GBTC At Northeastern Solomon Husky Invite

The ageless Dave Cahill who can run, jump, and count money.
photo by GreaterSnap

April 12, 2008
Northeastern Solomon Husky Invitational
Dedham, MA
By Francis Shen

In Dedham today, GBTC red was prominent as a group of 8 men and 5 women took advantage of some unexpectedly sunny weather by running and jumping their way to a number of impressive performances. Star sprinter Christian Tirella won the 400m (49.01), surged to nearly win the 200m (22.33), was 4th in the long jump (5.86m), and was coaxed into coming back for the winning 4x400m (3:27.56)

The day started off with GBTC in the steeple chase. Matt Lyons braved the barriers first (11:32.17), and Victoria Barnaby (11:42.32) and Dee Clark (13:00.25) made very successful steeple debuts. Dee led the pack early, and ran a strong race throughout. Victoria moved up through the race, and her time was better than every college runner, just a half-second behind a New Balance athlete in second, and only :12 seconds behind first place. What an incredible first-time race! After the race, a visibly excited Barnaby was overheard saying that she's found her race. (And to put it in perspective -- this time was just :30 second off the D-II and D-III nationals provisional qualifiers!).

In other barrier-related results, the ageless wonder Dave Cahill was 4th in the 400m hurdles in 56.91, while yours truly was a few places behind in 58.03. Earlier in the day I managed a 15.61 for the 110 hurdles, employing good technical advice from Mike Servizio. Mike ran the 200m (27.16) was just a hair shy of breaking :27 and held off a charging Mass Velocity foe in the inside lane. Mike also won the prize for obtaining the "parking spot closest to the track" -- parking next to the starting line.

GBTC dominated the women's 5k. Allison McCabe ran away from the competition finishing first in 17:54.58. Liz Kelly was not far behind, finishing a strong third in 18:27.06. In the women's 1500m, Ronnesia Gaskins (4:56.12) out-kicked Tufts and took 4th.

At the triple jump pit, Erik Hoagland opened his season with a jump of 13.28m, good for second place. Charly Clerge opened up in the 400m with a 58.19. Also in the 400m, Andrew Guida clocked a 55.44, then came back to anchor the 4x400m (Cahill-Shen-Tirella-Guida) in a sub :54 run.

Full results are now available for both men and women.