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

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!

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

Directions to the course: http://gopurpleaces.com/documents/2008/8/11/Map-To-UECC-Course.pdf?id=240

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.

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.

Dogtown Tempo

Yesterday afternoon the team boarded vans and headed south to the Ohio River bottoms for a 4m-5m progressive threshold run. The men were divided into 2 groups - one starting @ 5:40 and the 2nd starting @ 5:30. The women started at 6:20 for the front group and 6:30 for the 2nd. We were blessed with a slight tailwind which was probably negated by the 83 degree day, but in all fairness....we did get a little push.

The men's front group hit the first half mile in a slowish 2:50, then quickly corrected the pace and rolled nicely from there. After a mile split of 5:33 and a 2 mile split of 10:47, the men finished in 25:58, 25:58, 26:03, 26:11, 26:22, 26:22, 26:30, 26:38, 26:39, 26:41, 26:43 for the first 11 in. The surprise of the day had to be John Latta, who ran a very solid 21:34 for 4 after a 5:40 opening mile.

The women looked very comfortable hitting their splits on their 3-4m tempo....the 3 group ran 19:02, 19:25, 19:25, 19:40, while the 4m group ran 24:12, 24:30, 24:46, 25:27, 25:27, 25:36, 25:43, 25:44, 25:51 and 26:02. Most of the women managed to close the last mile between 5:40-6:10.

Great job, Eagles. Another solid week of training under our belts.....next week: Mile Repeats and the Louisville Cardinal Classic.

Tuesday, September 9th:

Workout:

Women:

12 x 400m @ 77-82, reps 8, 11 @ 5-7 seconds faster.

Rest: 2:40 cycle

The women appear to be recovered well from Saturday's long session. They cruised through today's menu, hitting splits consistently and bouncing right back into their previous rhythm comfortably after each hammer rep. Congrats on a great session, ladies. Well done.

Men:

16 x 400m @ 67-69 for group A, 70-72 for group B w/ 8-11-15 @ 5-7 seconds faster.

Rest: 2:20 cycle for group A, 2:25 for group B.

The men looked very controlled throughout the session, as group 1 cruised through each rep around 68 seconds then dropped to 60-64 for reps 8-11-15. Group 2 looked just as strong, running 70-71's throughout with hammer intervals in the 64-68 range. Congrats an a well-executed session, men. We appear to be right on schedule!

Up Next: 3.5-4m tempo on Friday.

Tunnel Hill / Garden of the Gods

Our annual trip to Tunnel Hill and Garden of the Gods got off to a fantastic start when we awoke to cool, ideal conditions. Before a picnic lunch and sightseeing at Garden of the Gods, there was work to be done. The men's workout consisted of 2-3 x 3 miles @ threshold, while the women were to run 2 x 3 miles @ threshold. The men's front group managed to run their segments in 16:25-16:00-15:53 , while the women managed to run 2 x 3 miles at a much faster pace then they were able to manage 2 x 2 miles the previous year. Up next: 12-16 x 400m on Tuesday!