throughout the season landing outside the top-30. Struggling with sickness at Pre-Nats, they did not rebound at Big 12s where they finished a disappointing seventh. They did show promise early in the season at the Bill Dillinger Invite when they placed behind only NCAA#2 Villanova and NCAA#5 Oregon. If they can get all their girls healthy, they will certainly be a top-2 team in the region. The meet is on their home course, which may play into their hands. Arkansas and SMU will be standing in the Bears way. It should be a good race for those 2 auto-spots as it does not look likely that a third team will qualify out of this region. Well behind Baylor at Big 12s was Texas and Texas A&M, while Rice was 54 points behind SMU at the Conference USA meet, so these the top three teams are pretty well cemented in those spots. Individuals To Expect Up Front: Last year’s runner-up, All-American steepler Erin Bedell has been running well all season. In fact, she is one of the few on Baylor’s team that can be said about. She was 8th in a competitive Big 12 Champs. Nicole Jones was 25th in that race and was 5th in the region for Baylor last year with Danielle Bradley right behind her in 6th. Texas A&M’s Christina Munoz is also one of the top returners after she was 3rd last year, but she was back in 34th at Big 12s and Betzy Jimenez and Mia Behm of Texas were well ahead of her. At the SEC meet, Arkansas junior Miranda Walker finished 10th with underclassmen teammates Alyssa Allison and Kristen Gillespie in tow at 15th and 16th. At Conference USA, SMU was led by the trio of Silje Fjortoft, Sara Sjokvist, and Veronika Blom who came in 2-3-4. Rice freshmen Heather Olson was 10 seconds back in 8th, placing just ahead of SMU’s 4 and 5 runners. One of the top individual runners in the region is Anne Ronoh of Texas A&M Corpus Christi. She recently won the Southland Conference over Kayla Pratt of UTSA. Pratt’s teammate Dana Mecke beat Ronoh at the Chili Pepper Festival where she placed tenth. Houston’s Stephanie Aldea qualified individually for NCAAs last year as a freshman and will look to do the same in her sophomore year. What you may expect to see… 1. Arkansas 2. Baylor 3. SMU 4. Texas 5. Texas A&M 6. Rice 1. Bedell (Baylor) 2. Jimenez (Texas) 3. Walker (Arkansas) 4. Jones (Baylor) 5. Fjortoft (SMU) 6. Behm (Texas) 7. Allison (Arkansas) 8. Ronoh (TAMCC) 9. Gillespie (Arkansas) 10. Sjokvist (SMU) 11. Mecke (UTSA) 12. Blom (SMU) <HR> Women's Mountain Regional – 2009 Ranked Teams: Colorado #6, Texas Tech #8, New Mexico #20, BYU #22, NAU & UTEP Others Receiving Votes 2008 Automatic Qualifying Teams: Texas Tech, New Mexico 2008 At-Large Teams: NAU 2008 Individual Champion: Sally Kipyego, Texas Tech Team Outlook in 2009: This region has had some interesting rankings all year. Texas Tech seems to have been under-ranked all season. When Colorado surprised many by winning their race at Pre-Nationals, they instantly flew up the rankings, ahead of Texas Tech. The Red Raiders came back to beat Colorado at Big 12s. They moved passed the Buffalos in the regional rankings, but not in the national rankings. Strange, but it may be how things play out in the next few weeks. Texas Tech has a tight pack that may benefit them at meets the size of Big 12s, or regionals. Colorado, on the other hand, has a guaranteed 1 point from their top runner. At big meets like Pre-Nats and NCAAs, having a 1 in the first spot is basically like running a team that only has to score four runners. Either way, both Colorado and Texas Tech are great teams that will do well in Terre Haute. Like their male counterparts, the New Mexico and BYU women have traded places in the rankings all season, as well. Most recently the Lobos got the upper hand by winning the Mountain West Conference Championship over the Cougars. Both teams have run well during the regular season, which should give them a good amount of at-large points. New Mexico has wins against Florida State, SMU, and Providence, while BYU has wins against Michigan, SMU, and Arkansas. NAU won the Big Sky Conference by 36 points and UTEP was 2nd in Conference USA. Both are high-quality teams, but they will need to get in the top 4 to get pushed into the top 31 that make NCAAs. Individuals To Expect Up Front: One of the best female distance runners in NCAA history dominated this region for years and now that she has finally graduated, she is replaced by the BEST female distance runner in NCAA history. The only way Colorado’s Jenny Barringer will not win this race is if she does not start, does not finish, or she allows someone (like a teammate) to beat her so she can save energy for NCAAs. Chances are, none of those scenarios will happen. Buffalo Allie McLaughlin is having a great freshman season. She was 10th at Pre-Nats and 2nd to Barringer at Big 12s. As the conference runner-up she beat Texas Tech’s superb duo of Lillian Badaru and Purity Biwott. Last year, Badaru was second at regionals and 18th at NCAAs. At the conference meet, Texas Tech’s 3-4 Gladys Kipsang and Caroline Karunde were ahead of Colorado’s #3 Laura Thweatt and the Red Raider’s #5 Winrose Karunde outran Buffalo’s #4 Laura Tremblay. At the Mountain West Conference Champs, BYU’s Cecily Lemmon, who was NCAA 10,000m runner-up last spring, continued a great season by taking the individual crown. After Lemmon, New Mexico had 3 runners across the line; Ruth Senior, Nicky Archer, and Lacey Oeding. The only other team to have finishers in the top 10 was Colorado State with Ellie Rastall (5th) and Kristen Hemphill (9th). NAU’s Veronica Pohl defended her Big Sky title last week, beating teammate Kortnee Burton and Montana’s Katrina Drennen by over 20 seconds. UTEP freshman Risper Kimaiyo was also an individual conference champ of Conference USA. The#2 for UTEP was Gladys Chumba in fifth place and #3 Kathya Garcia in seventh. Kimaiyo ran very fast at Pre-Nats getting fourth and will be a top runner in Terre Haute. Summit League Conference Champ Sharla Manuele of Southern Utah finished 19 seconds ahead of runner-up and teammate Diane Medina. Manuele will be one of the main contenders for an individual spot. What you may expect to see… 1. Texas Tech 2. Colorado 3. New Mexico 4. BYU 5. NAU 6. UTEP 1. Barringer (Colorado) 2. Kimaiyo (UTEP) 3. McLaughlin (Colorado) 4. Badaru (Texas Tech) 5. Lemmon (BYU) 6. Biwott (Texas Tech) 7. Pohl (NAU) 8. Kipsang (Texas Tech) 9. C. Karunde (Texas Tech) 10. Thweatt (Colorado) 11. Tremblay (Colorado) 12. Senior (New Mexico) <HR> Women's West Regional – 2009 Ranked Teams: Washington #1, Oregon #5, Stanford #14, Arizona State #16, Arizona #24, Cal #27 2008 Automatic Qualifying Teams: Washington, Oregon 2008 At-Large Teams: Stanford, Arizona State 2008 Individual Champion: Alex Kosinski, Oregon Team Outlook in 2009: The Pac-10 completely dominates the Women’s West Region, especially this year. Washington is obviously the defending NCAA Champs and they return the majority of that team. Because of this, they are the favorites in every race they run until somebody finally beats them. There is a good chance that the Huskies will rest some varsity girls this weekend, as they did last year. Oregon is the two-time defending NCAA runner-up and is great up front. The Ducks tend to pick up steam as the season goes on. Last year they closed the gap on Washington after getting blown-out at Pac-10s. This year, Oregon was much closer at conference, only 7 points back. They are one of the few teams in the country that could be that close to the Huskies. On the upside, the Ducks have had 3 different girls lead the team this year and each time 2 of their top 3 run well, with the third being off their best. If Oregon’s top-3 can all get on the same page in the same race, this is a dangerous team. These two squads should pick up the two auto-spots. Behind these two at Pac-10s were Arizona State and Stanford, separated by 1 point. Stanford, however, was missing two of their top girls from the season; Alex Dunne and Kathy Kroeger. Dunne was 17th at Pre-Nats and Kroeger led the team at the first meet. Dunne dropped out of the conference meet towards the end and Kroeger reportedly had a stress reaction. If both, or either are back, this team should be the obvious pick for third in the region with the very good ASU team in fourth. In 5th and 6th at Pac-10s were Cal and Arizona with only 2 points separating them. These teams have good shots of making it to Terre Haute with an At-Large bid and can close the gap on Arizona State. Actually, at Pre-Nats Arizona’s entire top 5 ran faster that ASU’s third runner and are capable of doing that again. The best non-Pac-10 school in the region seems to be UC Santa Barbara, who recently beat UC Davis for the Big West Conference title. They really do not have the regular season credentials to get them an At-Large bid to Terre Haute. Individuals To Expect Up Front: Oregon’s Alex Kosinski and Nicole Blood went 1-2 last year. Blood is fresh off a Pac-10 win, is a 15:38 5ker, and was top-10 at the last two NCAA meets. Kosinski ran well at the opener, but has been off her best since. Do not count her out, however, she was 8th at NCAAs last fall and can beat any girl in this field when she is on. In addition to these two, the Ducks have freshman Jordan Hasay who was third at both Pac-10s and Pre-Nats. In their 4th spot is Claire Michel, who was a finalist in the NCAA steeplechase last year. Obviously anyone of Washington’s varsity runners is a contender to win this race. As freshmen last fall, Christine Babcock and Kendra Schaaf placed 7th and 12th at NCAAs, respectively. This season, Schaaf was 2nd and Babcock was 5th at both Pre-Nats and Pac-10s. Mel Lawrence, who was third in the steeple at NCAAs last fall, was 4th at Pac 10s last week. Katie Follett is the most experienced Husky and she was a very strong 4th at Pre-Nationals this year. As mentioned above, Stanford’s Dunne was a DNF at the conference meet, but Alex Gits and Stephanie Marcy are solid front-runners that run a tight pack. Gits did not run last fall, but was Stanford’s fourth runner when they won the NCAA team title in 2007. Many other Pac-10 teams are lead by very strong runners that will be mixing it up front this weekend; Deborah Maier (Cal), Kari Hardt (ASU), Shannon Murakami (UCLA), and Maggie Callahan (Arizona). Santa Clara senior Stephanie Wilson just won the West Coast Conference by 39 seconds over the field. Sarah Sumpter of UC Davis also won her conference meet in a close race. She outran Kayleigh Tyerman of Cal Poly and Lilyana Morejon of UC Northridge at the Big West Championships as only two seconds separated the trio. What you may expect to see… 1. Washington 2. Oregon 3. Stanford 4. Arizona State 5. Arizona 6. Cal 1. Blood (Oregon) 2. Schaaf (Washington) 3. Hasay (Oregon) 4. Lawrence (Washington) 5. Babcock (Washington) 6. Kosinski (Oregon) 7. Maier (Cal) 8. Hardt (Arizona St) 9. Follett (Washington) 10. Gits (Stanford) 11. Marcy (Stanford) 12. Callahan (Arizona) Bx_Runner http://www.flotrack.org/blogs/blogger/Bx_Runner/9249-ncaa-regional-preview-6-womens-south-central-mountain-and-west Thu, 12 Nov 2009 20:21:00 -0500 http://www.flotrack.org/blogs/blogger/ChrisLukezic/9240-retirement-and-life-beyond-the-track I'm stepping away and hanging up my spikes officially. When I entered this sport at the age of 14, because of a girl, I never thought it would take me as far as it did. This has been a grand journey. What I think back on the most are not the great races I had. I think back to all the people and experiences that came as a result of my circumstantial existence in this world. I will truly miss all the friends I've made over the years. Thank you all for your friendship, kindness, and inspiration. Thank you to everyone who has supported me through the years. While I'm sad to leave the people in this sport behind, I'm not leaving on any terms other than my own. There are a lot of people who think I'm forsaking my talent. There are quite of few people who feel like running fast is the only thing that should matter. I'm not one of them. Today I've received a few nasty emails from people telling me I'm weak, that I'm stupid, and that I'm giving up. I have to say that it is painful to hear those things from people. I'm not giving up on anything. Running is a beautiful sport and it means a lot to many people, but it isn't everything to me. I'm not giving up. I'm just not happy being a professional runner any longer. It isn't there for me. The passion it once evoked has faded. It became a very unfulfilling pursuit. I moved to San Francisco, unsure if I was really going to be able to divorce myself from the sport. I moved here and joined AirBnB, a start-up, as the head of marketing. Learn more about it here. And here. I can say that I've probably never been happier. I'm enjoying every minute of my days away from the track. I've poured myself into AirBnB as much I poured myself into running. I can happily say that I trained at the limits of my talent for a number of years, especially this past year in Colorado. I have no regrets. I never wanted to have my grandchildren sitting on my lap with a head full of stories that only stemmed from my time as a runner. It is a small part of who I am, but I am extremely proud of myself for what I did accomplish. Do I think I could have run faster? Absolutely. Was I ready to wait around for it to happen? No. It no longer became something I felt like I needed to prove to myself. If I did run 3:28 it would have been fantastic. However, I know it wouldn't have made me any happier. It wouldn't have made me a better person. Running tended to suck the life from me. It became a very selfish pursuit and one I regret letting take such a hold over my life. You live and you learn. I want my life to be filled with as many amazing and unique opportunities as I can possible manage to fit into my finite time on this earth. I want to live a full life. I knew I wouldn't be living that personal ethos if I had stayed in the sport. Running was a sure thing. I could have continued making a living, traveling the world, and living "the dream." The problem was it was no longer my dream. Continuing to run would have been making a safe bet. Joining a start-up certainly is not the safe bet. I can say that there are very few start-ups I have ever admired this much. What is happening inside the walls of our office, with our rag tag team of brilliant 20-somethings, is amazing. I can't wait to see where we land in the next few years! Thank you again to everyone in the sport. I will miss you all dearly. Over and out. Join the AirBnB Running Group. Travel with your tribe.  ChrisLukezic http://www.flotrack.org/blogs/blogger/ChrisLukezic/9240-retirement-and-life-beyond-the-track Wed, 11 Nov 2009 21:22:00 -0500 http://www.flotrack.org/blogs/blogger/Bx_Runner/9223-ncaa-regional-preview-5-mens-south-central-mountain-and-west Men's South Central Regional – 2009 Ranked Teams: Arkansas #22, Texas Others Receiving Votes 2008 Automatic Qualifying Teams: Texas A&M, Arkansas 2008 At-Large Teams: None 2008 Individual Champion: Shadrack Songok, Texas A&M Team Outlook in 2009: The South Central Region is by far the weakest region for men’s teams this year. Not surprisingly, many teams in this region are strong in track & field, but less scholarship money seems to be focused on distance runners in this region. There is only one top 30 ranked team in the South Central and it is Arkansas at #22. The Razorbacks have qualified for nationals every year from 1974-2008 and this year should not break the 35 year streak. At the SEC Championships, Arkansas placed second, only 5 points behind the NCAA #6 ranked Alabama team. This Arkansas squad is one that could significantly surpass their ranking, especially if Eric Fernandez returns. He was the Razorback’s #2 last fall in his freshman season where he placed 7th at regionals. Texas should pick up the second automatic spot to NCAAs, despite not being ranked in the top 30 nationally. They finished 5th at the Big 12 Champs, one spot ahead of Texas A&M. The Aggies will make a push for a top-2 spot at regionals, because getting an at-large bid will be tough out of this region. Texas A&M did beat Auburn at the Wisconsin adidas Invite, which could provide them a point, but there are a lot of teams in other regions that seem to deserve a spot in Terre Haute more than a third from the South Central. Things could change after this weekend, however. Lamar just won the Southland Conference and appears to be the next best team in the region. Individuals To Expect Up Front: Nine of last year’s top ten graduated, or have not been competing this season. The one who is remaining is Francis Kasagule of Lamar. He is not the individual favorite however, as the region gets World Championship Team USA member Dorian Ulrey. Ulrey did not compete for Arkansas last fall and has been leading his team, most recently with a runner-up finish in the SEC Champs. Kasagule won his conference meet, the Southland Conference, over Joshua Sawe and David Rooney of McNeese State and Mitch Ownbey of Stephen F. Austin. Lane Boyer of Arkansas is also a high returner after last years 11th place finish. He was 8th in the SEC last weekend, one spot ahead of freshman teammate Solomon Haile. Texas had a tight pack of 3 (Rory Tunningley, Habben Berhane, Brian Rhodes-Devey) finish right behind All-Americans Girma Mecheso and Jordan Kyle (who compete in other regions) at Big 12s. The Longhorns top runner earlier in the season, Brock Simmons, was off his usual performance level at the conference meet. Texas A&M’s Joe Sauvageau and Mitch Bible were both top 15 at regionals last year and Andrew Montes led the Aggies at Big 12s. Drew Bean of Lamar beat all the A&M guys at the Wisconsin adidas Invite. What you may expect to see… 1. Arkansas 2. Texas 3. Texas A&M 4. Lamar 5. McNeese State 6. Stephen F. Austin 1. Ulrey (Arkansas) 2. Kasagule (Lamar) 3. Boyer (Arkansas) 4. Haile (Arkansas) 5. Tunningley (Texas) 6. Berhane (Texas) 7. Rhodes-Devey (Texas) 8. Sawe (McNeese) 9. Simmons (Texas) 10. Montes (Texas A&M) 11. Rooney (McNeese) 12. Elliot (Arkansas) <HR> Men's Mountain Regional – 2009 Ranked Teams: NAU #4, Colorado #5, New Mexico #12, BYU #14, UTEP & Utah State Others Receiving Votes 2008 Automatic Qualifying Teams: Colorado, NAU 2008 At-Large Teams: BYU 2008 Individual Champion: David McNeill, NAU Team Outlook in 2009: The Mountain Region has one of the most intriguing team races as these teams have been flip-flopping in the rankings all season. Two teams have set themselves apart as the favorites to get auto-bids, but which will be on topis unknown. NAU and Colorado both competed at Pre-Nats in separate races with Colorado’s 2nd place finish being the more impressive team performance. The results were skewed, however, as NAU’s All-American David McNeill finished way back with a cramp. Colorado’s All-Americans Kenyon Neuman and Jordan Kyle were further back than expected, as well. When McNeill showed he was back at top form, leading his team to a Big Sky Title with an impressive win, NAU jumped back ahead of Colorado in the rankings. Just as good as a race will be between New Mexico and BYU. The latter started off the season beating the defending national champs at home in the Bill Dillinger Invite. They followed that up by beating New Mexico by over 100 points at Pre-Nationals. The Lobos were not finished, though, coming back with their best team performance of the season to upset BYU at the Mountain West Conference Championships. They are both very good teams that should qualify at-large easily, but BYU will want to prove they are still the best team in the conference and New Mexico will want to prove that the MWC results were no fluke. UTEP is also a very good team out of this region. They recently won the Conference USA title by 1 point over Tulsa and they have an outside shot of getting an at-large spot in Terre Haute. If they can put together a great race at regionals and beat one of the top 4 teams, they will have their best chance at making nationals by getting pushed in. The same goes for the strong Utah State team that dominated the Western Athletic Conference Championships. Individuals To Expect Up Front: This is a very competitive region this year individually. As listed above, McNeill, Neuman, and Kyle are each All-Americans. McNeill stuck with Galen Rupp longer than anyone else could in the NCAA 5,000m final last spring. He is also the defending Mountain Region Champ and was 15th in Terre Haute. Kyle finished 1 spot ahead of him in 14th there. Despite that fact, Kyle has not been leading his team this year. Neuman was the first Buffalo at Big 12s and Christian Thompson led them at Pre-Nats. Jordan Chipangama and Diego Estrada paced NAU at Pre-Nats with Ben Ashkettle close behind. New Mexico’s Jacob Kirwa narrowly beat BYU’s Miles Batty for the MWC individual crown. Behind them, their teammates alternated places in the 4-11 spots, with Chris Barnicle as the #2 for New Mexico and Rich Nelson for BYU. The #2 man for BYU during the regular season, Thomas Gruenewald, finished outside the team’s top-5 at WVC, but was 19th at Pre-Nats and will be key in the team’s final two races if he can replicate that performance. Third at WVC was Justin Tyner of Air Force. He will be a major favorite for an individual trip to NCAAs, along with All-American Nicodemus Ng’etich of UTEP. Ng’etich was runner-up at Conference USA with teammate Elkana Rotich six seconds back. Also vying for individual spots will be Summit League Champ Cameron Levins of Southern Utah, WAC Champ Brian McKenna and 3rd place finisher Daniel Howell of Utah State, and Gilbert Limo of Texas Tech. These people should all be up front, but it will be interesting to see if NAU or Colorado rest anyone since their spots at NCAAs are almost guaranteed. What you may expect to see… 1. NAU 2. Colorado 3. BYU 4. New Mexico 5. UTEP 6. Utah State 1. McNeill (NAU) 2. Neuman (Colorado) 3. Chipangama (NAU) 4. Estrada (NAU) 5. Kirwa (New Mexico) 6. Batty (BYU) 7. Thompson (Colorado) 8. Ng’etich (UTEP) 9. Tyner (Air Force) 10. Gruenewald (BYU) 11. Medina (Colorado) 12. Barnicle (New Mexico) <HR> Men's West Regional – 2009 Ranked Teams: Stanford #1, Oregon #3, Portland #7, Arizona State #13, Washington #17, Cal Poly & UCLA Others Receiving Votes 2008 Automatic Qualifying Teams: Oregon, Stanford 2008 At-Large Teams: Portland, Cal, Washington, UCLA, Cal Poly 2008 Individual Champion: Galen Rupp, Oregon Team Outlook in 2009: The men’s West Region is the deepest in the NCAA. Seven teams made it out of the region last year and they will all want a return trip. Stanford is the NCAA #1 and for good reason. The Cardinal won Pre-Nationals with an impressively low 47 points and then stuck all 5 scorers in the top 11 in the most competitive conference in the country. Also winning a race at Pre-Nats, but 17 points back at Pac-10s was two-time defending NCAA Champions Oregon. Both teams are very good and will have no problems qualifying their teams. Because they are so good, either team could rest people at the regional meet. In fact, Stanford is so deep that their 8th man at Pac-10s would have been in every other team’s top-5 with the exception of Oregon. The rest of the Pac-10 is solid and the majority of teams should he in the hunt for at-large bids to nationals. Arizona State leads that group and they should be one of the first non-auto teams to qualify for NCAAs. Just behind them is Washington, who made a statement early in the season by winning Notre Dame (read more about ASU here and UW here). After them, UCLA and Cal Poly have decent shots of making it to Terre Haute. If either can jump past ASU or Washington at regionals, they should be pushed in easily. Cal Poly just won the Big West Conference title rather easily. Washington State beat some good teams at Pre-Nats (including Cal Poly) and has an outside shot at qualifying. They will need to place ahead of some of these other teams at regionals. Outside of the Pac-10 (and Cal Poly), Portland is the only team that seems like a lock to qualify, barring they don’t fall apart this weekend. The Pilots have the advantage of running in the less competitive West Coast Conference and they rested most of their varsity team and still won handily. They should be ready to earn a trip to Terre Haute for the fifth straight year and this seems like the team that has the most realistic shot of grabbing a top-2 spot from Oregon. Individuals To Expect Up Front: There is a ton of individual talent in the West Region. If Stanford and Oregon do not sit out anyone from their varsity squads, you will see a lot of Cardinals and Ducks up front. Stanford sophomore Chris Derrick is undefeated and is a favorite to take the NCAA individual title. He has beaten the NCAA’s best distance runners head-to-head already; Sam Chelanga (Liberty) at Pre-Nats and Brandon Bethke (Arizona State) and Luke Puskedra (Oregon) at Pac-10s. Both Bethke and Puskedra will be contending for top regional honors with Derrick. Stanford’s #2 Elliott Heath has only been beaten at major meats this season by Derrick, Chelanga, and Bethke. If you can only be beaten by sub-13:30 5k runners, you are certainly one of the best in the nation. The rest of the Cardinal's top 7 placed in the top-20 at Pac-10s, Jake Riley (6th), Justin Marpole-Bird (7th), Miles Unterreiner (11th), Brendan Gregg (12th), and Ben Johnson (19th). With no seniors on the team, this may be the start of a Stanford dynasty out west. Behind Puskedra, Oregon has All-American mid-distance guys Matt Centrowitz, Jordan McNamara, and AJ Acosta, as well as Kenny Klotz and twin brothers Danny and Diego Mercado. Bethke is backed-up by ASU junior Ben Engelhardt. Washington is led by Kelly Spady, Colton Tully-Doyle, and Jake Schmitt and UCLA by Marco Anzures and Marlon Patterson. Portland has a solid group of four in veterans Alfred Kipchumba (18th at NCAAs last fall) and Tommy Betterbed and stellar freshmen Joash Osoro and Trevor Dunbar. Cal Poly’s Joe Gatel just won the Big West Championships with teammate Evan Anderson in 3rd. Julian deRubira of UC Santa Barbara and Chad Hall of UC Riverside were 2nd and 4th at that meet. Both will be hoping to grab individual bids to NCAAs. Washington State is led by Mark Moeller, Cal by Steve Sodaro, and Arizona by Mohamud Ige. All three were top-20 at Pac-10s and will also vie for an individual spot on the line in Terre Haute. One of only two individuals to qualify individually out of the West Region last year, Erick Garcia of Fresno State will certainly be looking to make a return trip. What it will come down to for these individuals is just how many teams end up qualifying out of the West. What you may expect to see… 1. Stanford 2. Oregon 3. Portland 4. Arizona State 5. Washington 6. UCLA 1. Derrick (Stanford) 2. Bethke (Arizona St) 3. Puskedra (Oregon) 4. Heath (Stanford) 5. Kipchumba (Portland) 6. Centrowitz (Oregon) 7. Riley (Stanford) 8. Marpole-Bird (Stanford) 9. Mercado (Oregon) 10. Osoro (Portland) 11. Anzures (UCLA) 12. Spady (Washington) Bx_Runner http://www.flotrack.org/blogs/blogger/Bx_Runner/9223-ncaa-regional-preview-5-mens-south-central-mountain-and-west Wed, 11 Nov 2009 16:17:00 -0500 http://www.flotrack.org/blogs/blogger/Bx_Runner/9212-ncaa-regional-preview-4-womens-great-lakes-midwest-and-south Women's Great Lakes Regional – 2009 Ranked Teams: Michigan #23, Michigan State #26, Notre Dame & Indiana Others Receiving Votes 2008 Automatic Qualifying Teams: Michigan, Wisconsin 2008 At-Large Teams: Michigan State, Notre Dame 2008 Individual Champion: Nicole Bush, Michigan State Team Outlook in 2009: This region is a little weaker than usual with no teams ranked in the top 20, but there will be a good team battle between four teams that are closely matched. Michigan gets the ‘favorite’ role after edging out Michigan State at the Big Ten Championships by 15 points. The two teams were 4th and 5th at the meet and have certainly felt the effects of graduation this year. Indiana was back another 24 points and will hope to close that gap up at regionals. The Hoosiers are a team that is currently just outside the 31 teams that will run at Terre Haute and will need to run well this weekend and beat some teams ranked ahead of them for a chance. The team just ahead of them is Notre Dame, who was 6th at the Big East Champs. The Fighting Irish ran well at Pre-Nats and their home meet, but they are not guaranteed an at-large bid by any means. They will certainly be making a push for an auto-spot. At Pre-Nats, Notre Dame and Michigan State ran in separate races. If you compare the two teams times as if they ran a dual meet, the Fighting Irish come out with a 27-28 victory. That outcome might change in a larger race, however. Ohio State was only 3 points back from Indiana at the Big Ten meet, so they are more than capable of being in up in the top 4. Wisconsin, who made the trip to NCAAs 16 of the past 20 years including each of the last 4, is experiencing a down year and it does not look like they will be making a repeat trip. Individuals To Expect Up Front: Indiana senior Wendi Robinson is the top returner in the region and is running well this season, but she was beaten by a few steps at Big Tens by Kaitlyn Peale of Michigan. Right behind them was Michigan State’s top runner, Emily MacLeod. All three schools have strong runners in the second spot, as well. Indiana’s Sarah Pease was 8th in the Big Ten, Michigan State’s Carlie Green was 15th, and Michigan’s Kaitlyn Patterson was 19th. Notre Dame senior Lindsey Ferguson has been running well all fall and was most recently 10th at the Big East Champs. Marissa Treece was 14th at regionals last year for Norte Dame, but was way off that performance at Big East where she was the team’s seventh runner. Getting near that performance will be critical to the team’s chance of making NCAAs. Wisconsin’s #1 Caitlin Comfort was also 10th at her conference meet, The Big Ten and Ohio State’s Jordan Jennewine was only two spots back. Freshman Camille Bushcomb of Purdue showed at the Big Ten meet that she can run with the top girls in the region. Ari Fisher of Toledo is fresh off an individual win at the MAC Championship and can certainly be a factor in the individual race this weekend. She finished 12 seconds ahead of the runner-up, Alexandra Lizarribar of Kent State. Lauren McKillop of Butler is also coming off of a conference victory. She took the Horizon League crown with teammate Katie Clark by her side for second. The two are freshmen. What you may expect to see… 1. Michigan 2. Notre Dame 3. Michigan State 4. Indiana 5. Ohio State 6. Miami (Ohio) 1. Peale (Michigan) 2. Robinson (Indiana) 3. MacLeod (Michigan St) 4. Ferguson (Notre Dame) 5. Pease (Indiana) 6. Comfort (Wisconsin) 7. Jennewine (Ohio St) 8. Green (Michigan St) 9. Clark (Butler) 10. Bushcomb (Purdue) 11. Fisher (Toledo) 12. Patterson (Michigan) <HR> Women's Midwest Regional – 2009 Ranked Teams: Illinois #13, Minnesota #17, Iowa State #18, Iowa #30, Nebraska Others Receiving Votes 2008 Automatic Qualifying Teams: Minnesota, Illinois 2008 At-Large Teams: Nebraska, Iowa 2008 Individual Champion: Racheal Marchand, Iowa Team Outlook in 2009: The top two ranked teams in this region were involved in a tightly contested Big Ten team battle last weekend. Finishing in 2nd and 3rd, only 3 points separated Illinois and Minnesota with the former coming out on top. The same happened at Pre-Nats with Illinois beating out Minnesota by a mere 8 points. Either team could end up taking this region. The Illini have a better top 4, but their 5th girl closing the gap is the difference between this being a good team and a great team. Minnesota has a deeper team, getting 9 in front of Illinois’ #5 at Big Tens. The Iowa women were back with a solid 6th place showing at that meet. The other highly ranked teams in the region finished 3-4-5-6 at the Big 12 Championships. Iowa State took third behind very good Texas Tech and Colorado teams. At Pre-Nats, Iowa State placed one spot ahead of Iowa suggesting they are the reasonable pick for third in the Midwest. They ran well at Griak, even beating Minnesota, so they are guaranteed an at-large point if Minnesota beats them out for the second spot this weekend. After Iowa State at Big 12s were Nebraska, Kansas, and Kansas State. These teams finished closely and could easily switch orders at regionals, but it appears the only way they will be making it to Terre Haute is if they come up big and place in the top 4. Individuals To Expect Up Front: This region features quite a few stellar ladies up front. Leading the field is last spring’s NCAA 5,000m Champion Angela Bizzarri of Illinois. Close behind her at Big 12s was Minnesota’s All-American Megan Duwell. Both of these women are very strong runners and will be up near the front in Terre Haute. They will also be racing Iowa State’s Lisa Koll who ran the fastest 10,000m by an American in NCAA history a year and a half ago. Steeplechase All-American Beverly Ramos of Kansas State is one of the best in this region, as well. She beat Koll at Pre-Nats, but 7 seconds back at their conference meet. Close behind Ramos, K-State has a Sydney Messick who was top 20 at both Pre-Nats and Big-12s. The best #2 runner is probably Illinois sophomore Kristin Sutherland who is having a breakthrough season. She placed 7th in a competitive Big Ten Championship. Not far back were Illinois #3 & #4 Elizabeth Boyle and Chantelle Groenewoud in 11th and 13th. Iowa State also had a solid pack of three behind their front runner, Koll, at their conference meet; Betsy Saina (17th), Grace Kemmey (18th) and Aliphine Tuliamuck (20th). Minnesota has the strongest across 5 runners with Duwell, Kayla Wagner, Stephanie Price, Heather Dorniden, and Elizabeth Yetzer all placing in the top 25 in the Big Ten. During the season, Brooke Eilers had been Iowa’s top finisher, placing 29th at Pre-Nats, but she was their 4th girl at Big Ten with Besty Flood taking the reins. Nebraska is led by Lara Crofford and Rachel Carrizales, who were 7-8 at regionals last year. Mihaela Susa of Oklahoma State is also one of the top returners after finishing 11th last year. Last year’s third place finisher Pasca Cheruiyot has transferred to Florida State, Leaving sophomore Terry Phillips to lead Missouri State. She has done a good job this season winning the MVC Champs and placing 12th at the Chili Pepper Festival. One spot ahead of her in that race was Katie Vanatta of Missouri. One place ahead of Vanatta at the Big 12 meet was Lauren Bonds of Kansas in 10th. What you may expect to see… 1. Illinois 2. Minnesota 3. Iowa State 4. Iowa 5. Nebraska 6. Kansas 1. Bizzarri (Illinois) 2. Koll (Iowa St) 3. Duwell (Minnesota) 4. Ramos (Kansas St) 5. Sutherland (Illinois) 6. Bonds (Kansas) 7. Vanatta (Missouri) 8. Phillips (Missouri St) 9. Boyle (Illinois) 10. Messick (Kansas St) 11. Crawford (Nebraska) 12. Groenewoud (Illinois) <HR> Women's South Regional – 2009 Ranked Teams: Florida #3, Florida State #9, Tennessee #29 2008 Automatic Qualifying Teams: Florida State, Florida 2008 At-Large Teams: None 2008 Individual Champion: Hollie Knight, Auburn Team Outlook in 2009: The previous 3 years the Sunshine State has dominated this region and 2009 should continue the trend. There is one difference, however. Now Florida looks primed to take top honors as Florida State is expected to grab the second auto-qualifying spot. Both teams made it back to NCAAs in 2006 after a brief hiatus. FSU quickly jumped to the podium in Terre Haute in both 2007 and 2008, while the Gators could not get out of the teens. This year Florida is ranked 3rd in the nation and will look to get on the podium for the first time in program history (11th is the Florida’s highest finish). It is a very competitive year and it will not be an easy. The truth is they may not even be the best team in the region. They both won their conference meets by a wide margin and each placed second in their race at Pre-Nationals. If you merge their results from their Pre-Nats races into a dual meet, Florida wins by 1 point, 27-28. In a larger meet, however, FSU’s Susan Kuijken should be able to score as low as 2 points which has a much bigger impact than in dual meet type races. Because this regional is really just a formality for these two strong teams, we may not see how these two squads match-up until Terre Haute. Either team could rest girls, or run at a reduced effort and still qualify through. The team that will be fighting to get to nationals at the South Regional is Tennessee. They Lady Vols are right on the cusp of an at-large bid it looks like. They beat Arkansas at the SEC meet and the Razorback’s are picked to qualify automatically out of the South Central region. Tennessee may get lucky and if they run really well they could slip in front of one of the Florida teams if they are resting for NCAAs. It is unlikely, but not out of the question. Georgia, Alabama, Vanderbilt, and Auburn, the next best teams in the South, were all well behind Tennessee at the SEC Champs and do not look to have the fire-power to make a run at an NCAA bid. Individuals To Expect Up Front: Kuijken is hands down the best runner in this region (and one of the best in the country). She was second in Terre Haute last November and has won NCAA titles on the track at 3,000m and 1,5000m. Kuijken may not win this race, however. At last year’s South Regional she ran a controlled race, pacing teammate Pilar McShine and placed third. She did the same thing at Pre-Nationals this fall. In an all out effort, Kuijken, McShine, and transfer Pasca Cheruiyot (mentioned in the Midwest section above) are all capable of placing top 5 in this region. Auburn’s Hollie Knight is a very good runner. She won the region last year and was 11th at NCAAs, but has not shown that form this season. She was 6th at the SEC meet, behind five girls who run in the South Region. Going 1-2 at the SEC meet was Florida’s much improved pair of sophomore Rebecca Lowe and junior Charlotte Browning. Not too far off were teammates Stacey Johnson and Genevieve LaCaze in 5th and 7th. Tennessee’s Jackie Areson was third, while Georgia’s Kristie Krueger was fourth. Areson was an individual qualifier to NCAAs last fall. Auburn has a strong #2 in Stephanie Barnes who recently finished 8th in the SEC. The #2 runners for Georgia (Bridget Lyons) and Tennessee (Brittany Sheffey) were 11-12 in the SEC, respectively. Last year, Alabama freshman Sara Vaughn placed 7th in the South earning an individual NCAA spot, but she has not been at that level during her sophomore campaign. Instead, Alabama has had fellow sophomore Kelsey Johnson up front. Leading their teams this year as top-15 finishers from last year are Vanderbilt’s Rita Jorgensen and Georgia State’s Janel Blancett. What you may expect to see… 1. Florida 2. Florida State 3. Tennessee 4. Georgia 5. Alabama 6. Vanderbilt 1. Kuijken (Florida St) 2. Lowe (Florida) 3. Browning (Florida) 4. Cheruiyot (Florida St) 5. McShine (Florida St) 6. Areson (Tennessee) 7. Krueger (Georgia) 8. Johnson (Florida) 9. Knight (Auburn) 10. LaCaze (Florida) 11. Barnes (Auburn) 12. Northrup (Florida) Bx_Runner http://www.flotrack.org/blogs/blogger/Bx_Runner/9212-ncaa-regional-preview-4-womens-great-lakes-midwest-and-south Tue, 10 Nov 2009 22:42:00 -0500 http://www.flotrack.org/blogs/blogger/Bx_Runner/9197-ncaa-regional-preview-3-mens-great-lakes-midwest-and-south Men's Great Lakes Regional – 2009 Ranked Teams: Wisconsin #10, Butler #26, Ohio State #28, Indiana Others Receiving Votes 2008 Automatic Qualifying Teams: Wisconsin, Michigan 2008 At-Large Teams: Butler, Notre Dame 2008 Individual Champion: Patrick Smyth, Notre Dame Team Outlook in 2009: Last weekend Wisconsin finally put all the pieces together at the Big Ten Champs and ran like a team that has been in the top 5 at NCAAs every year for the past ten years. They scored an impressively low 26 points, sticking all their scorers in the top 8 and their entire top 7 in the top 16. The next closest to them in team scoring was Ohio State with 91 points. Being that the Buckeyes are the third ranked team in the region, the Big Ten meet suggests Wisconsin should be qualifying to nationals relatively easily. The Badgers seem to be well ahead of the second ranked team, Butler, as well. Coming off a perfect 15 score at the Horizon League Championships, Butler will be a good match against Ohio State for the final auto-spot. Butler did not have the best race at Pre-Nationals, so they would have a tough time qualifying through with points. The Great Lakes Region is relatively weak this year with Michigan and Notre Dame having not as strong as they have been in the past and it seems likely will only get two teams in. Indiana may be the best shot for an at-large team from the region. They had a big win at Paul Short, beating Iona and N.C. State, which could earn them 2 much needed points. This Indiana team is good and I would not count them out of the race for an auto-spot either. You can read more about the Indiana team here. Individuals To Expect Up Front: Butler’s Andy Baker is not only the top returner behind last year’s runner-up finish, but he has also been one of the top runners in the NCAA this season. He was 3rd at Notre Dame and 2nd at Pre-Nats. You can expect that all of Wisconsin’s runners will be in the lead pack. At Big Tens they were lead by underclassmen Elliot Krause, Maverick Darling, and Mohammed Ahmed, followed closely by All-Americans Craig Miller and Landon Peacock. Ohio State has an All-American of its own up front in Jeff See with sophomore Taylor Williams heading up the team’s main pack. Indiana is led by two underclassmen, Freshman Zach Mayhew and sophomore Andrew Poore, both of whom were top 10 in the Big Ten. Michigan’s Sean McNamara was 10th in the region last year, but way back in 23rd at the Big Ten Champs. They were led by freshman Brendon Blacklaws led the Wolverines at that meet. Notre Dame is led by senior Jake Walker and Michigan State by sophomore Josh McAlary. Third in the region last year, Chris Lemon of Dayton will be looking to make another trip to Terre Haute this year. He recently won the Atlantic 10 Championships and his brother Matt Lemon also earned an individual NCAA bid last fall. Scott Keeney of Indiana State gave the Sycamores representation on their home course at Terre Haute last November. This year, ISU has 3 other runners Eric Shultz, Jeremiah Vaughan, and Mike Disher, right with Keeney. If they will be able to get any an individual bid may come down to whether more than 2 teams qualify out of this region or not. Kent State’s top runners were right in the mix with Wisconsin’s early in the season at the Iona Meet of Champs. Scott Hilditch was their top runner at that meet and Aiman Scullion was the MAC individual champ for Kent State. Eric Finan of Cincinnati was the top collegiate finisher at the Iona Meet of Champs and could be up towards the front at regionals. What you may expect to see… 1. Wisconsin 2. Butler 3. Ohio State 4. Indiana 5. Michigan 6. Dayton 1. Baker (Butler) 2. Krause (Wisconsin) 3. See (Ohio State) 4. C. Lemon (Dayton) 5. Darling (Wisconsin) 6. Ahmed (Wisconsin) 7. Mayhew (Indiana) 8. Peacock (Wisconsin) 9. Miller (Wisconsin) 10. Poore (Indiana) 11. Finan (Cincinnati) 12. Scullion (Kent State) <HR> Men's Midwest Regional – 2009 Ranked Teams: Oklahoma State #2, Oklahoma #18, Iowa State #27, Minnesota #29, Tulsa Others Receiving Votes 2008 Automatic Qualifying Teams: Oklahoma State, Minnesota 2008 At-Large Teams: Tulsa, Iowa State 2008 Individual Champion: Hassan Mead, Minnesota Team Outlook in 2009: NCAA #2 Oklahoma State should comfortably win this race once again. The only question on this team is if they will run their entire varsity squad, or let a few guys take the day off. Also, will the guys who do race at regionals run as a pack, or go all out. Last year their top 4 ran within a second of each other at the meet and they rested a few members. Oklahoma appears to be the top pick for that second auto-spot. They recently finished a strong 3rd at the Big 12 meet, not far off a very good Colorado team. They also beat Iowa State comfortably, which should give them confidence going in to the regional meet. Iowa State is by no means out of the running for that second spot, this is a very good Iowa State team that could slip into the top two if Oklahoma falters at all. Other teams making the push for Terre Haute are Minnesota and Tulsa. Both of these teams are right on the cusp of an at-large bid right now. If they land in the 3-5 spots, a trip to NCAAs is certainly a possibility. If either team is able to get into that third spot, they will likely be pushed in by the team they finished ahead of (most likely Iowa State). Tulsa recently finished in 2nd by 1 point to UTEP at the Conference USA Championships and Minnesota was 3rd at the Big Ten Champs, only 6 points out of second. Individuals To Expect Up Front: Again, this rests on who from Oklahoma State runs and how hard. In an all out effort, everyone in their top 4 (John Kosgei, Ryan Vail, Colby Lowe, German Fernandez) is capable of winning with their fifth man (Girma Mecheso) not far off. They have mostly run as a pack so far this year making it difficult to tell just how good the Cowboys are individually and where they stack up against each other. We may not find out until NCAAs. All-American Hassan Mead is the defending regional champ and just won the Big Ten title making him the most likely to keep Ok State from going 1-4. Also capable of breaking up the Cowboy’s pack is Tulsa senior John Beattie. Last year he was 29th at Terre Haute and 10th in the 10k at NCAAs on the track. He is fresh off a Conference USA individual win and was top-10 at Notre Dame (5th) and Pre-Nats (7th) this season. Both Iowa State and Oklahoma are lead by strong trios this year. Iowa St by Guar Marial, Hillary Bor, and Yonas Mebrahtu and Oklahoma by Kevin Schwab, Bill Kogel, and Robert Sorrell. Tulsa and Minnesota also have two solid runners behind their stud. Backing up Beattie is Lewis Timmins and Mark Davidson. Timmins was 20th at Pre-Nationals this year and Davidson was 10th at regionals last year. Behind Mead are Matt Barrett and Ben Blakenship. Barrett was 9th at Big Tens and Blankenship was 12th last year at regionals. Southern Illinois senior Jeff Schirmer finally began rounding into form at the MVC Champs after a shaky beginning of the season. He was 25th at NCAAs last fall, but the team had been led by Mohamed Mohamed until the conference championship. Jonah Lagat of Oral Roberts is a returning individual qualifier, as is Jesse Luciano of Iowa. Luciano finished just outside All-American at NCAAs last year in 43rd and was only his team’s second man for most of the season. Iowa freshman Jeff Thode may be one of the best true freshman in the NCAA this year, he just need to qualify individual to the Terre Haute to prove it, his conference meet was not his best effort and the long college season may be taking its toll on the freshman. What you may expect to see… 1. Oklahoma State 2. Oklahoma 3. Iowa State 4. Minnesota 5. Tulsa 6. Southern Illinois 1. Mead (Minnesota) 2. Beattie (Tulsa) 3. Kosgei (Oklahoma St) 4. Vail (Oklahoma St) 5. Fernandez (Oklahoma St) 6. Lowe (Oklahoma St) 7. Marial (Iowa St) 8. Schwab (Oklahoma) 9. Blankenship (Minnesota) 10. Thode (Iowa) 11. Timmins (Tulsa) 12. Bor (Iowa St) <HR> Men's South Regional – 2009 Ranked Teams: Alabama #6, Florida State#21, Auburn #25 2008 Automatic Qualifying Teams: Alabama, Auburn 2008 At-Large Teams: Florida State 2008 Individual Champion: Felix Kibioywo, Auburn Team Outlook in 2009: This Alabama team is very good and is certainly the class of the field in the South Region. They have solid front runners and a great depth. At the SEC Championships they had only a 30 second spread from 1-6 to ensure the team title. They had a similar spread at Pre-Nats to place them a strong 2nd behind the defending NCAA Champion Ducks. Up front, Auburn is a better team than any other team in the region. In fact, they have one of the best top three runners in the country and a very good fourth runner. Like last year, Auburn’s problem is the back end of the scoring being too far back. Imagine is Girma Mecheso had not transferred this year; Auburn would be quite a formidable team. They key to getting an auto-bid is their fifth runner. Standing in their way is Florida State. The Seminoles had their best team race of the year so far at the ACC Champs, finishing 3rd, only 1 point behind Virginia. They are not as strong as Auburn up front, but the back end of their scoring is stronger. Their fifth man is actually Foot Locker Champ Mike Fout who is regaining his fitness and has been closing the gap on the rest of his team throughout the season. The best shot for the South Region to get 3 teams to Terre Haute seems to be for Florida State to beat Auburn at Regionals. This season, Auburn has beaten more teams that are ranked top-2 in their respective regions which would give them at-large points that FSU may be lacking if the finish third this weekend. The nest three teams in the region, Florida, Georgia, and Tennessee showed they were pretty closely matched at the SEC meet, but there is a big gap between these three and the top three South Region teams. Individuals To Expect Up Front: The 2006 South Regional Champ Barnabas Kirui of Ole Miss is back and looks primed to reclaim the title. The 2007 NCAA Steeplechase Champ has not been the most present talent over the past couple of year, but do not overlook this talent who just won the SEC title. Auburn is led by last year’s regional champ Felix Kibioywo, Jean-Pierre Weerts, and Ben Cheruiyot who were 3-4-5 in the SEC. Trying to match them will be Alabama’s top 4; Moses Kiptoo, Tyson David, Fred Samoei, and Julius Bor. They were all top 15 at the SEC Champs and top 30 at Pre-Nats. Florida State is headed up by the contingent of Matt Leeder, Daniel Roberts, and Michigan transfer Ciaran O’Lionaird, fifth, ninth, and tenth respectively in the ACC. Florida is led by Justin Taylor and Anthony Morales. Morales led the team at Pre-Nats, while Taylor was in front at SECs taking 10th. Tennessee’s Michael Spooner was just a few ticks behind Taylor, good enough for 11th in the conference. An individual NCAA qualifier from last year, Micah Tirop of South Alabama is a threat to qualify again. He was 13th at Pre-Nationals and may not even be the top finisher from his team at regionals. Sophomore Zac Edwards led South Alabama at the Sun Belt Conference Championships by taking the individual crown. Middle Tennessee’s Festus Chemaoi was second in that race, but a significant 32 seconds back. What you may expect to see… 1. Alabama 2. Florida State 3. Auburn 4. Florida 5. Georgia 6. Tennessee 1. Kirui (Ole Miss) 2. Kibioywo (Auburn) 3. Weerts (Auburn) 4. Cheruiyot (Auburn) 5. Leeder (Florida St) 6. Kiptoo (Alabama) 7. David (Alabama) 8. Taylor (Florida) 9. Spooner (Tennessee) 10. Edwards (South Alabama) 11. Samoei (Alabama) 12. Roberts (Florida St) Bx_Runner http://www.flotrack.org/blogs/blogger/Bx_Runner/9197-ncaa-regional-preview-3-mens-great-lakes-midwest-and-south Mon, 09 Nov 2009 22:19:00 -0500 http://www.flotrack.org/blogs/blogger/Bx_Runner/9178-ncaa-regional-preview-2-womens-northeast-mid-atlantic-and-southeast Women's Northeast Regional – 2009 Ranked Teams: Syracuse #10, Providence #21 2008 Automatic Qualifying Teams: Providence, Syracuse 2008 At-Large Teams: Boston College, Stony Brook 2008 Individual Champion: Danette Doetzel, Providence Team Outlook in 2009: The Providence women’s team made their first trip to nationals in 1989 and they have not been absent at the championship since. That 20 year streak does not look like it will be broken this year, but they will not be going in to the meet as top dogs. Syracuse has been running great all season and is the favorite in the Northeast. They recently beat Providence head-to-head at the Big East Championships where the Orange had 4 girls in before the second Friar. Going in as the top ranked team is new this year, last year the Syracuse women surprised everyone at regionals to get the second auto-spot and earn the program’s first trip to NCAAs. It was the second year in a row the NE women’s race had such a surprise and both times it allowed for the region to get more that two teams to Terre Haute. It seems this year the only way a third team is making it out of this region is for the same to happen again. Usually strong in the Northeast, Stony Brook and Boston College have not looked as strong as they have in the past. Stony Brook had no seniors run at regionals last year, so they potentially could be a better team than their regular season has shown, but they will have to take a top two spot to get their 3rd consecutive trip to nationals. The Ivy League teams have been strong this year, particularly Harvard and Columbia, but they also have not produced any big wins in the regular season that would give them points for an at-large bid. As it looks, top 2 is a necessity for every team other than Syracuse and Providence. Individuals To Expect Up Front: The top 5 from last year’s race have graduated, leaving this race wide opened. The top returner is Krystal Douglass of Providence, but she does not seem to be in the same form as she was just 47th at the Big East Champs. Freshman Shelby Greany and sophomore Hannah Davidson have been leading the Friars this season. Anyone in their top 5 has a shot at being in the top 15, Providence had 5 in the top 13 last year. The same goes for Syracuse’s scorers chances of being up front this year. They are led by Kathleen Hursey with Maegen Krifchin, Cathrine Desarle, and Rebekah McKay not far behind. The Ivy League has a strong contingent of girls that may monopolize the individual bids. Claire Richardson (Harvard), Ariel Wright (Brown), Jackie Drouin (Columbia) and Stephanie Pancoast (Cornell) each led their team at Heps by finishing in a row behind Princeton’s perfect-15 scoring top 5. Looking to break up that Ivy block will be Boston College’s Jillian King who recently finished 11th in a strong ACC Championship. Her sister and teammate Caroline King should not be counted out either. Another pair of sisters, Holly and Lucy Van Dalen of Stony Brook are two of the top returners from last year and teammate Laure Huet has been running well this year, as well. They went 2-3-4 at the America East Champs, with Maine’s Corey Conner taking the individual title. Iona’s Anna Jorgensen is also coming of an individual conference win at the MAAC Champs. Both Conner and Jorgensen could be factors in the individual race up front. What you may expect to see… 1. Syracuse 2. Providence 3. Harvard 4. Stony Brook 5. Columbia 6. Cornell 1. Hursey (Syracuse) 2. Greany (Providence) 3. J. King (BC) 4. Krifchin (Syracuse) 5. Desarle (Syracuse) 6. Davidson (Providence) 7. Richardson (Harvard) 8. McKay (Syracuse) 9. Wright (Brown) 10. Twohig (Providence) 11. Conner (Maine) 12. H. Van Dalen (Stony Brook) <HR> Women's Mid-Atlantic Regional – 2009 Ranked Teams: Villanova #2, Princeton #4, West Virginia #7, Penn State #12, Georgetown #15 2008 Automatic Qualifying Teams: Princeton, West Virginia 2008 At-Large Teams: Villanova, Georgetown 2008 Individual Champion: Frances Koons, Villanova Team Outlook in 2009: This is the deepest women’s region, by far. They take up 1/3rd of the top 15 ranked teams in the NCAA. This will be a great race between 5 great teams, but the fact remains that with the way these women have run in the regular season, all 5 should be getting in easily, no matter where in the top 5 they fall. Villanova came out of the gate swinging this year, trouncing a highly ranked Oregon team at their home meet. Most recently they handily won an extremely competitive Big East Championships with a meager 30 points. 46 points back was a very good West Virginia team, with Georgetown in 4th. We know how these 3 teams match up against each other, but it will be interesting to see where exactly the other 2 nationally ranked teams fit in. Princeton was perfect at their conference meet going 1-5 and Penn State came up huge to win a close Big Ten Conference title. Penn State was one of the better teams left out of NCAAs last year due to a deficiency in at-large points. By winning the Big Ten meet, they potentially picked up 4 points by beating Illinois, Minnesota, Michigan, and Michigan State, who are all ranked in the top 2 in their regions. There is a bit of a drop off to the next best team, Bucknell. The only way another team could squeak in would be by beating one of these five teams, who would have to be having a very off day, at regionals. Individuals To Expect Up Front: Princeton’s Liz Costello, who was 2nd last year, is the top returner and she is coming off her third consecutive Ivy League win in 16:55 (the fastest in Heps history). USA World Team member Bridget Franek of Penn State, however, may be the favorite. Franek just won the Big Ten crown over Angela Bizzarri (Illinois) and Megan Duwell (Minnesota), both of whom beat Costello at Pre-Nationals. The top 25 is going to be filled with runners from the top 5 teams, as it was last year. Villanova’s Sheila Reid won the Big East meet and could contend for the individual title. She was followed closely by Amanda Marino and the rest of the ‘Nova top 5 weren’t far behind (Bogdana Mimic, Brooke Simpson, Ali Smith). After Costello, Princeton has a strong group of Alex Banfich, Sarah Cumming, Ashley Higginson, and Reilly Kiernan. West Virginia is led by the trio of Clara Grandt, Marie Louise Asselin, and Keri Bland and Georgetown by Emily Infeld, Katie McCafferty, and Emily Jones. Bland was 14th at NCAAs last year, one spot ahead of Costello, but she was only 13th at Big East. After Franek, Penn State has two freshmen, Nicole Lord and Brooklyne Ridder, leading the heart of their team. Fronting the group of runners not from these 5 teams looks to be Megan Hogan of George Washington. Hogan was an individual NCAA qualifier last fall and is coming off a large win at the Atlantic 10 Champs. What you may expect to see… 1. Villanova 2. Princeton 3. West Virginia 4. Penn State 5. Georgetown 6. Bucknell 1. Franek (Penn State) 2. Reid (Villanova) 3. Costello (Princeton) 4. Marino (Villanova) 5. Infeld (Georgetown) 6. Cummings (Princeton) 7. Mimic (Villanova) 8. Higginson (Princeton) 9. Grandt (WV) 10. Asselin (WV) 11. Lord (Penn State) 12. Simpson (Villanova) <HR> Women's Southeast Regional – 2009 Ranked Teams: Duke #15, Virginia #19, N.C. State ORV, North Carolina ORV 2008 Automatic Qualifying Teams: Virginia, Kentucky 2008 At-Large Teams: None 2008 Individual Champion: Tasmin Fanning, Virginia Tech Team Outlook in 2009: The top four ranked teams in this region are all in the Atlantic Coast Conference, so we have already seen how they stack up against each other over 6,000m and not much should change at regionals unless there are new additions, or people sit-out. The Duke women put together a nice conference race to cement themselves as the favorites in the Southeast. You can read more about the Blue Devils here. Virginia was not far behind at ACCs and their usual 5th girl did not run. If they have her back, the teams could be reversed at regionals. The next two teams at ACCs were N.C. State and North Carolina. Both teams are right on the cusp of making it in at-large. A lot of their fortune, if they place 3rd and 4th at regionals, will be in the hands of what teams qualify automatically in other regions. UNC’s top runner, All American Lauren Holesh, was their 4th across the line at the conference meet. Had she run how she normally does, the Tar Heels would have been right with N.C. State in team scoring. They will need her to be racing at top form if they want to grab the 3rd spot, which would be important considering how close to that 31st spot both these teams are. William & Mary and James Madison are the next best teams on paper, but they will need to run out of their shoes to grab get past the top four teams. Individuals To Expect Up Front: The top returner from 2008 is Janet Jesang of Western Kentucky who was 3rd in the Southeast last year and 13th at Nationals. She is running well this year, defending her Sun Belt Conference title and placing 5th at Pre-Nationals. Holesh should be a contender up front if she rebounds from her sub-par ACC performance. She will have to deal with new addition to the Southeast Region Catherine White, who transferred to Virginia from Arkansas this year. White was second only to FSU’s Susan Kuijken (who runs in the South Region) at the ACC Champs. Her teammate Morgane Gay has also been running quite well this season, as has Holesh’s teammate Ashley Verplank. Duke is lead by the very good pair of Carly Seymour and Juliet Bottorff and N.C. State is headed by Emily Pritt. All three were in the top 10 at ACCs, as was Kim Ruck of Clemson. Louisville’s Tarah McKay, who was 5th last year at regionals, looks primed to take an individual spot at NCAAs again this season. The same can be said of Charlotte’s Amanda Goetschius, who was 8th last year. Emily Anderson of William & Mary is a dark horse. She did not compete in cross country regionals last fall, but she is a 3 time All American on the track at 5,000m and 1,500m. Nicol Traynor of Richmond qualified for the NCAA Outdoor Championships at 5,000m last fall, but has missed most of the season. She returned for her conference meet, but it will be a unknown if she can return to full fitness by regionals. Kentucky is lead by freshman Chelsea Oswald who was 14th in?the strong SEC Champs. What you may expect to see… 1. Virginia 2. Duke 3. North Carolina 4. N.C. State 5. William & Mary 6. James Madison 1. Jesang (W. Kentucky) 2. White (Virginia) 3. Holesh (UNC) 4. Gay (Virginia) 5. Seymour (Duke) 6. Anderson (William & Mary) 7. McKay (Louisville) 8. Pritt (N.C. State) 9. Goetschius (Charlotte) 10. Verplank (UNC) 11. Ruck (Clemson) 12. Bottorff (Duke) Bx_Runner http://www.flotrack.org/blogs/blogger/Bx_Runner/9178-ncaa-regional-preview-2-womens-northeast-mid-atlantic-and-southeast Sun, 08 Nov 2009 14:15:00 -0500 http://www.flotrack.org/blogs/blogger/Bx_Runner/9164-ncaa-regional-preview-1-mens-northeast-mid-atlantic-southeast Men's Northeast Regional – 2009 Ranked Teams: Iona #9, Syracuse #11, Providence #23, Columbia Others Receiving Votes 2008 Automatic Qualifying Teams: Iona, Providence 2008 At-Large Teams: None 2008 Individual Champion: Mohamed Khadraoui, Iona Teams Outlook in 2009: For what seems like forever, Iona and Providence have had a strangle hold on the men’s auto-bids in the Northeast. The only team to have snuck in there this decade has been Dartmouth in 2001 and 2005. This year, both teams are major contenders again, but the favorite may be Syracuse. In 2007 the Orange just missed making the big dance when they placed 3rd, a surprise to some, but not to anyone who saw newly appointed Coach Fox filling their roster with Foot Locker Finalists. Last year they ran well mid-season, but finished a disappointing 5th at regionals and were left out. They run a tight pack you can read more about here and this seems to be the year for Syracuse to make it back to nationals for the first time since 1974. Providence looks great on paper, but they have not put it all together in a race yet. David McCarthy, 19th last year at NCAAs, has yet to race to his potential and they got trounced by Syracuse at Big East while running without Hayden McLaren. Iona has been a podium team at NCAAs the past 4 years and although this is certainly a rebuilding year, Iona should not have any problems qualify through to Terre Haute. The Gaels know how to peak and have the luxury of not having to race hard at conference, so they definitely could retain the regional title over Syracuse. All three teams listed above have done well enough during the season that which ever places outside the top three will earn an at-large bid. It would be the first time since 2000 that 3 NE men’s teams make it. The dark horse is Columbia. Last year the Lions placed 3rd with a very small spread, but they had not amassed enough points during the season to get a bid. This year seems to be the same (unless Princeton places top-2 in the Mid-Atlantic), so there best chance is to beat one of the top 3 teams ahead of them at regionals and get pushed in. They came through last year to upset some teams, but it seems most of their great races have come at Van Cortlandt Park and this year regionals is in Boston. Can they recreate the magic at Franklin Park and make the trip to NCAAs for the first time in program history? Individuals To Expect Up Front: A 3:57 miler, McCarthy of Providence is always a threat and the top returner. His teammate, Lee Carey, has been racing consistently well all year and will be a major factor up front. Iona’s Ryan Sheridan may be the favorite based on the season; he was the 6th fastest runner out of all the races at Pre-Nationals. Anyone from Syracuse’s pack could be leading on a given day. Tito Medrano has led them much of the year and Pat Dupont was there top finisher at Big East in 4th. Jeff Scull, Dan Busby, and Brad Miller are all close behind. Harvard junior Dan Chenoweth is coming off a strong win at the Heptagonal Championships with Christian Escareno of Brown not far behind. Chenoweth was 8th at Pre-Nats. Other Ivy Leaguers that will be in the mix are Columbia’s duo of Brendan Martin and Kyle Merber, Cornell’s Nate Edelman, and Brown’s Duriel Hardy. A question mark is Erik van Ingen of Binghamton. He is a 4:01 miler coming off a win in the America East Conference, but how he will hold up over 10,000m has yet to be seen. The fast (compared to VCP) Franklin Park course should suit him decently well. What you may expect to see… 1. Syracuse 2. Iona 3. Providence 4. Columbia 5. Dartmouth 6. Cornell 1. Sheridan (Iona) 2. McCarthy (Providence) 3. Chenoweth (Harvard) 4. Dupont (Syracuse) 5. Carey (Providence) 6. Medrano (Syracuse) 7. Escareno (Brown) 8. Scull (Syracuse) 9. Weller (Iona) 10. Martin (Columbia) 11. Edelman (Cornell) 12. van Ingen (Binghamton) <HR> Men's Mid-Atlantic Regional – 2009 Ranked Teams: Georgetown #15, Villanova #20 2008 Automatic Qualifying Teams: Georgetown, Penn State 2008 At-Large Teams: Villanova 2008 Individual Champion: Andrew Bumbalough, Georgetown Teams Outlook in 2009: The Georgetown men have earned a spot at nationals the last 11 years and this year should continue the streak. This team has experience as it is led by All American Andrew Bumbalough and has 3 graduate students and a senior in its top 5 from the Big East meet. Villanova is the obvious choice for the other auto spot, they were close behind GU this at conference. With a good overall team effort, the Wildcats could vie for the top spot in the Mid-Atlantic, but that would require Georgetown not at the top of its game. The region is having an off year as teams like Penn State and American, who have made the trip to NCAAs in recent years are really not where they have been in the past. The only team that seems capable of slipping into an auto-spot if one of these teams falter is Princeton. The Tiger have not done enough in the regular season to suggest they would have the points to get an at-large bid, so they will have to earn their spot by coming up big at regionals and upsetting one of the top 2. They were recently dethroned at the Heptagonal Championships, losing by only 1 point. They have a strong top 2, but the back end of the team will have to close the gap to have a shot at a top-2 finish. Navy is coming off a comfortable Patriot League win, but has not done enough this year to suggest they will be capable of beating ‘Nova and Georgetown. Individuals To Expect Up Front: Bumbalough is the defending champion and he will certainly be back at the top again this year. He recently lost to Villanova’s Mathew Mildenhall by 0.2 seconds. He is a recent addition to the Wildcat roster as a freshman from New Zealand. Last year, GU had their entire top 5 in the top 11 at regionals and 4 of those 5 return. Besides Bumbalough they include Mike Krisch, Mike Banks and Levi Miller. Add to that sophomore Mark Dennin, Georgetown’s only underclassmen scorer at Big East. Villanova’s Dan Lewis should play a factor up front and they also have Hugo Beamish, who was runner-up last year, but has not been at top form so far this year. If he can round into form in time, Beamish will be mixing it up in the front pack. Princeton’s sophomore duo of Brian Leung and Donn Cabral will be leading the charge for the Tigers. Andrew Hanko of Navy is coming off a Patriot League win and Evan Kosgei of Lehigh was not too far behind. Penn State’s Vince McNally is the top returner not on Georgetown or Villanova with his 6th place finish last year as a freshman. Alex Lundy of Maryland and Kyle Murray of St. Joseph’s both qualified for NCAAs as individuals last year and will look to repeat. Murray’s teammate, Kevin McDonnell has also been running well this season as the Hawks top finisher at A10’s. Mike Stolar of Duquesne was close behind McDonnell at conference and should also be contending for an individual bid. What you may expect to see… 1. Georgetown 2. Villanova 3. Princeton 4. St. Joseph’s 5. Navy 6. American 1. Bumbalough (Georgetown) 2. Mildenhall (Villanova) 3. Krisch (Georgetown) 4. Leung (Princeton) 5. McNally (Penn State) 6. Dennin (Georgetown) 7. Lewis (Villanova) 8. Cabral (Princeton) 9. Hanko (Navy) 10. McDonnell (St. Joe’s) 11. Gibney (Villanova) 12. Banks (Georgetown) <HR> Men's Southeast Regional – 2009 Ranked Teams: William & Mary #8, NC State#16, Virginia #19, Louisville #24, Duke #30 2008 Automatic Qualifying Teams: William & Mary, Virginia 2008 At-Large Teams: N.C. State 2008 Individual Champion: Sam Chelanga, Liberty Teams Outlook in 2009: This one is going to be a barnburner. 5 ranked teams that all should feel that they can land in the top 2 in this region and get an auto bid. An off race by a few runners, however, can have a great team way down in 5th hoping their regular season triumphs will get them to Terre Haute. If you have to name a favorite, it has to be William & Mary. The tribe has been consistently stellar all season and they do not compete in as tough a conference, giving them the advantage of training through that meet. They run with a tight pack and if they can keep that spread small and get that pack high enough in the race W&M will be looking at a repeat trip to Terre Haute. Coming into the season many may have considered Virginia to be the team to beat. Well, they were beat, as N.C. State took down the undefeated Cavaliers at ACCs. Both will be fighting for a top 2 spot, but both would be one of the first teams to receive an at-large bid if they finish outside of the top 2. Duke finished only 3 points behind Virginia at conference and should certainly be considered a threat to grab a top 2 spot. They have been running very well this year and will hope that will be enough to get them into NCAAs if they place 4th or 5th at regionals. The same goes for Louisville who finished 4th in the competitive Big East Conference. You can read more about Louisville here. Beyond these 5 nationally ranked teams is Virginia Tech who was 5th at ACCs, but it is highly doubtful they will be able to get one of the 31 spots in Terre Haute. They would have to beat one of these teams listed above and hope to get pushed in by that team. Individuals To Expect Up Front: Individually this race looks to be more lopsided. The NCAA 10,000m record holder Sam Chelanga of Liberty should win this race with out any problems. The only question is if he will run a comfortable race, or really spin his wheels out on the course. After Chelanga, Emil Heineking of Virginia and Cory Thorne of Louisville are both coming off major conference wins. Heineking’s teammate Ryan Collins was only 2 seconds back and Thorne’s teammate Michael Eaton has been running very well this year. N.C. State’s 1-2 of Ryan Hill and John Martinez should both be up at the front. Hill won the Paul Short Invite in a sprint finish earlier this year. Freshman Patrick Campbell is not far off the Wolfpack’s top 2. Anyone of William & Mary’s scorers could end up in the top 10, you can read more about each one here. Duke is led by Bo Waggoner, who was 6th at ACCs and he is followed closely by teammate Cory Nanni. A miler in track, how Nanni will fair over 10k will be a huge factor for the Blue Devils. Virginia Tech and UNC also each have a pair of frontrunners. For the Hokies it is Will Mulherin and Devin Cornwall. For the Tar Heals it is Evan Watchempino and Adam Cunningham. Kentucky’s Adam Henken was 5th at last year’s regional meet, but was well off that type of performance at the SEC meet. His team was led by freshman Luis Orta there. Adu Dentamo of Charlotte is one of the top returners from last years meet, just missing an individual bid. What you may expect to see… 1. William & Mary 2. N.C. State 3. Virginia 4. Duke 5. Louisville 6. Virginia Tech 1. Chelanga (Liberty) 2. Heineking (Virginia) 3. Thorne (Louisville) 4. Collins (Virginia) 5. Grey (William & Mary) 6. Martinez (N.C. State) 7. Hill (N.C. State) 8. Eaton (Louisville) 9. Waggoner (Duke) 10. Wilhelm (William & Mary) 11. Campbell (N.C. State) 12. Watchempino (UNC) Bx_Runner http://www.flotrack.org/blogs/blogger/Bx_Runner/9164-ncaa-regional-preview-1-mens-northeast-mid-atlantic-southeast Fri, 06 Nov 2009 23:12:00 -0500 http://www.flotrack.org/blogs/blogger/Chadj1111/9112-duel-in-detroit My race with Nick Stanko in the Detroit marathon will obviously never be famous like Alberto Salazar and Dick Beardsley in Boston, but on a smaller scale it gave me a little taste of what it would be like. Even though I didn't win and it wasn't one the of major marathons I had a great experience. I still had pace vehicals leading the way through the city, good size crowds coming out the the tunnel from Windsor to Detroit, and all my Hanson teammates cheering me on on the bridge to Bell Isle. The day started off with a rookie mistake, my teammate Nick Arciniaga who was going to pace and I sat in Kevin Hanson's car as long as possible to stay warm. Well, I made it to the start with about 2 minutes to spare, and my teammate didn't make it. The adrenaline rush of almost missing the start carried me though a 5:05 first mile. About a mile later he caught up to us after having to weave his way though half the field. We set out over the Ambassador bridge just as the sun was rising and started clicking off 5:20 per mile pace in Canada. Nick paced Stanko and I though 15 miles at which point Stanko asked me if I wanted to switch leads every mile. This worked well to keep the pace going but at some point we knew we would have to start racing. I felt like maybe he started doing the same thing, but eventually when I took over the lead each mile I would try to push a little and hope he would let me go. I gave one last all out effort on Belle Isle and back up the bridge into Detroit but couldn't shake him. Ever so slowly he started to inch away at 23.5 on the board walk. With a mile to go he still only had 10 seconds on me but I could only manage a 7:00 last 1.2 and he went on the win by 31 seconds (2:20:22 to 2:20:53). I knew I had given everything as my body shut down on me on the home stretch. At the beginning of every race I tell myself as long as I can honestly say I gave it everything I can't be disappointed with myself, and I knew that was the case that day. Chadj1111 http://www.flotrack.org/blogs/blogger/Chadj1111/9112-duel-in-detroit Thu, 05 Nov 2009 11:36:00 -0500 http://www.flotrack.org/blogs/blogger/MrPants/9111-october-track-racin The segment wrap up! Well my 2009 racing season came to a close this past Saturday on the track on the campus of IUPUI. Many of my friends have asked to tell them about the race. What better place to do that than with a blog. The race was part of the Indiana Invaders track series. For the past few years, they have put on a 10,000 meters in the fall. To me it seems like a pretty good idea. You can get a qualifier early and then focus on training for Nationals, rather than chasing times all spring and being burnt out by the time June rolls around. Anyway, the point is that it’s not a big meet. In fact, there were six people in the race, three of which were rabbits. It was a nice night, pretty cool and by the time we started there wasn’t much wind at all. The track is really nice. A layer of mondo over cement, so it’s a hard track; great for racing! The straightaways are shorter, which allows for big wide turns that won’t slow you down as much as tighter turns. The stands were full. All of Christian’s family was there. If you add the watch keepers and Coach Pete Rea, there were roughly 20 people even at this thing! Needless to say, everyone was calm. it felt like we are lining up for a time trial, not a race. The three rabbits did a great job. A couple guys were mid-distance guys were just going as long as they could at 68-69 second laps. The main rabbit was going to take us through 6k. The plan was to hit the 5k in 14:16. My open 5k pr is 14:15, just for record. So, with that said, I wasn’t sure what to do. Since there was no real pressure on this race, I decided to just go after it and see what happened. I fully planned on going through 5k and be holding on for dear life. Greg said “ready, set, GO!” as we didn’t even have a working starting pistol! We were off. The three pacers, Dave, Christian, and me all single file. I could tell we were fast, but was hoping we were. If it felt hard and we were slow then it was going to be a looonngg night! We hit the 400 in 66 something. Pete Rea yells across the track, “Slow Down!” The next lap was 71. But, from that point on we were right on, anything from 68 to 69 seconds. I didn’t look at my watch, but we rolled through 1600 meters in 4:35 and if felt comfortable. The 3k split was 8:35 and 3200 was 9:10. Still felt comfortable. I tried to zone out and just stayed in my position as the caboose. The next thing I know, we come through 5k and Pete just says, “14:17- great job guys!” We were down to the one rabbit at this point and he just kept cruising. I thought, “Holy Crap! I’m gonna run 28:40 today!” I tried not to think about just running my fastest 5k in 4.5 years, or the fact that I haven’t run a 10k on the track since June, 2005. I felt tired, but ok. 6k came and went. We were still in a single file line. Our rabbit hit 6k and kept on going. He went all the way to 6600 meters. At that point were still all together in a line. We made it another lap. I was the first to go. The pace caught up to me. Then Christian fell off. Dave kept on rolling. My 68-69 quickly turned into 74’s. I managed to man up for a 70 last lap, but still crossed the line in 29:20. The fastest 10k I’ve run since March of 2005 at Stanford. I was far from disappointed. I haven’t run an interval workout faster than 4:40 pace in years. That’s something that will change now. I haven’t really raced on the track in forever. I nearly ran a 5k pr with another 5k to go. I was 3k away from blasting a good one. Overall, I am excited. You go to Stanford in March, turn that 14:17 into a 14:25-30, good things will happen. I can come back in 14:20-25, have people to pass and a really good atmosphere to run in. This is all very, very close to all coming together! Plus, I’ll be wearing the new Brooks Wire- Whooh Baby!!! MrPants http://www.flotrack.org/blogs/blogger/MrPants/9111-october-track-racin Thu, 05 Nov 2009 10:54:00 -0500 http://www.flotrack.org/blogs/blogger/Pjrizzo/9102-the-true-measure-of-a-truly-great-man I must have mistaken another sign for the last mile marker. No way, that was a 5:05 on the fifth mile. Wait! Was that last mile a 4:59!?! We STILL are only six miles into a recovery twelve miler. Is this how the group got so good? Can I hack it here on a daily basis if this is a “recovery” day pace? I have to surge right now or I am going to get dropped pretty decisively. Surge? On an easy day? Listen to me! I have been here for three days and I have yet to speak a single word on a run. Fear and shyness? No. Pace? Yes. I am pushing with everything I have just to maintain contact with this group right now. I have no clue where I am and certainly I could never find the house from where we are right now. “Come on, Toby! You made this pace!” Who is Toby? What’s Brian saying? Does he not know my name or is the pace hard enough that he is delirious as well? My first two months in Michigan that was a typical run. I now confess that I am a one-stepper but in my infancy here I was unaware of my affliction. This made me inadvertently stir the pot on more than one occasion. Due to our predisposition to being alpha males here, nobody will back down unless he is physically incapable of hanging. Though we recognize that this is often not “smart” it is how we function and that causes most of our one-hour conflicts. (*One hour conflicts refer to the fact that any event taking place on a run and causing tension among ourselves immediately has a reset button hit as we finish running.) In my three and a half years since then, I have shed my title of “Toby.” (For those who do not know, Toby is Brian’s golden retriever.) The guy who once hated me is now not just a teammate but also a mentor…even friend. All of us who are around Brian Sell daily know that he is a very loyal friend. His loyalty and respect are earned through hard work and the return of sacrifice and dedication in an unending reciprocal exchange. Brian claims that New York was his last competitive race before he will contently retire, leaving running for a more stable job that he has long dreamt of pursuing. Since I know that I can never sit and have this conversation with Brian face to face because his humility would force him to change the topic to something more jovial and simple, I have chosen to write my public thank you to a great teammate who has taught many of us the values of being a hard-nosed bastard. Brian, I do not mean for this to come off as a sort of eulogy, but rather as a thank you. Thank you for the lessons that you have given me through your own experiences, running and in life. Thank you for the countless motorcycle rides (this includes any combination of the whole gang of Eberly, Big Ern, you, and me) that acted as a balance to and escape from the otherwise demanding lifestyle we choose to live. Thank you for the days in your garage working on said motorcycles and/or cars. Thank you for occasionally picking up dead animals on runs and hurling them at people. Thank you for hosting the cookouts that became increasingly frequent when poker nights waned in frequency, going on to become remnants of the not-so-truly-distant past. Most importantly thanks for always being yourself in any audience and every instance. That is a lesson more people can learn from. I think I speak for the whole group when I say that I hope you at least drag your sorry, old butt out the door and keep meeting us for morning runs, if only on Clint-frequent intervals. It has certainly been a hell of a trip and we all still have a lot more we can learn from you. Thank you for getting us this far.   Pjrizzo http://www.flotrack.org/blogs/blogger/Pjrizzo/9102-the-true-measure-of-a-truly-great-man Wed, 04 Nov 2009 19:20:00 -0500 http://www.flotrack.org/blogs/blogger/Bx_Runner/9074-finding-the-way-to-terre-haute-part-iii Conference Weekend had the entire NCAA running, scattered all over the country. Some races ran to form, while others had some major upsets. A few teams like the Princeton women and Butler men scored a perfect 15, while a number of conferences have NCAA Top 30 teams fighting just to make the top 3-5 at their meet. I’ll get right in to it while you can also check out Part I and Part II for some background on the goal of this series; Finding the Way to Terre Haute. Teams Louisville Cardinals: 4th/14 in the Big East Championships This team has a big gun up front in RS Senior Cory Thorne. Thorne became Louisville’s first Big East Individual Cross Country Champion in history this weekend. The sub-14 minute 5ker from New Hampshire is best known as a steepler. He was 7th in the NCAA 3,000m Steeplechase last spring and set a school record of 8:36. Those were not his first All American Honors; he earned the distinction in 2007 during cross country. The Cardinals have a very strong second man in RS junior Michael Eaton. Eaton is the school record holder at 10,000m with a 28:41. He was also an All American last spring in that event. In XC, Eaton placed 71st at NCAAs as a sophomore and represented the US at World Junior Championships as a senior in high school. The Kentucky native was a two-time Foot Locker Finalist, as was teammate Thorne. The third man for the Cardinals is junior Matt Bruce. A transfer from Clemson, he set personal bests last spring of 14:19 and 30:52. Hailing from Ontario, Bruce competed many times internationally on the track and in cross country on the Canadian Junior team. Rounding out the team scoring at Big East were senior Scott McClain and sophomore Luke Lovelace. McClain, who is from Kentucky, set a PR of 9:05 in the steeplechase last spring. Lovelace had a solid freshman campaign last year running 14:44 for the 5,000m and is yet another Cardinal who qualified twice for the Foot Locker Finals, he did so while at his South Carolina high school. RS sophomore Matt Hughes, like teammate Matt Bruce, transferred to Louisville from Clemson and comes from Oshawa, Ontario. He also has represented Canada on its Junior National teams and he boasts a steeple best of 8:47. Finishing off the top-7 for the Cardinals was sophomore Chase Violet from Ohio who has been progressing since last year to get onto the varsity roster of a Top-30 Ranked team in the NCAA. Despite being ranked in the top 30, Louisville will have to be on the top of its game at regionals to make it to Terre Haute this year. They will have to face William & Mary, NC State, Virginia, and Duke at the Southeast Regional. Luckily they beat Providence at Big East this weekend which could earn them an at-large point if Providence gets an auto spot again this year. The Cardinal men were a strong 9th at NCAAs in 2007, but failed to qualify last year as they red-shirted many of their studs. Duke Blue Devils: 2nd/12 in the Atlantic Coast Conference Championships This young Duke team is lead by sophomore Carly Seymour, who fell into that role as a talented freshman last year. She has a solid freshman campaign, but is best known for her high school accomplishments. As a senior from Pennsylvania, she broke Nicole Blood’s Van Cortlandt Park 4,000m record at the Manhattan Invite and placed in the top 10 at Foot Locker Finals in 2006 and 2007. Garnering the ACC Freshman Runner of the Year Award by virtue of her 10th place finish this weekend, Juliet Bottorff is having a stellar first season with the Blue Devils. The 2009 Gatorade Delaware Runner of the Year as a senior, she lead a strong Tatnall team to NTN/NXN 3 times, placing as high as 12th. On the track she was a Millrose Mile qualifier and ran 4:51 for 1,600m outdoors. Just 1 second back at ACCs was senior Katie van Buskirk. The most experienced member of this Duke squad, she placed 67th at the NCAA XC Champs in 2007 and has run 4:20 in the 1,500m. Van Buskirk has competed internationally for the Canadian Junior National team in track and cross country. In the fourth and fifth spots for Duke are sophomore Mary Carleton Johnston and freshman Sophia Ziemian. Both were Gatorade Runner of the Year selections for their respective states; Carleton Johnston for Alabama track in 2007 and Ziemian for Pennsylvania cross country in 2008. The latter was 4th in the NON 5,000m as a high school junior. Close behind was #6 runner Kayla Hale, a freshman from Florida. While a prep, Hale qualified for Foot Locker Finals 3 times and set a PR of 10:31 for 2-miles. She earned All American honors for that event twice. The Blue Devils’ 7th and 8th runners at ACCs are better than that race showed. Consistently in the top 5 on the team this season, junior Emily Schwitzer and sophomore Suejin Ahn can be major contributors for Duke. Schwitzer, from Minnesota, ran for Team USA freshman year at the World Junior Cross Country Championships and she was in Duke’s top 2 throughout last fall. Ahn was an All American in the mile at her New York high school and she cemented herself as a scorer for the Blue Devil’s as a freshman last year. The teams second place finish to FSU this past weekend leapfrogged them over Virginia to put them ranked #1 in the Southeast Region heading into the regional meet. This team is very young and many are looking to make their first trip to Terre Haute. Watch out for them in future years as they lose very little and have freshman Madeline Morgan, who won the 2007 NTN race, but did not race at ACCs after some good early season races. Washington Huskies: 4th/8 in the Pac-10 Championships Not as well known as their female counterparts, the Washington Men continued their strong season where they are looking to make a name for themselves. The 17th ranked Huskies competing in the toughest men’s xc conference in the NCAA were led by RS senior Kelly Spady. Having a breakthrough senior season, this Washington native was the first Husky across the line in their team wins at the Sundodger Invite (1st) and Notre Dame (9th), as well as this weekend where he was 10th. Last season he was 2nd man for the team earning All-West Region honors and placing 86th at NCAAs. Moving up to consistent top 3 finisher from being 5th man last year is senior Colton Tully-Doyle. The Californian, who set a 3k PR last winter of 8:08, is easily having his best season to date. He was 13th at Notre Dame this fall and 23rd at Pac-10s. After leading the team last year, senior Jake Schmitt provides experience to the team. A transfer from Cal in his home state, Schmitt earned All American honors last winter in the 5,000m and has qualified for NCAAs in the 10,000m twice. He is also a Junior Worlds qualifier in the 10k and holds fast PRs of 8:03, 13:54, and 28:53. Schmitt knows how to run well at Terre Haute, he was the team’s top finisher at Pre-Nats in October and NCAAs last fall in 58th. As the 4th man this weekend, junior Jordan Swarthout had his best race of the season, as he had been outside the top 5 most of the fall. He was a consistent scorer for the Huskies last fall, however, finishing 36th at regionals and 108th at NCAAs. RS freshman Joey Bywater was right behind at Pac-10s and is having a great rookie season. In track last year he set PRs of 3:44 (1,500m) and 8:16 (3,000m). Both Swarthout and Bywater are from Washington. Coming in the 6, 7, and 8 spots for the Huskies, Cameron Quakenbush, James Cameron, and Rob Webster Jr were only separated by 3 seconds. All three are underclassmen and will be hoping to make their first trips to the Big Dance this year. Quakenbush and Webster are Washington natives, while Cameron is from California (you may know him from his work directing Terminator 2 and Titanic). A team that returns 6 of 7 from its 18th place team from NCAAs last fall and adds valuable freshman, the Huskies look to show the women are not the only cross country squad of note on campus. They will compete in the extremely competitive West Region and likely be looking for one of the 13 at-large spots. A big team win at Notre Dame earlier in the season will be key, as will placing well in the tough regional, for this team getting a spot on the line in Terre Haute. Individuals Elliot Krause of Wisconsin: With such big names and All Americans occupying Wisconsin’s roster, it speaks volumes for true sophomore Elliot Krause to be leading them at the Big Ten Championships. Krause had a quiet freshman year for the Badgers, placing 25th at the conference meet last fall. Jumping 23 places this year to take the runner-up spot shows Krause is one to keep an eye on. Last spring he placed 4th in the USA Junior National 10,000m and was a Wisconsin state champ in high school for track and cross country. His performance this weekend, however, is by far his best running we have seen from him yet. Megan Hogan of George Washington: This RS junior was a basketball player, but has recently shown that running is what she was made for. Last year she had a break through season by qualifying individually for the NCAA Championships in cross country. She placed 96th overall in her first trip to Terre Haute and will certainly look to improve on that this year. After placing 5th at Paul Short earlier this season, Hogan demolished the competition at the Atlantic 10 Championships, winning by almost a minute on the muddy course. She is the first runner to qualify for the NCAA Championship individually and win the A-10 title in the history of GW, a school that has no track program, but does have cross country. Erik van Ingen of Binghamton: After transferring to Binghamton from Canisius College before sophomore year, van Ingen saw incredible improvements. A solid middle distance runner in high school (4:19/1:52), he ran a phenomenal 4:01 NCAA provisional qualifier last winter in the mile. Taking that improvement into cross country, van Ingen led the Bearcats to their first America East team title, as he claimed the individual honors. Although he is certainly a stronger middle distance runner, look for this junior to keep improving out on the cross country course as well over the next 2 years. Bx_Runner http://www.flotrack.org/blogs/blogger/Bx_Runner/9074-finding-the-way-to-terre-haute-part-iii Tue, 03 Nov 2009 13:14:00 -0500 http://www.flotrack.org/blogs/blogger/Leo/9060-home-at-last http://www.leomanzano.com/blog/post Hey Everyone, So I'm finally back from Europe and Mexico. It has been a lot of fun and a lot of work, but I have enjoyed it every step of the way. All in all it was a great season. Thesolaniki is where I left off the last time I blogged. I did really well. It was a very competitive race but i beat out the world champ and the world leader in time, which was really exciting and finished in second. After the competition we headed back to England and got ready to go home to the US. I was thrilled. It had been a long season of traveling and finally i would come home. But now before one last go around at the 5th Ave. mile in New York. I again ended up in second. But i was happy to of competed and to of been done. I was home for about a week to see my family. It had been about 3 months since the last time i saw them and about 6 months since i had spent some quality time with them. RIght after that I left for Mexico for my first real vacation with Abi and Shannon. We ended up on a deserted beach somewhere in Mexico.. just kidding. I went to Playa del Carmen, on the Yucatan Peninsula. It was beautiful. While I was there we visited 3 really cool places Tulum, Akumal and this place called Xplore. I had a lot of fun in all the places, but the one that stood out the most was Xplore. Xplore is a theme park which included: 2miles of zip lines, underground rafting in a cave, and a 400yd swim also in an underground cave. I had never been on a zip-line, so I was really nervous when Abi and I started climbing what seemed to be a 7 story tower . When we got to the top I could see clearly far into the distance, and feel the cool breeze coming in from the sea. I looked down-it was a long way down!! Good thing we had harnesses. Abi went first, an employee secured her harness to the zip-line, uttered some words Abi picked her feet up and off she went. I didn't know what to think as i saw her flying to the next tower. As soon as she was gone it was my turn. I stepped up, they started securing my harness, I looked back and saw a couple right behind me and as soon as they saw me getting harnessed the women started saying, "I cant do it, its too high, its too high" then the women started panting and looked like she was going to pass out. I was harnessed, jumped off and as I took off I turned around and yelled to them "animo!!!" which is the english equivalent of "have faith" or "have courage". I waited for the couple on the other end. They never arrived... After my two weeks in Mexico, I came back to the US. I was excited to come home to my home town in Marble Falls/Granite shoals located an hour West of Austin. I had missed my family and friends. I was also home for two special occasions. My home town had a track named after me, and I was baptizing my high-school best friends' child. On friday the 29th I was honored on behalf the Marble Falls community. I was really grateful and extremely excited that my hometown thought that highly of me. During half time of a Marble Falls high school football game the community commemorated me. I had an opportunity to meet some of the people who made it all possible, members in the Marble Falls Lions Club, and the great people of the Marble Falls School Board. I am still very grateful that all these people came together on my behalf to make this possible. My mother and father and two sisters were present. Jesus (aka chuy) was a bit under the weather so he was unable to attend. This meant a lot, not only for me but to my family and friends. Thanks to everyone who took part. Im happy and thrilled to be part of a community and feel that I am very blessed.. And Congratulations to the Marble Falls high-school football players on their awesome win and performances, it was definitely icing on the cake. Thanks to all.. The next thing on my plate will be the USATF Junior Cross Country meet at Camp Champions in Marble Falls Tx on Nov. the 7th. This will be the first time Marble Falls has hosted a USATF meet. I hope it will be a success. Stay tuned in to see how it turns out.. Leo Leo http://www.flotrack.org/blogs/blogger/Leo/9060-home-at-last Mon, 02 Nov 2009 15:28:00 -0500 http://www.flotrack.org/blogs/blogger/Anthonyfamiglietti/8974-contentment "Run and Destroy" Contentment is the enemy of every competitive runner. You may not know this yet, but if you're serious about your running you will come to understand this. The moment you let satisfaction creep in, even in the slightest, is the very moment your performance level will begin to slip. The question you may ask then, 'How to fight it?' A good question, but an even better one is, 'how do you fight happiness and why?' I can almost see the puzzled look on your faces. What the hell am I talking about? I'm talking about gratification, complacency or any feeling or emotion that might stifle drive. You may think you're a fast runner because you have talent or you have great coaching, but the reality is you are excelling because of that fire in your gut. It is desire, It is will and It is passion. These are qualities that come from within. They cannot be generated for you and digested. They can't be absorbed through text, a lecture or video. It is born into you and me and It's what makes us jump out of planes and build sky scrapers. The people among us who excel in life are those who are consumed by a deep rooted desire to succeed in what they do. They can visualize it daily and live it day in and out pushing in the direction of success until they reach what they're after. They are the "elite" of the world and the best at what they do. You may be striving to become "elite" and working towards goals of your own. You may also be talented, but even the most talented do not always succeed. People who have real fire will quickly create their own talent where none existed before. That is when they begin to overtake fear, doubt, the "talented" competition and any other obstacles in the way. When I first started racing I had small goals in mind. Once achieved they quickly grew into much more. I'd be lying if I said I expected to achieve the things I have in running. From the beginning I was cast aside as a fluke with each good performance. Very few people could truly see the real potential I saw in myself. If the people who got me started in running could see what I have achieved I have no doubt they would feel a sense of repletion. To be frank I've also found myself fighting that feeling of contentment back many times this year. It would manifest on long easy runs during the spring when the first warm air blew in. I would float through the run everything with the world seeming right. I had found the place that people spend lifetimes struggling to discover. I felt done, in a good way. It was such a good feeling it was so hard not to dwell in it and absorb it. When the run would end I would have to fight it and shake it off. I had workouts ahead of me, intense training. I'd shake it off, stoke the fire and tear out one great workout after another. I was getting in the best shape of my life, but another problem evolved as the year went on. This feeling started to creep in during racing and that was a BIG problem. Every normal person structures their life around the pursuit of happiness. The life of an elite runner is supposed to be the exact opposite. Track stars are supposed to be tired all of the time. We even push ourselves to hurt in ways other people spend their entire lives avoiding. When we reach a point in training where that threshold of hurt wains we kick up the intensity more to make it hurt again even worse. That is how we get faster. We are searching for that hurt in every race. If you've ever run an all out mile you know that hurt I'm talking about. That dry heaving, fire lunged, jello legged, personal assault that climaxes to a final, depleted quiver where you succumb to life. We can never be satisfied. The last effort is never sufficient and enough is never enough. Looking back on this year now that I've taken the time again to reflect I've purposefully restructured my thinking. I have decided to fully embrace my new philosophy of Run and Destroy. I will continue to run with pure reckless abandon and I will destroy all of the transient things that get in the way of my ultimate goal of becoming the best runner I can ever be. I will destroy fear, destroy doubt, and destroy limitations. I will destroy my strength to build it up stronger. I will destroy my endurance to enhance it. Most importantly I will continue to foster an irrepressible, raging, blaze of torrential desire upon which I will melt away and destroy all semblance of happiness and contentment. I've felt contentment and I've achieved big goals, but now I just want to see what I'm made of. Anthonyfamiglietti http://www.flotrack.org/blogs/blogger/Anthonyfamiglietti/8974-contentment Tue, 27 Oct 2009 14:49:00 -0500 http://www.flotrack.org/blogs/blogger/Mklewy/8937-if-i-can-make-it-there <!--StartFragment--> 7 days to go. I leave for NY City in a couple of days to race the ING NYC Marathon on November 1st. The excitement and challenge I will face in one week is gradually sneaking up. I will be racing through he streets of New York's five boroughs: Staten Island, Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx, and Manhattan. I am looking forward to testing myself up and down the 5 bridges, and ultimately finishing at Tavern on the Green in Central Park. How can you not get excited? My mileage has been lessening each day, my workouts are shorter and my legs are starting to feel lively once again. Most of all, I am having more energy throughout the day and that’s where I find myself reflecting on all the training I have put in to prepare myself for this one race. It is the two summer altitude trips, the long runs, and the hard workouts that give me the confidence that I have a very good chance to run what I am capable of running. On top of it all it looks like the weather will cooperate for all racing the marathon. Last week I went to speak at the Mariner Cross Country High School Invitational where I shared my journey as a professional runner. I was thrilled to answer the fun question they had for me, but a couple stuck in my mind for days now – how and when did I know that training for the marathon was the right thing to do for me? Or – how do I balance training, family and having fun? Those where some great questions and have been on my mind lately reminding me that living the life of a professional runner is a piece of a good fortune for me. I train hard every morning and night because I love the feeling of accomplishing something great. Training for the marathon requires patience and persistence. I found running late into my life and did not have the much-needed infrastructure immediately after college to pursue professional running so I came very close to moving on. I am so glad that I didn’t quit when times were rough because I would have never tasted the sweet reward of accomplishing something great. I since have been given a fantastic opportunity to work with 3 really cool companies - Saucony, GU Sports and Nathan Sports - who share my vision and support my efforts to be the best athlete I can be. I am very grateful for discovering the running community - running taught me to be tough in life. If I can make it there I can make it anywhere. Off to NYC! <!--[if supportFields]> CONTACT _Con-3C5988BD1 c s l Magda<!--[if supportFields]> <!--EndFragment--> Mklewy http://www.flotrack.org/blogs/blogger/Mklewy/8937-if-i-can-make-it-there Sun, 25 Oct 2009 23:26:00 -0500 http://www.flotrack.org/blogs/blogger/Melissaxc10/8924-if-at-first-you-dont-succeed Since I began running in college I have always been intrigued by the marathon. I quickly gravitated to the longer events because I enjoyed the tempo runs, long runs, and longer repeats. Since I had never run before college I tried a few different events during the indoor track season. Believe me, my 400 and 800 are pathetic. I love watching the sprinters but I knew a long time ago that those weren’t the events I would be running. When I came out to Hansons I wanted to focus on getting my 10k and 5k times a bit faster before I moved to the marathon. However, when you are surrounded by marathoners it’s hard not to catch the marathon bug. So, in 2006 I decided to run my first marathon. Training went great. I loved the workouts and the mileage and I was excited to run in Chicago. But, as every runner knows, things don’t always go as planned. The day before Chicago I woke up with a horrible headache and my whole body ached. A teammate and I had gotten a case of food poisoning. I tried to shake the negative feelings out of my mind and just rest as much as I could. I actually didn’t feel too bad on race morning and I hoped the adrenaline and excitement would carry me through to the finish. Well it got me to about 18 miles and then everything fell apart. The marathon is a tricky event. I don’t know if you ever stop learning things in the marathon. I spent the rest of the race in a fog and literally wanted to lie on the ground and disappear. I don’t even know how I continued to run, if you can call it that, the rest of the way. I then spent the next 2 hours in the medical tent. You would think that this would be enough to discourage me to do another marathon so quickly, but I was hoping this was a fluke. So I trained for Boston in the spring. There were a lot of good things that came out of this training. It was basically a practice round for the trials, which would be held in Boston the following year. The end result however was once again not what I was hoping for. I finished the final miles in a fog and faded to a time much slower then I had trained for. We focused on some shorter events the next fall and then got ready to go again for the trials. My training was so-so at best. I wasn’t recovering as well as I hoped from workouts and I couldn’t seem to get in a groove during workouts. Everything seemed too forced, but things started to come around the last month and I went into the trials with an all or nothing race plan. I was either going to be in the top 3 or I wasn’t. My feelings were you either make the top 3 and go to the Olympics, or you get a nice seat on your couch to watch in on TV with everyone else. So I went out over my head and tried to run faster then I was ready for, but I definitely would not give up the experience I had that day. It was awesome to be up there with the front pack, and I think for the first time I realized that we deserved to be up there. Maybe it wouldn’t be this race, but with enough time and practice we could achieve the same things. This brings me to Chicago 2009. I can finally say I accomplished my goal for the first time in the Marathon. Finally, on the fourth try I made it. I ran an even split race, didn’t fade, and I was racing at the finish. I didn’t spend the next 2 hours in the medical tent; in fact I put my clothes and shoes on and walked back to the hotel. I never would have been able to do this in my last three marathons. I don’t think you ever figure the marathon out 100%. It’s such a long race and there are so many things that can go wrong or right. I always wanted to run the marathon but it took me four times before I can honestly say I enjoyed running it. I think that this race was a stepping stone for me and now I can push ahead with bigger goals the next time out. I guess the lesson I learned from my marathon experience is: if at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. Melissaxc10 http://www.flotrack.org/blogs/blogger/Melissaxc10/8924-if-at-first-you-dont-succeed Sat, 24 Oct 2009 12:30:00 -0500 http://www.flotrack.org/blogs/blogger/Bx_Runner/8882-finding-the-way-to-terre-haute-part-ii 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. Bx_Runner http://www.flotrack.org/blogs/blogger/Bx_Runner/8882-finding-the-way-to-terre-haute-part-ii Tue, 20 Oct 2009 01:01:00 -0500 http://www.flotrack.org/blogs/blogger/Bx_Runner/8838-defining-success-success-suh-k-ses-noun-definition For the past week or so during my daily commute on the D-Train, swaying back-and-forth in a crowd of 9-to-5ers and fans lucky enough to have Yankee’s playoff tickets, I had my head buried in a new book. When I got home, I often had to resist the urge to finish it. The subway ride can be boring and it is nice when I have something to read. It is even nicer when that something is about running. I picked up the book, An Honorable Run, after a few recommendations. From what I had heard about it, I was intrigued. The author, Matt McCue, was a University of Colorado walk-on who was writing about his high school and college experiences, with his coaches as focal points of the story. I was hoping to get a few insider tidbits about Mark Wetmore, the Torres brothers, and Dathan Ritzenhein, but the story gave me more than that; a visceral response to the journey of a young runner. Unlike the protagonists in the running literature that fills my bookshelf, the author is wholly relatable to the average runner. He is not Adam Goucher, Alan Webb, or a fictional 4:00 miler who runs 60x400 workouts. Those books are some of my favorites. When you put them down you want to grab your trainers and go hit a long run. When I put this one down, all I could do was think. There are two topics that the book touches on deeply that I really reflected on while reading. One is the profound relationship between coaches and athletes. The other, what I am going to talk about here, is defining success. I began to ponder what I considered to be my greatest successes in running, and in life. Would an outside observer consider those instances to be my greatest successes? Would they consider anything I had ever done a success at all? In our sport, and in this era, it has become very easy to doubt oneself. Track is unique to almost every other sport (with swimming being an obvious exception) in which you can know how you measure up to someone with out ever competing against them. With results posted online minutes after a race is run, today you can know who is faster than you in your county, state, country, and even around the world. In other sports, stats are relative to the level you are playing at and who your competition is. You can not compare an ERA from a Little League southpaw to that of a Major League pitcher, because there is no correlation. A runner, however, can come back from a race with a new personal best in the mile, sit down at the computer and see results of all the people that ran faster at all the other meets that took place. If you had scored a goal in soccer, nobody can say, “Well, this guy in California scored a goal better than you last weekend.” If you are not at the top of the running heap it can be disheartening at times, to say the least. The anonymity of the internet has also increased the amount of criticism that goes on between runners. It is all too easy to come across denigration of someone’s worth because somebody else is faster. Even elite runners are not immune to this type of evaluation. There will almost always be someone faster than you out there and there are plenty of people and outlets that are all too happy to remind you of that. What it all comes down to is that in our sport, results (times, leader boards, rankings) are universal and finite. Success, however, is not. This is a truth that every runner must arrive at. At some point, as you move up through the levels, you will find yourself in the middle of the pack. Of course, that is unless you are the best in the world. For the rest of us, success is not winning Olympic gold, or setting a world record. Each runner must define success under their own terms and not let other people determine their triumphs and failures for them. It is important that we distinguish between goals and success, as well. Almost all competitive runners create goals on their own, or with their coaches. Goals are constantly evolving and being reset higher. Just as in high jump and pole vault, once you have cleared a height successfully, the bar gets raised. Goals are about the future and success is about the past and present. Many of our lofty goals will not be achieved for some time and some will never be achieved. Does this mean everything along the way was for nothing and your effort was a failure? That is something the individual must contemplate. Success is relative to circumstances and takes into account all variables. Perhaps one season you came back from a stress fracture to score at your conference meet. It may not be what you had set out in your mind at the season’s start as where you wanted to end up, but perhaps you still feel you triumphed in the face of unforeseen adversity. This is just an example, but hopefully everyone has a catalogue of minor and major successes from their running career. They may not always be your fastest time, but it elicits an emotional response from you. It's best we keep these accomplishments in the backs of our minds. If you always have them in the forefront you can become complacent, or egotistical. Keep your goals in the front of your mind. For the times when you doubt your worth or think, ‘why do I bother?’ you can retrieve these successes from the back, relive them and feel the proud of what you have achieved. It is a reminder that we were good enough once and we can be good enough again. It is an idea that McCue grapples with in his An Honorable Run and I know many runners, including myself, can relate to. No matter how far your name may be on that leader board, or if it made it on there at all, if you felt a sense of pride after the race, then that is reason to keep your chin up and nose to the grindstone. Do not let anyone dissuade you, because personal success is defined by the individual and by no one else. Bx_Runner http://www.flotrack.org/blogs/blogger/Bx_Runner/8838-defining-success-success-suh-k-ses-noun-definition Thu, 15 Oct 2009 14:14:00 -0500 http://www.flotrack.org/blogs/blogger/Nickwillis/8778-a-patient-learning-patience "Why blog after a two-year hiatus?" you may ask. Several reasons come to mind, but the primary purpose is to plug my brother's new running tourism venture - www.kiwrun.com (more on that later). I've been out of action for the whole of the 2009 outdoor season, rehabiltating from hip surgery (April 10th). Recovery took a while, but by June I was allowed to start jogging, albeit four minutes a day. Adding a mile each week to my daily runs, I was running ten miles a day by August. The freedom you experience running ten miles on trails pain-free is incredible when you havn't been running for five months. For those of you who are currently going through injury problems, and dread the daily rehab requirements, I feel for you. The way I coped however, was to create goals and a support team to help me reach those goals, similar to what I do when I am focussed on my running. Local physical therapist, Pete Kitto (Michigan Sports and Orthopedic Center), and Earl Wenk (Arbor Wellness Massage Therapy) became my coaches for this five month period. Three to six hours a day they would have me stretching, strengthening, and massaging my body back to health. They put up with all my complaints, groans and screams and somehow we are all still friends! On my own I would have skipped steps, taken shortcuts, and had permanent imbalances left behind from the surgery. Despite my not being able to run, the summer track circuit was surprisingly enjoyable for me. Universal Sports' coverage of the IAAF meets was fantastic, and it was fun being a fan of Track and Field again. When you're competing, it's hard to really cheer for the other competitors and watch all the races. Being able to step back and watch from behind my computer gave me a great appreciation for how exciting our sport can be. Seeing so many of my peers step up their games this summer was really neat - Anna Willard, Leo Manzano, Jeff Reisley, Colis Birmingham, Christin Wurth-Thomas, Dathan Ritzenhein, Matt Tegenkamp....the list goes on and on. It seems that everyone seems to feed off of everyone else's success and confidence. "Hey if she can run up the front, then so can I". Without stepping foot in Europe this year, my self-belief has continued to grow thanks to all the success of my peers. When Rob Myers returned back to Ann Arbor from Europe in August, I was pumped and ready to give some track workouts a go to see if some September races were a viable option. We ran a two mile tempo in 9:50, then a couple of days later ran 3x1000m in 3:00. Neither workout would normally give me anything to write home about, but coming back from injury, they were really encouraging. I told my coach, Ron Warhurst, that I wanted to train for the Fifth Ave Mile at the end of September, and he was quick to stamp that thought in the dirt. "You are going to run sixty to eighty miles a week until Christmas, and then we'll think about racing". I am now running six days a week averaging around seventy miles in singles. My one harder effort each week is a twelve miler @ 5:40/mile and I have been doing a half-workout every other week to stop me from getting stale (eg instead of doing 6x1mile, i'll do 3x1mile). So what is this www.kiwirun.com thing? Well my brother has put together this new venture to encourage people to come and train/race/sightsee in New Zealand. The website as all the neccesary information, but I'd like to add that this is a once-in-a-life-time experience for those who come along. In my seven years living in the U.S, so many people have said to me "New Zealand, I've always wanted to visit. I hear it is so beautiful". Well Kiwirun tours will give you an opportunity to go to New Zealand while you are still healthy and strong, to fully embrace the awesome landscapes and scenery by training there. The support team will make sure that all of your needs are taken care of, and I'll be there for a portion of the tour to show you around my local hood. My brother, Steve, was part of my coaching team for my Beijing campaign, and I have no doubt his coaching knowledge will be of great service to you during this 'vacation'. The first tour is December 28-Jan 11 aimed at college runners in their winter break (although open to a wide racnge of ages and abilities). So come on down, enjoy some sun, and use this training camp as a launchpad for your 2010 indoor season. Out. www.Kiwirun.com Nickwillis http://www.flotrack.org/blogs/blogger/Nickwillis/8778-a-patient-learning-patience Fri, 09 Oct 2009 09:09:00 -0500 http://www.flotrack.org/blogs/blogger/Xcrun04/8777-world-half While Cooling down my last workout I passed a UPS truck. Normally this would be a pretty ordinary occurrence but today I started sprinting after the truck. Luckily the truck stopped pretty quickly at a house and I was able to ask the driver if he had a package for me. That package contained my Passport that my wife over-nighted to me from Chico. Now I am ready to go to Birmingham. I know a lot of people are excited to see what Dathan Ritzenhein can do. How could you not be? This is his first race since he broke the American record in the 5k and he is reportedly breaking other US records in practice. I'm hoping people can get excited about the rest of the American team aswell. Joining Ritz and me are Brett Gotcher, Andrew Carlson, and James Carney and we have a very good chance at being the best team that the US has ever sent to the World Half Marathon Championships. I have the slowest PR of the team at 1:03:04, a time that in some teams in the past would put me as the leader of the team. While I don't have insight on the exact fitness of the rest of the team I am confident that everyone will be showing their A game in Birmingham. Each of us have been fairly consistent over the past year or two and have been on at least a couple USA teams. We have raced recently but aren't over-raced and we are all focused on this race rather than as a tune-up for a marathon. I know the race is going to be tough. The Kenyan team is unreal, Tadesse is going to be back and so is the rest of the world. The race is at 9:30 UK time so unless you wake up at some obsurd time you should be able to check the results first thing when you get up. Don't forget about the women either, Amy Yoder is debuting and my teammate Amy Hastings is ready to roll as well. Xcrun04 http://www.flotrack.org/blogs/blogger/Xcrun04/8777-world-half Fri, 09 Oct 2009 07:13:00 -0500 http://www.flotrack.org/blogs/blogger/Bx_Runner/8750-finding-the-way-to-terre-haute-part-i 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. Bx_Runner http://www.flotrack.org/blogs/blogger/Bx_Runner/8750-finding-the-way-to-terre-haute-part-i Tue, 06 Oct 2009 13:13:00 -0500 http://www.flotrack.org/blogs/blogger/Elitestatus/8719-one-month-til-new-york <!--StartFragment--> Only one month to go til the big day. My emotions are spinning around crazily, one moment I’m excited, then nervous, then eager, then exhausted, then about 10 other random feelings. I can’t wait until race day, I want to get it over with, I have been putting a lot of pressure on myself which is making this a Do or Die type race. The good news is that my training has been going great, I have had consistent high mileage for the past 6 weeks, with 2 more until I finally cut back. Needless to say I am going to be ready for the race, my only worry now is if I have over trained. That’s always a big question mark as a Hanson’s athlete. Being a high mileage program, and focusing on the marathon, it can be pretty easy to get carried away on the day-to-day training and intensity of the runs. Almost everyone on the team has a Type A personality when it comes to training. We all want to be the best, be the top dog. Right now Brian still has those honors, but the rest of us know what it takes to become as good and maybe one day better that him. The answer for us is to work harder. But this hard work that we puts ourselves through multiple times a day everyday of the year can be dangerous, can lean to small subtle injuries, burnout, stress fractures, or numerous other circumstances that all athletes are wary of, but are sometimes random and unpredictable. The best we can do is hope that our training over the past however many years we have been running has prepared us for the work that we are putting in right now. It would seem that right now I have prepared for the race perfectly, but the next couple weeks are going to be the most crucial part of my training. I’ve been walking a fine line between perfect training and overtraining. And one thing that I have to continue to do is run smart, listen to my body, and take care of every nutritional need that I require. As we all know the training is not everything in preparation; sleep, diet, stretching, and just nice relaxation are unbelievable helpful and probably what I look forward to the most. Now, its time to get back to training. In particular, its time for a nap! <!--EndFragment--> Elitestatus http://www.flotrack.org/blogs/blogger/Elitestatus/8719-one-month-til-new-york Fri, 02 Oct 2009 10:40:00 -0500 http://www.flotrack.org/blogs/blogger/Pjrizzo/8665-ready-means-ready Momentum is great to have on your side going into a marathon. Here we stand two weeks out from Chicago and not a hitch has come in our way of training. The segment started out after our 4th of July downtime ended and has just clicked for all three of us. Melissa is on fire right now; Carol is looking incredibly strong. As for me, I have been in this perfect bubble where my pacing has been dead on for everything we have done. Pace and rhythm dictate success in a marathon and sometimes it takes a little time to get into the marathon flow. Not this time. We were all chomping at the bit from the get-go. For me specifically, I have had some wicked plantar fasciitis flare-ups this whole training segment that have me sleeping in a Strassburg Sock every night (thanks Naperville Running Company for getting that to me in a hurry!). Still, workouts have not been altered in any way and pace work seems to be the one time that I never notice my foot pain at all. I have also been relegated to running in only the Brooks Trances to alleviate the pain. Don’t ask why they work, they just do and I am content knowing that much. At the start of downtime, Todd Snyder was supposed to be running Chicago with me. We were both pumped because we fit well together as training partners and compliment one another’s strengths and weaknesses well. Then a week before we started training, Todd got a stress fracture on his hip and was out. In came the great Chad “Nails” Johnson, who will be doing Detroit Free Press marathon a week after Chicago. Chad and I have not previously worked much together, but for no reason other than lack of any overlap in segmentation (barring club XC last winter). Chad has proven to be an excellent training partner for me. His attitude is more passive than some others and he is very worry-free. Chad’s approach and attitude fit well with my generally laid back and joking approach to running. Some people accuse me of not taking it seriously enough, but I would argue that I take my running seriously when I run (which is what counts) and otherwise will never alter my sarcastic and immature humor. That is who I am and as a former coach once taught me, “the hardest thing is to be yourself in a world that’s trying to make you into something that you’re not.” I have no apologies for being more lighthearted in my approach as I have found through the years that it is what works best for me. I also know that not everyone is comfortable around it. Chad handles my asinine bathroom humor, tasteless jokes, and jovial approach well. So now we have started to pull back from our peak 140 mile weeks of the last month and focus shifts to feeling more “race ready.” Chad and I had our last workout together this morning before we split toward our respective marathons.That means that it is time to pull in the reins and really fine tune the last couple of weeks. All that lies between us and the race now are a single, easy 20 miler and a 3x2-mile at race pace. Now the nerves and the excitement hit high gear as the greatest city’s (okay, I’m bias) 26.2 miler looms before us. I look forward to coming in for a hometown marathon in front of all of my friends and family again. This is where I made my debut and this is the town that got me hooked. Let the addiction continue.   Pjrizzo http://www.flotrack.org/blogs/blogger/Pjrizzo/8665-ready-means-ready Sat, 26 Sep 2009 17:17:00 -0500 http://www.flotrack.org/blogs/blogger/Sage/8611-brooks-and-their-commitment-to-sustainability <!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> Normal 0 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> </xml><![endif]--> <!-- /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} --> <!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;} </style> As an athletic footwear company Brooks has made many notable commitments to sustainability. Brooks has shown that developing high performance products can coincide with helping ensure that the Earth’s quality environment remains for our great-grand children and their descendants. From the materials used in the design of their running shoes, to packaging box material and inks used in product catalogues, Brooks has taken proactive measures to reduce their carbon footprint. This movement has emerged with developing technologies and a sense of urgency to reduce waste, improve air quality, and detoxify the world we live in. However, it is a choice that Brooks chooses to follow, and it has shown their value of improving the environment. It is my goal in this entry to point out several of the many ways that Brooks has committed to developing more sustainable products and business practices. The first major breakthrough in the development of green (and no, I’m not talking about the color) running shoes is the Brooks developed “BioMoGo” midsoles. The BioMoGo is the world’s first biodegradable running shoe midsole (Brooks website source). Unlike various shoes from other brands that use the more common EVA (Ethylene Vinyl Acetate) midsoles, shoes with BioMoGo midsoles will significantly reduce waste. For example, when typical EVA running shoes end up in a landfill it may take them 1000 years to breakdown. BioMoGo shoes, under the low oxygen, high moisture, and high microbial populations (found only in closed landfill conditions), will breakdown in about 20 years. This significantly reduced duration of decomposition in the landfill will save tons of waste in the long run, and help reduce the amount of space that our already over-crowded landfills are consuming. Brooks intends to incorporate its BioMoGo technology in all of its major running shoes by the end of the year. The majority of their most popular training shoes already have the BioMoGo midsole, which is signified by the following symbol in the picture below. <!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> Normal 0 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if !mso]><object classid="clsid:38481807-CA0E-42D2-BF39-B33AF135CC4D" id=ieooui> </object> <style> st1:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) } </style> Sage http://www.flotrack.org/blogs/blogger/Sage/8611-brooks-and-their-commitment-to-sustainability Mon, 21 Sep 2009 22:22:00 -0500 http://www.flotrack.org/blogs/blogger/Mklewy/8607-got-to-have-vision But can’t do it without the passion and hard work. I have been enjoying the full time training so much lately and am starting to see the benefits of proper recovery. I have some solid races behind me, but most of all the training has been going very well for so many weeks now. It is important for me to be frequently reminded to not lose sight of the big goals at the end of the season. For me this year, the big goal is to have a race of my life at the ING NY Marathon. I have done NY a few times and never performed as well as I had hoped there, but recently much has changed in my life and the way I train. I train as hard as I always have before, but I take more time in the day for the little things like napping, stretching, strengthening and eating the right foods at the right time. I love what I do more than ever before. I thrive on running lots of miles or doing the long enduring workouts and the short intense reps. I love working hard period. I have always believed that one cannot discover their full potential without the passion to work hard. I believe I have what it takes to work very hard and now more than anything I have restructured my life to support the dreams I chase. I am now 6 weeks out from the New York Marathon and the last 2 weeks training went really well. I raced the New Haven 20k, where I ran a very poor race strategically. My goal was to run 5:20’s and my first mile was 5:06. I slowed down immediately, but still came through my second mile in 5:17. I paid for it a few miles after that and struggled all the way home with heavy legs and feeling crappy about my move. I managed to finish third and after asking myself why I did what I did, I found something positive about the race. I told myself that I ran 2 fast miles followed by a 10-mile Marathon Pace run and when you look it that way that’s a great workout after all. I took 3 easy days to recover from the trip and later that week ran the most exciting workout so far. I did another big TLT workout where I started with threshold miles, followed with 60 min of easy running and more threshold afterward. Warm up and cool down included that was 22 miles again. Last week was a high volume week for me. I ran 145 miles. My long run consisted of 22 miles in the morning followed with an 8 mile run in the evening. While I don’t run 30 mile days all that often, I like to have a couple of them under my belt when I’m preparing for a big marathon. This week will be another high mileage week. I am gearing up for the Rock and Roll Half Marathon in San Jose on October 4th and the Tufts 10k in Boston on October 12th. Both races should be good fitness indicators for me, but I’m really focusing on actually racing well, too. The Half Marathon will be a good chance for me to lower my PR again, and that’s something I’m really excited about. The Tufts 10k is another USARC Series race, so I know the competition will be good there as well. As an added bonus I will visit Saucony HQ while I am there. Bottom line is: Dream big, work hard and keep the passion alive! Until Next Time! Magda   Mklewy http://www.flotrack.org/blogs/blogger/Mklewy/8607-got-to-have-vision Mon, 21 Sep 2009 15:15:00 -0500 http://www.flotrack.org/blogs/blogger/Bx_Runner/8577-what-ranks-higher-in-ranking-time-or-place As the 2009 track season comes to a close and the World/US rankings for each event will be emerging soon, it makes one wonder what criteria takes precedent when ranking. For many events, who ranks #1 is clear as day. They dominate regular season meets, win the championship meets, and have the best performances of the year. Think LeShawn Merritt, Sanya Richards, Usain Bolt, Blanka Vlasic, Kenenisa Bekele, or Valerie Vili. There are others, however, who may come up big at the World Champs and be sub-par the rest of the year. One can also do the opposite and have a fantastic year with the only misstep being at the World Championships. For some, championship races are the be-all-end-all of who is the best, but can one meet really reflect an entire season properly? In longer races, a slow, tactical race can allow people with a good kick or positioning ahead of runners who would be well ahead of them in a fast race. When it comes to field events, a slightly off day at a championship meet can be disastrous. Take Elena Isinbaeva, for example. She no heighted at the World Championships this year, but I do not think anyone would argue that she is not the best pole vaulter in the world right now. She even went on to set a new World Record after her disappointing performance in Berlin. On the other hand, being able to perform well at the season’s championship meets is a paramount trait. There are a few events that will be quite tricky to rank this year. For US rankings, the men’s 5,000m and women’s 1,500m are two examples of this. For these two events, Americans are having the best year ever at these distances. In the 5k, two men broke 13 minutes, a feat that only a total of 2 Americans had ever accomplished before this year. On top of that, an American took silver in this event at the World Championships and he is not one of the two men under 13 this year. Dathan Ritzenhein ran an American record of 12:56.27 in his only competitive 5,000 of the season. Matt Tegenkamp became the third fastest American ever in running 12:58.56 a week later and he was the US Champion. Bernard Lagat was the top US finisher at the World Championships, placing 2nd. This makes doing the US rankings for the event a sticky situation. Ritzenhein is the fastest American ever to run the distance and that is hard to deny, but he did not run the 5,000m at any other major meets. Lagat is only the third fastest American this year, but his performance at Worlds certainly outshines his 13:03.06 season best time. Determining who fits where is not easy in this situation, On a side not, this was an absolutely phenomenal year for American men at 5,000m. In addition to the World silver, American Record and 2 men under 13 minutes, 3 Americans (Lagat, Tegenkamp, Chris Solinsky) made the finals of the event in Berlin. Only Kenya matched that number and the Americans out performed them in the finals. Two American Juniors (Chris Derrick and German Fernandez) broke the American Junior Record and Evan Jager ran 13:22.18 as only a 20 year old. Also, Galen Rupp broke the Indoor American Record for 5,000m and two high school athletes (Lukas Verzbicas and Solomon Haile) broke the National High School indoor record and the former is amazingly only a freshman. In total, an outstanding 19 American men ran under 13:30 this year, a number only outdone by Kenya. The women’s 1,500m in the United States had a similar year. Three women broke a significant time barrier that only two American women had previously and a fourth woman medaled at the World Champs at 1,500m. Jenny Barringer (3:59.90), Christin Wurth-Thomas (3:59.98) and Anna Willard (3:59.38) became the third, fourth and fifth American women to break 4 minutes in the 1,500m. Shannon Rowbury, with a season best of 4:00.81, was the US Champ and the top finisher in Berlin with a third place performance. Barringer did not run the 15 at any major meets after Prefontaine. That will keep her low in the rankings for this event, despite the fact that she beat all the other Americans listed above at that meet. Of the three who competed at Worlds in the event, Willard has the fastest time of the year, followed by Wurth-Thomas and Rowbury, but the positions are reversed in how they placed at USAs and Worlds. This makes for a precarious ranking situation. Willard also finds herself in an interesting position for rankings in the 800m. Although she did not run the event at any championship meets, she picked up some key wins in Europe (including the World Athletics Final), is undefeated at the distance this year, and has run under 2 minutes more than any other American woman this year. Challenging her would be Hazel Clark, who is the US Champ and was the top American at Worlds, as well as, Maggie Vessey. Vessey has the fastest time of the year by an American at 1:57.84 (second fastest in the World this year behind the controversial Caster Semenya) and she had a few nice wins in Europe, but her inconsistency will bring her down a bit. So what reigns supreme in rankings; time or place? Is Carmelita Jeter’s amazing #3 All Time 10.67 worth a #1 World Ranking over Shelly-Ann Fraser’s World Championship? Does Ritz’ American Record trump Lagat’s silver medal in the 5,000m? It is a debate that comes up every year and there is no concrete answer. With each event each year, variables come in to play that allow one to make an argument one way or another. For example, what if one does not compete in a specific event at a major championship? For example, Tyson Gay in the 200m and Willard in the 800m this year. There is no doubt their performances this year merit favorable rankings in those events, but they did not run these events at USAs or Worlds. Is running sub-par at World’s worse than not running at all in an event? This is why rankings can be tricky. I remember back in high school they had a formula set in stone for determining all county. Points were awarded for winning the county championship, having the fastest time, head-to-head victories and couple other factors. That worked decently on a small scale, but on a national and international scale do you need to use a more discerning eye? All in all, I am glad I do not have the task of doing the year end rankings for these event, as I myself still do not know how heavily I weigh time and place. Obviously a major goal is always to beat people. Placing well at a championship means you have beat the majority of the world’s best. But with championship races, there is always the chance people could say, “It was a fluke.” Sometimes because the race went out slow, or somebody fell, somebody got DQed, or maybe certain studs were not in the race. Time is finite and you can not argue it, except perhaps commenting on the weather. When an athlete runs in a fast race it is not always about beating the people in that particular race, as much as beating ghosts of the past. Perhaps this is an unanswerable question. Would one rather a World Record, or a World/Olympic Gold Medal? The former means you are the fastest to have ever competed in that event in history. The latter means you were the best competitor in that event that year. Put like that, the record sounds more enticing, but the medal can never be taken away. Records, however, can be broken. On the other hand, even as the former World Record Holder, you are automatically considered one of the greatest of all time. What is your opinion, which do you hold more important, time or place? Bx_Runner http://www.flotrack.org/blogs/blogger/Bx_Runner/8577-what-ranks-higher-in-ranking-time-or-place Fri, 18 Sep 2009 11:05:00 -0500