Track or Mountain or Marathon

Over Memorial Day Weekend, and in addition to 28 marks at Saturday's Boston High Performance Series (Waltham, MA), club members painted the whole map Greater Boston red at:
the Wachusett Mountain Road Race (Princeton, MA),
the Fresh Pond Races (Cambridge, MA),
the Patriots Invitational (Clifton Park, NY),
the Boston's Run to Remember (Boston, MA),
the Great Hyannis Road Races (Hyannis, MA), and
the KeyBank Vermont City Marathon (Burlington, VT).

View Larger Map

[more...]

Boston High Performance #2

Victoria Barnaby makes a big splash on Saturday in Waltham
photo by GreaterSnap

From the 400m to the 5,000m in the Boston High Performance meet #2 GBTC was everywhere. Club record holder,Victoria Barnaby started the meet with a splashing steeplchase. Allison McCabe and Ronnesia Gaskins raced in the 1500 final event of the day. Many, many red uniforms raced.
Kit Wells ran his best 5,000m and Brennan Bonner and Dan Smith exchanged the lead in the windy afternoon race with a red menace of GBTC runners following.

The Red Menace hunt the lone Unicorn, Eric Greenspan, #140, Matt Haringa, #146, Brennan Bonner #97, Dan Smith, #2xx, and Kit Wells partly obscured by Brennan's manly shoulders, and Andrew Wommack, #2xx behind Haringa, and David Bedoya in invisble because he is wearing sunglasses. photo by GreaterSnap

full results:
http://www.bostonhighperformanceseries.com/2008/may_24_2008_results.html

[more...]

Boston High Performance#1

photo by GreaterSnap

Josh Seeherman followed by Jim Watts in the 800 on the Bentley College track at HP#1

An overwhelming number GBTC performances in this first meet of the series. GBTC swept the men's and women's 400. (Josette Pierre-Louis is GBTC but listed as unattached.) Allison McCabe took a bad fall in the 1500 but bounced up and gamely finished the race.


http://www.bostonhighperformanceseries.com/2008/may_18_2008_results.html

[more...]

New Balance Qualifying Championships (NYC)

(13.83, new club record, 13.55 is Olympic A standard;
Listen to all the GBTC folks who stuck around late into the night to cheer)

For the more than fifteen GBTC sprinters, hurdlers, jumpers, and throwers making the trip down to New York City on Saturday (5/10/08) , it was a day of season’s bests and quality opening marks. While no one was particularly thrilled with their races, most were happy with the progress and potential for improvement.

The meet was an afternoon affair in Icahn Stadium on Randall’s Island in NYC. It featured athletes from most of the region’s top clubs (U.S. Elite, Shore AC, Nike CPTC), as well as the nation’s 800m phenom Chanelle Price (2:03.20).

GBTC showed that it deserves its USATF designation as an Elite Development Club with several wins and top-three performances.

Sherita Williams (12.94m) dominated the triple jump, winning by two feet. Fellow jumper Ray Smith jumped 6.75m in the men’s long jump. Sticking with the jumps, Jen Harlow was fourth in the high jump (1.65m). Former GBTC-er (now in Maryland competing for U.S. Elite) Yesta Tuakli-Wosornu was second in the long jump.

Five athletes competing on Saturday may soon be representing their respective countries in international competition: Hector Cotto (Puerto Rico), Hafiz Greigre (Liberia), Kateema Riettie (Jamaica), Dacia Taylor (Jamaica), and Dee Murphy (Ireland).
In the 110 hurdles, Hector battled through a rough prelims, where he ended up tied for 8^th (but 9^th based on the thousandths place). After speaking with meet director Lauren Primerano (big thank you!), the meet officials allowed Hector run in the finals. Hector made the most of it, and clocked a 13.83, just .28 off the Olympics A-standard.

Kateema (53.34m), a member of the Jamaican national team, won the javelin by over 8 meters! She will continue to look for that Olympic qualifying throw in the coming months. Also in the javelin, Ashley Nyzio found the club, put on her uniform for the first time, and opened up with a javelin throw of 34.83m.

Dacia, training full time with Olympic aspirations, was second in the 100m (12.06). Dacia (24.41) and teammate Josette Pierre-Louis (25.75) were also at the top of the 200m prelims. Because the meet fell over an hour and a half behind, the finals of the 200m and the 4x400m were too late in the evening to wait for.

Stand-out sprinter Hafiz Greigre, a member of the Liberian national team, cruised to a victory in his 200m preliminary heat (21.49). Hafiz wore a GBTC jersey for the first time, and we hope he’ll wear it again as he tunes up for international competition.

Also going overseas soon for competition is Ireland’s second-ranked discus thrower Dee Murphy, who was second in the discus (39.09m).

Coach Callum’s Tuesday/Thursday group was all over the 400m. In their season 400m debuts, Tiera Fletcher was fourth (58.10) and Sara O’Brien eighth (59.75). On the men’s side, Christian Tirella (49.08), Matt Schiller (51.38), Andrew Guida (53.40), and Charly Clerge (57.73) all made their way around the oval.

Masters runners showed they weren’t quite ready to let the younger guys beat them. Wayne Burwell nursed a sore hamstring, and even after shutting it down at 60m, still qualified for the finals with a time of 11.34. Wayne will be a force this summer as the weather heats up. I competed in the two hurdles races, opening up with a season’s best in the 400m hurdles (56.76) and a decent race in the 110 hurdles (15.70). Both times should hopefully drop in the next month.

For those still reading, it’s worth noting that despite the meet running an hour and a half late, the weather getting colder with each minute, and a 4 hour drive back to Boston looming, GBTC’s athletes stuck together stayed until 9:30 pm to cheer for Hector in the finals of the 110 Hurdles. There are other clubs that can offer a few more dollars and some fancy shoes, but you won’t get better (and certainly not louder) teammates than those wearing the GBTC red.

You also won't find a more dynamic track announcing duo than Mike Rauh and Dennis Kornfield. If you've been to Icahn Stadium, you know the familiar, "Let's help to bring them home" down the home stretch. The two will make even the 8th heat of the 800m seem like the World Championships.

The sprinters will next be competing in some of the Boston High Performance meets, as well as the Developmental Meets we help to run on two Wednesdays at M.I.T.

Full Results:
http://www.icahnstadium.org/Results/NB%20Last%20Chance.htm

[more...]

Second Grand Prix of 2008, Nashua, NH

New GBTC member and first year med student at Harvard, Leslie Irvine; Sasha Lang, who played lacrosse for BU; and Theresa Kett. photo by GreaterSnap

Only 16 seconds separated the GBTC women's open team from the BAA, but it could have been much worse. Because of world complexities ranging from mother's day to international travel, many women who would have represented the club could not race. If a club fails to finish a full, scoring team, it gets no points. Only a miracle could get a club back into the hunt for first place. Fortunately a couple of new women and a couple who had not raced for a while came to the rescue so the women's team could remain viable in the New England Road Race Grand Prix for 2008.

Sasha Lang and Leslie Irvine joined recently and Theresa Kett and Christy Lyons, who had not raced lately, filled the void. The women's team placed third and is now also third in the year's scoring after the second race of the six-race series— a mere three points behind the BAA and Merrimack Valley Striders who are tied for first. Unfortunately Kett graduates from BU with a degree in economics and returns to her native home in the south of Germany.

The men's team, handicapped by Matt Haringa who missed the start by 11 minutes, placed only 5th. That leaves the men's team also in third place in the 2008 series. Andrew Wommack is back from injury as is Ryan Aschbrenner.

The next Grand Prix race is June 1 - a 5 km in Lincoln, RI.

full results: http://www.coolrunning.com/results/08/nh/May11_Medica_set1.shtml


Sara Donohue slipping past some big boys to lead the GBTC team to third.
photo by Ted Tyler www. coolrunning

The Medical Center 6k
Nashua, NH, May 11, 2008
USATFNE Grand Prix

1 18:20 4:55 Benjamin Ndaya RETAILERS UNION
8 18:52 5:04 Kibrom Temelso GREATER BOSTON TRACK CLUB
25 19:22 5:12 Andrew Wommack GREATER BOSTON TRACK CLUB
33 19:42 5:17 Dan Smith GREATER BOSTON TRACK CLUB
39 19:53 5:20 Ioannis Papadopoulos GREATER BOSTON TRACK CLUB
56 20:36 5:32 Junyong Pak GREATER BOSTON TRACK CLUB
58 20:38 5:32 Ryan Aschbrenner GREATER BOSTON TRACK CLUB
81 21:40 5:49 Matthew Lyons GREATER BOSTON TRACK CLUB
83 21:47 5:51 Bill Newsham GREATER BOSTON TRACK CLUB
85 21:50 5:52 Sara Donahue GREATER BOSTON TRACK CLUB
94 22:06 5:56 Allison McCabe GREATER BOSTON TRACK CLUB
100 22:25 6:01 Jennifer Lee GREATER BOSTON TRACK CLUB
125 23:12 6:14 Theresa Kett GREATER BOSTON TRACK CLUB
126 23:18 6:15 Tara Vance GREATER BOSTON TRACK CLUB
133 23:24 6:17 Sasha Lang GREATER BOSTON TRACK CLUB
144 23:49 6:24 Leslie Irvine GREATER BOSTON TRACK CLUB
159 24:09 6:29 Tom Derderian GREATER BOSTON TRACK CLUB
368 30:52 8:17 Christy Lyons GREATER BOSTON TRACK CLUB
371 31:01 8:19 Matthew Haringa GREATER BOSTON TRACK CLUB (chip time 11 mins faster)
608 finishers

[more...]

Penn & Brown - Video and Recap

This is a few days late, but here are some video links, as well as the stories behind the times at Penn Relays and Brown:

Women's Steeplechase at Brown (new club record!)

GBTC in Olympic Development Women’s 4x100m

GBTC A in Olympic Development Men’s 4x100m

GBTC B in Olympic Development Men’s 4x100m

GBTC A & B in Olympic Development Men’s 4x400m

***

Blessed with the best Penn Relays weather in recent memory, GBTC competed in three relays and one open event Friday (4/25) at the 114^th running of the Penn Relays. In the first race of the day, both men and women ran the 4x100m relay.

The women’s side featured Josette Pierre-Louis (All-American from UMass-Lowell) to Dacia Taylor (vying for a spot on the Jamaican Olympic team) to Tiera Fletcher (All-American from Villanova) to Natasha Rodney (a guest from Central Park Track Club). Their time of 50.44 was close to the club record time of 49.92.

The men raced two teams. The A team was composed of former Northeastern standout Christian Tirella, flanked by three of the old stand-bys (Cahill, Callum, and Shen). They made it around in 44.40. The B team was bolstered by two high school stars, Bryant Wang and Sean Kleeman running the first two legs. Andrew Guida and Matt Schiller took the baton the rest of the way, finishing in a strong 45.74.

Both 4x100m teams were happy with their times given they had no prior handoff practice. Sprint relays are always interesting for post-collegiate teams (the U.S. National team included) because there is frequently little time for handoff practice. In college and high school, you can devote multiple days a week exclusively to baton work. But when you’re only meeting twice a week, you have to focus on speed and conditioning during workouts. At Penn’s we rely on a mix of veteran experience (I and Dave Callum have done the third-fourth leg handoffs several years running) and a bit of good luck. We also recognize that the times we run could be a lot faster if we had the luxury of working out together every afternoon.

After the 4x100, GBTC cheered on Gary Snyder running in the 60+ Masters 100m dash (14.79), and then prepared for the final race of the day, the men’s 4x400m.

GBTC again raced two men’s teams, but shuffling the cards a bit, the A team was Tirella, Cahill, Shen, and Schiller, and the B team Kleeman, Wang, Binkley and Guida. The A team (3:22.93) placed second in their heat, and the B team competed to a quality 3:31.25 finish.

Capping off a very successful day, Friday night the team ate together as a group at Ruby Tuesday’s. Hopefully we will be doing the same thing this summer at Club Nationals, as this group has the makings to be a national contender.

***

Those not competing at Penn’s (and a couple of us who just couldn’t get enough) found themselves in Providence on Sunday for the Brown Springtime Invitational. While the weather (cold, drizzling) didn’t say “spring,” some of the performances certainly did.

As Tom has posted, Victoria Barnaby set a new record in the women’s steeplechase (11:22.03). In that race, however, the biggest PR drop actually belonged to Deanna Clark (12:20.89), who dropped 40 seconds! off her Northeastern time just a couple weeks earlier. Dee will now transition back down to the mid-distance 800m races, while Victoria will be looking for even faster times come summer. (And, in a shameless plug, both will continue to come to our Monday night hurdle/steeple training sessions – the fastest 90 minutes around. We always have room for more …)

In addition to club records, we saw a big personal best from Andrew Guida, dropping a 52.66 in the open 400m. Compared to the 55.44 two weeks, earlier, that’s nearly a three second drop!! It shows what consistent training over time can do (hint: if you’re not coming regularly to sprint practices, come back!) Andrew also went 24.08 in the 200m, where Mike Servizio also clocked a 27.78. With warmer weather, Mike (who once again found a sweet parking spot) will also be shaking free of injuries and bringing the time down.

At the start of the day, GBTC’s Jason Hewitt (10:52.56) and Matt Lyons (10:57.98) both beat their seed times and went sub-11:00 in the men’s steeple. 3,000m and a few water jumps would be enough for most, but both runners came back later in the meet for the 5k. Enjoying some surging, and even a little bump-and-run, the teammates worked together, with Matt finishing in 16:24.95 and Jason in 16:30.06.

Also early in the day, in the field events, Danny Colina was 4^th in the javelin with a throw of 53.00m.

In honor of the movie coming out this weekend, Jason should also win the meet’s Iron Man award for his willingness to run the 4x400m immediately after the 5k. As he crossed the line in the 5k, I literally pulled him off the track and gave him his hip number for our anchor leg. About 5 minutes later, he cranked out a 60. and finished off the Shen-Guida-Colina-Hewitt relay. Hats off also to Danny Colina for running (though be warned … you ran so well that you will be tapped again for the relay!).

The other club record set was Hector Cotto’s 110 HH (14.31). Hector, who is looking for a spot on the Puerto Rico Olympic team, will run much faster soon, and the club record will continue to drop. (You can check out his own analysis at: http://www.ricanhurdler.blogspot.com/). I ran the 110s, but didn’t turn out that fast of a performance (15.92). My 400 IH later in the day was a bit better (57.25), and will come around once the summer hits.

Despite the bad weather, Erik Hoagland was the top of the field in the long jump (7.05m), and second in the 100m (11.05). When Erik is united with our other top sprinters, we should have a very strong 4x100m team. Charly Clerge, who I talked to after the race while he was icing, spent the day trying to run through a nagging injury, but managed 13.03 in the 100m.

The women ran after the men, and we saw some good racing. In what she described as one of the most physical races (i.e. elbows, pushing) she’s run in, Ronnesia Gaskins pushed through the crowd for a 4:49.78 1500m. Jessica Klett made her debut in the 400m hurdles (1:09.16). It was an excellent time for coming back to the hurdles after years away. (And that final 150m surely felt just as tough as it always has!)

Making season debuts were Jen Hawkes placing 4^th in the high jump (1.60m) and Deirdre Murphy placing third in the discus (39.44m). Both had to sit around and try to stay warm for a long time, as the men’s meet was delayed. Diane Williams represented the club for the first time, and completed a throwing trifecta: shot put (11.32m), discus (36.43m), and hammer throw (37.84m).

Congratulations to the throwers, jumpers, hurdlers, steeplers, and sprinters who made Penn and Brown a great success. Mark your calendars … we’re just 6 weeks from New Englands, 8 weeks away from Regionals, and 11 weeks away from Club Nationals on July 18-19 in Kansas.

For detailed results click on "more".


Penn Relays, April 25-27
Women
Olympic Development 5k
26 Allison McCabe Greater Boston TC 17:35.03

Olympic Development 4 x 100m, section 1
6 Greater Boston TC 50.44

Men
Olympic Development 4 x 100m, section 2
8 Greater Boston TC A 44.40
Olympic Development 4 x 100m, section 3
4 Greater Boston TC B 45.74

Olympic Development 4 x 400m, section 2
2 Greater Boston TC A 3:22.93
(Christian Tirella, David Cahill, Francis Shen, Matt Schiller)
7 Greater Boston TC B 3:31.25 2
==================

Brown Invitational, April 27
Men 110 Meter Hurdles

1 Hector Cotto GBTC 14.31

Men Long Jump
1 Erik Hoagland GBTC 7.05m (23-01.75)

Men 100 Meter Dash
2 Erik Hoagland GBTC 11.05
22 Charly Clerge GBTC 13.03

Men 3000 Meter Steeplechase
7 Jason Hewitt GBTC 10:52.56
8 Matt Lyons GBTC 10:57.98

Men 400 Meter Hurdles
7 Francis Shen GBTC 57.25 2

Men 400 Meter Dash
18 Andrew Guida GBTC 52.66 5

Men 5000 Meter Run
12 Matt Lyons GBTC 16:24.95
13 Jason Hewitt GBTC 16:30.06

Javelin
4 Daniel Colina GBTC 53.00m 173-11

women
1500
12 Ronnesia Gaskins GBTC 4:49.78

400 hurdles
8 Jessica Klett GBTC 1:09.16

3000 Meter Steeplechase
1 Victoria Barnaby GBTC 11:22.03
9 Deanna Clark GBTC 12:20.89

high jump
4 Jennifer Hawkes GBTC 1.60m 5-03.00

Shot
9 Diane Wiliamms GBTC 11.32m 37-01.75

Discus
3 Dierdre Murphy GBTC 39.44m 129-05

[more...]