NCAC Indoor Championships

A trio of competitors kicked off the 2012 NCAC Indoor Track & Field Championships for Allegheny as this year's iteration of the indoor conference meet began a week before the rest of the meet with the heptathlon. Hill finished third in the 60-meter dash with a time of 7.36 to spark a strong start for the Blue and Gold. Taggart split 7.69 in a tightly-contested fourth heat while finishing 11th overall in the event. Ordines capped the opening event with a time of 8.15.

Zach Hill

Hill followed up the good start with a fourth-place finish in the long jump (20'4.25”) while delivering his best leap on his last attempt. Taggart's top effort covered a distance of 19'9” to place seventh and Ordines finished 11th with a jump of 18'3.25”. Ordines made a move for the Gators in the shot put, pacing Allegheny's contingent with a fifth-place throw of 32'8.5”. Taggart (30'4.75”) and Hill (29'8.25”) finished 12th and 13th, respectively, but less than one hundred points was lost in their chase of the lead pack.

The opening day of the heptathlon championship concluded with the high jump. Allegheny flexed its muscle in the event by placing all three competitors in the top six, including a tie for first by Taggart, who cleared a meet-best 6'2” on his first attempt. Ordines jumped 5'10.5” on his last attempt to secure third overall, while Hill closed in sixth after clearing 5'7”.

Zach Hill finished fifth overall in the two-day heptathlon. Hill entered the day sixth in the individual standings, but moved up the rankings with a fourth-place finish in the last event of the competition. The first-year team member ran 2:52.71 in the 1,000-meter run to orchestrate a 350-point swing against OWU's Erik Wall. He also finished eighth in the 60-meter hurdles with a time of 9.58 and 10th in the pole vault with a clear of 9'7.25”. Hill finished with a personal-record total of 4,062. Although they were kept out of the scoring, rookies Nathan Taggart and Taylor Ordines also pieced together solid first-time efforts in the seven-event competition.

Taggart opened the day with a fourth-place finish in the hurdles, shooting out of the blocks en route to a personal-record of 9.12. Taggart was unable to maintain the strong start through the final two events while falling to ninth overall with a score of 3,893. Ordines finished 13th in the competition with a total of 3,534. He closed 10th overall in both the hurdles and pole vault.

Senior Lauren Butler and junior Bobby Over captured individual titles at the 2012 NCAC Indoor Track & Field Championships, sparking a strong performance for the Gators on the first day of the meet. Butler delivered a pedestrian performance in the shot put, but only needed her first throw to distinguish herself from the field. Winning the shot with a mark of 40'4.75”, Butler etched her name into the annals of NCAC lore by winning the event for the fourth consecutive season. She is currently ranked 17th in the nation in the event as she looks to make a repeat trip to the NCAA Championships.

Junior distance standout Bobby Over fueled the men's team on Friday after breaking the tape in a tightly-contested 5,000-meter run. The pace was unsurprisingly slow at the start of the race, while Over asserted himself in the lead pack from the opening gun. Holding off a strong charge by Wabash senior Brian David, Over finished the race in 15:13.62 en route to his first league crown. The Gators picked up 15 points in the 5k as senior Patrick McLaughlin finished sixth and junior Kevin Edwards was awarded seventh. The Allegheny tandem produced the exact same time (15:24.93), while finishing two one-hundredths of a second behind DePauw's Noah Droody.

Freshman Ashley Krause gave the women's unit an unexpected boost with a second-place effort in the triple jump. Krause's last attempt of 33'7.25” fell just short of conference gold, but served as the Gators' first points of the 2012 Championship.

On the men's side, a pair of solid performances triggered more points in the team race. It took all six jumps for rookie Taylor Ordines to manufacture a personal best, but his final leap of the competition covered 41'5.75” and resulted in a fifth-place finish. Zach Hill jumped two seeds en route to sixth in the triple jump. His last two jumps were both strong as he delivered a PR of 40'9.75”.

Sophomore Kristina Martin finished seventh overall in the 5,000m with a time of 18:40.89 while freshman Andy Sharfman finished just outside of the scoring in 18:58.59.

Senior Taylor Throckmorton cruised to a victory in the prelims of the men's 400m, splitting 50.15 to produce the second-fastest time during the qualifying rounds. Throck also coasted in the prelims of the 200m, piecing together the fourth-fastest performance of the day with a time of 22.81.

Sarah Moss

Sophomore Sarah Moss earned All-Conference honors in three different events to lead Allegheny at the 2012 NCAC Indoor Track & Field Championships. Senior Lauren Butler was Named NCAC Field Athlete of the Year for the third consecutive campaign.

Moss began her day with a third-place finish in the high jump (4'11”), but her effort on the track was more impressive. After logging a personal best in the 60-meter hurdles to snag the final spot during Friday's prelims, Moss delivered a fantastic result in the championship final after finishing third with a time of 9.70. She capped her break-out day by closing second overall in the 400m behind another new personal best (1:00.65).

Outside of Moss, the Gators received the rest of their firepower in the weight. Senior Lauren Butler, who made conference history on Friday by winning her fourth consecutive shot put title, finished second in the weight with a throw of 44'4”.  Although Butler paced Allegheny's throwing contingent, freshman Alexa Mochan provided the meet's biggest surprise. Mochan unleashed an enormous personal best while grabbing a surprising third in the weight with a mark of 43'4.25.” The result marked the fourth-best performance ever in the event by an Allegheny athlete.  Tova Feinberg also picked up a point for the Blue and Gold after finishing eighth in the event with a toss of 41'0.5”.

Lauren Butler and Taylor Throckmorton

Senior Taylor Throckmorton set the conference record in the 400-meter dash to lead a strong performance by Allegheny on the last day of the NCAC Indoor Championships. Throckmorton was named NCAC Sprinter/Hurdler of the Year and the Gators finished third overall.  Taylor split 49.32 in the open quarter, holding off Ohio Wesleyan's Ethan Freet (49.59) in a fantastic finish en route to his first individual league crown . Both competitors eclipsed one of the conference's oldest records which had stood since 1999.  Throckmorton settled for runner-up honors in the 200m in another tight final. Silas Jolliff broke the tape with a time of 22.42, while Throckmorton finished just back in 22.47.  Taylor also anchored Allegheny's fourth-place 4x400-meter relay, which included Zach Hill, Mike Vlah, and Asher Sells running to a time of 3:31.02. He finished a great all-around day with a fourth-place finish in the long jump (20'10.75”) and extended his career All-Conference total to 13 honors.

Bobby Over emerged out a congested 5,000-meter final on Friday with his first league title and pieced together another strong effort in the 3,000m on Saturday. Denison All-American Makorodondo Salukombo made up for a second-place finish in the mile to pull away from Over late in a race that featured on the meet's deepest fields. Salukombo knocked Allegheny's Ryan Place from the league records books after splitting 8:33.45 while Over finished second for the Gators in 8:39.63. Although they finished outside of the scoring, Kevin Edwards (8:59.73) and Patrick McLaughlin (9:00.31) battled hard as well.

Michael Petro

The 3k wasn't the only event on Saturday to eliminate a former Gator from the top of the league's all-time charts. Tony Dipre's 2010 record in the mile fell as Wabash's Kevin McCarthy blasted away from the pack en route to a time of 4:10.46. Junior Mike Vlah established an indoor PR with a clip of 4:20.76 to finish eighth in the race.

Other notable performances came from rookie Nathan Taggart, who finished sixth in the high jump (5'10.75”) and freshman Michael Petro, who finished ninth overall in the weight behind a huge personal best (41'1.5”).

Freshman Perspective (Ashley Krause)

It has been awhile since our last post for the ACTF/XC blog and I thought it would be nice for one of our freshmen standouts Ashley Krause to write a post on how her year has been so far. So, hailing from Mars Area, PA, our All-Conference Triple Jumper.

Being a freshman in college, I thought that college track was going to be so much harder than high school track, and that it would consume all of my time here on campus.  While yes, the practices are harder, it is also a very rewarding feeling once you have a meet and realize that your times are dropping, your jump distances are increasing, or your throws are going farther.  Coming into the track season this year, I knew I wanted to long jump and sprint.  However, at our Indoor Championships, my coaches entered me into triple jump which I have not done in two years.  I was glad they did this because I ended up placing second in the meet.  Throughout practices, sometimes I feel like I might not be able to finish them on my own.  But Dominique Billingslea is always right there by my side keeping my spirits up and allowing me to gain that energy I need to finish.  She had competed this weekend at Washington and Jefferson, achieving a personal record in the 400 m dash with a time of 63.45 s, finishing with a third place overall.  Sarah Moss also had a great day at Washington and Jefferson, where she had tied for first place with a height of 5'4.25.  Everyone is so encouraging on this team towards each other, during practices and at meets.  I love being part of a team where they're not just your teammates, they're family.

National Championship and 2011 Season Wrap Up

Men’s Team

What an amazing season we had in 2011. Our team largely operated as a dark horse for most of the season proving at each meet that we belonged at the national championship in Oshkosh, WI. With great leadership from our upperclassmen, key transfer students bolstering our roster, and some outstanding performances from freshmen and developing underclassmen we are continuing the excellent tradition that has been made here for our men’s team.

Senior Pat McLaughlin

Without a doubt this was one of the most fun seasons I have ever been a part of. It is truly a life altering experience to be around a group of people that are focused on becoming better. Pat McLaughlin, our lone senior in the top 7, had the season of his college career. He was a solid performer all season long and ran his second best performance of the season at the national championship.  I couldn’t be more proud of Pat for all the work he puts in to his running and am even more impressed with all of the little things pat does off the course to prepare for race day. Our team will definitely miss him next year but with freshmen standouts Alex Simon and James Rynes working hard to improve I believe we will be back at NCAA’s next Fall.

It makes me feel good as a coach to know that our team can foster growth in its freshman enough so that they can earn their spots at the national meet. I was surprised as any to find two freshmen in the top seven who made a staggering amount of progress in one season in large part due to the competitive nature of the team and our leaders on it. These men are perfect examples of “putting the hard work in and getting great results out.”

All-American Bobby Over

Also new to the ACXC program this year were Bobby Over and Kevin Edwards. These guys made such a positive impact to the culture this year here at Allegheny. Each day they put in the effort to earn their spots on top of the team. Bobby, Mid-East Regional Champion & All-American, was only the second Allegheny runner ever to win a regional title. While also serving as an office assistant for the team Bobby has impacted almost every facet of our program here and I am truly grateful.  Kevin’s continual competitive nature and addiction to finding the “best wings in Meadville” attitude has made the team come together and keep the worries of competition at bay all season long. 

The last group of the nationals crew, Mike Vlah and Jack Denison, played such a crucial part of our squad almost every single race we have been in during 2011. As the 4 and 5 man for most of the season a ton of pressure was added to these guys and they have all the respect in the world from me for it. It is not easy to ask a guy who has improved his time by almost two and a half minuets to race faster than he ever has at each meet but we did from Jack. He handled the pressure about as well as anyone could have and finished his season with his second best race at 8k ever.

As happy as I was about our top 7 guys achieving a 24^th place finish at the National Championship this I was equally encouraged by the men that didn’t have the opportunity to run at the meet. Seniors Jack Conant and Greg Eyer fought tooth and nail at every meet to be in the top 7 and I credit their efforts to helping our freshmen progress and making our 5-7 men tougher. A staggering amount of progress was made this year by returning men Tom DeAcentis, Evan Breitsch, and Lance Claflin. You guys are playing an important role in the future success of ACXC. I am looking forward to seeing all of you battle next year for top 7 spots. In almost every season the injury/illness bug bites some people and our few guys Don, Brennan, and Ray pulled the short straw this year. However, unlike most people who would just throw their season away each of these guys battled their very best to comeback. Pool workouts, relentless months of boring easy runs, slow intervals, and having to rest are all things straight out of an endurance athlete’s nightmare, and each of these guys made it though becoming better for it and some gaining knowledge of how to best approach a season in the future.

I just want to thank all of you guys for an incredible season this year. It is seasons like these that fuel me to become a better coach and make me love the sport even more. I am looking forward to the 2012 season and many more Wing Nights.

Women’s Team

Kristina Martin

What a crazy ride the 2011 season had in store for our ladies team. Amidst injury and illness we came out on top in our season with a higher finish in the Mid-East region, Academic All-American accolades, and had our first women competitor at the NCAA championships in 5 years! You ladies made it extremely easy to come to work each day with your lighthearted/easy going attitude and strong determination to get better. At times I know it was rough making it through some meets but we are better for it. You ladies didn’t look at any of the negatives around you and continued with the season knowing everything was going to be OK.

It was a fantastic year for dominating performances and story book comebacks. Kristina Martin, you killed it all year! It would be tough to find another sophomore with a consistent dominating year as you have had in 2011. Your incredible work ethic and strength are going to continue being your best assets as we get you to the NCAA Track Championships this Spring. Fantastic job making to XC NCAA’s and competing in your first national race. While you may not have gotten the results you wanted I can assure you that you will never forget your first shot at the big show!

Kelly and Suzanna your comebacks are inspirational. I know being hit with the injury/illness bug is the worst thing that can happen to you during a season but you made me proud to be your coach the way you to made it back for the post season. All of the pool workouts were worth it ladies. Congrats Kelly on your best finish at the NCAA Regional meet in your career! You leadership was invaluable this year. Way to show the ladies that hard work pays off.

The freshmen crew! Alex, Andy, and Marissa: Thank you so much for infecting this team with laughter and your hard efforts this Fall. You guys made each day enjoyable and your performances this year were awesome. You are going to help bring this team back to the NCAA meet! With ladies like you our future is looking great.

Our lone senior Amber Wetzel: You will be extremely missed. My biggest regret of the season will be not being able to convince you to run Track in the spring! Your calm and collected attitude before races helped all of the ladies this year and your solid performances help get our team back in the top 10 in the region. Thank you for an incredible four years of hard work. We will never forget you or your parkour skills. 

Some of the team who made the trip to Nationals

Ladies, I will never be able to thank you enough for the laughs and letting me be your running partner. I can't wait to hit the roads with you in 2012.

Post Season - (NCAC/NCAA)

Few times during the season are as exciting as the post season. It is where all of our team goals and dreams lead to. Now we are entering our final week of workouts and easy runs as we prepare to once again compete at the NCAA national championship. This will be the 7^th consecutive season for the men and the 1^st year in 5 for a women’s team member to step back onto the national course. It is a testament to the rich history and tradition our XC teams have to bring 9 team members to the D3 Championship meet.

NCAC

Our first stop in the post season was the North Coast Atlantic Conference Championships. The women’s race kicked off at 11:00am and held some great surprises for the lady Gator’s. Sophomore Kristina Martin had a personal best of 22:25 for the 6k enroute to a 4^th place finish. Each of the ladies ahead of Kristina will also be competing individually at the NCAA Championship meet. Junior Kelly Gallagher for the second race in a row improved her time of 23:34 on the course. After an uphill battle with anemia for the majority of the season, Kelly showed that she was still strong enough to be top conference competitor. Just this week Captain Gallagher completed her season on a positive note finishing higher in the Mid-East region than she ever has before.

Senior Amber Wetzel

Before the men’s race started, we knew we had our work cut out for us. Finishing second to a nationally strong Wabash College, our men battled to come within 12 points of the Little Giants. A strong pair of performances from Kevin Edwards and Pat McLaughlin and freshmen standouts Alex Simon and James Rynes kept the race close. Although Wabash succeeded in snapping a 7 year championship streak we have already made it a priority to bring home the hardware again next year as we will be returning 6 of our top 7 runners.

Freshmen Alex Simon and James Rynes

NCAA Regional Championship

The best feeling for a coach is when you see your athletes running their best when it matters the most. I couldn’t have imagined our races last Saturday going much better than it did. Our ladies race gave our team a buzz about the future and I think we realized that we are only one or two pieces away from bringing the whole team to the national championship. The men’s race shocked the region and the national polls. It hasn’t been a secret that I have had a chip on my shoulder all year about the lack of respect that has been shown to our men in the polls and our boys didn’t disappoint. While it is true we replaced some of the most talented runners in our program history, I have known all year that our team had the ability to improve upon our last season's performances.

Sophomore Kristina Martin

Kristina punched her first ticket to the national meet after a spectacular 15^th place finish. (7^th individual overall) With a time of 23:37 on a hilly course Kristina held of a charging Swarthmore runner to be the last lady from our region to make it to NCAA’s. It has been our hope all year that if our women’s team wasn’t selected to attend the national meet we would have some of the top ladies in the region competing for the individual spots in the NCAA race.  GO K-MART!!!

At the first mile I could tell Bobby was about to crush the competition. With a stellar pre-regional race/workout Bobby was prepared and ready for the awkward DeSales course. By mile two Bobby had solidified his position at the top of the pack. In a region that has 6 teams ranked nationally (2 in the top 5) we packed 3 runners into the top 11 finishers! It was exhilarating to hear all the talk about the Allegheny men near the finish line as people were watching us almost upset the #6 ranked team in the country at the time, Dickinson. The men are racing fast at the right time and the 26 weeks of prior training and thousands of miles ran by each individual is paying off for them.  I was about as proud as I have ever been to be the Head Coach of Allegheny XC that day. Congrats boys!! We are headed back to the big show and it is our time to shine! All of the hard work and mileage is paying off when it matters most.

Men's Regional Team and Head Coach Brent Wilkerson

Pre Regional/Regional Rumble

The last 4 weeks of training and competition have flown by!  Our past two competitions have been extremely important for us as well. DeSales’ regional preview and Oberlin’s Inner Regional Rumble place a significant role in telling us as a program how we stack up against the nation’s best. While we didn’t come out of either competition with a win we have seen some incredible performances out of our packs. With two second place finishes from our men’s team and some great front running from our women’s team we can tell that the Gators are ready for NCAC’s.

Fall training in Meadville PA, has been fantastic. Even with the steady amount of rain the Mid-East has been receiving we have been fortunate to have Ernst Bike Trail for some great workouts. Every year I am amazed at our team’s ability to rise to each workouts task and perform at their best. With the academic rigor, late study nights, and pitching contests* college can become a little stressful and I am extremely impressed with how my guys and girls handle it. I love having a team that wants to be better runners and know what it takes to achieve their goals.

Both the Pre-Regional and Rumble were challenging races. DeSales’ course was rough to say the least and a bit warm. Our top men (Vlah, McLaughlin, Over, and Edwards) worked hard to pull some of their teammates early through the first 4k of the race. Once they hit 4k it was nothing but surge. Even though we were just out to preview the course and get a decent workout in some great things happened. Our top 3 guys all somehow worked their way back into the top 15 of the race, With Bobby almost winning the race finishing in 2^nd! More importantly, we saw a significant improvement from our 5^th to 10^th man.

While the Oberlin course has one of the fastest looking set ups we were unfortunate to run on a windy/moist day. The men finished second but I think it was an even more important and successful day for the Lady Gators. Kristina Martin continued with her amazing sophomore campaign and we saw the returning debut of both Kelly Gallagher and Suzanna Kearns. I have all the respect in the world for runners who battle with illness and injury to come back to fight for their teams. I believe those ladies would sacrifice anything for their team.

We are hungry and ready to prove who we are at the conference meet. I hope the other teams are ready for our Gator pack!

Freshman Andy Sharfman

*Our favorite German team member, Kevin Edwards, bet he could throw an 80 mph fast ball. So I pulled a few strings with our baseball coach Kelly Swiney to get him under the radar gun. Even with an impressive 74mph fast ball, Kevin failed. The loss of the bet resulted in him wearing his girlfriend’s tights at the next workout, in front of the whole football team…

Kevin Edwards & Bobby Over

Knight Invite!

What an unbelievable great day we had. In almost every occasion when a team goes to a meet there is something that could be better that you cannot control. A late start time, weather, bad course, or many other harsh conditions are things we as runners have to overcome on race day. It is part of the sport and a part of what makes cross country runners special in their ability to go beyond their obstacles and still achieve their goals. However, every once in a blue moon conditions are perfect for a cross country race.

In the men’s top 5 alone a total of six minutes and 54 seconds (6:54) was taken of their previous combined 8k personal records! Their performance alone was enough to stun me until I realized that our 6^th, 7^th, and 8^th man were right on their heels (Two of which were freshmen, James Rynes/Alex Simon). It is funny to think our men’s team has been quickly shoved into the “rebuilding” category in the country even giving our talent and consistent improvement for our teams. Polls will be polls, and things outside of our control will get zero attention from our team. If we continue to work hard our men’s team can achieve their goals this year. With the quickly improving pack, our 5-9 men are stepping their game up every day to keep our program history alive.

Kristina Martin & Alex Opsitnik cheering on our men's team.

The Lady Gators were once again led by sophomore Kristina Martin. Her physical conditioning and great race conditions combined help her complete the fastest female gator time in history (17:54) on the Calvin Course. The previous best for a Lady Gator was by Mia Symoniak (09’) with a time of 18:11. Kristina finished 4^th only to women who have in previous season had been cross country and track & field All-American’s.  Our freshmen standout Andy Sharfman also had an impressive showing at the Knight Invite. Although she took the race out harder than normal and did her best to stay up with the front pack, which I have no doubt she will be there soon enough, she faded back slightly in the last 1k of the race. I couldn’t be more proud of the women’s team right now. They are a team that is battling through injuries and illnesses and still proving to put up great times and results. Much respect ladies.

Lady Gators

Bill Sudeck Classic

What an awesome start to the season! The men win their opening meet of the year and the women have the top overall finisher (Kristina Martin). On what seemed to be the hottest day of the year I was impressed with our teams ability to overcome the conditions and compete well.

On Monday after the race senior Pat McLaughlin was awarded with NCAC Runner of the Week for his performance in the 6k. Pat was the top finisher for our team, 2^nd overall, with a total time of 20:20. The top 5 pack of the men included Pat, Bobby Over, Kevin Edwards, Mike Vlah, and Jack Denison. It was great to see Jack make a huge step forward after a long off season of training. It is people like Jack that put in the hard work over the summer that make our team special.

The ladies top five consisted of event winner Kristina Martin, Andy Sharfman, Sara Mitrano, Kelly Gallager, and Amber Wetzel. Freshman Andy Sharfman is starting off as one of the fastest freshmen we have ever seen here at Allegheny. She is an extremely calm and smart racer and the ladies team couldn’t be happier to have her aboard.