Macnider Invite Highlights

This week started with continued warm temperatures, and a great workout on Wednesday. But Friday morning the weather cooled and with it came a great opportunity to race Saturday morning at the Macnider Invite at Harper College.  Here are a few highlights from the meet:

1. MANY. PRs!

25 of 31 ran season PRs! (22 of the 25 were lifetime PRs)

Noah Franceschini breaks through, the senior not only broke 26 for the first time, he also broke 25 for the first time. Running at 1:44 PR! That is a huge PR for a senior! Way to go Noah!

Chris Cockrell is another senior who had a big breakthrough. Chris ran 20:54 as a sophomore but has dealt with some injuries the past two years. Chris has been incredibly persistent and smart with his training this season, with a mix of cross training and running. Today Chris ran 20:33 for a lifetime PR.

Vince Franco was this week’s Runner of the Week, he had big breakthrough last week running a 26 second lifetime PR of 19:00, today he brought that down even further to 18:48.

Alix Awalt had another great race. Alix’s PR last year was 24:03. Today, Alix broke 21! 20:57 is a great run for Alix.

Noah, Chris, Vince and Alix are perfect examples of this sport Be smart, be consistent, and enjoy the moment. All four have done that on this team and the results can speak for themselves.

The Seniors were not the only group that did work at Harper College. The frosh brought their A game as well.

Aaron Wyckoff, Paul De Avila, Cam Mulyk, Mike Forbear, and Alex Rojo all got the nod to race Varsity on Saturday and the moment wasn’t too big for any of them. Aaron (17:29), Pauly D (17:38), Cam (17:39)  and Mike (17:40) all ran PRs and displayed maturity of pacing and pack running well beyond their freshman classification. Alex ran a gutsy race getting out very aggressive and fighting to the finish.

Jacob Obman and Jayson Matula have been incredibly consistent with their splits. Jayson got out more aggressive today and it resulted in a new PR (19:36) and Jacob got buried early and then went on to pass about 100 people the second half the race with splits of 6:35, 6:38, 6:12 to run 19:24.

This week one of the things we have talked about is being willing to give yourself a chance to run a strong race, and Henry Matson took at chance and it paid off, he got out fast and kept it rolling to run a PR and break 21 for the first time (20:53).

Peyton Martin brought a big finishing kick to run a 5 minute PR, Hunter Porn lost a shoe 10 feet before the line but that didn’t stop him from PRing. Justin Irizarry PR, Kyle Schick 1^st Penguin Award Winner PR, Nathan Weyer PR, Johnny Gould PR, Diego Herrera PR, EJ Brotarlo PR, Alex Ruiz PR, Patrick Kacena PR, Nick Ruiz season PR., and Christian Reun season PR

Dean Eubanks has been sick and Colin Graefen dealing with some nagging shin issues have both been set back a bit in recent weeks, but both took big steps forward today in showing that they are getting back to the racing shape that we know they have. Watch out for them in the coming weeks.

Austin Emrath was 5 seconds off his PR, but led us again as our top finisher. He was followed closely by Ryan Bonomo who set a lifetime PR and showed some serious toughness.

Saturday was a great day, but it is just a step in the direction that the team is heading. We are focused on our goals and the work that needs to be put in, we are persistent is getting the work in, and we are all in on the idea of continual improvement, Kaizen!