Nevada Hoya
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Post by Nevada Hoya on May 5, 2005 11:14:00 GMT -5
The BE Outdoor Track and Field Meet will be held this weekend, May6-8, at Rutgers in NJ. The men still lead the series with most wins in the Big East outdoor meet. I believe Notre Dame has won the last two years. I don't see the Hoyas winning either men or women, but they should have some good times.
At the end of the month are the NCAA regional qualifiers at Manhattan in NY, so alumni from NY should be making plans to cheer the Hoyas on as they attempt to qualify for the NCAA champs in Sacramento. Since my son is moving to the Sacramento area, I would like to attend the NCAA meet (June 8-11). If so, I will be giving a first hand report. Rod Koborsi and Nicole Lee are already qualified for the national meet in the 10000, because both have automatic qualifiers. In regional lists Chris Lukezic has the number one times in both the 800m and 1500m so far this year.
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Nevada Hoya
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Post by Nevada Hoya on May 6, 2005 15:02:12 GMT -5
The Hoyas (men) have only one entry in the field portion (Jesse Patterson in the LJ) of the BE track and field meet, so if they want to compete they have to pick up several firsts, plus do well in the relays. The women have represents in three field events - TJ, LJ, and PV, but do not seem to have the services of NCAA auto qualifier, Nicole Lee.
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Nevada Hoya
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Post by Nevada Hoya on May 6, 2005 17:32:53 GMT -5
Just the heptathlon and decathlon today (at least half of the events in these disciplines). GU does not have any entries in these events. Most of the action starts tomorrow and concludes on Sunday.
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Nevada Hoya
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Post by Nevada Hoya on May 7, 2005 21:45:32 GMT -5
Lots of qualifying heats today, but some finals, especially in the distance and the field events.
Report on the women:
Long Jump Shut out here. Our jumpers placed 9th, 11th, and 15th: Ashley Mondie had a best mark of 18'9.25", Alex Baptiste 17'11.75, and Nicole Torpey 17'4.75".
400 m (heats) 2. Kandance Ferguson won her heat: 55.21 s 5. Ashley Hubbard, 55.64, also qualified 10. Nicole Torpey, 56.18
800m 6. Nana Hanson-Hall, 2:10.65 7. Meghan O'Neil, 2:11.45 (both Nana and Meghan qualified)
3000m Steeplechase 11. Erin Henry 11:16.11
And in our only scoring event so far, Leilani Green took 2nd in the pole vault at 11'11.75" for 8 points.
The Hoyas are in a tie for 10th place with their 8 points, while Pittsburgh is in first with 77 points.
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Nevada Hoya
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Post by Nevada Hoya on May 7, 2005 21:56:17 GMT -5
The men are doing better than the women based on first day scores:
1) Rutgers University 75 2) University of Notre Dame 57.50 3) University of Connecticut 41.50 4) Georgetown University 24 5) University of Pittsburgh 23 6) Villanova University 19 7) Syracuse University 16 8) Providence College 13 9) Boston College 4
We picked up 13 points in the 10,000m run as Rod Koborsi won by 10 seconds in 30:14.20 and Steve Meinelt finished 6th in 30:47.78 to pick up 3 points. We picked up 5 pts in the 3000m SC as Chris Esselborn finished 6th in 9:14.93 and got 3 pts (he also qualifed in the 1500m) and Shane Young (surprise) scored 2 pts for his 7th in 9:18.31.
Jesse Patterson picked up 6 pts with his 3rd place finish in the Long Jump with 22'10.5".
Jon Geffrard did not qualify (just) with a 9th in the 100m in 11.09.
We only had one qualifier in the 800m with Tommy Manning running 1:51.44 for 2nd; Nat Glackin ran a 1:52.46 and placed 9th, and Stanley Lagrenade did not finish.
In the 1500m qualifiers Chris Lukezic was the leading qualifier in 3:48.98, while Neil Grosscup qualified in 6th with 3:51.57 and Chris Esselborn qualified in 8th with 3:51.90. Rasheed Thompson also ran, but finished 15th and did not qualify with his 3:58.00.
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Nevada Hoya
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Post by Nevada Hoya on May 8, 2005 18:12:53 GMT -5
In what must be the worst showing for the women, the Hoyas finished 10th in the BE outdoor track and field meet at Rutgers. The standings:
Women - Team Rankings - 22 Events Scored ====================== 1) University of Pittsburgh 176 2) University of Notre Dame 113.50 3) West Virginia University 82 4) Rutgers University 81 5) Boston College 74.50 6) Syracuse University 64 7) University of Connecticut 62 8) Villanova University 60 9) St. John's University 50 10) Georgetown University 49 11) Providence College 34 12) Seton Hall University 12
Sunday's results:
400m 3. Kandance Ferguson 54.77 6 pts 5. Ashley Hubbard 55.84 4 pts
800m 3. Maggie Infeld 4:27.13 (regional qualifier) (0.01 s from 2nd) 6 pts 8. Sabine Knothe 4:41.08 1 pt
5000m 6. Maggie Infeld 17:08.6 3 15. Erin Henry 18:14.41
4x100m 6. GU (Torpey, Ferguson, Mondie, Hubbard) 47.36 3
4x400m 2. GU (Torpey, Baptiste, Ferguson, Hubbard) 3:42.75 8
4x800m 3. GU (Knothe, O'Neil, Hanson-Hall, Otstott) 8:52.75 6
TJ 11. Ashley Mondie 37'8.5" 12. Alex Baptiste 37'6.5"
The bright side is that most of the scorers are freshmen and sophomores.
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Nevada Hoya
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Post by Nevada Hoya on May 8, 2005 18:33:32 GMT -5
Again, one of the poorest showing in BE history for the men: Men - Team Rankings - 22 Events Scored ================================== 1) Rutgers University 192 2) University of Notre Dame 143.50 3) University of Pittsburgh 117 4) Villanova University 93 5) University of Connecticut 78.50 6) Georgetown University 74 7) Syracuse University 52 8) Seton Hall University 48 9) Providence College 39 10) Boston College 16 Without facilities we are being left behind. I guess we should confine ourselves for the present for XC and the relays and some individual star performers. The star performers were Rod Koborsi, who won the 5000 and the 10000m quite easily and Chris Lukezic, who won the 1500m and came back within a couple of hours to finish 3rd in the 5000m. The results: 800m 4. Tommy Manning 1:53.02 5 pts 1500m 1. Chris Lukezic 3:55.96 10 9. Chris Esselborn 3:59.63 10. Neil Grosscup 3:59.79 This was a slow race, as Chris L. ran 7 sec faster in qualifying. He probably dictated the pace, as he had the 5000m to run later. 5000m 1. Rod Koborsi 14:11.17 (stadium record) 10 3. Chris Lukezic 14:20.58 6 6. Charlie Millioen 14:39.22 3 9. Brian Dalpiaz 14:52.34 4x100m 7. GU (Patterson, Geffrard, Jenkins, Weatherspoon) 50.59 2 pts Wins Weatherspoon fell, but Seton Hall was DQ'ed. GU is making a habit of falling in the relays. This makes about three times in the past two weeks. 4x400m 5. GU (Geffrard, Lagrenade, Patterson, Weatherspoon) 3:21.12 (Chris Bonner must be out because of the spill he took at the Penn Relays). 4 pts. 4x800m 1. GU (Grosscup, Glackin, Banks, Manning) 7:34.88 10 pts.
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Post by DFW HOYA on May 8, 2005 18:43:38 GMT -5
Clearly, these are difficult times for the track program. Georgetown does not have the depth to compete in sprint and field events and its lack of training, pracxtice, and meet facilities is inexorably bringing down the long-held strengths of the program. Of the five new Big East schools, four have dedicated track and or track/soccer facilities. See uoflsports.collegesports.com/facilities/lou-facilities-soccer-track-stadium.html for an example. As for this year, the men's finish is the lowest since 1986. Here are the last five outdoor finishes: 2001: 1st 2002: 2nd 2003: 5th 2004: 4th 2005: 6th The women's finish is the lowest since the Big East added women's track. Here are the last five outdoor finishes: 2001: 3rd 2002: 3rd 2003: 5th 2004: 5th 2005: 10th
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Post by reformation on May 8, 2005 20:22:54 GMT -5
A couple of observations 1)We're still bettter off recruiting and focusing on mid distance + X/c stars, than trying to go for a team that will score higher overall in the BE--We still have more olmpic level talent than the rest of the conf and at the end of the day putting atletes on the us team in this sport is more impt than any BE title.
2)A legit question however is are we still in a position to get the top level md distance stars, last yr we got one woman(infeld) and this yr we got 1 man(bambalough) recriut, but it seems like the others are not at the elite level--so i guess the jury is out on this one.
3)Real example of admin incompetence wrt the track facilities--it is really shameful
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DFW HOYA
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Post by DFW HOYA on May 8, 2005 20:30:39 GMT -5
It is not administrative incompetence.
Good people can debate whether the idea of an all weather track on a roof was a good idea, but that was all that Georgetown had. The problem became that the roof absorbed moisture which got underneath the track and rendered it useless. That's an architectural issue, not an adminstrative one.
The fact that the Business School unceremoniously took over the baseball field and boxed in the Multi-Sport Facility is an issue, albeit a fait accompli. That space cannot hold a track, but that was not Athletics' call.
However, it's also a case of which sport constituency stepped up to move their facilities forward. Football and lacrosse did; unfortunately, track and basketball have not.
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Post by reformation on May 8, 2005 21:13:38 GMT -5
the track situation has been going on for years, the inability to execute any solution signals incompetence. The lack of track alum/supporters stepping up to help is probably a;so a contributing factor.
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Nevada Hoya
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Post by Nevada Hoya on May 9, 2005 12:29:53 GMT -5
Dr. Jack Reilly, one of the Hoyas greatest MD runners (about 4:01 in 1963), was trying to spearhead support from the track alumni to at least refurbish the Duke Ellington track. So, there are obviously some of the alumni that are interested in the track and field future at GU. I am not sure what issues are involved in securing a place on compus for a track. Once they had a space committed, I think they could raise the funds, but it would take some coordination with the other sports (football/soccer/lacrosse) to perhaps put a track around their field.
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Post by Duke Ellington on May 9, 2005 13:06:05 GMT -5
What about November 2001? If you attended the night of appreciation for Coach Gagliano, back then, you would have seen the beautiful architect drawings of a track-soccer facility that was going to be in his name...I'm pretty sure they had a spot for it was well. Was it a sincere thing? I haven't heard one thing about it since. Things change, times change, there's only so much space on a 99 acre campus, but I find it hard to believe that if money is an issue the money could not be raised (to build a track). I don't think it's a priority with the athletic department, and I think the direction that the track program is going in is....vague at best....Coach Helmer sort of hinted at that in his Spiked Shoe Newsletter not too long ago. And before we continue to trumpet that the current program is turning out "more olympic talent" than the rest of the Big East I say not 7-8 years ago we were turning out more...all the while we were competing for the IC4A and Big East titles. We were deeper and recruiting better, now we seem to be falling behind a little more each year....a program with great history and tradtion, with a great coaching staff having its hands tied by lousy facilities and a lack of concern by the school to make it right...it stinks!
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Nevada Hoya
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Post by Nevada Hoya on May 9, 2005 14:53:12 GMT -5
AMEN!
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Post by reformation on May 9, 2005 15:56:52 GMT -5
I was shown the same track/soccer facility drawings--it was in the lot next to the med school--apparently it is conflicting with the landing pad for emergency helicopters to the med center
--agree that the current objectives for the track program are puzzling, i can't understand why the univ continues to support marginal sprts but won't spend a few bucks to maintain an already elite activity--people will chime in with the usual money refrain, but I'm not a buyer of that in this case, it simply isn't that expensive or difficult to build a new track.
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Post by reformation on May 9, 2005 15:59:49 GMT -5
also would love to see the hoya, e.g., do an expose on the direction of the track program--the univ's seeming ambivalence towards it is both puzzling and troubling
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Post by Hoya Who on May 9, 2005 18:06:34 GMT -5
i think that earlier in the year, the Hoya did a feature article on teh state of the track and field program, yet it was mostly highlighting the accomplishment and not the decline it has experienced. If you write an article like that in the main campus paper, it gets out to possible recruits and in the end just hurts us more than it helps us. If you were one of the best runners in HS, would u come to a school after reading an article about how the program is dwindling and has no track? - everyone on campus and in the administration is aware of the facility problem, its just less appreciation for the sport of track that is takin them so long to do something.
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DFW HOYA
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Post by DFW HOYA on May 9, 2005 19:39:41 GMT -5
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Post by Hoya gir on May 9, 2005 21:23:37 GMT -5
www.thehoya.com/sports/112304/sports2.cfmheres the article that was mentioned before by HOYA WHO... nice article, and he is right when he says its hard to focus on the facility issue without causing more damage
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Post by Kehoe Fields on May 10, 2005 8:14:23 GMT -5
What about the damage that is being caused by negative recruiting over the facilities issue? Ten years ago a school like Duke could not out recruit us....but they are now...and why is that? You don't think rival coaches are using the fact that we have to drive up Wilson Blvd. in Arlington to Washington and Lee High School to work out? A recruit shows up for an on campus visit wants to watch track practice but has to get in a van and drive 30 minutes away from campus to watch it? I think that's causing damage. Coach Helmer and his staff can coach with anyone in the country...but you know something....more and more it's becoming an uneven playing field for him because of this facilities issue.
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