Nevada Hoya
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Post by Nevada Hoya on Feb 19, 2006 14:52:10 GMT -5
The women won the 4x800m to cut ND's lead, but with only one event remaining, ND clinches the meet:
1) University of Notre Dame 93.50 2) Georgetown University 82 3) University of Pittsburgh 67 4) Villanova University 65 5) Syracuse University 53 6) Rutgers University 51 7) West Virginia University 45.75 8) University of Connecticut 42 8) St. John's University 42 10) Providence College 35 11) Marquette University 33 11) University of Louisville 33 13) Seton Hall University 25 14) University of Cincinnati 18 15) University of South Florid 15.75 16) De Paul University 1
4x800 - Avril Ogrodnick, Meghan O'Neil, Maggie Infeld, Christine Whalen - 8:57.58; ND was second about 1 s behind.
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Nevada Hoya
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Post by Nevada Hoya on Feb 19, 2006 15:04:26 GMT -5
The men finished 3rd in the 4x800m relay with a time of 7:31.72 finishing behind Notre Dame and Villanova. The standings:
Men - Team Rankings - 19 Events Scored ======================================================================================= 1) University of Connecticut 129 2) Rutgers University 116 3) University of Notre Dame 94.50 4) University of Louisville 73.50 5) University of Pittsburgh 66 6) Villanova University 64 7) Georgetown University 60 8) Seton Hall University 43 9) Providence College 36 10) Syracuse University 30 11) Marquette University 28 12) De Paul University 1
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Nevada Hoya
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Post by Nevada Hoya on Feb 19, 2006 15:09:32 GMT -5
The women were 5th in the 4x400m relay:
Nana, Buky, Kandy, Ashley (Hubbard) in 3:45.59.
Some field events must have been scored because ND increased their lead, even though the Hoyas beat them in the 4x400:
Women - Team Rankings - 20 Events Scored ========================================================================================= 1) University of Notre Dame 109.50 2) Georgetown University 86 3) University of Pittsburgh 85 4) Villanova University 67 5) Syracuse University 53 6) St. John's University 52 7) Rutgers University 51 8) University of Connecticut 50 9) West Virginia University 45.75 10) University of Louisville 39 11) Providence College 35 12) Marquette University 34 13) Seton Hall University 31 14) University of Cincinnati 25 15) University of South Florid 15.75 16) De Paul University 1
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Post by reformation on Feb 19, 2006 18:38:26 GMT -5
Overall looks like an outstanding performance by the women and a very disappointing overall one for the men. Though I guess the true highlight of the day is Bumby making the USA junior cross team for the World Champs.
Seems like the men have to recruit a lot of 400-1500m talent, they have pretty good xc talent, though even the xc guys diappointed at this meet. The women's team seems more balanced.
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Nevada Hoya
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Post by Nevada Hoya on Feb 19, 2006 18:57:41 GMT -5
That is my assessment, reformation. I was expecting Tommy Manning to win the 800m; maybe he was sick - he had run a 1:48 recently. Some of the other guys did okay, but not great, but overall, as you say, disappointing.
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Nevada Hoya
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Post by Nevada Hoya on Feb 19, 2006 18:58:26 GMT -5
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DFW HOYA
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Post by DFW HOYA on Feb 19, 2006 19:47:59 GMT -5
Congratulations to the women's team on the 2nd place finish.
Nevada, any thoughts on the struggles of the men's team in indoor track in recent years? This is the lowest finish in nearly a quarter century.
Men's Finishes, 1990-Present ================= 1990: 1st 1991: 1st 1992: 2nd 1993: 2nd 1994: 1st 1995: 1st 1996: 1st 1997: 2nd 1998: 1st 1999: 1st 2000: 1st 2001: 1st 2002: 4th 2003: 3rd 2004: 3rd 2005: 4th 2006: 7th
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Nevada Hoya
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Post by Nevada Hoya on Feb 19, 2006 20:37:24 GMT -5
One reason for the low finish is the newly expanded Big East. Another reason is what reformation mentioned and that is the lack of talented middle distance runners. The BE indoor meet is geared toward that runner. You have the 400, 500, 800, 1000, mile, plus the 4x400, 4x800, and the DMR. We have traditionally had many runners, who could effectively run those distances. Our depth in the past was able to supply runners for those events without having to use the same runners over and over again. For whatever reason we are not that deep in those distances this year. And the ones who were running did not perform up to their capabilities. Our depth seems to be at the longer distances 3000 and up. You can think of individual cases to see why we were not so deep: Courtney Jaworski transferred, Chris Lukezic went pro, and Bumbi is redshirting. If these three runners were there I can see a 3rd or 4th place finish. Of course, it doesn't explain why we are no longer in contention for the title. Lack of facilities vis a vis more competitive recruiting in the BE, especially from Notre Dame and UConn. Both of these universities see themselves now as track and field powers. The growth of UConn bball seems to go hand in hand with their emergence as a track power, at least in the BE. So we are going head-to-head against these colleges for the track athletes that help to win the BE. The good news is the track and field athlete that we have not usually had scored us points this weekend: Kenny Mitchell in the sprints, Terrell Gissendanner in the hurdles (and TJ), Khyle Osborne in the shotput. Bottow line is reformation's mantra: recruit more quality middle distance runners.
DFW, your list makes the dropoff over the years extremely obvious.
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Post by reformation on Feb 19, 2006 22:26:40 GMT -5
I had a discussion with a few Gtwn track fans(parent + former runners) on the mens track performance today at the van cortlandt XC natl champs--they claimed(maybe a slight exaggeration) that 5+ years ago we had 10 runners who could go 1:50 or below in the 800 while today we have one, maybe 2. Will be interesting to see if the Ellington track helps recruiting at all. Its also interesting that we have 2 800m specialist early signess for the women and none for the men.
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Post by 800Flop on Feb 20, 2006 8:46:39 GMT -5
I was part of that team 5-years ago and we did have 10+ runners that could run sub-1:50. Just look at the all-time list within a 5-year span:
Bryan Woodward - 1:45.78 (06-15-97) Jaron Ming - 1:47.77 (05-24-97) Matt Kalwinsky - 1:48.07 (05-10-98) Ky Adderley - 1:48.72 (05-22-99) Isidro Pimentel - 1:48.90 (05-22-99) Sam Gambremariam - 1:48.95 (04-3-99) Miguel Lambert - 1:48.9 (05-8-99) Tim Brennan - 1:49.33 (04-3-99) Brian Duff - 1:51.35 (02-01-97) *Indoors
Or the great 1000M performances of (all of these runners split under 1:50 in relays):
Colin Dunn - 2:24.00 (02-20-00) John Jordon - 2:24.04 (02-14-98) (Also ran 4:00.72 indoors) Jonevan Hornsby - 02:25.03 (02-28-98)
By my count, there were 13 runners that were on the same team that ran or split under 1:50 between 1997 and 2000.
Were have all the GU middle distance runners gone?
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Nevada Hoya
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Post by Nevada Hoya on Feb 20, 2006 18:12:20 GMT -5
I remember when I was on campus once about 10-12 years ago, when they still had the track above Yates. I was on business travel, but stayed at the Marriott on campus and was rewarded with a twilight track meet on campus. There was a special 800m race meant to secure one of the runners (I forget whom) a qualifying mark, so there were two or three Hoyas designated as rabbits. The runner got his 1:47! Made it look easy. I think there were three or four runners on that team that were around that range.
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Post by Bardo Rodeo on Feb 20, 2006 20:08:56 GMT -5
Well Nevada, I hope you saved the ticket stub to that twi-light meet, because not soon after, the athletic department took the field where they threw the hammer and discus (between Kehoe and the hospital) for unspecified purposes which negated GU's ability to host meets such as that. It was '96 that the track and field held their last outdoor meet on campus.
Ten years ago, the roster was tailor made for winning Big East Championships, in fact, I remember having a conversation with the Notre Dame Coach saying that he was hoping to get a few of the track events eliminated from the championship meet because it so heavily favored the strength of the Hoyas. Sprinkle in a couple of field event specialists such as France Davis, Steve Baldi, Doug Epps, and Tom Ryan, and GU was pretty tough to beat.
After Coach Gagliano left, I think there's been a (forced) shift of focus to having some potentially good Penn Relay relay teams, and a good cross country team, but maybe not so much a team that has the depth (in those middle distance events) to compete year in and year out for the Big East Championship.
Maybe it's changing? I was encouraged to see the results from this weekend...at least on the women's side. And there seems to be more of an effort to bring in some different type of athletes..sprinters and jumpers. So who knows? Maybe the new Athletic Director will be supportive to the track program, let's hope!
I'd like to thank 800flop for that great recap of those middle distance guys, it was a great group. Add Michael Schroer to the list.
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DFW HOYA
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Post by DFW HOYA on Feb 20, 2006 20:26:15 GMT -5
Well Nevada, I hope you saved the ticket stub to that twi-light meet, because not soon after, the athletic department took the field where they threw the hammer and discus (between Kehoe and the hospital) for unspecified purposes which negated GU's ability to host meets such as that. Unspecified purposes? Actually, that land was developed with the intent of building a 2,500 seat socer and track stadium. Known today as North Kehoe Field, it has stands for 1,400 for soccer, but the funds did not come in from track alumni, so no track was ever built there. What's left of Kehoe has been obsolete for five years--teams can't practice on the old turf and the track was removed. Field hockey still calls it home but no other teams do.
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Post by Bardo Rodeo on Feb 20, 2006 21:21:53 GMT -5
10 years ago, that field became closed for throwing. Perhaps "unspecified" was the wrong term, designated for "intramurals" I believe was the reasoning at the time. I don't know if any intramural activities took place on that field, I know none did while I was still on campus.
Closing that field did mean no more home meets on campus because all events could not be competed. Prior to that a handful of meets were hosted for (in addition to having meets on campus) the purpose of some races being set up (as Nevada describes) for some qualifying marks.
I haven't been on campus in 5 years and wasn't aware of a complex in that area with seating to accomodate soccer spectators. I did attend an event in November of 2001 honoring Coach Gag where they did have all the drawings and plans for a soccer-track complex that GU hoped to build on campus...they were looking for donations for the "Gagliano Track"...I'm disappointed that it never came to fruition.
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Post by reformation on Feb 20, 2006 21:47:58 GMT -5
Unfortunately solicitations by the univ for the track/soccer complex were pretty limited-given GU' track record of excellence in track I think that they could have gotten non track alums to provide some support for it( I would have done so e.g., and even asked about it but go no response), It doesn't seem that the admin ever really treated it as a real priority.
I don't think that the univ realizes that people who donate money like to see it go for world class efforts(which track clearly was)and that emotional or relationship based giving are impt but not the whole story.
Hopefully some version of the initial plan can come to life someday, I'm going to see the AD fairly soon and am going to ask him about it.
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Nevada Hoya
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Post by Nevada Hoya on Feb 21, 2006 14:51:27 GMT -5
Yes, I'm with reformation on this. As a non-track alumnus, I did get solicited for the track/soccer complex. I do designate most of the money I give to GU each year for the track program. I did receive a notice for the Ellington track project, and hope some of my contributions went there.
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