Thursday, October 30, 2008

GLVC Champions


The Screaming Eagles made the most of their weekend in Rolla, Missouri, sweeping the men's and women's team titles in dominating fashion.

The men split an impressive 12.6 seconds for their top 5, taking places 3-4-5-6-8-9-11-15-16-20....that's 7 in the top 11 and 8 on the all-GLVC team (a new league record). All-GLVC members were Dustin Emerick (also the named the GLVC freshman of the year), Bryan Phillips, Brendan Devine, Brandon Campbell, David Goodman, Andrew Dixon, Sam Gebreselassie and Rob Roads. Not too shabby for a squad that had exactly zero GLVC Runner of the Week awards this fall.

The women kept things rolling right along, placing 6 on the all-GLVC squad and placing 10 runners in the top 21 en route to a 39-63 win over rival Wisconsin Parkside. Mary Ballinger finished 2nd in 20:59. Adrienne Curtis, Allie Shafer, Sarah Whiteman, Christy Dixon and Brittany Rutledge joined her on the all-GLVC squad.

Special mention goes to Kiel Lovekin and Lacy Williams, who both finished in a not-so-sweet 16th... one place from All-GLVC recognition (AAAGGGHHH....wait until next year!)

The team got right back to work on Sunday afternoon, logging an easy long run on the campus trails. On Tuesday the squads assembled at the IM Fields for our longest set of 800m reps all fall....8 for the women and 12 for the men. Not knowing what to expect on the heels of a hard effort Saturday, we were all greatly encouraged by the effort...as the men and women managed to run faster than the same workout 3 weeks prior (even with the additional 2 reps for each squad). All indications are that our best running is still ahead of us....as it should be.


Congratulations, team... I'm proud to be your coach.


Up next: 6 mile cutdown for the men/4m cutdown for the women on Friday. And then....


On to Big Rapids, MI

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

GLVC Week


On Saturday, the team trekked across town to compete in the UE Invitational.

The women ran very well behind Mary Ballinger's impressive frontrunning (1st, 17:18), finishing 2nd to Southern Illinois in a field of 22 teams. A tight chase pack continues to develop for the women, as Allie Shafer, Heather Beard, Adrienne Curtis, Sarah Whiteman and Holly Bartelt finished between 18:33-18:52.

The top 5 men ran a controlled effort for 4 miles before picking it up a bit over the final kilometer. Dustin Emerick, Bryan Phillips, David Goodman, Andrew Dixon, Brendan Devine, Brandon Campbell and Robert Roads split between 25:05 and 25:30 to lead the team to a strong 3rd place performance behind SIU and Belmont. Behind the front 7, Geb, Suarez, Lovekin and Z all finished under 26 minutes.

Congrats on a fine team effort, team!

The season starts Saturday...on to GLVC!

Thursday, October 16, 2008

RoHo behind us....on to UE


Tuesday's benchmark session, the "Michigan" (RoHo, Frasier...or whatever you want to call it) went exceptionally well. The weather was a bit warm and humid (84), but it was quite evident that most everyone showed up fully prepared to handle the session.

Here is how it breaks down:

2-3 mile warmup


(Rest is 90 second walk between everything)

1600m on track

6 minute tempo @ pace 40 seconds slower per mile than first 1600.

1200m (1000m for women) on track

6 min. tempo

800 m on track

6 min. tempo (no tempo for women)

600m on track


Men Summary:

14 men between 4:35-4:44 on the first 1600, all 28 in by 5:03. Instructions were to run no more than 1 sec per lap faster as the reps shortened. No problem....the front group stayed clustered the entire workout. The 2007 squad only managed to put 3 men in on the first 1600 under 4:40 (11 this time), and just 5 under 4:44 (13 Tuesday). Well done, men!


Women Summary:

Mary rolled through the firt 1600 in 5:14, and continued at the same clip throughout (3:15 1k, 2:35 800, 1:53 600). A pack of 6 ran between 5:28-35/3:23-28/2:37-47/2:05 in a group. All 15 women averaged 5:50 pace or better for the track portions of the workout. Great job, ladies. We are right on target


Next up:

UE Invitational on Saturday, October 18th


With 22 teams on the line and over 200 runners in each race, this will be nice "run through" prior the GLVC Championships on October 25th in Rolla, Missouri. Notable teams competing:

14 Division I teams represented. Southern Illinois, Belmont and Southern Indiana appear to be the top 3 men's teams in the men's field, with Southern Illinois, Southern Indiana and Murray State expected to be at the front of the women's race.
Objectives:
Split 1 second 1-5 for the men , 10 in 40 seconds
Average under 18 minutes for women's top 5, 7 under 18:25.



Tuesday, October 7, 2008

Louisville Classic



The Screaming Eagles enjoyed a succesful trip to the Louisville Cardinal Classsic on Saturday. The men were up first at 9:30am. The early start (that's 8:30am Evansville time) meant no early morning shakeout run, so the men opted for a 4.5 mile warmup. In a very strong and deep field, we managed to place 10th overall, averaging 25:16 for the top 5 (compared to 25:11 last year). The men hit the chute at 25:05 (Dixon), 25:07 (Z), 25:18 (Emerick), 25:18 (Grandpa Phillips), 25:34 (Roads), 25:37 (Devine), 25:40 (B), 25:53 (Badman), 26:01 (Hurricane Suarez), and 26:08 (McLovekin).

90 minutes later, our next 11 men (pictured, minus Andrew Duggan) put on a great display of the team's depth, as they finished 2nd out of 25 teams in the Blue Race, averaging 26:27 for the top 5. Geb and Menner did a great job at the front, running 25:54 and 26:01. The rest of the squad followed in 26:22 (Duggan), 26:52 (Kern), 27:06 (Nyboer), 27:14 (Kendrick), 27:26 (Latta), 27:31 (Delong), 27:38 (Camp), 28:24 (Clark) and 28:33 (Nona).

The women made a quantum jump from their performance at Louisville a year ago, when they averaged 19:14 for the top 5. This time around, the ladies went 17:27 (Mary - wow), 18:32 (Allie), 18:40 (Holly), 18:47 (Adrienne), 18:48 (Christy), 19:14 (Lacy), 19:37 (Marcia), 19:39 (Sarah B), 19:49 (Sarah W - if not for a side stitch likely would have finished in the 18:40's), and 20:08 (Jackie). 90 minutes later, the women would one-up the men as the 2nd squad finished 1st out of 22 teams in the Blue Race! Heather Beard (19:34), Lauren Crick (19:41), Allison Laird (19:56), Brittany Rutledge(19:56) packed nicely at the 1-4 spots, and Allie Baumer secured the win when she crossed in 20:49.

Next up for the Screaming Eagles: A long fartlek session and 7-10 x 800m this week, then RoHo and the UE Invite next week.

Thanks to all of you for running hard. A special thanks to Mary and Marcia for being so strong and courageous in the midst of difficult times. We are all proud of you.