Richard Spring Recap
Sunday, September 19 2021 - Richard Spring InvitationalTo be back at Detweiler after two years away was a great reminder of the joys of this sport. A chance to race against 500+ competitors in a race is a very unique experience. The first race of that size and magnitude brings some new and interest challenges (not to mention the 80 plus degree heat with the sn beating down on the course all day).
The varsity crew got things started off with a good team performance. Dealing with some athletes not feeling their best impacted the team in small ways, but everyone ran well and competed at a high level. Mike Forbear led the way running a 10 second lifetime best. Paul De Avila led the guys through the mile and Mike took over just after halfway to run a great race. Paul hung tough to run a season best 16:01. Aaron Wyckoff had a strong second half to move up nicely and in the process provided a nice second half of the race lift for Cam Mulyk he ran his toughest race of the season. Cam ran with a grit we have not seen before, a great sign for the future. The two sophomores in the race (never in a race of that size) did not fold in the moment. They battle some injuries and feeling a bit off to still run their second best times ever. As a team we finished 20th out of 61 teams, which is a 14 place improvement since last time we raced at Richard Spring.
Arnold Arce led the frosh/soph crew with yet another PR (17:41). The other big highlight from the frosh/soph crew was Brogan Terry with a 34 second PR. The rest of the guys did a great job of running for their team, Raymond Churchill and Ubaldo Rodriguez used great team running to compete very well.
The open race had a strong pack mentality. Jayson Matula (who earned the First Penguin) got out like gangbusters to run a 1 mile PR and then kept battling to run a season but and just 10 seconds off a lifetime PR. Jason Zigmant also ran a strong race with a 10 second PR. Patrick Kacena ran a season best and just dipped under 18 minutes. Luke Konow had a great race to break the 20 minute barrier for the first time in his career. Logan Brandon had the biggest PR of the day chopping over 3 minutes off his PR. Justin Matula also produced a 6 second PR.
The guys are back in action on Saturday at The Macnider Invite.