ADIDAS - CONCORDIA INVITE

ADIDAS-CONCORDIA INVITATIONAL
@ FERNHILL PARK
14 OCTOBER, 2006

In only its second year, the Adidas-Concordia Invite at Fernhill Park has become a very exciting and competitive affair. This year’s event featured two varsity level races and two jv races; our group was excited to find that there would be a scored team competition for the junior varsity athletes. We had seven athletes in the Elite Varsity section and seven in the (scored) JV I race; all others were in the JV II race with the exception of lone wolf Taylor Bergmann in the Invitational Varsity race.

The JV II race was first up on this cool, overcast day, and our six man contingent pulled off a great feat: every man ran a PR. Soph MATT HOLMES knocked 33 seconds off his best in finishing 5th overall. His 18:23 was the result of a very intelligent and gutsy run. Classmate CONOR CAMPBELL rounded the final turn even with Holmes and improved his best by 26 seconds to 18:28, crossing the line in 8th place of 138 finishers. Mighty frosh GABE LATHROP had a huge day, continually bridging gaps and racing for the full 5000m; his 13th place netted him an award t-shirt (top 20 in each race received “TOP 20 FINISHER” t-shirts) and a 41 second drop to 18:34. Junior JIM McCOLLUM finally dipped under the magical 20 minute barrier at 19:52 and beat almost 100 competitors, while soph TIM BAUMAN used a big time kick to go sub 22 (21:51). Freshman BOB KNODELL, despite missing considerable training over the last few weeks due to injury, ran his first ever 5km in a very respectable 22:59.

In the scored JV event, our group knew that Jesuit would be fielding a fine squad, and the results looked like much like a dual meet with Rams and Crusaders sweeping the top five spots and 10 of the first 12. Junior JOEL TURKHEIMER ran a very strong race, leading from the mile until 300m to go. Despite his 2nd place finish – he clearly had designs on winning the race – there is no question that Joel has found his rhythm again and, after a couple of sub-par efforts at Firman and Danner, will be a factor for the varsity crew in upcoming races.

Nipping at Joel’s heels were senior DAVID LANEY and hard charging junior AUSTIN JONES in 4th and 5th place. Laney had another very solid effort just short of his PR while Jones moved up from 12th in the final mile. Jones’ 16:43 (a tick behind Laney) was a 29 second improvement. While Laney’s effort missed his best from Grant a few weeks ago, it must be noted that his best time as a junior was 18:36; he’s got two efforts this season in the low 16:40s.

Rounding out the scoring for CC were senior DAVID BELTRAMO and freshman PETER SLAUSON. Beltramo’s 9th place run was solid if not spectacular and sets him up for some great efforts as the season heads to its finish. Slauson followed the example set before him with a PR also at 17:13 (12th place). He continues to improve and will be counted on in the coming years to be a major part of Ram XC.

Junior AARON PECORA and frosh CURRAN CARLILE both ran very strong races in 27th and 30th (of 149 finishers) with Pecora’s 18:15 his best ever time. As a freshman his top mark was 22:29; Aaron’s improvement has been steady and simple to understand as he works hard every day.

In the team competition, Jesuit pulled out a narrow victory 26 – 30; with TAYLOR BERGMANN forced into the Varsity Invitational (due to the SAT), the Ram squad was a man short of winning this race. Bergie’s 16:54 was another solid effort, particularly in light of the stress of the SAT earlier in the day. Like Beltramo, he is in position to close out his CCXC career on a very high note.

The last race of the day for the Rams was the Elite Varsity where we were certainly the favorites but up against two other NW ranked squads, #8 Jesuit and #10 Kodiak AK. (Kodiak ran last week at Danner and spent the week in McMinnville in preparation for this meet.) Originally this meet was on the schedule as a chance for our second group to gain some great experience in a challenging environment; in evaluating our recent efforts, the need for more racing for our varsity group became clear – and this meet would be a great opportunity.
At the gun our troops moved nicely, settling into the large lead pack of 25-30 runners, along with most of the Jesuit and Kodiak group. Well before the mile mark Kodiak’s top two took the pace, opening a reasonably large gap on the chase pack. TAYLOR MORGAN led that group, which also included St. Helen’s Kevin Elder, Jesuit’s trio of Manning, Larson, and Maag, Springfield’s fine soph Tim Costin, SAMOT TURINA, Klamath’s Chris Reed, and Thurston’s Lukas Fenley. Our group – LUKE WILTSHIRE, ZACH MARX, SAM WOTIPKA, and KEVIN O’MALLEY – were a few seconds back, but still running well.

At two miles the Kodiak duo (soph Trevor Dunbar – son of former U of O runner Marcus Dunbar – and Cory Pena) had a solid gap on the field but Dunbar now had a gap on Pena as well. Morgan, after astutely biding his time until now, began to make a run at Pena and caught him with about 1200m to go; Dunbar still led by 30m. Turina continued his strong run in 7th (although he would later confide that, “I didn’t feel very good the whole way today.”), just ahead of Elder – and Jesuit’s #2 & #3. Marx was having his strongest race as a Ram in about 17th, with O’Malley and Wiltshire holding on in the low 20s. Wotipka suffered through a difficult second mile but was roaring back in the final kilometer. NICK TURNER, unfortunately, had a very bad “asthma adventure” and finished well back on this day.

In the final 600m it became clear that Morgan would catch Dunbar, who had run a very tough and aggressive race. At the 250m mark he did catch and pass Dunbar, moving away for a four second win in a big PR, 15:28. Last year’s winner, Oakridge’s Brad Taylor, ran 15:12 on a course, according to the meet director, that was 40m shorter.

Turina was edged by Elder for 6th, but his 15:53 was another excellent effort and bodes very well for the State Meet three weeks hence. Elder was overheard later discussing his late race motivation: “There was no way I was going to lose to a sophomore.”

Marx, erasing some of the demons of the past two races where he struggled over the final 300m, closed very well to finish 18th in a PR 16:16. Wiltshire and O’Malley– two of our five seniors to have taken the SAT earlier in the day – finished 21st & 22nd with Wotipka moving all the way up to 26th at the line.

In the team race, Jesuit had clearly run well, but we felt strongly that we’d beaten them by a slim margin; their #4 was just ahead of our #3, but our 5th was well clear of theirs. As the results were revealed, our hunch was correct as we had, by the slimmest of margins, beaten our rivals; alas, both teams had succumbed to our northern foes, Kodiak, who had run an inspired race from #1-5 to win by nine points. Final scores: Kodiak – 53, CC – 62, Jesuit – 63.

In many ways this was a fantastic day for the Ram men with numerous PRs and some down and dirty efforts; on the other hand, there were a few middling performances, notably turned in by those who took the SAT in the morning. It could, of course, just be a coincidence, but the smart money says that those seniors will be back and better than ever in a very short time… November 4th perhaps?

Next Wednesday, October 25th is the MHC District Meet over Sandy HS’s challenging cross country layout. Varsity boys run at 4:15 with JV to follow at 4:45. Hope to see you there!