Impressions from the Penn Relays

[sebastianc]

One of the more exciting moments was the finish of the Girls’ 4x100 when the anchor from Long Beach Poly took the stick in about fourth and ran down three teams from Jamaica. Impressive.

Forget all of this excitement about the Women’s DMR. That was a gift from Oregon and Lananna. Oregon is like a major league club and VU is a minor league (AAA at best). Oregon women dominated the field without Jordan Hasay. Think about that one for a moment. Have no idea why Oregon did not enter the Womens’ DR. They probably would have won. Met a couple of the young women (Anne Kesselring) from Oregon outside the stadium, Saturday, after the races. Really nice people.

Lipari came up small in the women’s 4x1500. She had very little and was running all over the track. Race was lost on the second leg. Mimic is so-so. Expected more.

Akande is a real surprise. Congratulations to the VU staff for “discovering” her.

McEntee did not bring his “A” game in the DMR. He was in a position to do something. Did not run an intelligent race and had little at the end.

Princeton won the DMR and the 4 x Mile without their best team. Peter Callahan was not there. Think about this for a moment or two. Plus it does not bode well for recruiting. If you are kid from the East ? think Ben Malone or Ed Cheserek or … - and you are a very good student and you are an outstanding runner, where do you go? Villanova? Forget it. They have a better team at Princeton and better middle distance relays at Columbia and Cornell. And if you are not a great student, you go to Penn State. So why go to Villanova?

Alex Reber (Cherry Hill East)? Big and strong, but is not the answer at 400. Running style is lumbering and need smoothing out, but may just not have enough speed.

Those "boys" from Jamaica are grown men. Just look at them physically. Explains some of the exceptional times.

The men and women need to recruit a whole lot better. No speed. Men are hurting at 400. Brian Murphy should not have been in that race (DMR). Not ready for prime time.

Most exciting VU race for Friday and Saturday was Men’s 4x800. Problem was McEntee and Tetreault ran as well as they could, but they are not 800 men. Fitzsimons ran hard, but he is not yet in shape (ran better in HS). Ellison just is not strong enough yet. Still like him a lot. VU needs 400 and 800 men with talent desperately. And another stud miler. Denault is not the answer. Lacks speed. In other words, the men need an awful lot.

Ben Malone did not win, but is very good.

Warnick is a smooth runner, but is not a 3000 man.

Piccirillo beat Ajee Wilson, but not Mary Cain. Nothing wrong in that. Cain is exceptional. Be nice if VU could get Cain (she is a soph), but I dooubt it. Bronxville produces good students. She will probably go to Princeton or Harvard.

My take away from this weekend is that VU is close to becoming irrelevant in track & field. That is unfortunate and also sad, but ...

 

[novaclassof90]

seb, I would disagree with you on the "irrelevant" comment. Most of the Nova men you mentioned are either frosh or soph, they should improve. I think you are poo-pooing Mimic and Lipari. To me, Mimic is more of a 5K runner than 1500 so she doesn't help much at Penns. Lipari has run some fast times, like last week out at Mt. Sac.

Villanova is never going to be the Nova of the 1950-1970s again, but they can still be relevant.

Reid is a super talent and will be missed big time. Oregon is Oregon, that have a lot of advantages (even more tradition than us, state school so partial schollies are much easier to do, and much better facilities).

 

[TheFoyeEffect]

I'm scratching my head at this. Maybe it's because I'm young and I don't remember when Villanova was a power, but this is some real undue negativity after a pretty solid Penn Relays. Rob Denault has run two collegiate races, and Reber split 47.5 by himself early in the day. Form doesn't matter if you can run fast, Michael Johnson proved that when he ran 19.32 and 43.18.

Villanova has good coaches and fantastic connections in one of the more fertile breeding grounds for runners in the world (Oceania). Lighten up a little bit.

 

[whitecat]

The FoyeEffect,

This has been an interesting dialogue, of course times are different when
the Ivies and big state schools are involved. They didn't announce Reber's anchor time if I heard correctly, but he is strong. Will there be two studs
come out of the freshman class as did Nikki. Her progress has been amazing.

This might have been my last trip down for Penn; I will be past seventy seven years of age next season, and the drive is long. But I did see the high school where I taught for thirty five years come from last after two legs to grab a fifth in their race. Our anchor who must have run sub 50 is only a soph.

What has happened to Margey? Shelia joins the greats of Norwich runners.
She is at the highest rankings of student athletes.at VU. She is class in all the things that matter.

 

[novaclassof90]

Foye, 47.5 is a nice time, but PSU's anchor (Gehret from Altoona)ran 45 flat on their team that went 3:04 and change. To make it even worse, all 4 PSU 400M guys were from PA, 2 from Altoona and 2 from Cheltenham.

Nova's emphasis on middle distanc/distance runners means they'll never have a blazing 4x400 team but they will always need 1 good 400M for the DMR.

All in all, Nova had a decent meet. The men need a hammer on anchor for the DMR, maybe 1 of the young guys will develop into one.

 

[TheFoyeEffect]

The 400 leg is easily the least important on the DMR. Sam McEntee closed in 55 seconds indoors at NCAA nationals. Villanova will be fine.

 

[excattyguy]

I have to disagree with the DMR "gift" comment. If you compare the times of the first three Nova legs, they are close to the 1988 national, Penn, and Villanova records. With Reid as an anchor, there is no way Oregon had anyone who could have beaten her, including Hasay.

The reason Oregon gives for not running the DMR is that their 400 runner was unavailable and they did not have another 400 runner. I don't buy that. Their coaches can look at times as well as I can. They saw the race would come down to the anchor leg and that they had very little chance.

They also knew that they had too much firepower for anyone to handle in the 4x1500 and 4x800. They knew those races would not even be close. That would give them two runaway victories, not tainted by a loss in the DMR. It just looked better handled the way they handled it. It was smart of their coaches to do what they did.

I'm not arguing that Nova has the stable of runners that Oregon has. That would be ridiculous. I'm saying that in the DMR this year, Nova had the best team.

When Lipari ran the 4:17, I figured she would hold her own on the opening leg. Akande's last 800 told me she could go 2:05 or better, which she did. Verdier's 400's suggested she could run 53 or better, which she did.

I do think Nova needs to recruit one or two more runners. I hope there is something going on the international scene.