September 18, 2007
Coming off an amazing 10:11 two mile at Cherokee Challenge this past Saturday, the idea was to be anything but conservative the first mile for sophomore Mike Rankin. He did that and THEN SOME…on a course run many times before at Gloucester County College, Rankin veered off with first-year cross country runner from Bishop Eustace Andy Arnold. They had rocketed out to a 100-meter lead about 1/2 mile in. One wrong turn later (and let’s not kid ourselves, it has happened to all of us distance runners before) and the race turned from promising to well…interesting. Both were subsequently DQ’ed which made it come down to which team had the tightest pack. Junior Joe Fiore had gone out with Rankin and Arnold and found himself in a situation but he heard the calls of his teammates and found his way back to the course about 40 seconds off his initial pace. Already – the race looked gloomy but in a sense, a blessing in disguise.
Our boys were up the the challenge. Led by senior Paul Lively – a spread of 38 seconds was enough to overpower the Crusaders. Lively caught BE’s second man with about 1/4 mile to go and made a charge at their #1 falling one second shy. The biggest surprise of the meet, however, was that freshman Tom Hoban was already there as Lively came on. Hoban had seen both Fiore and Rankin veer off and dashed to the front as if to take their place. He eventually shaved 40 seconds off his personal best to take a much-needed third place. What he hadn’t realized, though, was that Fiore had found his way back into the mix.
First-year senior Tom Norris and Ed Murphy ran valiantly to beat the Crusader’s number three runner and as it sat, PVI needed one more man in to seal the deal. No real surprise that it was Fiore. Essentially starting 40 seconds behind everyone, Fiore sprinted home to grab the 5th spot on the team and seal the win. 23-34.
Wil Bradford finished 6th for the team and 9th overall in 19:29. Eric Hubbs rounded out the top seven with a solid 20:27, good enough for 12th overall. Freshman Nick Vadino and Mike Giordano continue to improve every race running 22:36 and 22:48 respectively. Senior Steve Pellegrino also put in a respectable effort coming in at 21:18.
Overall, a promising start for the season and an even better benchmark for continued improvement. The Eagles will next race this Saturday back again at Gloucester County College on the ‘C’ Course. It will be the South Jersey Shootout, starting at 9:00am with the Frosh Boys (schedule to follow).
Meet time for the bus to GCC at Paul VI on Saturday morning will be at 7:15AM!
Paul VI Results
2. Lively 18:35
3. Hoban 18:36
5. Norris 18:47
6. Murphy 18:59
8. Fiore 19:13
9. Bradford 19:29
12. Hubbs 20:27
15. S. Pellegrino 21:18
18. Vadino 22:36
19. Giordano 22:48
21. Connelly 23:57
22. T. Pellegrino 24:07
23. Magrino 24:13
24. Rooney 25:05
25. Pinto 25:08
