2006

12/30 West Point Invitational, West Point: John Jay Patriot results
Girls: 55m Karlie Dean 7.92; 400m 15. Brianna Reynoso 1:05.86; 800m 10. Stella Stevens 2:33.34, 13. Julie Moy 2:36.38; Long Jump 9. Charlese Porter 15' 7.5", 14. Christie O'Shea 14' 7.5"; Triple Jump 5. Charlese Porter 32' 9.75"; 4 x 400m relay 8. Laura Ambron, Brianna Reynoso, Karlie Dean, Stella Stevens 4:28.75
Boys: 55m Mike Mosca 7.63; 200m 6. Adam Schmaltz 24.15; 800m 18. Sean O'Brien 2:10.30, 22. Brian Donovan 2:11.88; 1500m 31. Ryan Gomba 4:37.80; 55HH 26. Mike Clifford 9.24; Pole Vault 13. Frank Risole 11' 0", Long Jump 20. Chris Turchioe 16' 5.5", 23. Mike Clifford 15' 9.5"; Triple Jump 15. Chris Turchioe 35' 9"; 4 x 400m relay Adam Schmaltz, Sean O'Brien, Brian Donovan, Frank Risole 3:43.33

12/28 Pearl River Holiday Festival, Rockland Community College: This meet has been a staple on the Patriots' indoor schedule for many years. It's a fairly competitive meet with medals going ten deep in each event. Having the Marine Corps Classic the same week at the Armory does take some teams that used to attened the Pearl River meet. The Patriot girls took home four medals with Charlese Porter taking 4th in the long and triple jumps with marks of 15' 3" and 33' 9.25". Heather Shay placed 4th in the pole vault with a jump of 8' 0". Christine O'Shea joined Charlese in scoring in the long jump with an 8th place leap of 14' 3.5". One of the highlights of the meet is the Alumni Mile, an event that John Jay athletes have historically done well in. This year was no exception with Hakon DeVries taking 1st in 4:34.7 and Justin Harris in 3rd in 4:40.9.

12/23 If it's not one thing, it's another! Not that I'm complaining, I've got way too much to be thankful for to do that. BUT, I'm going to whine a little. Since August a very sore achilles has curtailed my running, stopping it completely for about 10 weeks. Over the last few weeks I've gradually been able to get back to running, taking it very easy so as not to aggravate things even more. Then about 2 weeks ago I came down with an earache, went to the doctor and was diagnosed with an ear infection. Antibiotics were prescribed. Three days later the earache was worse, plus there was a nasty rash on the same side of the face as the earache. Went back to a different doctor and was told I had shingles. Let me tell you, it's not fun. She put me on an antiviral medication, which won't cure the shingles, but is supposed to shorten the duration and curtail the pain. Also had to go see an opthomologist because if shingles is on your face it can get into the eye and do some nasty stuff. He said everything looked good, which certainly was a relief. The good part of all this is I've only missed two days of running in the last two weeks. The runs haven't been too fast or too long, but sometimes that's not the point.

 

Former John Jay Coach Matt Uzenski (yellow singlet) running at the USA Club Cross Country National Championhips in Golden Gate Park, San Fancisco. Matt runs for the Bellmore Striders who took 21st out of the 42 teams in the meet, a major improvement over last year when they finished 36th of 38 teams. Matt finished 157th in a time of 34:13 on the very muddy 10K course. Full results.

12/13 Kick-Off Meet Results(Armory): The John Jay Patriots had their first meet of the season over this past weekend. In keeping with tradition I will post as much info on how the team is doing that I can find. For those alumni who still check in to see how things are going, hopefully you will find it interesting.
Girls' Results: 1500m RW: 5. Jenna Dilullo 9:11.5, 300m dash: 4. Karlie Dean 44.0, 5. Brianna Reynoso 44.5, 1000m run: 5. Stella Stevens 3:21.0, PV: 6. Heather Shay 7' 0", TJ: 6. Charlese Porter 30' 8.75", 4 X 200m relay: 3. Ambron, Dean, Neidig, Reynoso 1:52.7
Boys' Results: 55m HH: 5. Mike Clifford 8.64, 1000m run: 4. Sean O'Brien 2:41.9, TJ: 5. Chris Turchioe 35' 8.75", 4 X 200m relay: 3. Smaltz, Mosca, Risole, Clifford 1:37.0, 4 X 800m relay: 3. Burns, Pike, Hotaling, Gomba 9:24.9

12/9 The club dinner was last night. We had a great turnout, with a wonderful assortment of fairly new club members as well as members who have been in the club since the beginning. As usual, Keith did a great job putting it all together. I have to thank him for the great "Coach" jacket. It will certainly get put to good use.

The K of C Holiday Race was awesome as usual. I hope you all got a chance to read Pete's article in the Poughkeepsie Journal about Mike and Marisa's standings on the World list of most wins at a single race. If not, check it out: Dynamic Duo What a difference a week makes. At the Turkey Trot the 19-29 age group dominated the men's 5 mile. At the Holiday Run the 2nd place 19-29 male runner would have only been 7th place in the 50-59 age group! Check out full results at MHRRC.

Then and Now

When I got back into running in the late 70’s at age 32 there were a few runners in the age groups above me who I looked to for guidance, inspiration and occasional running and racing companionship.
Harry Chafetz was one of those runners. Harry had mostly given up his life-long sport of tennis to become one of the top runners in his age group in the Hudson Valley. When I first met Harry he had recently turned 50. His biggest goal at that time was to break 3 hours for the marathon in his new age group. If my memory serves me correctly he achieved that goal at the Berkshire Marathon in MA. One of my favorite Boston Marathon memories is of going out for pasta the night before the race with Harry and a few other runners. The restaurant had a “marathoners’ special” of 1 pound of spaghetti, which we assumed was the cooked weight – nope, it was the pre-cooked weight. Did you ever try to eat a whole box of spaghetti by yourself? That’s a lot of spaghetti, even the night before a marathon.

The local marathon and ultra-marathon guru at the time was Jim Smith. He’s run hundreds. If you were looking for someone to do a 20 miler with any weekend of the year (except when he was racing) Jim was invariably available. One thing you had to be careful of with Jim was not to stop your watch during pit stops or water breaks during a long run. Stopping your watch meant the run now had to be counted as two medium runs instead of one long run. Jim was not only a super ultra and marathon runner, he was also quick on the shorter stuff. Thirty-six minutes for a 10K while in his 50s was not unusual.

Then there’s Charlie Sprauer. I’m not sure exactly when I met Charlie, I just remember that he was always talking about moving to a farm in Delaware County. Fortunately for the local running community he never did. Along with taking a multi-year stint as the director of the Dutchess County Classic, Charlie continues to be one of the most ubiquitous MHRRC race volunteers. One of the great things about Charlie’s running is his willingness to try a variety of events. He has run everything from the 100m dash to the 2 mile at the Twilight Track Series, 5K road races to ultra-marathons, and regular trail races to the mud and guts of the infamous Leatherman’s Loop.

What do all these guys have in common these days? They are all still competing! Check out the results from the K of C Holiday Run. Harry Chafetz, age 77, finished in 49:35, Charlie Sprauer (70) in 48:32 and Jim Smith is still flying along at age 70, covering the 5 miles in sub 9 minute pace in 44:18. For a young guy like me that just turned 60, it’s wonderful to see them out there.

 

A Tale of Two Marathoners

This summer and fall I had the pleasure of coaching two amazing marathoners. One was a new mom who had run Boston before having her baby and was looking to re-qualify for the granddaddy of all marathons. The other was a rookie marathoner, with an incredibly busy family and work schedule, whose goal was to survive her debut marathon with a solid effort based on reasonable training that would fit into her lifestyle.

I got involved sometime last spring after “mom” finished with a slightly disappointing time at Disney – only 9 months after giving birth. Yes, she’s a tough woman, both of these women are. “Mom’s” plan was to run the Chicago Marathon on Oct. 22. She came in with a solid base and training started on July 3, giving her 16 weeks of serious marathon training before Chicago. Week 1 included two workouts, a 13 mile long run with a total of almost 40 miles. We built it up from there. The 18-20 milers became a fun ritual with a friend of mine from Long Island (he was training for New York) joining “mom” on the hilly dirt and other back roads of Millbrook, Clinton and Washingtonville while I rode a mountain bike while acting as a sherpa with my backpack filled with Gatorade, water, energy bars, Gu and toilet paper. We did one 20 miler in a steady rain. I finished with my back covered with mud that was thrown up from the bike’s back wheel. . It was a morning well spent!

“Mom’s” age group qualifying time for Boston was 3:45 and all training indicators showed she was very ready to run that. Unfortunately, Chicago’s start turned out to be one mass of humanity with no way of getting in with people running the pace she needed. Being boxed in by the hordes of runners for the first half of the race forced her into a pace 30 seconds per mile slower than goal pace and she ended up being 8 minutes over the Boston Qualifier. Ouch, all that hard work, so much disappointment. Generally running two marathons close together is not something I would recommend, but her pace was so comfortable for Chicago I had hopes she would elect to run another marathon very soon, letting Chicago serve as her last “long run.” She quietly decided to sign up for Philadelphia, not telling me of her plans because she thought I might disapprove. When she did tell me, I was elated. Philly turned out to be a much better day – it was a great day to run, the course was beautiful and not congested by too many runners. Consequently, four weeks after her disappointment in Chicago, “mom” ran 14 minutes faster in a time that was a 5 minute PR while her 3:39:49 easily got her the Boston qualifying time!

The tale of the Rookie also ends in Philadelphia. Ironically it started during an 11 mile run in Millbrook that almost ended a budding coach-athlete relationship. The aforementioned “Mom”, Rookie and I were running on a beautiful dirt road discussing the time commitment it takes to train properly for a marathon. Rookie, who has job and family commitments that often take up more hours than there are in a day, was lamenting not having the time to train for a marathon. Of course my narrow-minded response was, if you really want to do a marathon you just put your life on hold for four months and do it. Needless to say that didn’t go over too well, consequently there was one less woman in my life talking to me. It took a couple of emails with an apology from me before things got worked out. Then, approximately four months before the Philadelphia marathon, she decided to give it a shot and the training began.

The training had its ups and downs – family does take priority, work demands, especially in her high stress job are insane, plus there were the issues of the Achilles tendon and the foot. The Achilles got sore and inflamed – there were some days off, doctor visits, anti-inflammatory medication and physical therapy – yet not a long run was missed. Eighteen to twenty miles on a sore Achilles, I told you they were both tough. Shortly before the marathon the other foot acted up. There were fears of a stress fracture. Not to be deterred so close to the finish it was time for more anti-inflammatory meds, a little extra taper and Advil on race day. All this led up to an outstanding 5th place age group finish in a time of 3:29:24. Maybe the best part of this for the Rookie was that almost all the training was run with her husband and friends, plus the first 24 miles of the marathon were run with her husband who was also running his first marathon.

11/24 MHRRC Turkey Trot Races: The weather wasn't great, yet the turnout may have been a record. It is certainly the most in the years that Vince Veltre has been the race director. Fortunately the 25K did not need to be re-routed this year so all those daring souls that opted for the "long" race of the day got to traverse the hills of LaGrange and Pleasant Valley. I worked at registration handing out numbers to the pre-registered runners for the 5 mile. One thing that really struck me was the number of times I was able to hand out numbers in groups of 2-5 as whole families came to run. That didn't even count the runners that had spouses, siblings or children in the mile, 2 mile or 25K. Another interesting facet of the 5 mile race was the top 8 runners were all 24 years old or YOUNGER. How often do you see that at a local race these days? There was a nice number of John Jay alum racing, with Tim Walker (class of 2001) winning the 5 mile in 26:05. Not far back was Justin Harris (class of 2002) finishing 5th in 27:22. The McCloskey family was well represented with Chris winning the 2 mile (what he was doing in the fun run, I'm not sure). Julie and Kyle also ran the 2 mile, while Kelly was the brave one in the family running the 5 mile. The DeVries family also had 4 family members run. Hakon and Dad ran together as dad easily won the 50-59 age group in 32:01. Not to be outdone, Mom also ran away with the 50-59 age group by about 4 minutes in 38:27. Marisa was the overall woman's winner in 30:05. Full results at MHRRC.

11/20 NCAA D1 XC Championships: The Stanford men had their best finish in number of years at Terre Haute, taking the last team awards place with their 4th place finish. They just edged out Oregon and Arkansas by 1 point to take the final place on the medal stand. Hakon DeVries finished 4th man for Stanford in a time of 32:21 on the extremely muddy 10K course.


NCAA D1 Championships

11/19 Philadelphia Marathon: It was a good day for MHRRC Training Group members at the Philadelphia Marathon as Mary Hurley-Weeks and husband Jeff completed their first marathons, while Alicia Mattson and Sue Bonthron ran new PRs. Sue finished in 3:10:52 placing 425th overall, 40th woman and 1st in the 45-49 age group. Alicia decided to run Philly after a disappointing time at Chicago where she was stuck in the mass of humanity and forced by the crowded conditions to run much slower than she had hoped. At Philly she was able to cruise along at around 3:40 pace and was even able to pick up the pace over the last 10K to finish in 3:39:49, meeting her goal of qualifying for Boston by more than 5 minutes. This time placed her 1158th overall, 297th female and 49th in the 35-39 age group. Jeff and Mary ran much of the marathon together until Jeff picked up the pace a little over the last couple of miles.They both came in under 3:30 with Jeff finishing in 3:28:25 and Mary came in a minute back in 3:29:24. Mary's excellent time put her at 5th place in the 45-49 age group, she was 1137th overall and 155th female. Jeff finished 1101 overall, 955th male and 107th in the 45-49 age group. I got a note from Sally Saretto who also ran Philly, she finished in 4:37.

11/19Philadelphia 1/2 Marathon: Training group member, Dan Desjardins, finished 68th overall, 59th male and 7th in the 40-44 age group in a time of 1:28:40.

11/18 IC4A Championships, Van Cortlandt Park: The Marist mens' XC team ran to it's best finish ever in the Championship Division at the IC4A Championships. What I find really great is that three of their top five runners are from local high schools. Dave Raucci from Red Hook High School was Marist's first finisher, taking 13th in 25:32. Taking 41st overall and 3rd for the Red Foxes was John Jay graduate, senior Justin Harris, who was running in his last XC race for Marist. His time of 26:10 was his best ever at Van Cortlandt. Arlington graduate Tom Williams was the 5th scorer for Marist finishing 65th in 26:27.

11/12 Stockade-athon, Schenectady, NY: This 15K is one of the longest running premier events in the Albany area. This year there were 1109 finishers. Kevin Dollard ran it for the first time this year, finishing 55th overall and 3rd out of 96 runners in the 50-54 age group. His time was 58:33. The results also gave the top 50 runners in age graded order. Kevin moved up to 32nd place with an 80.57 %tile rank.

11/11 NCAA D1 West Region XC Championships: At the the West Division 1 regionals held in Portland, Oregon, Hakon DeVries finished the 10K course in 30:54 Hakon finished 21st overall in the race and 4th for Stanford helping them to a 2nd place finish and an automatic qualification for the NCAA Championships which will be held Terre Haute, IN on Nov. 20.

11/11 NCAA D1 Northeast Region XC Championships: Marist Senior Captain Justin Harris led the Marist team to a 17th place finish out 41 teams in the meet. Justin covered the very tough VanCortland Park 10K course in a time of 33:47.

11/12 CHSAA Alumni XC Championships. Harry Owens returned to run the famed Van Cortland Park cross country course for the first time since 1978. He joined alumni from his alma mater, Chaminade High School, and other Catholic High Schoools to run the 2.5 mile course. Chaminade won the team title and Harry finished 47th in a time of 18:56.

11/5 After the Leaves Have Fallen 20K, Minnewaska State Park: The battle for first place woman was close with Conni Grace (1:23:38) edging Connie Seigh (1:23:54) over the last part of the course. In an email from race director Steve Schallenkamp he believes that those two times are near the top of the all time list for the race. There were 146 finishers with Conni and Connie finishing 12th and 13th overall. Wayne McDaniel was 6th overall in 1:19:31 and Dan Desjardins finished 15th in 1:25:06.

11/5 New York City Marathon: Three training group members completed New York. Teri Bradley finished in 5:25:19, the unstoppable Lynne Kopac was not far behind in 5:49:16 and John Dean finished in the very strong time of 3:13:55. He was not far behind Lance for the first 15 miles and then fell off the pace for the last part of the race. Also running his first ever marathon was my good friend Bart Sessa. His road to NY started as a weight losing contest which got him back into running consistently, he then entered NY basically on a dare, assuming he would not get picked in the lottery. When he did get picked, it was time for serious training which he accomplished over the last few months. He finished in the very respectable time of 3:26:47.

11/4 Ford Florida Ironman: Training group member, Maureen Shilkunas, completed her first Ironman in 14:04:45.Her splits were: 2.4 mile swim in 1:29:12, 112 mile bike in 7:05:55, 26.2 mile run in 5:13:36, transition times were 16:02. Awesome performance!

10/28 PAC 10 Championhips: Stanford finished 2nd to Oregon by a score of 53-58 in a highly competitive meet. Hakon DeVries finished 21st for Stanford as their 6th man in a time of 24:10.
10/27 MAAC Championships: Marist took 2nd to NCAA Division 1 #3 ranked Iona. It was the best performance ever for Marist at VanCortland park as they posted their lowest team avearge in school history. Justin Harris finished 18th in 26:40.


PAC 10 Championships
Hakon DeVries is #162

10/28 Run for the Animals, Washingtonville: If you know Connie Seigh you won't be surprised she traveled all the way from Pleasant Valley to run this 7K race to benifit animals. She was rewarded for her support of this race with a second place overall finish (1st female) in a time of 27:29.

10/22 Dutchess County Sports Museum Hall of Fame XC Race and club championships: It was perfect fall day for a XC race as over 100 runners gathered at Bowdoin Park to run on the course that is used for the New York State Federation High School Cross Country Championhips. Fifty-four of those runners were part of the team races being held between the MHRRC, Shawangunk Runners and the Albany Running Exchange. It was the first year of an attempt to revive the club championhip races that were held throughout the 1980s and early 90s. This year the races were held in 4 categories: men's open, men's masters, women's open and women's masters. As it turns out both men's races were decided by 1 point with the A.R.E. winning the open of MHRRC by a score of 27-28 and the master's race going to Shawangunk over MHRRC by the same 27-28 score. Both of the women's races were won by MHRRC with the open team besting Shawangunk 8-14 in the open and 10-12 in the masters.

Men’s Open

Place Name Club Time
1 Mike Slinskey MHRRC 17:14
2. Chris Tuttle MHRRC 17:27
3. Andrew McCarthy ARE 17:40
4. Eamonn Dempsey ARE 17:44
5. Jim Sweeney ARE 17:47
6. Wayne McDaniel MHRRC 19:15
7. David Newman ARE 19:21
8. Chris Nowak ARE 19:21
9. Jeff Conston MHRRC 20:33
10. Adam DiCaprio MHRRC 20:39
11. Todd Reemtsma MHRRC 21:43
12. Scott Davis MHRRC 22:02
13. Rob Milroy MHRRC 22:17
14. Andrew Guckian MHRRC 23:02
15. Matt Mauriello MHRRC

Team Score: 1st ARE 27 points, 2nd MHRRC 28 points

Men’s Masters

Place Name Club Time
1. Chris Peone Shawangunk 19:21
2. John Dean MHRRC 19:32
3. Steve Schallenkamp Shawangunk 19:48
4. Jim Juliano Shawangunk 19:49
5. Glen Brent MHRRC 20:21
6. Kevin Dollard MHRRC 20:22
7. Ken DeVries MHRRC 20:23
8. Greg Barber MHRRC 21:00
9. Brian Nagle Shawangunk 21:13
10. Paul Muessig Shawangunk 21:57
11. Jeff Nero MHRRC 22:08
12. Tom Storey MHRRC 22:27
13. Harry Owens MHRRC 23:50
14. John Brooks MHRRC 25:11
15. Keith Axelrod MHRRC
16. Fred Policastri MHRRC
17. Charlie Sprauer MHRRC

Team scores: 1st place – Shawangunk 27 points, 2nd place – MHRRC (A) 28 points
3rd place – MHRRC (B) 75 points

Women’s Open

Place Name Club Time
1. Connie Seigh MHRRC 20:32
2. Melissa Guckian MHRRC 20:41
3. Lauren Warren Shawangunk 22:28
4. Alyson Shank Shawangunk 22:44
5. Christine Anyetei-Vogs MHRRC 24:48
6. Shandra Milroy MHRRC 26:12
7. Michele Yasson Shawangunk

Team Scores: 1st place – MHRRC 8 points, 2nd place Shawangunk 14 points

Women’s Masters

Place Name Club Time
1. Marisa Hanson MHRRC 18:41
2. Conni Grace MHRRC 20:47
3. Tomi Stern Shawangunk 21:26
4. Anne Gullicksen Shawangunk 21:51
5. Beth Glace Shawangunk 22:37
6. Laurel Gross Shawangunk 23:11
7. Maryanne Ceriello MHRRC 24:11
8. Janice Gulliksen MHRRC 24:17
9. Barbara Demczar MHRRC 25:00
10. Anne Carruthers MHRRC 25:16
11. Christine DeVries MHRRC 25:54
12. Deborah Schwartz MHRRC
13. Sally Saretto MHRRC
14. Polly Sparling MHRRC
15. Denise Dollard MHRRC

Team Scores: 1st place – MHRRC(A) 10 points, 2nd place – Shawangunk 12 points,
3rd place – MHRRC(B) – 33 points

10/14 Alumni Updates: Hakon DeVries (Stanford) ran at the D1 Pre-Nationals (10/14) and finished in a time of 24:27. Hakon finished 2nd in the Open Division race. His time would have placed him as 6th Stanford varsity runner if he had run in the team race. It is amazing how deep Stanford's team is.
Hamilton College Invite (10/7) – Brian Ivory (Ithaca) was 19th in 28:19 to help Ithaca to a 5th place finish.
Met Championships 10/5) – Justin Harris (Marist) finished 33rd overall and the team placed 2nd, highest finish in school history at this meet.. Justin's time was 26:34.
Ryan Joyce is a starting defender for the Geneseo soccer team. The team is currently 8-3-1 overall and 5-1-0 in SUNYAC.

10/9 Last weekend was a big one with the fall marathon season getting into full swing. The day started out nice and cool, but with totally clear skies and bright sun a 30 minute difference in start times made a big difference for those runners at around 3 hours. After 3 hours it didn't matter much where you were, it was too warm and sunny.
The Steamtown Marathon in Scranton, PA had an 8am start which worked well for many local runners. Mike Slinskey finished 4th overall in 2:25:28. Conni Grace and Wayne McDaniel finished together in 2:58:26, Conni finished 4th woman overall and achieved breaking the 3 hour barrier for the first time in her illustrious career. Connie Seigh was 9th woman in 3:07:24, taking 10 minutes off the time she ran in her first marathon last spring. Tom Storey ran 3:23:44. Maryanne Ceriello completed her first marathon in 4:10:06. Sally Saretto finished in 4:15:55. She said the heat was tough during the race, 20 degrees warmer than last year. Vicki Barber crossed the line 4:26:31. All times are chip time.
The Hudson -Mohawk Marathon, Albany, NY had an 8:30am start. With the bright sun and no shade the race got tough after about 2 hours. Despite the fact that he said the last 6 miles were the hardest last 6 miles of any marathon he's ever run, Kevin Dollard achieved his goal of breaking 3 hours, running 2:59:10, winning the 50-59 age group by about 8 minutes.

10/2 A couple of updates from recent races:
Leaf Peepers 1/2 Marathon, Waterbuy, VT – Sue Bonthron went up to get in a hard race in preparation for the Philadelphia Marathon. She came away with her second great 1/2 marathon performance in two weeks, finishing 2nd woman overall and first masters woman in a time of 1:28:52.
Ridgefield 1/2 Marathon, Ridgefield, CT: Mary Hurley-Weeks and husband Jeff are also prepping for Philly. They went to CT to run their 1/2 marathon. Jeff is showing amazing progress and finished 62nd overall in 1:36:16. Mary was 2 minutes faster than she was at the Fairfield 1/2 Marathon in June. Her time of 1:42:15 placed her 116th overall and 6th in the 40-49 age group.
Schlathaus Park 5K results can be found on the MHRRC web site. Glen Brent continues to run very well, placing 2nd overall and 1st in the 50-59 age group in 18:28. It's good to see Jeff Nero back running competively again after a long lay-off with an injury.

Patriot Alumni Updates:
Paul Short Invitational, Lehigh University: 8K – Justin Harris (Marist) 26:08, Brian Ivory(Ithaca) 27:46
Stanford Invitational, Stanford University: 8K – Hakon DeVries (Stanford) 24:01

9/29 Sad news for the John Jay cross country family: Coach Mary Sclafani's mom, Dottie Sideris, passed away on Wednesday, Sept. 27. For those XC runners who ran during the Sclafani era, there was hardly a race that Dottie was not out on the course cheering them on. If there was a difficult hill they could count on her being at the steepest part of it to encourage them on their way to the top. She was a woman of amazing energy and grace. She will be missed.

9/24 It's been awhile since my last update. I'll blame it on being real busy getting ready for the Classic and real busy tying up loose ends after the Classic. I also have a hard time sitting at the computer when the weather is nice. With Sept. and Oct. being my two favorite months there hasn't been much time spent inside. We had a large group of training group members run at the Classic in the 5K and the 1/2 marathon. Marisa Hanson won the woman's race for the 13th time, finishing 2nd overall in 17:22. Glen Brent was not far behind in 4th place overall and first in the 50-54 age group in the very impressive time of 18:22. Ken DeVries ran an awesome race and set yet another PR, finishing 7th overall and first in the 55-59 age group in 18:41. The 10th place finisher was Jeff Long, a former John Jay Patriot who was part of the team that won the NY State Cross Country Championships in 2000. It was great to see him back running again. Some of you may have run in the Dutchess County Sports Museum Hall of Fame cross country race held at Bowdoin Park. When Jeff was in high school he ran 17:04 on that course. If you're running next month that will give you a time to shoot for. Right behind Jeff at the Classic was Gil Anderson who ran 19:00. If you looked closely at the 5K results you may have noticed that 5 of the top 11 finishers were in their 50s, with both the 12th and 13th place runner at age 49. Another outstanding John Jay alum at the race was Kelly McCloskey who ran in place of Sally Briggs who was stranded out of town with a broken down car and could not get back in time for the start. Ironically Kelly finished 2nd in the 19-24 age behind one of Sally's former teammates at SUNY Geneseo. The women's race in the 1/2 marathon was a battle between two women working a hard training run in preparation for the Steamtown Marathon. Connie Seigh led much of the race before being overtaken by Conni Grace in the final miles. Both runners followed their pre-race plans to perfection with Conni Grace running 1:27:02, while Connie Seigh came in 18 seconds later in 1:27:20. Sue Bonthron, who is in training for the Philadelphia Marathon, was next woman to finish in 1:29:07. Full results can be found at MHRRC.

Is Your PR really a PR?

OK, I’m going to nit-pick a little bit here so be prepared. After a local 10K race I was talking to a long time runner about the times run on the course. He was of the opinion that the course was short. Since it was one of my favorite courses, one on which I had run some good times, I defended the course as being a great course to run and that was the reason for the fast times. Since he was pretty adamant about the course being short and having a lot of respect for his opinion, I promised him that I would measure the course. Even with my defense of the course there was still a nagging suspicion in the back of my mind about its length. Once before, having run an age group 5K PR, I had decided to measure the course it was run on. It was short.

Now, here’s the nit-picking part – do you know the difference between 5K and 3.1 miles or 10K and 6.2 miles? If you know one, you’re probably math savvy enough to figure out the other. When I measured that 5K course years ago it came out exactly 3.1 miles. When I measured the 10K course recently put under question by my friend it came out exactly 6.2 miles. My guess, from this very small sample of courses that I’ve measured, is that since many American race directors are much more comfortable with miles than meters there are a large number of 5K and 10K courses that are really 3.1 and 6.2 miles. OK, so here’s the answer to the question you’re all now asking. A 5K is 12 yards longer than 3.1 miles and a 10K is 24 yards longer than 6.2 miles.

So what’s this mean for times if a course says it’s 10K, but it’s really only 6.2 miles? Here are the times you have to add if you had run the extra 24 yards that should have been at the end of the race to make it a full 10K.
For 5 minutes per mile pace add 4.1 seconds.
For 6 minutes per mile pace add 4.9 seconds.
For 7 minutes per mile pace add 5.7 seconds.
For 8 minutes per mile pace add 6.6 seconds.
For 9 minutes per mile pace add 7.4 seconds.
For 10 minutes per mile pace add 8.2 seconds.

Is that a big difference? Of course not. I just thought you might like to know. Also, the 10K course in question was not nearly as short as my friend suspected it was. The really fast time he ran there years ago is still a really fast time!! On the other hand, if your 10K PR is 40:22 and you run 40:20 on a course that’s actually 6.2 miles did you really set a new PR?

Vinnie Zaccheo 5K at Fishkill All-Sport

9/14 A good number of training group members plus a very special John Jay alumnus ran in this race. The John Jay alum is Sally Briggs who had 4 awesome years at John Jay and then 4 more at SUNY Geneseo runing cross country, winter track and spring track. In October Sally will be going into the Peace Corps. She will spend the next two years in Samoa teaching special education on one of the small islands there.
Race Results: 2. John Dean 17:48 (1st 40-49), 5. Ken DeVries 19:10 (1st 50-59), 10. Harry Owens 21:24 (3rd 40-49), 13. Sally Briggs 21:41 (1st 19-29), 18. Chris DeVries 23:14 (1st 50-59),

Chris Wimmers wins 5K at Lance Armstrong Challenge
Also raises over $4,500 for the fight against cancer

9/10 Chris Wimmers went into the Lance Armstrong Challenge with two goals. First he wanted to raise a good amount of money for the Lance Armstrong Foundation and it's fight against cancer. Secondly he wanted to run a fast 5K. He did both. He raised over $4,500 in about 2 weeks, then he went to Philly and won the 5K in a PR time of 18:08. Chris probably would have broken 18 minutes but the course was out and back the road was not divided. Consequently he spent about a mile after the turnaround dodging hundreds of runners and walkers who were still on their way out. The Lance Armstrong Challenge is being held this fall in a number of cities around the country. This one in Philly was the most successfull yet with 2900 participants in the bike/run events. The participants raised over 2.5 million dollars.

Warwick Lions Club 5K

9/9 Chris and Ken DeVries are back burning up the roads. They traveled over to Warwick to run the 5K put on by Coach Tim St. Lawrence of Warwick High School. Both Chris and Ken ran PRs. Ken won the 55-59 age group in 19:06 and Chris ran a huge PR to take second in the 50-54 age group in 23:29.

Mad Dash

9/4 It was a perfect day to run. The times and the crowds proved it. As is usually the case the Mad Dash had an awesome turnout with a great mix of age groups. This is one of the few area races that has a large turnout of high school runners. It comes just before the start of the cross country season and serves as a perfect race for the athletes and their coaches to see exactly where they are at. The training group also had a large number of participants. Full results can be found at CoolRunning

5K: 13. Glen Brent (1st 50-59) 18:42, 14. Chris Wimmers (2nd 30-39) 18:45, 37. Gil Anderson (2nd 50-59) 20:24, 40. Tom Storey 20:43, 46. Steve Perks (1st 60-69) 21:07, 50. Christine Anyetei (1st 20-29) 21:16, 61. Harry Owens 21:51, 97. Courtney Wimmers 23:15, 99. Janice Gullicksen (3rd 40-49) 23:23, 110. Lori Decker 23:35, 144. Keith Axelrod 25:02, 161. Emily Brent 25:46, 229. Charlie Sprauer (29:32)

10K: 7. Marisa Hanson (1st Female) 36:38, 11. Wayne McDaniel (2nd 40-49) 37:46, 14. Conni Grace (1st 40-49) 38:16, 17. Kevin Dollard (2nd 50-59) 38:36, 20. Dan Desjardins 39:09, 21. Connie Seigh (1st 30-39) 39:22, 22. Chris Wimmers (2nd race of the day, 2nd 30-39) 39:56, 36. Pat DeHaven 41:49, 46. Vince Veltre 42:58, 59. Jeff Weeks 43:49, 63. Alicia Mattson (3rd 30-39) 44:02, 92. Judy Creedon 47:56, 111. Maryanne Ceriello 49:25, 194. Lynne Kopac 1:00:53,

Stony Brook Invitational at Sunken Meadow

9/2 Former John Jay Patriots Justin Harris (senior) and Corey Ennist (soph), who are now running for Marist College, opened their XC season at the Stony Brook Invitational. The traditional Sunken Meadow course has suffered major erosion damage and the race was held on a modified course that did not include Snake or Cardiac Hill. Justin finished in 16:15 and Corey in 16:51.

Middlebury, VT 1/2 Ironman Triathlon

8/29 Training group member Maureen Shilkunus took another step forward in her preparation for a full Ironman (2.4 mile swim, 114 mile bike, 26.2 mile run) by completing the 1/2 Ironman in 6 hours 12 minutes. Great job!! Her full Ironman is scheduled for November in Florida.

Dick Wilson Scholarship 5K
Monroe-Woodbury

8/27 Chris and Ken DeVries are back on the racing circuit after a summer of biking. They certainly don't seem to have lost anything. Ken was 6th overall and first in the 50-59 age group in 19:51. Chris was 4th woman overall and 1st in the 50-59 age group in 24:15. Harry Owens was also there, finishing 14th overall in 22:23.

Binghamton(Chris Thater)5K

8/27 Marisa Hanson had another awesome race in this highly competive event. The overall woman winner finished in a course record 15:20. Marisa was 6th overall and first masters woman in a time of 17:25. The times are even more impressive considering the race was run in fairly heavy rain.

West Point 5K

8/26 Training group member Christine Anyetei continued her great running with an overall 1st place finish at the West Point 5K. Despite the very tough uphill last mile Christine was able to cover the course in 22:30. She was rewarded with 2 tickets to a West Point brunch. CONGRATS AND ENJOY!!

Jan Peek 10K, Peekskill

8/5 Christine Walsh finished up a week of 3 races in 7 days with the very tough Jan Peek 10K. She was 8th woman in a time of 56 minutes and some seconds.

Locust Grove 5K Trail Run

8/5 The women represented the training group well on a VERY HOT day the Samuel F. B. Morse Estate. Christine Anyetei placed 28th overall and 1st in the 20-29 age group with a time of 24:30. Janice Gullicksen finished 48th in 27:16 and Christine Walsh took 1st in the 50-59 age group and 58th overall in a time of 27:49. There were exactly 100 finishers in the race. An amazing number on a day when the heat index was 110 degrees.

Escarpment Trail 30K

7/31 Connie Seigh conquered what is probably, mile for mile, the toughest trail race on the east coast. She finished in about 4 1/2 hours. Great job on a hot day over 5 mountain peaks.

New Milford 8 mile

7/31 Training group members Sue Bonthron and Chris Walsh traveled to Ct. to participate in this race that has been around for many years. Both women came away with age group victories. Sue was 3rd woman overall and 1st in the 40-49 age group in 52:21. Chris won the 50-59 age group in 1:13:09. Great job!!

Silks and Satins 5K

7/30 The Silks and Satins 5K is a major race in Saratoga. Many of the local college and high school runners from that area run, which makes for a very fast field. Training group members Glen Brent and Dan Desjardins went up to run. Glen finished 85th (3rd 50-59) in 19:02. Dan finished in 112th place with a time of 19:50.

Empire State Games

Former John Jay Coach Matt Uzenski on his way to winning the 10K at ESGs.

7/30 There were a few members of the training group in Rochester for the ESGs. The site for getting results has not been working well so this is what I have so far. Gil Anderson (50-54 age group): 10,000 meters – 1st 39:27.7, 1500 meters – 3rd 5:34.92, 800 meters – 5th 2:33.75, 400 meters – 5th 1:11.40, 4 x 800 meter relay – 1st 10:55.39. John Brooks (50-54 age group): 100m dash – 1st 12.68, 800 meters – 3rd 2:33.75, long jump – 5th 4.27m, 4 x 800 meter relay – 1st 10:55.39. John Dean (45-49 age group): 800 meters – 1st 2:15.54, 1500 meters – 1st 4:43.47. John Light (40-44 age group): 400m IH – 2nd 1:11.19, Triple jump – 3rd 10.65m., 4 x 800 meter relay – 1st 10:55.39. Harry Owens (45-49 age group): 800 meters – 3rd 2:41.56, 4 x 800 meter relay – 1st 10:19.44. I'm pretty sure Maryanne Ceriello was there, if the ESG site works I'll try to find her. For full results (if the site is working) go to ESG.

Lake Placid Ironman Triathlon

7/23 MHRRC member Vinnie Grega, who recently turned 60, conquered one of the most gruelling events in sports. He completed the Lake Placid Ironman Triathlon in 15:23:40. That's some days work. His time for the 2.4 mile swim was 1:48:29, he pedaled the 112 mile bike in 7:38:40 and ran the 26.2 mile marathon in 5:32:37. CONGRATS!!! One of my neighbors, Art Boyko who just moved into the masters age group also competed. He finished 367th overall in a time of 11:19:09. Art is an incredible masters swimmer. He finished 14th overall in the swim in a time of 51:23. His bike time was 6:02:30 which is an average of 18.54 mph. His marathon was 4:17:37. Awesome!

USATF Masters' Eastern Regional Championships

7/22 Maryanne Ceriello took second place in the 1500 meter run in the 40-49 year age group. Her time was 6:04.84. Also in the race, running in the 50-59 age group, was former American record holder in the 1500 Jan Merrill. She finished behind Maryanne whose husband Ken did not tell her Jan was in the race until after it was over.

Twilight Track

7/15 The twilight track series is off to an awesome start. After last year when everytime we looked at the sky there was a thunder storm brewing, this year's weather has been spectacular. The kids' races have been the joy to watch that they always are. The open races have had some high quality competition. Check each Thursday in the Poughkeepsie Journal Players Section for results of the top 3 in each event.

Utica Boilermaker

7/9 As is usually the case for this race it was hot. Lynne Kopac, who seems to run all over the country, made the trip and finished the 15K race in 1:42:12. MHRRC Vice President Fred Policastri was not far behind n 1:42:22.

Bronx 1/2 Marathon

7/9 Training group member Tom Storey ran the Bronx 1/2 marathon in an excellent time of 1:37:20. Local legend Mike Slinskey was 3rd overall in 1:13:03.

Vytra Women's Run 5K

7/9 Marisa Hanson made the early morning trip to Farmingdale, Long Island to run this elite women's only race. The trip paid off as she took advantage of the fast 5K course to run 17:09. This time was good enough for 9th overall and 1st Masters Runner!!

Adirondack Track Championships

7/8 If there's a track meet within a days drive John Brooks is probably going. Back on June 30 John traveled to Albany to run the Adirondack Championships. He won two age group gold medals, taking the 100 meter dash in 12.16 seconds and the 400 meter dash in 59.97. When my wife saw the results, her astonished comment was, "Did you know John can still run 400 meters in under a minute!!??" Yes, he can. There are not a lot of people in their 50s who can do that. If you want to see John in action head out to the next twilight track meet. One of the highlights of the evening is to see John battle the youngsters in the 100 and 200!

Hometown USA 5K

7/8 Harry Owens crossed the Hudson to run this 5K held in Highland Falls. He finished in 21:39. Because he works in Manhattan, Harry has not been able to make the regular Tuesday practices but he has been doing all the workouts on his own. Harry has also been taking some guys he met from Peru that are living in Beacon to the local races. Luis Gutierrez finished 5th overall in 17:23.

Putnam County Classic 8 Mile

7/4 Training group members Sue Bonthron and Connie Seigh traveled to Mahopac on the 4th of July and proceeded to take the top 2 spots in the female division. Sue finished 11th overall in a time of 52:32 and Connie was 19th in 54:27. Vince Veltre also made the trip and finished 51st in 1:00:59. If I'm not mistaken Vince first ran this race back in the 70s. Irv Miller finished 161st in 1:16:07.

Adirondack Distance Run 10 miler

7/2 Kevin Dollard continued his string of great races on this 10 mile course that runs along the shores of Lake George from Lake George Village to Bolton Landing. Kevin finished 15th overall out of 597 runners. Kevin's time of 1:04:49 was also easily good enough to keep his string of age group wins alive. Other local runners at the race were: 90. Nick Lamando 1:13:07, 98. Pete Colaizzo 1:13:44 and 351. Bill Ring 1:30:42.

Fairfield, CT 1/2 Marathon

6/25 Mary Hurley-Weeks and Alicia Mattson traveled to Ct. over the weekend to run the Fairfield 1/2 Marathon. Mary finished in 1:44 and Alicia came in at 1:50. It was a hot, humid day and a hilly course.

Vassar Bros. 10K

6/24 As usual, Vince did a great job putting on the race. THe training group was well represented. 10K Results: 3. Chris Wimmers 39:45, 6. Connie Seigh 40:23, 10. Dan Desjardins 41:34, 19. Steve Perks 46:23, 38 Larry Knapp 51:43, 39. Maureen Shilkunus 51:56, 43. Irv Miller 53:02, 59. Charlie Sprauer 1:07:41. 2 mile results: 2. Gil Anderson 12:41, 6. Harry Owens 13:56, 18. Denise Dollard 22:29, 21 Heidi Selteneck 27:18

While we were all at Vassar doing the race, training group member Ken DeVries was inside in the emergency room with a very serious kidney stone attack. The latest news is that he had the stone removed on Sunday and returned home from the hospital on Monday.

Summer Solstice Run

6/21 The longest day of the year turned out to be an almost perfect day. With the weather so nice 181 runners showed up at Minnewaska State Park to run the annual Summer Solstice Run 15K. My good friend, Bart Sessa, from Long Island made the trip up to run and we had a great time cruising the carriage trails and catching up on what we've been up to. We even stopped a couple of times along the way to check out the views. There were a number of locals that crossed the river for the run. 3. Mike Slinsky 51:55, 9. Greg Barber 56:10, 17. Conni Grace 59:12 (1st female), 25. Connie Seigh 1:01:11 (3rd female), 32. Alyson Shank 1:03:38, 40. Vince Veltre 1:05:45, 78. Steve Perks 1:13:03, 79. Bart Sessa 1:13:04, 91. Maureen Shilkunus 1:14:53, 120. Bill Ring 1:21:09, 139. Vicki Barber 1:23:49, 148: Larry Knapp 1:27:33,

Icahn Stadium

John Dean went down to Icahn Stadium on Randall's Island on Tuesday to run in one of the NYRRC track meets. Icahn Stadium is a brand new, state of the art track venue that in the one year of it's existence has already hosted some great meets. John said the atmoshpere, even for this low-key meet was incredible. John ran the 1500 meters in 4:47.2 and then came back in the 800 meters about 15 minutes later and ran 2:25.5.

McDonald/Cruise 10K/5K

It was a really good weekend at the races for the training crew. Connie Seigh and Sue Bonthron led the way with Connie winning the 5K and Sue winning the 10K.
5K Results: 4. Ken DeVries 19:21 (1st 50-59), 5. Glen Brent 19:32 (2nd 50-59), 7. Connie Seigh 19:40 (1st female), 8. Steve Perks 20:13 (3rd 50-59), 9. Gil Anderson 20:37, 18. Harry Owens 22:35 (3rd 30-39), 20. Clare Knapp 23:21 (2nd 19-29), 26. Larry Knapp 24:13, 30. Janice Gulliksen 25:02 (2nd 40-49), 43. Irv Miller 25:56 (60-69), 49. Chris Walsh 27:10 (1st 50-59), 62. Charlie Sprauer 30:08 (3rd 60-69), 80. Heidi Seltenck (40:16), 91. Denise Dollard 40:19
10K Results: 4. Kevin Dollard 38:56 (1st 50-59), 6. Sue Bonthron 29:43 (1st female), 9. Vince Veltre 41:48, 11. Tom Storey 43:14, 37. Maureen Shilkunus 50:32 (3rd 30-39), 42. Sally Saretto 52:25 (1st 50-59) Full results can be found on the MHRRC site.

Rock Hill 5K

Marisa Hanson took a ride over to Sullivan County and ended up as the new course record holder at the Rock Hill 5K. Marisa ran 17:18 on the USATF certified course. The race is one of the Leukemia Team in Training events and draws over 600 runners for the scenic run around Lake Louise. Conni Grace was also there and placed 3rd woman in 18:47. Rebecca Withers is getting back into her old racing form and she won the 50-59 age group in a time of 25:47.

Orange Classic 10K

A couple of members of the master's training group headed over to Middletown for the hilly and highly competitive Orange Classic 10K. Marisa Hanson fnished 6th woman and 1st masters woman in a time of 36:32. Alicia Mattson finished 221st in 48:05. Local standout Mike Slinsky took 5th overall in 33:13.

Some Track Results

John Brooks has been out on the senior track circuit. He ran the New York Senior Games and took 1st in the 100m dash in 11.2 seconds. From there he traveled to Rhode Island to run in their Senior Olympics where he took 1st in the 100m dash in 11.8 and second in the 200m dash in 24.8.

Hakon DeVries achieves NCAA All-American

Hakon finished his first outdoor season at Stanford running 14:09.41 for 5K at the Division 1 NCAA Championships in Sacramento, CA. His time placed him as the 8th American in the race and garnered him his first collegiate All-American honors.

Section 1 State Qualifier

Ryan Joyce finished his John Jay Patriot career with two good days of jumping at the Section 1 State Qualifier at Arlington High School. On Friday he finished 5th in the long jump with a leap of 20' 4" and on Saturday he placed 4th in the triple jump with a performance of 41' 5.5". Ryan will be attending Geneseo next year, becoming one more in a long line of Patriots athletes that have gone there. He will join former Patriot Kevin O'Connell who will be a sophomore next year.

Covered Bridges Half Marathon

Lynne Kopac continues to rack up the PRs. She ran the Covered Bridges Half Marathon in Vermont this past weekend in a PR time of 2:16:34 bettering her Disney time by a minute. Lynne said it was a beautiful course with some of it on packed dirt road.

Freihofer's 5K

It wasn't a great day to run a 5K. It poured rain, there were ankle deep puddles and streams of water crossing the road. Still, 2680 women finished the race! This race is one of the most competitive 5Ks held in the United States. It draws an incredible international field as evidenced by the fact that 14 of the top 18 women were not Americans. Marisa Hanson had a great race, finishing 27th overall in 17:37.4. This also placed her as 2nd masters runner, ahead of legendary Joan Samaulson who finished as 4th masters. Denise Dollard also ran, completing her 2nd 5K in 39:56. To see full results go to Freihofers 5K

Vermont City Marathon

Master's training group members Connie Seigh and Sue Bonthron both had very good debut marathons on a very tough day to run. There was bright sun and temperatures reached into the 80's before the race was over. Sue finished 125th overall, 13th woman and 2nd masters woman in a time of 3:13.58. Connie finished 159th overall, 18th woman and 4th in the 35-39 age group. There were 1044 women finishers in the race.

Hakon Qualifies for D1 NCAA CHAMPIONSHIPS

5/27 Hakon finished 5th in the 5K at the NCAA West Regionals and qualified for the D1 NCAA Championships. The meet was held in Provo, Utah at 5000 feet above sea level so the times were not particularly fast. The top two finishers were Kenyans running for University of Arizona. Robert Cheseret was 1st in 14:25.32 and Obed Mutanya was 2nd in 14:25.45. Galen Rupp (Oregon) was 3rd in 14:28.83, Giliat Ghebray (California) was 4th in 14:47.02. Hakon finished .17 seconds later in 14:47.19. The NCAA Championships will be held in Sacramento, CA from 6/7 – 6/10.

Section 1 Class A Championships: Long Jump: 4. Ryan Joyce 19' 7.5", Triple Jump: 6. Ryan Joyce 41' 4.5", Pentathlon: 4. Frank Risole 2471 points, Boys JV DMR: 6. JJ 8:58.2, Pole Vault: 4. Heather Shay 8' 6", Triple Jump: 5. Charlese Porter 32' 5.5"

5/22 We had company over the weekend with Josh, Sarah and Eduardo visiting from out of town so I'm way behind on results.

The League Meet was last Tuesday and Wednesday. The Patriot boys finished 2nd and the girls finished 3rd. Highlights for JJ were Ryan Joyce winning the long and triple jumps and Mike Garcia winning the 100 and 200 meter dashes. They both were also on the winning 400 m relay. Full Patriot results are on the Spring Results link.

Laurel Run: The master's training crew was well represented at the Laurel Run. In the 5K they took 5 out of the top 7 places. Marisa Hanson was second overall in 17:43, Jeff Nero was 3rd overall and first 50-59 in 19:04, Glen Brent was 5th overall and 2nd 50-59 in 19:17, Dan Desjardins was 6h and 1st 40-49 in 19:17 and Vince Veltre was 7th and 2nd 40-49 in 19:46. Other training crew members in the 5K were: 12. Harry Owens 21:29, 73. Charlie Sprauer 29:43. In the 10 miler Kevin Dollard was 15th and 1st 50-59 in 1:05:13. He also was 3rd overall masters runner!! Other crew members: 32. Pat DeHaven 2nd 50-59 in 1:14:44, 37. Alicia Mattson 3rd 30-39 in 1:18:46, 55: Chris Walsh 1st 50-59 in 1:27:56 and 67. Lynne Kopac 2nd 50-59 in 1:45:47. Full results are on the MHRRC website.

5/14 Patriots at DCTOCA: Saturday turned out to be a great day for a track meet and despite missing a fair number of runners because of the Senior Prom the John Jay boys and girls still had some nice performances: Ryan Joyce was 2nd in the long jump with a PR leap of 20' 7", Frank Risole took 2nd in the pole vault at 11' 6", Mike Clifford was 3rd in the 110HH with a time of 16.45, Chris Turchioe was 5th in the triple jump at 38' 4.5". On the girls' side Brianna Reynoso was 3rd in the 400 in a time of 62.86, Christine O'Shea took 4th in the pentathlon with 1872 points, Charlese Porter was 4thn the long jump with a leap of 15' 5" and Nicole Kusko was 5th in the javelin with a toss of 76' 11". For more complete results check on the spring results link on the left.

5/13 Miles of Hope 5K: Congrats to Lori Cassia-Decker for putting on a very successful fund raiser and race! It was great to see Deborah Schwartz and Nancy Swanson, two injured master's team members, out on the course helping out. In a fitting finish for a race devoted to fighting breast cancer, the top 4 finishers in the race were all women, three of whom are part of our master's training group. 1. Marisa Hanson 17:36, 3. Sue Bonthron 18:55 (1st 40-49), 4. Connie Seigh 19:21 (1st 30-39), 8. Steve Perks 21:24 (1st 50-59), 10. Mary Hurley-Weeks 21:30 (2nd 40-49), 11. Harry Owens 21:41 (3rd 40-49), 13. Jeff Weeks 21:51, 15. Bill Rosenberg 22:20 (1st 60-69), 16. Alicia Mattson 22:36, 21. Alyson Homko-Shank (23:16), 24. Maureen Shilkunas 24:09, 26. Keith Axelrod 24:16 (1st MHRRC Pres.), 28. Maryanne Ceriello 24:34, 32. Sally Saretto 25:10 (1st 50-59), 33. Chris Walsh 25:15 (2nd 50-59), 43. Paige Decker 26:17 (age 9),47. Rebecca Withers 27:10 (3rd 50-59), 49. Fred Policastri 27:37 (1st MHRRC Vice Pres), 66. Lynne Kopac 29:53, 69. Charlie Sprauer 30:12, 81. Shannon Hurley 33:57 (age 13), 84. Kristen Weeks 33:57 (age 11)

May 2, 2006: EDISON, N.J. – Senior Justin Harris (Wappingers Falls, N.Y.) has been named one of four MAAC Outdoor Track Performers of the Week it was announced by the conference office on Tuesday afternoon.

Harris ran to a sixth place finish in the steeplechase at the Penn Relays last Friday in a time of 9:09.60. The time marked a new school record at Marist, breaking the old mark of 9:17.84. The mark also shattered his previous personal best in the event of 9:25.60. With his time Harris has qualified for the IC4A Championships and the sixth place finish is the best ever for a Marist athlete at the Penn Relays.

 

5/7 This past weekend was a busy one. The Patriot alumni are getting into their college championship season and there are a number of results to report. The current Patriot team was at the Somers Invitational on Saturday. The local road racing scene had the YMCA Bridge Run 5K with many of the master's training group turning in nice performances.

YMCA Bridge Run 5K: 6. Marisa Hanson 17:34 (1st female); 9.Kevin Dollard 18:13 (1st 50-59); 12. John Dean 18:23; 16. Connie Seigh 19:05 (1st 30-39); 17. Glen Brent 19:15 (2nd 50-59); 20. Vince Veltre 19:34, 24. Gil Anderson 19:47 (3rd 50-59), 31. Alex Anderson 20:48 (2nd 14 and under): 38. Mary Hurley-Weeks 21:27 (2nd 40-49); 44. Harry Owens 21:52; 49. Jeff Weeks 22:01: 62. Bill Rosenberg 22:36 (2nd 60-69); 97: Chris Walsh 24:42 (2nd 50-59)

Alumni Meets
MAAC Championships at Rider University:
Justin Harris won the steeplechase in the stellar time of 9:14.85. This performance followed his super race at the Penn Relays.

NYSCTC: In looking through the results I spotted one of my favorite non-John Jay runners, Jesse Williamson (FDR), who is in his senior year at RIT. Jesse had a great meet, winning the 1500 meter run in 3:57.89 and placing 3rd in the 5K in 15:05. In her last meet for Geneseo, Sally Briggs again did the 5K/10K double, finishing the 5K in 19:00.97 and placing 6th in the 10K in 39:26.90. Multi-event athlete, JC Kennedy, took 5th for Brockport in the decathlon with 5338 points. He also threw the open javelin and finshed 12th with a toss of 130' 01". Another non-Patriot favorite who is now at Cortland also had a good meet. Ashley Wirges (Arlington) was second in the 400 in 59.31 (she ran 59.04 in the trials) and was 4th in the 400IH in 67.38.

NEC: Amanda Lee ran on Sacred Heart's 4 x 800 meter and 4 x 400 meter relays. The 4 x 800 finished 4th in a time of 9:37.65 and the 4 x 400 was 6th in 3:59.44. Amanda had splits of 2:19 and 58.2 in her final college meet. Tom Hyatt ran the 400IH in 60.38 and high jumped 5' 10.5".

AEC: Dan Jordy came very close to dipping under 4 minutes in the 1500 for the second time in two meets with a 9th place finish time of 4:01.30.

John Jay at Somers Invitational: BOYS' RESULTS – 100 m: 4. Garcia 11.4; Long Jump: 5. Joyce 18' 10.75"; Triple Jump: 4. Joyce 40' 4.75", Turchioe 36' 11"; Pentathlon: 4. Risole 2416; Varsity boys' 4 x 200: 4. JJ 1:35.3; Frosh/Soph SMR: 3. JJ 4:09.6 GIRLS' RESULTS: Pole Vault: 5. Shay 8' 0"; Shot Put: Muller 28' 2"; 100m: Karlie Dean 12.7; 200m: Karlie Dean 28.2; Shuttle Hurdle Relay: 4. JJ 55.1

5/1 Charlie Sprauer forwarded me full results from the Kingston Classic. In looking through the results of the 638 finishers it was great to see so many familiar names. I started racing back in the late 70's and it's amazing how many of the people I ran against back then are still at it. Not just out there, they are running fast. Speaking of fast, the local 50-59 age group tends to be very competitive. There is one local runner who doesn't show up in the results very often but when he does he generally dominates the age group. Tim Haley, age 56, from Tivoli finished 4 seconds behind Marisa in Kingston. His time of 36:49 is simply outstanding.

5/1 Kingston Classic: Race day did not have a cloud in the sky and temperatures reached into the low 70's on this last day of April making it a little tough on many runners who were not yet heat acclimated. Marisa Hanson had a great race, finishing 3rd woman in a time of 36:45. Connie Seigh finished 10th woman overall in 40:17. Sue Bonthron was not far behind in 40:57. Vince Veltre had a goal of running 6:30 per mile and came very close with a pace of 6:40 and a time of 41:23. Maryanne Ceriello finished 337th in 53:17.

5/1 Cornell Invite: Dan Jordy, running in his final season at Binghamton, had an awesome meet finishing 2nd in the 1500 in a time of 3:58.36.

5/1 SUNYACS: Geneseo won both the men's and women's meet edging out Brockport on the women's side and Cortland for the men. Sally Briggs scored in two events for Geneseo placing 6th in the 5K in 18:40.71 and 3rd in the 10K in the 39:28.99. JC Kennedy scored in two events for Brockport with an 8th place finish in the pole vault at 12; 7.5" and 8th in the javelin with a toss of 143' 4". Kevin O'Connell was 7th in the pole vault at 12' 7.5" Great to see two JJ almuni scoring in the same event.

4/30 Queens 1/2 Marathon: Despite getting stuck for 30 minutes crossing the Whitestone Bridge, then getting caught in serious traffic near the start of the race, parking his car a mile from the start, running to the start with no time to return to the car for racing shoes, John Dean managed to meet his goal of breaking 1:30 to get the qualifying time for the New York City Marathon. His time of 1:29:21 placed him 209 out of the 2986 finishers in the race.

4/29 Jailbreak for Home 5K: With the Kingston Classic the following day the Masters crew is being split between the two races. Sue Bonthron, who has joined our group this year and will make practices as often as her work schedule allows was the overall female winner in 18:43. Interestingly she finished between two other Masters members – Glen Brent (18:42) and Jeff Nero (18:43) who were battling for second and third in the 50-59 age group. Kevin Dollard was the winner of the 50-59 age group in a great time of 17:53. Bill Rosenberg, back from his winter skiing in Vermont and ski trip to France to cap off the ski season, opened the racing season with an excellent time of 22:13 to place him fourth in the 60-69 age group. Chris Walsh finished 112th overall in a time of 24:03.

4/29 PENN RELAYS: The John Jay boys 4 x 100 meter relay of Mike Clifford, Chris Turchioe, Adam Schmalz and Ryan Joyce ran 47.07. The 4 x 400 team of Adam Schmalz, Frank Risole, Samir El-Kilani and Sean O'Brien ran 3:37.92.

4/27 PENN RELAYS: Justin Harris finished 6th in the second heat of the College Championship 3K Steeplechase in a Marist College school record time of 9:09.599. This is also an IC4A Qualifying time. AWESOME!!!!!

The John Jay girls' 4 x 400 meter relay ran 4:28.94 and the 4 x 100 finished in 54.81.

4/22 Sacred Heart University Updates: Amanda Lee is running very well in her final season at Sacred Heart University. She finished 4th in the 400m dash at the Rider Quad Meet on April 15. Her time was 61.83. This past weekend at the Collegiate Track Conference Championships she won the 800 meter run in a personal best time of 2:19. At the Rider Quad Meet, Tom Hyatt finished 5th in the 400IH in 61.43, 6th in the high jump at 1.76 meters and 7th in the pole vault with a jump of 11' 0".

4/22 Colonial Athletic Association Championships, Richmond, VA: The former Patriot dynamic duo of Erin Ballard and Laura McCloskey finished 2nd and 4th for Northeastern University in the 800 meter run. Erin finished in 2:12.60 (which may be a PR) and Laura was not far back in 2:14.93. Erin also split a 56 on the 4 x 400.

The Big Meet, Berkeley, CA: In the annual dual meet battle between Stanford and the University of California, Hakon finished 4th in the 1500 in 3:50.65.

5 way Meet at Bucknell: In what was not at all nice weather Dan Jordy ran a very respectable time of 4:05.66 in the 1500 and followed that up with a 2:00 split on Binghamton's 4 x 800 meter relay.

4/20 John Jay and Arlington staged their yearly dual meet battle on Wednesday. The Patriots had a number of excellent performances and a bunch of first place finishes but Arlington prevailed 101-79 on the boys' side and 107-67 in the girls' meet. First place finishers for the boys were: Mike Garcia – 100, 200; Ryan Joyce – long jump, triple jump; Mike Clifford – 110HH; Tim Holz – 400; Sean O'Brien – 800; plus the 400m and 1600m relays. The winners for the girls were: Karlie Dean – 100, 200; Wright – 100HH; Brianna Reynoso – 400; Julie McCloskey – 800; Heather Shay – Pole vault; the 1600 meter relay. More detailed results are on the spring results page.

4/17 Boston Marathon: Two runners from the Master's Training Group ran Boston. Ed Fitzmaurice finished in 3:22:30 and Sally Saretto ran her first Boston Marathon in 4:26:44.

4/16 Patriot Alumni Results
Bison Outdoor Classic at Bucknell:
Sally Briggs ran 39:46 for 10K. Tim Walker and Dan Jordy ran the 1500. Tim finished in 3:56.70 and Dan ran 4:05.60. JC Kennedy threw the javelin 144' 4".
Solomon Husky Invite at Northeastern: Erin Ballard finished 2nd in the 800 in 2:15.18 and Laura McCloskey was 9th in 2:21.84.

4/14 Mt. SAC Relays in Walnut, CA: Hakon ran in the seeded heat of the University/Open Division of the 1500 and finished 7th with a nice PR of 3:49.86.

4/8 Sam Howell Invitational: Justin Harris had a major PR in the 5000 breaking the 15:00 minute barrier with an excellent time of 14:55.02.
West Point Invite: Dan Jordy ran on two relays for Binghamton. He split 2:02 for an 800 and 54 high for a 400.

4/8 Green Dragon Relays in Cornwall: On what was a fairly nasty day the Patriots put in some solid performances in Cornwall. The triple jump team of Ryan Joyce and Chris Turchioe took first place in the triple jump relay with a total of 78' 5" Check the Spring Results link on the left for other Patriot results from the meet. The results may not be complete as the official results mixed varsity boys in with the varsity girls and left out a number of girls relay results.

4/7 Patriot Poughkeepsie Journal All Stars: Girls' First Team: 1600 m relay – Karlie Dean, Laura Ambron, Brianna Reynoso and Julie McCloskey; Triple Jump – Charlese Porter. Second Team: 55m and 300m – Karlie Dean; 600m Julie McCloskey; 800m relay – Karlie Dean, Brianna Reynoso, Laura Ambron and Julie McCloskey; 3200m relay – Casey Fletcher, Melanie Burke, Erin Egan and Julie Moy; Pole Vault – Heather Shay
Boys' First Team: 55m and 300m – Mark O'Briskie; Triple jump and long jump – Ryan Joyce. Second Team: 1000m – Sean O'Brien. Honorable Mention: Mike Garcia, Mike Clifford.

4/7 Patriots Open Dual Meet Season With Two Wins: The Patriots had a good day at their first dual meet of the season. The girls' team defeated Carmel by a score of 96.3 to 65.7. The boys team won with an impressive 124 points to Carmel's 44. Some results can be found on the SPRING RESULTS link on the left.

4/3 Race Around Briggs: The MHRRC answered Captain Eileen Sylvia's call and showed up in good numbers at the Race Around Briggs. With the excellent turnout the team was able to easily reclaim the title they had lost last year. Full results can be found at Milan Running.

4/3 Rome, Italy: John Jay graduate class of 2001, Chris Aung ran his first marathon on March 26 in Rome. He finished in a time of 3:45:45 and placed 4426 out of the over 10,000 runners in the race.

4/1 SUNY Brockport Initational: Sally Briggs finished 10th in the 5K in 19:54. This is Sally's last season of college track. After graduation she will be joining the Peace Corps. At the present time she is waiting to find out where she will be sent. JC Kennedy was in 4 events at the meet, working on his pentathlon skills. Shot put: 31' 1", Long Jump: 19' 10", Pole Vault: NH (oops), High Jump: 5' 6"

Six Team Meet at Rider: Justin Harris ran the steeplechase for the first time in 2 years and finished 2nd in a time of 9:45.52. Corey Harris ran the 800 in 2:01.80.

Stanford Invitational: In one of, if not the most competitive college/open meets for distance runners in the US, Hakon DeVries ran 14:04.0 for 5K in the seeded section to finish 13th overall.

George Mason Spring Open Invite: The Northeastern University team traveled to George Mason University. Laura McCloskey placed 3rd in the 800 in 2:16.55. Erin Ballard ran on the 2nd place 4 X 400 meter relay which ran 3:58.81. She also placed 13th in the 800 in 2:22.65.

John Jay Patriots at Panther Relays in Wallkill: Girls: Frosh/Soph Sprint Medley Relay – 5th place in 4:37.7 (Ambron, Kusko, Neidig, Burke); Frosh/Soph Triple Jump – 4th place Laura Ambron 30' 3/4"; Varsity High Jump – 4th place Julie McCloskey 4' 6"; Varsity Pole Vault – 4th place Heather Shay
Boys: Frosh/Soph Sprint Medley Relay – 5th place in 4:08.0 (Bunce, Mosca, Clifford, Gomba)

3/31 Snowflake Invitational (3/25) hosted by Northeastern University: John Jay alumni from Northeastern and Sacred Heart praticipated in this early season meet. For NU Erin Ballard (getting in a little speed work) took 2nd in the 400 in 60.17 and 7th in the 200 in 28.37. Laura McCloskey was first in the 800 in 2:20.79. They will both be in action this weekend at George Mason. Sacred Heart senior Amanda Lee was 8th in the 400 in 62.49. Freshman Tom Hyatt was 9th in the 110HH in 19.32 and 3rd in the high jump at 5' 10".

3/27 More 1/2 Marathon: There were at least four runners from the master's training group who ran the More 1/2 Marathon on Sunday. Sally Saretto and Deborah Schwartz ran it together and finished in 407/408th place in a time of 1:54:42 This was over a 3 minute PR for Sally. Deborah was 10th in the 55-59 age group and Sally was 29th in the 50-54 bracket. Mary Veltre and Sue O'Neil also ran. Mary finished in 2:02:59 and Sue came in at 2:05.40. There were over 3500 participants in the event.

National Masters Indoor Track and Field Championships: Beth Zebuth (a good friend from the Running School) is the NATIONAL MASTERS SHOT PUT CHAMPION! She threw the shot put 29' 2" to win the 40-44 age group at the Reggie Lewis Center in Boston. Beth also placed 5th in the 400 m dash in 65.80 seconds and 7th in the 800 m in 2:34.66. John Brooks ran in the 200 meter dash and finished 7th in 25.45, missing the finals by .06.

Dick Shea Open at West Point: Dutchess CC was at West Point over the weekend and Corey Harris opened his spring track season by throwing the javelin 160' 7". Binghamton was also there and Dan Jordy ran both the 1500 and the 800. His times were 4:10.55 and 2:02.26.

The John Jay Patriots track and field schedule can be found by clicking on the Spring Results link on the left.

3/21 Patriot alumni class of '97 Anthony Nero (winner of two DC Classic Marathons) ran his first race of the spring last weekend and finished 3rd in the 5K in a time of 16:47. Anthony is now living in Kentucky. Anthony will always have an important place in my coaching memories as he was the first cross country runner I coached to make it into the State Championship Meet. He accomplished that feat as a 10th, 11th and 12th grader.

3/20 John Brooks has been doing some serious racing on the indoor circuit to get ready for the Master's Indoor National Meet this weekend at the Reggie Lewis Center in Boston. This past weekend he competed in the Front Runners Meet at the Armory in NYC. John competed in the 50-59 age group and finished 1st in the 60 m dash in 8.04 seconds, 1st in the 200 m dash in 24.88 seconds and 3rd in the 400 m dash in 58.03. Those are FAST times for anyone and John is still running them at 50 years old!!

Walkill 5K on 3/19: Ken DeVries ran another PR (Ken, this continued running of PRs is getting out of hand) to finish 38th overall and 3rd in the 50-54 age in a time of 19:11. Jeff Nero was 46th overall and 1st in the 55-59 age group in 19:42. Connie Seigh was close behind in 49th, finishing as 2nd female and 1st 35-39 in 19:45. That's a pretty good performance considering she had done a hilly 16 mile run the day before! Chris DeVries missed a PR by a couple seconds with her time of 24:18. Her time was good for 2nd in the 50-54 age group. The race had a total of 380 finishers.

3/19 Shamrock Marathon in Virginia Beach: Running marthons near the ocean is always iffy and this years race was no exception. The winds were strong and steady with gusts strong enough to blow the course barriers over and into the paths of the runners. The way the course was laid out miles 6-19 were directly into the wind which made it necessary for the runners to adjust their goal paces down significantly. Despite these conditions Wayne McDaniel and Connie Grace had very solid races. Connie finished in 3:04:55 which placed her as 5th female overall and 2nd masters. Wayne ran 2:56.05 with his fastest mile of the day the final mile of the race. His time placed him 32nd overall and 2nd in the 45-49 age group.

3/19 Early outdoor results for Patriot Alumni: Northeastern University traveled to Richmond, VA for some warmer weather and an early spring meet. The dynamic duo of Erin Ballard and Laura McCloskey took 1-2 in the 800 in 2:15.75 and 2:18.09 respectively.

3/13 The spring road racing season is starting to gear up and if the numbers from the Winter Run and the Ed Erichson Run are any indication it could be a good one. Like the Winter Run in February, the Ed Erichson run this weekend had an excellent turnout. As usual the Masters Training Group from last summer was well represented. Kieran Stack won the 5 miler in a time of 29:27. Kevin Dollard was 3rd overall and first 50-59 with a super time of 30:32. Jeff Nero was not far behind in 5th place (2nd 50-59) in 31:26. Vince Veltre continues to get faster and placed 7th overall and 3rd 40-49 with a time of 32:44. Glen Brent who is coming back nicely from his fall knee surgery was 9th (4th 50-59) in 34:08. Lori Cassia-Decker finsihed 19th overall and 2nd women in a time of 37:12. Mary Veltre was 34th (3rd 40-49) in 40:20. Nancy Swanson won the 60-69 age group in 44:31. In the 10 mile race Connie Seigh was 2nd overall (1st woman) in 1:06:20. Ed Fitzmaurice was 4th in 1:06:55.

Ken and Chris DeVries continued on their tour of the Northeast Road Racing Circuit last Saturday with their latest stop being in Morristown, NJ to run the St. Paddy's 5K. The race had a total of 583 finishers. Chris was 2nd out of 30 women in the 50-59 age bracket in a time of 24:38. Ken had another PR, running 19:23 to finish 4th of 69 runners in the men's 50-59.

JC Kennedy Sets Brockport Indoor Pentathlon School Record

JC had a great meet at the D-3 ECAC championsips held at Ursinus College in PA. He finished 4th in the pentathlon with 3234 points to set a new SUNY at Brockport school record. His performances were: Long jump – 5.8x meters, shot put – 11.8x meters, high jump – 6', 55m HH – 8.4x and 1000 meter run – 2:58. The exact performances are not posted – JC emailed me with this info.

Sally Briggs traveled to Yale to compete in her last college indoor meet. She ran the 5K in a season best time of 18:30.

Erin Ballard finished 4th in the 1000 meter run at the D-1 ECAC meet in Boston in a time of 2:54.13. Corey Ennist was also in Boston running on Marist College's 4 x 800 meter relay which ran a time of 7:51.94.

Patriot Girls Lower County 4 x 400 Record

The John Jay girls 4 x 400 meter relay broke the Dutchess County Record, lowering the record they set earlier this year. Their time of 4:08.01 set at the Eastern States Championships was a full second faster than their previous record. The team consisted of Julie McCloskey (60.3), Laura Ambron(62.2), Karlie Dean(60.9) and Brianna Reynoso(64.6). Also at the meet, Mark O'Briskie ran 6.90 in the 55 m dash and Karlie Dean ran 7.63. Ryan Joyce long jumped 19' 5" and finished his excellent triple jump season with a leap of 42' 7.5".

My sister forwarded this to me. I have no idea who the original author is. Thought you might enjoy it.

TO ALL THE KIDS WHO SURVIVED
the 1930's, 40's, 50's, 60's and 70's !!

First, we survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while they carried us.

They took aspirin, ate blue cheese dressing and didn't get tested for diabetes.
Then after that trauma, our baby cribs were covered with bright colored lead-based paints.
We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets and when we rode our bikes, we had no helmets, not to mention, the risks we took hitchhiking.
As children, we would ride in cars with no seat belts or air bags.

Riding in the back of a pick up on a warm day was always a special treat.
We drank water from the garden hose and NOT from a water bottle.
We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle, and NO ONE actually died from this.
We ate cupcakes, bread and butter and drank soda pop with sugar in it, but we weren't overweight because WE WERE ALWAYS OUTSIDE PLAYING!
We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when the streetlights came on.
No one was able to reach us all day. And we were O.K.
We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then ride down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. After running into the bushes a few times, we learned to solve the problem.
We did not have Playstations, Nintendo's, X-boxes, no video games at all, no 99 channels on cable, no video tape movies, no surround sound, no cell phones, no personal computers, no Internet or Internet chat rooms……….

WE HAD FRIENDS . . . we went outside and found them!
We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and there were no lawsuits from these accidents.
We made up games with sticks and tennis balls and ate worms and although we were told it would happen, we did not put out very many eyes, nor did the worms live in us forever.
We rode bikes or walked to a friend's house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just walked in and talked to them!

Little League had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn't had to learn to deal with disappointment.
Imagine that!!

The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law!

This generation has produced some of the best risk-takers, problem solvers and inventors ever!

The past 50 years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas.

We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned
HOW TO DEAL WITH IT ALL!

And YOU are one of them!

You might want to share this with others who have had the luck to grow up as kids,
before the lawyers and the government regulated our lives for our own good.

 

DeVries Dominate 50-59 Age Group at ORC Winter Series

Ken and Chris DeVries finished up the ORC Winter 5K series in style. Ken finished 11th overall in 19:25 and Chris was 68th in 24:59. They also each won the 50-59 title for best 2/3 races and also were tops for the total of all 3 races. Chris won the 2/3 by over 4 minutes. Ken beat George Shurter, one of the top runners on the local road race scene for many many years, by 8 seconds in the 2/3 category.

Ballard and McCloskey Take 1-2 in 1000 Meter Run

2/25 Alumni: Besides Hakon's run in the 5K the John Jay alumni have put in some impressive performances at the championship and late season meets. The Geneseo women won the NYSCTC Champships again this year. Sally Briggs placed 8th in the 3K in a season best 10:35.85. In the 5K she finished 10th in 18:35.72. Also competing for Geneseo, Kevin O'Connell pole vaulted 3.66 meters. JC Kennedy competed in the pentatlon for Brockport and finished 6th with 2997 points. Marist was at the NYU Invitational at the Armory with one of their main goals to get the IC4A qualifying time in the 4 x 800 meter relay. Corey Ennist ran a 1:58 on the second leg to help the team achieve that goal with the time of 7:50.51. Tim Walker, running for the Penn State Spiked Shoe Club, competed in the 800 meter run and finished 3rd in an excellent time of 1:53.12. At the New England Championships, Sacred Heart athletes Amanda Lee and Tom Hyatt had excellent meets. Tom finished 7th in the heptathlon with 3780 points and Amanda ran the 500 in 1:21.37. Erin Ballard and Laura McCloskey helped Northeastern University to a second place finish in the meet with their 1-2 dominance in the 1000. Erin ran 2:55.57 and Laura was close behind in 2:56.05.

Hakon runs 14:08.08 5K!

Running in his first college 5K Hakon finished in 8th place at the MPSF Championships being held at the University of Washington in Seattle. His time of 14:08.08 is about 4:33 per mile pace.

Marisa Hanson sets U.S. Masters Indoor Record in 1500 m

Marisa continued her great indoor season by winning the women's 1500 meter race at the Thursday night at the Races in the Armory. Her time of 4:36.7 is a new U.S. Women's Masters record eclipsing the old record of 4:41.34 set earlier this year by Alisa Harvey.

2/21 More Alumni stuff: The Geneseo women won the SUNYAC Championships this past weekend. Sally Briggs ran the tough 3K/5K double placing 2nd in the 5K in 18:38.58 and 5th in the 3K in 10:43.75.

The John Jay Patriots were at the Section 1 Class A meet on Monday. Ryan Joyce finished 4th in the triple jump with a performance of 41' 2.25". Frank Risole was 5th in the pole vault at 10' 0" and the 4 x 400 meter relay was 6th in 3:48.3. The girls' 4 x 200 meter relay ws 5th with a time of 1:51.8. That may be a new school record. They just missed the county record of 1:51.0 which is held by Millbrook.

2/19 Alumni News: Justin Harris had a great race for Marist College at the MAAC meet finishing second in the 3000 meter run in a PR time of 8:35.81. Coach Pete was very happy with the performance. In the 800 meter run Corey Ennist ran 2:03.61. Dan Jordy had a busy weekend for Binghamton at the America East Championships. On Friday he lead off the 6th place DMR with a 3:13 split for 1200 meters. On Sunday he ran an excellent mile time of 4:23.06 to finish 9th and later in the day ran a 2:01 on the 4 x 800 meter relay.

2/15 We're back from another trip. This time to Austin, Texas to visit son Joshua and his wife, Lisa. We had a great time and in the process missed another Noreaster. Two trips to warmer climates and both times the home front got hit with a good snow storm. As usual I'm in catch up mode with results.

Alumni Results: It was a little like a John Jay homecoming at the St. Valentine's Classic held at Boston University this past weekend. Tim Walker and Chris McCloskey are both still competing and ran in the 800. Tim ran a stellar 1:54.45 and Chris came close to breaking the 2 minute barrier with a 2:00.37. The Marist team made the trip from Poughkeepsie and had some great team results. The Patriot alums at Marist had a good day with Justin Harris continuing to get back into top form running 8:43.07 in the 3K and Corey Ennist hitting a very nice 1:58.85 in the 800. The Northeastern women took 5th place in the DMR with an ECAC qualifying time of 12:04.29. Laura McCloskey ran the 800 leg in 2:17 and Erin Ballard anchored the team with a 1600 m split of 5:04. Justin Lee, who just happened to be in the area, walked into the meet to see what was going on and found his old teammates.

Back on Feb. 6 at the BU open, Laura McCloskey came close to breaking 3 minutes in the 1000 m run with a time of 3:00.32. I got a report that Kevin O'Connell, who is competing for Geneseo, pole vaulted 12' 6" at practice meet. Amanda Lee had a great race for Sacred Heart at NEC, running 1:20.95 in the 500 meter dash to qualify for the USATF New England Indoor Championships. Binghamton had a dual meet against Albany and Dan Jordy took 4th in the mile in 4:32.93.

Stanford University attended one of the most competitive meets on the college calendar, traveling to Arkansas University for the Tyson Invitational. Hakon DeVries ran in the Championship section of the 3K and finished 11th in 8:11.48. That time is equivalent to an 8:49 full two mile.

Geneseo and Brockport were at the Robert J. Kane Invitational at Cornell University on Feb. 10/11. Sally Briggs placed 8th in the 5K in 19:16.23 and JC Kennedy ran the 60m HH in 9.48 and threw the shot put 38' 11.5".

2/5 Alumni Results: Patriot alumni continue to put up impressive performances. At the RIT Invitational Sally Briggs finished 2nd in the 3000 in a time of 10:48.38. Sally's times have improved each time she has raced this season. Running only his second race of the season, Hakon DeVries finished 6th in the mile at the Nebraska Invite in 4:12.75. Erin Ballard ran the 800 at the Collegiate Invite in the Armory in 2:17.19. The Syracuse Invitational had three former Patriots in attendance. Tim Walker, who is an assistant coach at Cortland, won the 800 running unattached in a time of 1:59.18. At the same meet Dan Jordy finished 6th in the mile in 4:28.93. He also lead off Binghamton's DMR with a 3:18 split for the 1200. That's a tough double! Multi-event athlete JC Kennedy had a busy day for Brockport. He ran the 60HH in 9:46, high jumped 5' 11.25", pole vaulted 12' 9.5" and long jumped 19' 11". If anyone has JC's email I would love to have it so I could email and congratulate him on how well he is doing!!

Section 1 Northern Counties Meet at West Point: Patriot Boys' Results – Triple Jump: 1. Ryan Joyce 41' 4.5"; 55m HH: 1. Mike Clifford 8.6; 1000m run: 5. Brian Ivory 2:52.5; High Jump: 5. Tim Holz 5' 0"; 55m: 2. Mark O'Briskie 6.7, 3. Mike Garcia 6.7; Pole Vault: 4. Rigule 10'; 800m relay: 1. JJ 1:38.0; 1600m relay: 2. JJ 3:45.7. Team Scores: 1. Arlington 100, 2. Beacon 96, 3. Brewster 60, 4. John 59, 5. Poughkeepsie 4, 6. Carmel 30, 7. Pawling 27, 8. Mahopac 20, 9. Lourdes 16, 10. RCK 11
Patriot Girls' Results – Racewalk: 3.Jenna Dilullo 9:20, 6. Dhanya Shridhar 10:16.3; 3000m: 2. Lauren Boardman 11:23.7; Pole Vault: 2. Heather Shay 7' 0"; 55mHH: 2. Binata Ray 10.2, 4. Wright 10.3; 600m: 1. Julie McCloskey 1:47.9; Triple Jump: 1. Charlese Porter 32' 4", 3. Devon March 29' 2"; Shot Put: 6. Christine Muller 28' 1", 55m: 4. Karlie Dean 7.7; 300m: 3. Karlie Dean 44.6, 5. Brianna Reynoso 45.4; Long Jump: 5. Charlese Porter 14' .5", 6. Devon March 13' 20.25"; High Jump: 4. Julie McCloskey 4' 4"; 3200m relay: 4. JJ 10:40.0 No results for 1600m and 800m relay. Team Scores: 1. Arlington 115, 2. John Jay 100, 3. Beacon 82, 4. RCK 51, 5. Brewster 48, 6. Carmel 31. 7. Lourdes 30, 8. Mahopac 19, 9. Haldane 8, 10. Pawling 6, 11. Poughkeepsie 2

1/30 ALUMNI RESULTS: Hakon DeVries returned to the track for his first race of the season. Despite having had only one track workout since the end of XC season he anchored the Stanford "B DMR with a personal best time of 4:07 for 1600 meters. The meet was run in Seattle at the University of Washington. At the Reebok Indoor Games in Boston Erin Ballard and Laura McCloskey helped Northeastern University to a first place finish. Erin won the 1000 meter run in the superb time of 2:54.96 and Laura placed 6th in the 800 meter run in 2:22.11. Geneseo was at RIT for an invitational and Sally Briggs finished 5th in the 3000 meter run in 11:09.62. Binghamton was at Colgate where Dan Jordy finished 7th in the mile in a time of 2:01.91. When checking the results of the Lehigh Invitational I came across a familiar name. Arlington graduate Bill Ceriello, who is in his second year at LaSalle Universtiy, finished first in the mile in 4:24.85. At the same meet Amanda Lee placed 9th in the 400 in 64.33 and Tom Hyatt had a NH in the pole vault. Marist College was at a small meet at West Point where they had a number of nice performances. Justin Harris continued to show improvement as he returns from injury. He won the 3000 meter run in a time of 8:57.60. Corey Ennist ran on the winning 4 x 800 meter relay which had a time of 8:05.70. Multi-event athlete James Kennedy competing for Brockport, had a busy day at St. Lawrence University where he ran the 55m HH in 8.77, high jumped 5' 9.75" and long jumped 18' 9.25". Becky Idell, running for MIT, opened the season with her first 5K on the track. She completed the 25 lapper in 20:54 which is 9 minutes faster than the time she ran for her first 5K back in high school cross country. Becky is missing much of the winter season to do an internship on Wall Street.

In other John Jay track/xc family news the DeVries family continues to improve their times on the road racing circuit. They are competing in the ORC Winter 5K Series held in Middletown. On Jan. 15 Ken finishedf 11th in 20:46 and Chris was 48th in 25:56. This past weekend they both ran 5K PRs. Ken was 15th in 19:36 and Chris was 66th in 24:15.

1/26 We just returned from a week in Florida so I have some catching up to do!

Marisa Hanson won the 39th Annual Hartshorne Memorial Masters Mile in 5:02.69 setting a new meet record. For this incredible performance she was named the USATF Athlete of the Week.

The John Jay girls track team staged a stirring come from behind victory at the league championships, beating Arlington in all three relays to secure the victory. Congrats to Coach Lee and all the girls.
Girls' Results: 1500M RW: 4. Jenna Dilullo 9:22.9, 6. Dhanya Sridhan 10:30.9; 55m: 1. Karlie Dean 7.4, 5. Allie Neidig 8.2; 55m HH: 3. Danielle Wright 10.6, 4. Binata Ray 10.7; 300m: 1. Karlie Dean 42.6 (SCHOOL RECORD), 2. Brianna Reynoso 44.3; 1000m: 4. Julie McCloskey 3:29.1; 3000m: 3. Lauren Boardman 11:29.6; Pole Vault: 2. Leigh Johnson 6' 6", 2. Carissa Powers 6' 6", 4. Heather Shay 6' 6"; High Jump: 2. Julie McCloskey 4' 6", Julie Moy 4' 3; Long Jump: 2. Devon March 14' 7.25", 3. Charlese Porter 14' 4", 6. Christine O'Shea 13' 9.5", Triple Jump: 1. Charlese Porter 31' 4", 3. Christine O'Shea 29' 8.5", 4. Devon March 28' 5.75", 6. Nicole Kusko 25' 7.5"; Shot Put: 4. Christine Muller 28' 8", 5. Courtney Harris 26' 5", 6. Jenn MCGrath 24' 6.5"; 4 x 200m relay: 1. JJ – Allie Neidig, Christine O'Shea, Briana Reynoso, Karlie Dean 1:53.0; 4 x 400 m relay: 1. JJ – Briana Reynoso, Laura Ambron, Stephanie Abram, Julie McCloskey 4:26.0; 4 x 800m relay: 2. JJ 10:52.9
1 . John Jay 153, 2. Arlington 147, 3. Carmel 78, 4. RCK 59, 5. Mahopac 51, 6. Poughkeepsie 6

Boys' Results: 55m: 1. Mark O'Briskie 6.6, 6. Mike Garcia 7.4; 55m HH: 5. Mike Clifford 9.0; 300m: 1. Mark O'Briskie 37.9, 2. Adam Smalz 38.5, 5. Frank Risole 40.1; 600m: 3. Brian Donovan 1:30.7, 4. Mike Garcia 1:31.3; 1000m: 1. Sean O'Brien 2:43.4; 3200m: 3. Brian Ivory 10:19.7; High Jump: 4. Frank Risole 5' 4"; Long Jump: 2. Ryan Joyce 19' 11.5"; Triple Jump: 1. Ryan Joyce 42' 5.5", 3. Chris Turchioe 38' 8", 5. Steve Repka 29' 11.25"; 4 x 200m relay: 1. JJ – Mike Clifford, Ryan Joyce, Jeff Zendek, Samir El-Kilani 1:42.4, 4 x 400m relay: 1. JJ – Adam Smalz, Tim Holz, Mike Garcia, Mark O'Briskie 3:43.0, 4 x 800m relay: 2. JJ 9:11.8
1. Arlington 182, 2. John Jay 117, 3. Poughkeepsie 52, 4. Mahopac 48, 5. RCK 28, 5. Carmel 28

Alumni Update: Great Dane Classic at the Armory: The women's team from Northeastern University won the meet with the help of two former Patriots. Laura McCloskey won the 1000 m run in a time of 3:01.64 and Erin Ballard placed second in the 800 in 2:14.11. Dan Jordy, running for Binghamton ran the mile in 4:36.84.
Boston University Meet: Amanda Lee and Tom Hyatt, both now competing for Sacred Heart had good days. Tom finished 2nd in the high jump with a leap of 5' 10" and Amanda ran the 500m in 1:23.50.
Sally Briggs competed at Cornell in the 3000 m run and finished with a time of 12:14.79.

1/16 Suffern Invitational: The Patriot boys finished 11th with 15 points while the girls tied for 20th with 1 point. Medal Winners- Boys: Triple Jump: 2. Ryan Joyce 39' 9.25"; 300 yards: 4. Mike Garcia 34.5, 5. Curtis Casseus 34.7; 600 yards: 6. Brian Donovan 1:21.8; 1000 yards: 5. Sean O'Brien 2:29.3 Girls – Shot Put: 6. Courtney Harris 27' 4.75"
Frosh/Soph Medal Winners: Girls – Pole Vault: 6. Leah Johnson 6' 6" Boys: 55 meters: 2. Adam Smalz 7.1; 300 yards: 2. Adam Smalz 35.6; Long Jump: 4. Adam Smalz 17' 1"; High Jump: 6. Frank Risole 5' 2"; Pole Vault: 1. Frank Risole 9' 0"

1/14 Gotham Cup: Patriot alums Corey Ennist and Justin Harris ran at the Armory on Friday night. Corey ran the 800 in 2:01.22 and Justin, who is in the process of racing himself back into shape after spendinga semester in Spain, ran the 3000 in 9:21.68. Former JJ coach Matt Uzenski ran in the meet unattached and ran a very respectable 9:03.23 in the 3000. At the Black Knight Invitational at West Point Dan Jordy opened his last indoor season for Binghamton with a 4:34.23 in the mile and came back on the 4 x 800 to split 2:04.

1/14 Check out the article on former Patriot Dan Jordy who is now a graduate student at Binghamton.

Thursday Night at the Races: Marisa and I traveled down to the Armory on Thursday night to join the fun at the Thursday Night meet put on by the NYCRRC. We both ran the mile. Marisa ran a super time of 5:03.9 in what was her first ever indoor mile. I went with the goal of breaking 5:30 and came up a little short at 5:33.

1/12 Millrose Mile Relay Trials: New Dutchess County and School Record. The Patriot girls ran an excellent time of 4:09.19 to finish 6th at the Westchester/Putnam/Dutchess qualifier for the Millrose Games. The team splits were Karlie Dean 61.4, Laura Ambron 61.7, Brianna Reynoso 63.5 and Julie McCloskey 62.3. The time breaks the county and school record of 4:11.6 held by the Patriot team of Amanda Lee (Coach Lee's daughter), Erin Ballard, Kelly McCloskey (Julie's sister) and Jenn McCracken. The Patriots will be at RCC on Monday, Jan. 16 for the Suffern Invitational.

A Runner Looks at 60 – Musings of a baby boomer.

If you’re a Jimmy Buffett fan you know the title is stolen from his song A Pirate Looks at 40 and his book A Pirate Looks at 50. As the cover of the November 14 issue of Newsweek made very clear, the first baby boomers are turning 60 in 2006. That includes both Jimmy and me. Neither of us was on the cover of Newsweek, which is OK. I’m sure Jimmy would agree with me that being left off a cover that included George W. Bush, Martha Stewart and Donald Trump would be counted as one of life’s positives.

As the saying goes, “I digress”. A short personal running history might be in order. I’ve been running competitively since 7th grade (wow, that was in the 1950s), with an 11-year hiatus after college. The high school and college careers were less than stellar. For the first three years of high school the goal was to be a miler, which is not something you can make great strides at on 10 miles a week with the longest run of the season being a little less than 3 miles. Senior year was the year of the 440-yard dash, which worked out a little better with the workouts of 110 and 220 yard sprints we did almost every day. Our coach was the basketball coach, he coached track in the spring for a little extra money. On to college and a new coach whose opening line the first day of practice was: “I hope all you guys had good high school coaches because I don’t know anything about track. I’m the squash coach.” As far as I knew, squash was the stuff mom grew in the garden back home. Needless to say my time in the 440 didn’t improve much in college.

Fast forward 11 years to the spring of 1979 and the height of the running boom. I got back into running on a dare to run a 1,000-meter race during field day at the elementary school where I was teaching 6th grade. A few weeks after that, a friend talked me into running the Diet Pepsi 10K in Newburgh. I was hooked. For the next 8 years it was generally two marathons a year with 5Ks, 10Ks and other assorted distances and trail races thrown in at the rate of a couple a month. In the summer it was the Twilight Track Series on the then-cinder track at Arlington High School. Fortunately, I met some amazing runners and coaches along the way to help me out. Matt Williams (former MHRRC president) and Jose Martinez were just out of college and they became running partners and mentors. They helped me discover there was a whole world of running, racing and training that I had no idea even existed. Founding MHRRC member Joe Maggi, a former college coach, provided both knowledge of training and an encyclopedic history of the sport.

In 1987 I started coaching cross-country, indoor track and outdoor track at John Jay High School. Coaching left little time for serious training and racing. The joys of racing became mostly vicarious over the next 17 years as I cheered my young athletes on the track and cross-country trails. Now it’s 2006, the year I’ll turn 60(August). I’ve retired from teaching and coaching and the racing fever has been re-ignited. What I’ve discovered is that coming to grips with how fast (or slow) I’m able to run is actually harder than the running itself.

The Rolling Stones sang it years ago, “What a drag it is getting old.” The thing is, we Boomers refuse to get old. When asked in one study when they thought "old age” began, Boomers gave an age three years after the average American will be dead. Ouch!! The thing with running is the clock does not lie! You want some signs of getting old as a runner. Here are a few of my observations on the subject. You can’t run a 5K at the pace you once ran a marathon, you can’t run a mile at the pace you once could run a 10K and you can’t run 400 meters at the pace you once ran a mile. The first 10 minutes of every run are a shuffle rather than a run. Strides going uphill are a maximum of three inches. Workouts become a process of holding on for dear life as you watch younger, faster runners fly around the track. When attempting to shift gears in a race you discover that there aren’t any more gears to shift into. The hard truth is – you will never run another PR. Well maybe you will, more on that later.

Despite all of this — the roads, trails and tracks still beckon. If you’ve competed all your life, it’s hard to give it up. Yes, it would make sense at this passage in my life to become a “recreational runner.” The thing is you can enjoy all the aspects of running that recreational runners do and still attempt to take running, serious training and racing to the next level. I love track workouts precisely because they can be sheer hell. Twelve 400-meter repeats at eight seconds faster than your current 5K race pace, no matter whether you run a 5K in 13:00 or 24:00, will test your limits and reward you with such a feeling of satisfaction that you will already be looking forward to the next torture session. I cherish reaching that moment in a race when you are at the edge of a deep abyss looking into a vast nothingness and have to pull yourself back and keep running as hard as you can. Those moments are becoming harder to get to. Having the mental toughness to push to that level is more elusive than ever. Still, there is such joy when the moment is reached and conquered that the idea of giving up trying is not an option. “A privileged equilibrium between quality of muscles, acuity of intelligence and force of character,” is what a French philosopher and writer called the edge, the elusive moment when all systems are working at optimum efficiency. This quote is taken from the book Lance Armstrong’s War by Daniel Coyle. He is discussing the state that all great athletes strive to attain. Is it any less important to strive for this edge when you are 60 than when you are in the prime of your life? I hope not.

Last September, 73-year-old Ed Whitlock ran the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon in 2:54:48. That totally blows my mind. I don’t know anything else about his running career. I’ve no idea when he started running, what his PRs are or what his training is like. I just know he’s fast. I put his time in the USATF age graded calculator and it computes to a 2:06:53 marathon. This got me thinking. I’ll bet even in his prime he never ran 2:06 so the 2:54 is a PR. Ed Whitlock led me to a new plan and a new way of setting goals. I’m going to take my PRs and calculate the times for a 60-year-old. Maybe I can still set a few PRs. Now I just need to remember how to RUN TUFF.

1/10 I got a report from Jeff Nero that he traveled over to CT on New Years Day to run the Brookfield Lions Club 4 mile race on a rather hilly course. He finished 16th overall and 3rd in the 50-59 age group in a time of 26:04. The DeVries family was also there. Ken ran 26:39. Chris took 2nd in the 50-59 age group with a time of 32:52. Ingrid ran 38:53 and scored in her age group.

Hangover 1/2 Marathon: Kevin Dollard finished 1st in the 50-59 age group in 1:28:50.

1/8 Patriot Alumni Results: Fordam Invite – Marist Red Fox Justin Harris, in his first race back from a semester in Spain, ran the 5000 meter race in 16:26.05. Justin is getting back into comptitive running after being out with a hamstring injury. He has kept fit by doing massive amounts of cycling.
Northeastern(68)/Harvard(59) Dual Meet: Laura McCloskey finished 5th in the mile in 5:37.27. Erin Ballard took 2nd in the 800 in a time of 2:19.42.

1/7 Disney World 1/2 Marathon: Lynne Kopac continued her string of great races with a PR of 2:17:48. Her previous best was back in 2001 when she ran 2:18 at the Dutchess Classic.

1/7 1600 meter relay meet: The Patriot girls took first place in a time of 4:15. The team of Karlie Dean, Laura Ambron, Brianna Reynoso and Julie McCloskey combined for this excellent early season time.

1/3 West Point Invitational: The Patriots began the new year at West Point with some fairly solid performances. 55 m dash: Karlie Dean 7.75, Allie Neidig 8.15; 200 m dash: Brianno Reynoso 28.56; 400 m dash: Laura Ambron 67. 86, Tim Holz 56.36; 800 m run: Julie McCloskey 2:38.54, Brian Donovan 2:14.44; 1500 m run: Julie Moy 5:49.27, Brian Ivory 4:36.58; 3000 m run: Matt Milanesi 10:14.08; 4 x 400 m relay: Brianna Reynoso, Karlie Dean, Julie McCloskey, Laura Ambron 4:28.98; DMR: Casey Fletcher, Christine O'Shea, Julie Moy, Charlese Porter 14:30.78, Brian Donovan, Matt Milanesi, Sean O'Brien, Brian Ivory 12:07.09; Long Jump: Christine O'Shea 14' 7.75", Ryan Joyce 19' 2.25"; Triple Jump: Charlese Porter 31' 8", Devon March 28' 10.5", Chris Turchioe 37' 1"; Shot Put: Christine Muller 28' 2", Courtney Harris 26' 11.75"