UMass-Lowell’s Ruben Sanca has come a long way. He clocked a 14:05.46 on January 24, coming in third at Boston’s Terrier Invitational.  This time makes him one of the top contenders in the men’s indoor 5k for DII Nationals. It was only last year, on that very same track, that Sanca was actually lapped.  This bit of revenge, he says, is probably the highlight of his running career: “Running my high school mile PR 3 times during that race is something I will never forget. It was a 42 second improvement on that same track that I was lapped a year ago. It felt good to come across the finish line with my whole team cheering for me.”

Sanca first remembers running when he was ten years old, he explains, “The first time I can recall running was with my uncle back in Cape Verde when I was 10 years old. It was maybe twice a week as a way to stay healthy.” Sanca moved from Cape Verde, an archipelagic nation off the Western coast of Africa, to Boston with his family when he was twelve. When he came to the US, he ran in a few track meets, but soccer was his first love. He reminisces, “When I came to US, I ran a few track races in my brown Reebok pumps, but I didn't practice because track practice conflicted with my soccer practice.”

His passion for soccer carried over to high school. “When I got to high school, I knew I wanted to play soccer. Running was never on my mind. My soccer captain convinced me to run track as a way to stay in shape for soccer in the fall. He kind of got me into running,” he continues, “After that it was just a snowball effect because I actually started enjoying distance running. By my junior year, I was named soccer captain, but I quit soccer that same year and started running more.”  By his senior year, Sanca realized that he wanted to run in college. He explains, “My senior year I won one of the class meets Massachusetts and started realizing that I really wanted to run in college. I finished high school with personal bests of 10:09, 4:32 and 1:59 for the 2 mile, mile and 800 races.”

Sanca choose UMass-Lowell for many reasons including: its solid academic reputation, its close proximity to home, and its intimate size. Sanca has taken advantaged of what UMass-Lowell has to offer. He is a finance major and an active member of student government. “When I am not doing homework, I like to just hang out with my teammates and watch all the great Boston sports. I also own barbershop and I am known as ‘the barber of the team.’” he states.

 Sanca also liked what the Sanca running program had to offer. He explains,“For the track side of things, I was really impressed by how much improvement average runners like me were having on the team. I knew I needed to develop my strength and Coach Gardner's program fit me very well. In addition, I wanted to be on a big team that had a lot of potential in not just in distance running.” “When it comes to being on the team, I like the personal attention I get from my coaches” he adds.

Sanca appears to have made the right decision. During the 2008 cross country season, Sanca won the NCAA East Region Championship and lead his team to victory in New England Championship. Sanca’s performance at cross country Nationals, however, fell short of his expectations. “I was a little disappointed with the National championship race. I kind of felt like I let my team, my coaches and a lot of alumni down because of all the confidence they had in me. Coach Gardner had me in the best shape I could be in for the national race, but at the end things didn't go our way. My workouts and previous races indicated that I was ready to be in the top 15 or top 10 if I had a good race.  I finished 45th and all I wanted to do was get back to Lowell start training hard again.” He continues, “Because of that experience I am now more focused and not taking anything for granted. On the other hand, I was very happy with my season overall. I put in a lot of mileage and tried to think of my cross country season as a base layer for track. My coaches and I knew that I was doing the right training and [that I] just had an off day at nationals.”

 

With this new focus, Sanca envisions a perfect ending to his college running career. “If I could design a perfect ending, I would like to win a National Championship. I think this would be the ultimate thank you note to my coaches” he says.

Weekend Review

 

Penn State National Invitational- Shippenburg’s women’s distance medley relay (Mary Dell, Shannon Hare, Abigail Huber, Neely Spence) took second behind Villanova with an automatic qualifying mark of 11:30.59. Shippensburg finished less than one second behind the all-time D-II championship meet record of 11:29.89, recorded in 2007 by Grand Valley State. Lock Haven’s DMR (Alyssa Douma, Meagan Wolf, Shala Simms, Lindsey Lambert) finished eleventh with a provisional qualifying time of 12:04.34.  Lock Haven’s Shala Simms finished seventh in the 800 meters with a provisional qualifying time of 2:14.51.

 

Lock Haven’s men’s distance medley relay (Brandon Pomerantz, Chris Edelman, Ben McConnell, Nick Hilton)  finished eighth with a provisional qualifying time of 10:05.05. Lock Haven finished one place ahead of the Shippensburg men’s DMR (Joshua Neyhart, Eric Wolfe, Stephen Schelander and Bryan Beegle), who also secured a provisional qualifying time (10:05.97). Chris Edelman went on to finish fourth in the 400 meters with a time of 48.91.

 

UW Indoor Invitational- Western Oregon’s Annan Applebee won her section in the women’s 800 meters with an automatic qualifying time of 2:12.87. Seattle Pacific’s Jessica Pixler came in second in the invitational women’s 5k with an automatic qualifying time of 16:12.65. Her teammate, Jane Larson, came in ninth with an automatic qualifying time of 16:55.02.

 

St. Martin’s John Riak (14:43.46) and Western Oregon’s Zeke Van Patten (14:48.40) came in seventh and eighth in the men’s 5k, both securing provisional qualifying times.

 

Reebok Boston Indoor- UMass-Lowell’s Haley Catarius finished fifth in the 800 meters with a provisional qualifying time of 2:15.49. UMass-Lowell’s women’s distance medley relay (Christina DaLomba, Patricia Brice, Haley Catarius, Lyra Clark) took first with a provisional qualifying time of 12:01.07.

 

Stonehill’s men came in third overall with 66 points behind Northeastern (118) and UMass Amherst (83.5). UMass-Lowell was sixth with 55 points. Stonehill’s Torrey Price won the 55 meter dash with a time of 6.41. He followed that up with a win in the 200 meters with a time of 22.27. UMass-Lowell’s Angus MacDonald won the 1000 meters with a time of 2:31.46. UMass Lowell’s 4x400 (Doug Caves, Donte Brown, Sam Bastien, Andrew Grange) came in first with a provisional qualifying time of 3:17.09. Stonehill’s men won the distance medley relay (Daniel Pilz, Mark Porcaro, Ben Rumery, Kevin Gill) with a provisional qualifying time of 10:05.20. They were followed by UMass-Lowell’s team (Ruben Sanca, Donte Brown, Eric McDonald, Joey Dewitt) with a 10:33.41.

 

New Mexico Invitational- Adams State’s Sofia Monroe finished third in the mile with a provisional qualifying time of 5:01.20. Her teammate, Heather Wood, came in third in the 3000 meters with a time of 10:25.16. Adams State’s Jerrell Miller won the 60 meter dash with an automatic qualifying time of 6.77. Adams State’s Aaron Braun won the mile with an automatic qualifying time of 4:08.62. His teammate, Brian Medigovich finished third with a provisional qualifying time of 4:10.53.

 

Bison Open & Multi-Slippery Rock’s Whitney Hendershot won the women’s high jump with a mark of 1.65 meters. Shippensburg’s Mary Dell won the 800 meters in a provisional qualifying time of 2:14.49. She was followed by Millersville’s Priscilla Jennings (2:14.49) and Clarion’s Erin Richard (2:18.42). Jennings came back to win the mile in a provisional qualifying time of 4:59.96. Also provisionally qualifying were Shippensburg’s Abigail Huber (5:02.49) and Slippery Rock’s Jen Harp (5:04.37). Shippensburg’s Neely Spence won the 3000 meters in the time of 9:42.25. She was followed closely by Richard who finished in 9:44.24.

 

Slippery Rock’s Cameron Daugherty won the men’s pole vault with a provisional qualifying mark of 4.80 meters. Shippensburg’s Joshua Neyhart won the 1000 meters with a time of 2:33.90. Slippery Rock’s Jeff Weiss won the 3000 meters in the time of 8:40.78. He was followed by Lock Haven’s Tim Getz who finished in 8:42.76.