The distance crew have spent the past couple months building up their base and working towards what looks to be a very exciting Spring Track season. The first race will be April 7th vs. Camden and Paul VI has enough weapons to make a run at Parochials this year. The work continues with our XC guys and they look all the better for it.
In order to test their fitness, we had a bunch of the guys take a stab at the Adrenaline 5k (formerly the Bancroft NeuroHealth 5k) which runs straight through the heart of Haddonfield (beginning and ending on the deceptively long Kings Highway). The guys really showed their strengths running showing how far their training has taken them and some even setting significant PRs. They outpaced Cherokee for the HS Team title and it always takes some big races to beat a team like Cherokee. The race means little in terms of actual season competition but it certainly acted as a huge confidence booster to all involved. One of the deepest races in NJ, the top 20 all finished in under 15:45 on the fast course. Take a look below to see how our Eagles fared (out of 600 finishers):
27. Rankin 16:07 [very close to PR]
29. Hoban 16:10 [:32 PR]
38. Connelly 16:47 [:16 PR]
39. Walter 16:48 [:13 PR]
68. Gallagher 17:50 [:32 PR]
84. McKean 18:13
131. Hubbs 19:35
166. Vadino 20:39
177. Henkel 20:53 [:29 PR]
196. Nole 21:23
The consensus after the race was one of satisfaction. Walter and Connelly broke the 17 minute barrier for the first time while Hoban put himself up another level with a 16:10 (only finishing 1 sec behind Olympian 1500 runner Erin Donohue in the process). Pete Gallagher, as a frosh, almost matched Tom’s time from last year but he keeps getting better week in and week out. In fact, we couldn’t be prouder of the whole freshmen class. It’s clear there is going to be a lot of competition and fire within this squad leading up to and throughout the 2009 XC season!
We would also like to welcome two more freshmen into the fold. Both Anthony Giambrone and Chris Walsh have joined the distance squad for the spring season and we hope to make it stick! Paul Catrino, Pat Henkel, John Madden, and Stefano Mastrando have all joined us after returning from injury or a nice winter’s break. I will try and provide periodic updates on each spring track meet as well fall schedule updates as dates start to roll in. Looking forward to the season!!
Anyone find pictures??
