NEW BALANCE INVITATIONAL

NEW BALANCE FESTIVAL of CHAMPIONS
15 SEPTEMBER, 2007
WESTERN OREGON UNIVERSITY

There’s a new sheriff in town; well, at least until the old sheriff returns from taking his test.

On a warm sunny day in Monmouth, sophomore MUSA AHMED ran the finest race of his young career, taking home a somewhat surprising victory – over a very strong field – in the Sweepstakes Division of the New Balance Festival of Champions. With defending State Champ TAYLOR MORGAN '08 missing the meet while taking the ACT, Musa served notice that he will, indeed, be a major factor in both the team and individual races at the state level in November. Musa’s history as an age group wunderkind (National JO 3000m Champ as a 6th grader in 9:39) and his brother Zuber’s success at Benson HS have led to some very high expectations from many; a year ago, his over-exuberant coach ran him too fast, too often, and too hard, resulting in an injured Achilles tendon that kept him out virtually all fall. In the spring, with some great help from physical therapists David McHenry and Shawn Dailey, Musa had a very fine spring, clocking 9:10 for 3000m and, more importantly, stayed healthy.

Despite his strong training all summer, Musa’s seasonal debut at Wilsonville showed that he lacked the confidence of his workouts; a week ago he ran a fine 9:46 two mile time trial and appeared to, at last, believe in his fitness and talent. While none predicted his victory here, certainly no one could be surprised by his strong showing.

Despite Morgan’s absence the squad certainly expected to be competitive in the team chase with Hermiston, Marist, and a couple of Washington schools – Skyview & South Kitsap – most likely challenge the Rams. In the early going Ahmed and JOEL TURKHEIMER ’08 were conspicuous in the front group of ten while SAMOT TURINA ’09 ran comfortably in the top twenty. About ten places back AUSTIN JONES ’08 and PETER SLAUSON ’10 were running well as were CURRAN CARLILE ’10 and CONOR ROLAND-CHICVARA ’09, running a conservative race plan. Roland-Chicvara had been in fine shape early in the ’06 season, but, like Ahmed, spent most of the season on the injured list. Unlike Ahmed, he – and Carlile – missed most of the track season with injury; this was his first chance to make an impact at the varsity level, and there was no doubt about his excitement for this race.

As the front pack began to separate with Hermiston’s Jordan Ringe (8:51/3km last spring) leading, Musa and Joel still looked strong. Musa, sensing Ringe’s fatigue, moved to the front at about 2800m to test his foe. Surprisingly, Ringe could not match the slight increase in pace, and Musa steadily pulled away over the final mile; South Kitsap’s Jon Phillips (1:56/800m and 4:23/1600m last spring) closed strongly but was still two seconds back at the finish line. Marist’s Matt Hollander (1:54/800m and 4:01/1500m) ran a fine race in third while Ringe faded to fourth.

Turkheimer, getting over a cold earlier in the week, ran a gutsy race to PR by 26 seconds in eighth place (16:10), just in front of teammate Turina in ninth (16:14). Turina has recovered from his spring bout with mononucleosis and is rapidly returning to the form that garnered him a fourth place finish at last year’s state meet. His fitness is not in question – as evidenced by a fantastic workout performed after today’s meet – and he’ll certainly garner the confidence of his past in time for our most important competitions.

Both Slauson and Jones have struggled over the last couple of weeks; Slauson with the same cold as Turkheimer, Jones simply fighting a rough spot in his training. Despite this, both ran with great courage and conviction here, finishing 22nd and 25th. Slauson’s 16:38 was a PR while Jones’ 16:46 narrowly missed his. They, too, looked good in the post-race work and appear back on track (pun intended) to be very solid as our #5 and #6 runners.

Carlile and Roland-Chicvara began moving with a vengeance just after halfway and stayed together until about 700m to go; Carlile, too, has been fatigued since school started – a malady not uncommon amongst high schoolers as their bodies adjust to the rigors of the school time schedule and the demand of academics – but still ran a PR 17:16 in 48th place of the 130 finishers. Carlile had run phenomenally well last fall but fought injuries all winter and spring. He has had a very productive, yet conservative, summer and put himself in great position to be a varsity athlete on this team. As he gets some needed rest, his fitness will come through, and there is no doubting that he’ll have a fine, fine season.

Roland-Chicvara, having been instructed to stick with the intelligent racing Carlile, did just that for just over 4000m. Over the last click (that’s what my Canadian pals call a kilometer), he moved on his own to finish in 40th, knocking a whopping 90 seconds off last season’s PR at 17:04. Conor is a young man of rare ability who has seldom been healthy enough to enjoy his talent, but he clearly sees now the possibilities ahead of him and is making great decisions in terms of his health.

As for the team competition, we had certainly run well enough to win with an average of 16:18 for our top five and a spread of just 58 seconds. Going into the race we had expected Hermiston to be our most formidable competitors, and were able to get by them on this day, 65-99. We hadn’t expected that Eugene’s Catholic school, Marist, would average 16:13 with a group of very proud and tough senior boys to beat us by a dozen points. Marist’ coach Cathy Twomey has done a fantastic job with this group, and there can be no doubting the importance of senior leadership.

With Morgan projected for a top five finish here, the victory margin would have been reversed, with an average of about 16:05 for our squad; that is certainly a fine effort at any time of the year, but bodes particularly well for a squad known to be at their best in November. With seven weeks to go, this is a confident group that is certainly looking forward to the most important meets of the year.

In the sub-varsity events on this day, the Ram men also performed very well. In the JV 5000m Sweepstakes six CC harriers ran both intelligently and with great heart over the second half of the course to pull out a six point victory over the host Sunset Apollos. Leading the way were MATT HOLMES ’09 and JIM McCOLLUM ’08 in 4th and 7th place. Holmes moved smoothly up from just outside the top 10 over the final mile and narrowly eclipsed his PR a year ago at 18:13 here. McCollum was step for step with Holmes through 4400m in running – by far – the best race of his two year xc career. His 18:20 was a PR by 95 seconds!

AARON PECORA ’08 has been battling breathing problems for months now but continues to compete at a high level, hanging on for 15th here, two seconds and two places up on teammate GABE LATHROP ’10. In turn, Gabe was two places in front of returning EVERETT STILLEY ’10. Everett’s 2006-2007 was very difficult as he looked great in our first couple of meets but suffered an injury that kept him out for the remainder of the fall through our early summer training. His dedication to the sport has been fantastic, and, with intelligent training, we hope to see great things from Everett.

Finishing in 23rd in the field of 102 runners was LUCAS WEISENSEE ’09. Lucas 18:52 eclipsed his ’06 best by 2:40, and there is no doubt that there is more in his tank.

This meet also offered an advertised 3000m race for some of our less experienced athletes, and four Rams took advantage of this opportunity. At first glance their times appeared to be slower than expected but meet management confirmed that the course was a shade longer than two miles rather than 3000m (a difference of about 250m). JASON WHISLER ’11 improved greatly over his first race at Wilsonville two weeks ago, while WARREN DEGENHARDT ‘10 also competed at a much higher level in his second race. Degenhardt finished 38th of 99 in the field, just two places behind RICK SULLIVAN ’11; Sullivan had missed the Wilsonville meet two weeks ago and performed very well here in his first open race.

Leading the way Rams in the 2+ mile race was GREG CRUZ ’11. As reported in the Wilsonville race, Greg had not shown in training the ability to race at a high level, but his competitive zeal on that day carried him to a fantastic 2nd place finish in the freshman race. In the two weeks since Wilsonville his training has certainly improved, and again his ability rise to a new level in a race was on full display here. As far back as 15th place in the first mile, he moved all the way up to 4th with about 800m to go. As the leaders ventured out of sight behind the baseball stadium, Greg moved to the fore and ran away for his first ever victory by six seconds. Note that the winner of the Wilsonville meet, West Linn’s Zach Boyd-Helm, ran 17:31 for 5000m yesterday at South Salem. With this in mind, Greg certainly has a bright future in this sport.

Next up for the Ram harriers is Wednesday’s MHC/PIL event at Mount Tabor. Freshman boys run at 4pm with the varsity boys at 5 o’clock and the JV boys at 5:30. We’re off next weekend before hosting a MHC/PIL meet at Fernhill Park the following Wednesday, the 26th. (We’re always looking for volunteers for our home meets, so please e-mail if you’re interested in working.)

After that we’ll split up and take eight boys to the prestigious Stanford Invitational on September 29th; the remainder of our group will run the inaugural Willamette University Invitational.

Hope to see you somewhere soon!

Results linked below:

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