NCAA DIII National Championships - Mar 8-9th

Pat Grimes and Matt Melton qualified for this year's National Championships, hosted by North Central College in Naperville, Illinois. Both would compete in the qualifying rounds on Friday - Grimey in the Mile, and Melton in the 800 - with the Top 3 in Mile, and Top 2 advancing automatically in the800 and then the next 4 fastest times also advancing on to the finals held on Saturday. The mile was the first event, and Grimey was in the 1st of 2 heats. After an opening 400 in about 63 seconds and in perfect position - just off the shoulder of the leader - a runner from Bates opened a gap on the pack, and when the pack was content to let him go, he opened it up even more and the race seemed to be 2 races - 1 with the leader, and then way back was everyone else. Grimey now found himself leading the chase pack of 6 runners - all who were content to let the Bates runner have one of the spot - and everyone sat on Grimes shoulder while he led them around the track. The pace slowed considerably, setting up for a fast last 400, and after hitting the 1200 mark in 3:19, things started to pick up and unfortunately, those who had been stalking Grimey, made their moves and as has been the case in the past, when he runs at the front, it has been difficult to make a strong finishing move instantly, and the lapse in reaction time, was just enough to be in a position where he was chasing without momentum, and a frantic homestretch drive came up just short of being in the Top 4 who would advance. With the 2nd heat having the benefit of watching the slow pace, all they had to do was make sure they ran a little quicker and would ensure they all moved on - which is what happened, and Grimey found himself 1 spot out of the qualifying with his 4:16.77. Matt would line up next, in the 2nd heat of the 800 - after watching the first heat go through in 1:52 with the first couple of potential time qualifiers having been right at 1:53. As the runners got to the break, matt was in the middle of the pack and he hit the 200 in 28.3, and over the next lap was looking for running room in the tight pack as they went through 56.8 for the 400 - a bit slower then the first section. A slower pace early, usually means that things start to pick up, and position is key and as the pace started to heat up, Matt was still not getting the room he was hoping for and as they hit the bell, he was at the back of the pack. After several attempts to come inside - only to find it blocked off - he finally realized that the outside was going to be the only option, and off the final turn, swung wide to lane 4 and was able to kick down 2 runners to finish 4th in 1:52.83 and advance on time. In Saturday's final, he got out well, sitting on the shoulder of a UW Lacrosse runner in 3rd or 4th, and just beyond the leading pair of runners from Bates and Wabash. After going through the 200 in 27.2, the front pair put a little surge in and opened a gap on Matt, who was still on the outside of the Lax runner, and would remain there for the next 2 laps hitting the 400 in 55 and 600 in 1:23. At the bell, as Matt was starting to make his move, and use that patented big kick, 2 runners came up on the outside and he found himself boxed in and seemed to come to a stop while the others were starting their kicks, and the pause in momentum was just enough to let them open the gap on him and make it tough to get caught. Coming home in 6th - in a time of 1;53.63 - Matt grabbed his first individual All-American honor to go along with the award he won as a freshmen as part of the 4x400 relay that placed 6th. By virtue of his 6th place, the team earned 3 points to finish in 45th place overall.

Tufts Last Chance - Mar 2nd

Performer of the Meet - Patrick Grimes & Judd Liebman

Opting to go to Tufts rather than ECAC's held at the Armory - and be penalized for the ridiculous bank conversion indexing - the men took advantage of the final weekend to either extend their seasons or finish on a good note. Pat Grimes took control of the mile at the 1k mark, going through in 2:37.8, and extended his lead through the 1200 in 3:09 before finishing nearly a second ahead of 2nd place in a 4:11.72 - a time that moves him to 6th on the NCAA list and insures his spot on the line at this coming weekend's NCAA's. In the 2nd section, Dan Crowley - who would run in 2nd place for the large majority of the race - and Dillon Buckley would finish in 4:25 and 4:32 to close out their indoor season. Matt Melton - whose 1:51.94 from the past weekend translates into a 1:53.54 with the new bank penalties and thus was still on the bubble - went at the 800 again, and would use a strong finishing kick to pull away in the last lap, grabbing a win in 1:53.47 - a time that moved him up to 11th on the NCAA list after all other meets were completed thus, like Grimes, getting him a spot at NCAA's. In the 2nd section, Romey Sklar would run to an indoor PR of 1:57.50 despite a near collision with some moron who did not bother to be attentive to a race going on and walked right into the middle of their race. Nick Codola and Judd Liebman went at it in the 600m, and has been the case for the majority of the season, the finishing times were again very close - in fact, so close that it went to the 1/1000 of a second to determine that Nick had gotten across the line first as both were times in huge PR's of 1:23.39. Matt Woop grabbed his first college victory in the season's final race, as he took control of the 1000m at the end of the 3rd lap to run to the win in 2:35. The 5000 was a loaded race, with a big field all looking to try and get marks for NCAA's and Andrew Erskine, Greg Turissini and Charlie Reighard put themselves in good position through the first mile, going through 4:38.9 to 4:42 and through 2 miles Andrew was at 9:25 and Greg at 9:28, but unfortunately, like a lot of the field, things became a lot tougher in the final laps as Andrew would finish 6th in 14:56 while Greg would come home in 15:04 in 10th place. In the 3k, KC Fussell finished 3rd in the race, running 8:55. For Grimes and Melton, a trip to North Central College in Naperville, Illinois for the Indoor NCAA Championships and an opportunity to try and attain All-American honors in the Mile and 800 respectively will be all that remains of the indoor season. Both runners will compete in the semi's on Friday with hopes of advancing to the finals on Saturday.

NEICAAA New England's - Feb 22-23rd

Performer of the Meet - Matt Melton

The men headed back to Boston for the NEICAAA New England Championships held at the fast track of Boston University, and the guys made sure that the track lived up to its billing. Despite having raced on Sunday, they came back strong this weekend and posted some great times that lowered PR's and extended seasons. In fact, of 12 individual races - 13 counting Melton's semifinal heat in which he PR'd with 1:51.97 - 10 races produced PR's and one missed it by .16 seconds, and also saw some great relay legs that were some of the fastest that the guys had run. The Sunday to Friday turn around proved to be too much for the 5k, which got the weekend started, as Fuss would be amongst the leaders for the first half before coming in at 15:33 but after that, things picked up quickly and stayed hot through the rest of the weekend. Nick Codola and Judd Liebman raced in the 500, and both would run great times - Nick running 1:06.65 (huge PR) and then in the very next section, Judd would get to the line a little quicker, as he sped to a 1:06.46 - both marks earning them another weekend of competition. Next up was Matt Melton in the 1st section of the 800 and this would prove to be a slow, and physical race as the pace dawdled and Matt was in the middle of traffic, trying to look for room for the majority of the race - going through the 400 in 56.2 and the 600 in 1:24.2 before finding some daylight and torching the field in the last 200, running a new PR of 1:51.97 to win his section. Now skip to Saturday's final, and the race was eerily similar to the night before, as the splits were identical, and while throwing down a big finish again, he came up just short of a pair of UConn runners but in grabbing 3rd, lowered his PR to a 1:51.94 and finishing well ahead of the DIII runners in the field. Back to Friday, Romey Sklar finished the night off in the 1000m, and taking the race out hard, he went through the 400 in 58 seconds, came through the 800 at about 2:00 and his patented last lap finish brought him home under 2:30 - over a 5 second PR - in 2:29.85 just missing making the finals by .2 seconds. Now, jump back to Saturday and the final day of competition. The milers would get the day started, and Greg Turissini, stepping down in distance to test the legs, was in great in position at the 800 in 2:08 before taking the led and pushing the pace for the rest of the race and finishing in a 4:13 and grabbing 2nd in his section, and a huge PR. Grimey would be next up, and like Greg - got through the 800 in great position in 2:06 and then took the lead to make sure it did not ease up and he maintained the lead through until about the last 100, finishing in 4:10.26 - just off his PR of 4:10.10 - and continuing to round into form after a mid-season illness that knocked training back a few notches. The unseeded 3k would be the next event on the track, and PR was the word again for Charlie, Dan and Dillon as the pace was relatively even for the first 10 laps before it started to get cranked up. Charlie had moved into perfect position near the shoulders of the leaders at this point while Dillon was in the middle of the pack and Dan near Dillon but having spent all of the race in lane 2 and sometimes even lane 3. At the bell lap, Charlie struck and opened up a lead he would not relinquish as he won the heat in an 8:36 while Dan moved up well to run 8:41 and Dillon would also knock a couple of seconds off of his PR from a week before finishing in 8:45. Andrew Erskine would compete in the seeded section of the 3000 later that afternoon, and went through the opening mile in 4:33 and would finish in 10th overall, lowering his PR to an 8:30.88 in the process. The 4x800 relay of Romey, Matt Woop and then Dan and Greg coming back from earlier races, put up a great fight and nearly broke 7:50 as Romey led off in a 1:56 leg, followed by 1:59 legs from Matt and Dan, and then Greg would bookend the relay with a 1:56 carry of his own. The 4x400 was the day's final event, and Judd got things started off with a 50.8 lead-off leg and was followed by a 50.4 carry by Nick, before Matt ripped his leg with a 47.8 carry to hand the baton to Grimes in the lead, and ultimately finish in 3:21 - their best time of the season.

USATF New England's - Feb 17th

Performers of the Meet - Steve Hetterich, Nick Codola and Greg Turissini

The men traveled to Harvard Sunday to compete at the USATF New England Championships rather than the traditional DIII New England Championships because of the desire to give the entire team an additional opportunity to compete, as last week's snow storm caused the cancellation of the final invitational meet before the championships started. While it was winter Storm Nemo last week, this week may have been Winter Sickness Nemo as a number of the team were either recovering from the cold / flu or battling it on meet day. Matt Melton grabbed the lone victory on the day in the 800, as he patiently let the race unfold, sitting on the shoulder of the leader until the final 100m before launching into kick mode and running away with the win in a time of 1:52.26 - one of the country's fastest time of the year for DIII (before they impart their banked track conversion). In the same event but the next section, Romey Sklar powered away in the last lap to grab the section win in 1:57 while Nick Codola had a great race with his 1:58 to finish 3rd in the heat, and a couple of sections later, Scott Gemmel-Davis ran his best time of the season after leading his heat for the majority of the race. Patrick Grimes, battling cold symptoms, hung on well enough to grab 4th place in the mile with his best time of the season, as he ran to a 4:13.18 and looks to be returning to the form that got him to nationals last year. Dan Crowley raced to a new PR os 4:21.69 in the same race as he finished 12th overall. Greg Turissini blasted his PR in the 3k by a big margin as he hit the mile in 4:32 and never slowed down as he grabbed 5th overall in running 8:29 while in the very next section, classmate, KC Fussell would earn runner-up spot and a new PR of 8:42 with captain Dillon Buckley getting under 8:50 and breaking his PR form last year. Andrew Erskine did some early leading in the 5k and would eventually finish 4th, charging back in a 14:54 with a hard closing last 200m. Steve Hetterich grabbed a 6th place finish in the triple jump as he got out over 41 feet in the first round, and while his final round were foot fouls, he was consistently beyond that mark in each of his jumps as he continues to make some big improvements. Ralph Washington and Persie Gijima waged an epic battle in the 200m, with Ralph coming out on to by .01 as they ran 23.77 and 23.78 but Persie would have the upper hand in the 60m where he finished 8th with a new PR of 7.32. The DMR was the final event of the day, and the team of Romey, Nick, Matt and Grimey finished in 2nd with a time of 10:36.16. For some, the indoor season has come to a close while others will gear up for the NEICAAA Championships this weekend and look to continue to drop times.

Springfield Invite#2 - Feb 2nd

Performers of the Meet - Dan Crowley & Josiah Terrell-Perica

For the 2nd weekend in a row, the men travelled south down 91 to Springfield College to compete against the hosts, and 6 other schools. While the team finished 4th overall with 117, it was a day with a lot of great marks as PR's and standards were met, extending seasons for several of the athletes. Josiah Terrell-Perica got the ball rolling - so to speak - for the team with his 3rd place throw in the 35# Weight Throw and he continues to make huge improvements as he not only added more than a meter to his prior best, but his 47-6 throw qualified him for DIII NE's in 2 weeks. The 3k was a loaded Amherst affair as 8 of the Top 9 were wearing the black and purple with Andrew Erskine and Charlie Reighard throwing down big finishing kicks to grab 1st and 2nd in 8:42 and 8:43 (huge PR for Charlie) while coming in 4th, with the biggest breakthrough of the group, was first year Dan Crowley hammering out an 8:46 effort and qualifying for DIII NE's and beyond. Alva Morales, Greg Turissini and Dillon Buckley all grabbed points as well as hit championship standards. Matt Melton continues to roll over his competition as this week he stepped down to the 500m and blasted a 1:06.06 for a very convincing win, and fast time on the tight track while training partners, Judd Liebman and Nick Codola would finish 4th and 5th. This trio, would join later in the day with Pat Grimes - recovering from an illness that impacted the training for the week - to win the DMR in a 10:41. Romey Sklar ran to a another PR, as well as his first victory on the season, this time in the 1000m while classmate Matt Woop would grab 3rd. Dennis Kennelly had his best race of the season, lowering his mark in the 400 while grabbing points in 4th place. Steve Hetterich contributed to the scoring with his 3rd place jump in the Triple Jump while Nick Ellenoff would also grab 3rd place points by virtue of his finish in the mile, in which he and class mate Scott Gemmell-Davis would each finish in the Top 6, and Scott would come back later in the 800 to grab a 4th place finish. Persie Gijima led the way for the sprinters as he just missed making the finals in the 60 with his 7.36 before grabbing points in the 200 with his best mark on the year in 24.09, finishing 6th, while Javy Paulino would finish in 7th place at 24.12.

Springfield Invite #1 - Jan 26th

Performer of the Meet - Alvaro Morales

The return to classes on Thursday officially ended the 2013 Intersession period, and with the end will now come the transition from strength into speed and rest. At the first of 2 consecutive weekends at Springfield College, so guys performed great while some looked like they were still feeling the fatigue from the great training over the past block of work, and with return to single sessions and a little rest, everyone should be right where they need to be next time out. While the meet was a scoring meet, it did not factor into deciding where to enter people and the approach to the meet didn't change but despite that, the guys managed to grab a runner-up spot, finishing just behind St. Lawrence. The men racked up big points in the middle and long distance events, grabbing wins in the 800, mile and 5k. In the 5k, the final running event of the day for the team, Alva Morales and KC Fussell kept the pace from lagging in the final laps as it was an Amherst runner at the front of the entire race, and with a strong move with just over a 400 to go, Alva grabbed a win in a 10 second PR while Fuss came in just a couple of steps after - both running under 15:20, while back in 5th place, first Dan Crowley made his 5k debut a solid won in 15:46. Pat Grimes led a 1-2-3 blanket finish sweep in the mile as he, Charlie Reighard and Greg Turissini were separated by .2 seconds in a thrilling race while Andrew Erskine and Eli Howe would also crack the Top 10 of the race in 7th and 10th. Matt Melton chocked up another victory on the season, as he ran to a win in the 800 with a 1:56.09 while in 3rd and 4th came Romey Sklar and Nick Codola. Matt Woop used a strong finish in the last lap to move up to 3rd in the 1000 while coming in behind him, Scott Gemmell-Davis made his season debut running 2:45. Josiah Terrell-Perica threw nearly a meter PR in the weight throw, as he launched the weight out over 43 feet. Percie Gijima got the 2013 portion of the season started by leading the sprinters across the line in the 60 with his 7.41 and then in the 200, Ralph Washington would just miss breaking 24 to lead the crew, with Javy a scant .04 behind him. Judd Liebman dropped down to the 400, and grabbed a 7th place finish in 52 seconds while Dennis Kennelly ran 54.99 in his heat. The sprinters joined with Dennis to finish 3rd in the 4x200 relay.

Wesleyan Invite - Jan 19th

Performer of the Meet - Ralph Washington

The men headed to Wesleyan after wrapping up the 2nd week of intersession (classes resume this Thursday) and thus, a 2nd week of morning / afternoon leg tiring practices. Any fire that may have been lacking in the first week, was not absent this week as the guys did a great job of getting after it Saturday with some strong performances and several notable PR's. The meet went real quick, even going so quickly in the middle events that guys had difficulty getting a proper warm-up but no panic was shown, and results were still strong. Victories were garnered by Matt Melton in the 400, as he cruised to a 50.88 mark to best the competition by 2 seconds while Pat Grimes grabbed the other individual victory in the 1000, as he mad a strong move coming into the 600 to run 2:31 and lower his PR in the event. The 4x800 relay comprised of Matt Woop, Dan Crowley, Eli Howe and Cole Hawkins grabbed the other victory for the team with Cole holding off a late challenge in an exciting finish ... Ralph Washington earned the nod of performer of the meet as he ran to a PR of 7.40 in the 60 to just miss the finals, then another PR in the 200 before the biggest performance of his day where he anchored the 4x400 relay B team to a heat win with a 53.3 carry over the 2 lap distance. Mark Cort, nursing an injury competed in the 400 rather then the jumps to be safe and looked silky smooth winning his heat in 53.09 and placing 4th overall. Alvaro Morales lost out on a victory in the 3k in an exciting sprint finish to the line but his 9:01 was a great starting point. Other distance guys dropped down to the mile to work on some leg speed and Greg Turissini grabbed runner-up honors with his 4:22 while Crowley got 4th in a 4:25. Matt Woop made a strong bid for his first individual victory in an Amherst uniform as he led the first couple of laps of the 800 before finishing 3rd in 2:01 with Eli Howe coming in a few steps after him in 2:02.Javy Paulino ran a super 200, sprinting to a 23.90 on the not so fast track, and grabbed 4th place overall despite running out of the 6th section and not in blocks. Behind Grimey's winning 1000m , Romey Sklar burned up the track with his blazing last lap to grab 6th overall and knocking off 2 seconds from his PR running 2:36. Judd Liebman and Nick Codola finished 7th and 8th in 1:26 for the 600, and then teamed up with Grimey and Melton to finish the 4x400 relay in the runner-up position.

Tufts Invite #1 - Jan 12th

Performer of the Meet - Patrick Grimes

The 2013 portion of the 2012-13 season got kicked off at Tufts, in a 10 team meet on Saturday with the men placing 5th overall. They returned on Monday for the start of intersession training, and despite doubling up each day - morning and afternoon practices - and dealing with a bit of fatigue from some great work from those efforts, they competed real well to open things up. In the days first event, the 35# Weight, Josiah heaved the weight over 41 feet as he continues to make quick improvements with the new event. The days first running even final saw Patrick Grimes use a little patience over the first 2k and then make a strong move to take the lead and run away from the rest of the field with a big PR of 8:35, while in the 2nd section, first years Dan Crowley and Jeff Seelaus each debuted at the 3k distance and ran strong races, finishing in 9:04 and 9:07 respectively. The distance events were high point events, as later in the day, in the 5000 it was all black and purple as the guys went 1-5 to sweep up their race as they did a pretty good job of sticking to the game plan for the race, sharing laps and work over the course of the race and Andrew would take the win in a 15:20 while Charlie Reighard notched a big PR with his 15:23, a couple of steps ahead of the sophomore duo of Greg Turissini and KC Fussell, and Dillon Buckley grabbing the 5th spot in 15:46. In the days final event, the 4x800 the team of Adron Pitmon, Eli Howe, Nick Codola and Matt Melton finished things off with an exciting victory, taking the lead for good coming off the final turn to hold off Bates. Before anchoring the 4x800, Matt grabbed 3rd in the 1000 with a 2;35 while Adron would earn points in the mile with his 4:27. Steve Hetterich garnered a pair of 7th place finishes in the jumps, nearly breaking 40 feet in the triple jump. Also grabbing 7th place points were Dennis Kennelly in the 400 running a 53.94, Judd Liebman running the 800 in a 2:01 and Grimey coming back in the 600 to work on some speed and running 1:25 to easily win his heat. Romey Sklar, battling a foot injury, was still able to use his patented finishing kick to motor to the final scoring spot in the 800.Other Top 10 finishes included Eli in the 1000 and Matt Woop making his Amherst debut, grabbing 10th in the 800 after running the mile earlier in the day. Javier Paulino had the top marks for the team on the day in the dash and 200.

Smith Invite - Dec 1st

Performer of the Meet - Javier Paulino

The men got the 2012013 season started off on Saturday next door at Smith College, in a six-team, non-scoring invitational. For the sprinters, jumpers and thrower, it was an opportunity to see where they were at after a great fall of training while those who had done XC, the meet provided an opportunity to go out and have some fun. The XC guys had all taken a 2 week break following the end of the season, and with some on their 1st or 2nd week back of running, they chose the event that they wanted to compete in and then had some fun with it. The most hyped event was the meet's final event - the 4x800 Relay. In a battle of classes, the relays pitted the 4 classes head to head for bragging rights and a race with a few lead changes would ultimately be won by the SOPHOMORES as Alex Durkee, KC Fussell, Nick Codola and Romey Sklar took the coveted title (and all the accolades and honors that go with the victory) in an 8:18, distancing themselves from the juniors and seniors in the last 250m. Matt Melton grabbed another of the days victories in the 600, where he used his patented strong finishing kick to run away from the field in an excellent time of 1:22.41 - over a second faster then he was at this meet a year ago. Mark Cort grabbed the only victory in the field events, as he jumped over 41 feet in the triple jump to grab the win with Steve hetterich finish in 4th. Romey - before anchoring his class to a victory in the 4x800 - grabbed the win in the 1000 with a time of 2:38 while in the 3k, it as Andrew Erskine grabbing the final individual win of the day with his 9:01 as he led a 1-2-4 finish, ahead of teammates Dillon Buckley and Lucas Lebovitz. First year Dan Crowley grabbed 2nd in the mile in a 4:33 to take the King of Ludlow-Monson title over KC Fussell 4:38. Alex Durkee and Kick Codola went 3-4 in the 600, separated by a .01 margin, while Judd Liebman grabbed a section win in the earlier heat running to a 1:27 time with Captain Wrenford Thaffee running 1:31 in his first foray to the longer distance. First year classmates Brent Harrison and Jeff Seelaus went 3-4 in the 800, as both ran in the mid 2:02's, while in the event after, the 1000, juniors Charlie Reighard and Alva Morales went 3-4 behind Romey's win, with first year Nick Ellenoff getting the chance to don the black and purple for the first time and finishing 5th. The lone thrower until Denzel returns from his study abroad, Josiah Terrell-Perica hit the circle in both the shot and the weight throw, grabbing a 7th and 6th place respectively in his first indoor meet. Javier Paulino proved to be the fastest of the sprint crew as he led the team in both the 60m and the 200m, with some significant time improvements from the same meet last year as he placed 11th and 9th, and first year Ralph Washington would finish just behind Javy in the 200 to place 12th with Percie Gijima coming in at 16th. In the days first running event, Patrick Grimes competed in the 5k, and went up against all of the Williams guys who ran at Nationals 2 weeks ago and were obviously looking to hit an early season mark for the 5k before taking a little break. He hung on admirably up at the front, going through the 2m in 9:47 but the 2 week break reared its head in the last 4 laps but a very solid 15:38 for 7th was a good sign of the base from the fall. The 4x400 relay consisting of Judd, Brent, Mark and Steve grabbed a 3rd place before the 4x800's would wrap up the day. The team will continue to train over the coming weeks but will not return to competition until we head to Tufts on January 12th.