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Cross Country
2007 Results
Friday, Nov. 2 - USCAA National Championships at Southern Virginia University
Women's Race -- The women's 6k route starts with one mile of flats followed by a quarter mile hill that is the key to the race. Do well on the hill, do well in the race. A runner's strategy on this hill is key. It’s steep enough to contemplate walking. Some choose to walk, some continue running at a slow steady pace and some choose a combination of the two. Training on our mountain trails set the owls up for success. Going into the hill, Chelsea Gay led the way for the WWC Women, followed closely by Aubrey DeLone and Lillie Friend. Chelsea emerged from the woods in fourth place but closely behind the third place runner and being tracked by another in 5th place. There was 1km left for her to make her move. Chelsea stepped up her pace and smoked her 5th place follower, then waited patiently for the next uphill to try to leave the third place woman in the dust. Chelsea passed her with under a half mile to go, then set a challenge for the runner—keep up or throw up. (Well, she didn’t actually say that, but when those legs go past you, that is the message). The fourth place woman took the bait and closed in just before the last incline in the course. As the breath of the third place wanna be hit her neck, Chelsea found overdrive, dropped the lady in a pure surge of speed with 200 meters to go—and grabbed the bronze. Overall women results: Chelsea 3rd place plus All American (26:35), followed by Lillie Friend(12th, 29:22), Aubrey Delone(17th, 30:02), Sarah Fagan(19th, 31:12), Mary Phillips(21st, 32:04), Emily Brigham(23rd, 32:58), Becca Wood(25th, 33:19) and Rachel Melo(26th, 33:21).
Men's Race -- The Men's Race was dominated by Dine out of New Mexico. Coach Michales says they have an impressive team that’s a pleasure to watch. I say…why would a cross country team be named Dine?? Where’s the wild animal to attribute all your skill and finesse to? How can you get psyched to run as a Diner?? Three of the top Diners run under a 5 minute mile and two more not far behind; it’s hard to compete with that talent, but not hard to poke fun--but Jason is a nice guy, and was complementary of the first place team, and proud of his men, who had a surprise ending. The WWC Men did extremely well with a team only five (top 5 score you in a meet). Each of the Great Horned Owls’ contribution is significant in this context and all have to do well to compete as a team. The Men's 8Km course is a duplicate of the women's race. The additional 2k is a grueling, flat out-and-back at the end. WWC men went out at a blistering pace and held together in pursuit of the mighty Diners. In the first mile, Chas Beiderman held fourth position into the hill followed closely by Kevin Lane and Tal Gold. Emerging from the trails was Chas still in 4th but competing closely with three other runners, behind that pack was Kevin and Tal closely tracking a few other runners. Chas chose an unrelenting fast paced pack for the final 2km, a difficult place to be in such a race. The group was reduced to three runners, all competing for 5th place overall. The pace increased again in final mile. Chas finished the race in the 8th position with a great time for such a challenging course of 29:06. Kevin and Tal phenomenal finishes as well-- 11th and 12th respectively. Geoffrey Steen grabbed a personal best for the course in the 17th, and Mike Jolly finished 30th place overall. As the times were tallied and the scoring completed, the race organizers waited until the awards to announce the team finishes for the men's race. As the team talked about how they wanted to hurry up and get back to Warren Wilson and study and work and do service, they had nearly forgotten the blood and sweat just poured into this event and were surprised by the announcement – barely heard over the roar of the owl fans, that Warren Wilson men took 2nd place overall. Men's Results: Chas Beiderman (29:06), Kevin Lane (30:14), Tal Gold (30:39), Jeffrey Steen (31:40), Mike Jolly (32:57)
Blue Ridge Open -- Boone, NC
This weekend was busy for the XC Team. Friday afternoon we traveled to Appalachian State to compete in the Blue Ridge Open meet in Boone. This was a qualifying race where times determined the entry. Three men: Chas Beiderman, Kevin Lane and Tal Gold competed for the men. Chelsea Gay for the Women. This was certainly the largest and most competitive field of runners our team has ever faced. There were Olympic hopefuls, and a handful of competitive NCAA Division I and II teams.
Although a bit daunting, the WWC XC team members did extremely well. All set personal best for the season and all three men set personal best for their 8k distance. Overall this was a great showing and a statement in terms of our ability to perform well at Nationals in November.
8K Men's Results: Chas Beiderman 28:34 (5:45 min/mile pace), Kevin Lane 29:15 (5:53 min/mile pace), Tal Gold 29:20 (5:54 min/mile pace)
5K Women's Results: Chelsea Gay 22:20 (7:12 min/mile pace)
DuPont Trail Marathon – Brevard, NC
On Sunday, the Cross Country team traveled to Brevard to cheer on the relay team in the DuPont Marathon. Representing the owls were four members of our women's team: Becca Wood, Lilly Friend, Sara Fagan and Emily Brigham. Each did a 6.55mile section of the course for a cumulative time. The team was excited to not only be part of the relay, but also to give some time for service. Chas Beiderman, Kevin Lane, Lilly Friend, Sarah Fagan and Emily Brigham lead the children’s warm-up and one mile trail run. Kids flocked to warm and fuzzy Chas which put him in charge of the stretches and warm up runs. Kevin took the lead with two 11 year olds who sustained a 6:30 min/ mile pace and gave Kevin a good warm up. We were also happy to be there to cheer on one of our own, Anne Lunblad, as she won the women's marathon and set a new course record at DuPont.
Cross Country Team Wins 24 Hour Run
Warren Wilson Athletic Department organized their first 24 hour run this weekend for the pure de fun of it---teams came together to commune with each other instead of duke it out with other schools; staff and faculty came together to prove we’re not dead yet; dogs strutted around in a category of their own; Cathy Kramer didn’t have to talk to any fans about being inappropriate, and there were no refs or fouls or pushing at the start line. Anybody could participate. No one would be left in the woods alone. There were radios and check off lists and WFR’s and tweeters everywhere. Fathers walked the three-mile loop with their daughters, couples did the loop in between laundry loads, single ladies ran with their dogs, two ladies named Betty ran together at midnight. Each of our fall sports teams was on the board for 24 hours of activity (except mountain bikers, they were out of town) and there was a category for freelance runners—anyone who showed up and got sucked into the fun vortex of having a person every half hour or so take off up suicide ridge, down Warren Wilson trail, out to the Outward Bound fields to a snack table-music-first aid station, then back across dogwood to the soccer fields for bananas, granola bars, a bucket of ice and a massage. Jason Michaels and Brit Farthing (outdoor program guys) put together the experience with 2 round the clock first aid stations, and two massage tables with 3 masseuse/trainer types on board (thanks Shane, Thomas, Chief and his crew). There were glow sticks along the trail, flags and arrows marking the route, a jam band (Mantra) that could be heard from dogwood, bringing the delusional delirious runners in, a late night movie (Just Running which is actually about bob sledding) going on, dinner for the whole school on the field, and $180 worth of late night pizza. Some team members signed up under duress--soccer players, with no games, were heavily coerced into participating; the cross country team helped pull the whole thing off, cause they are crazed wild people, and even Wild Bill’s basketball boys came out for a spin or two in the woods.
To mentions: in the first annual 24 hour Run held this weekend were:
Tony the Tiger Wilburn ran in the woods for the first time in his life in his 40 pound basketball shorts – he said it was the most frightening thing he’d ever done (we don’t know if it was the shorts or the threat of bears and lions coming after the tiger).
Anne Lundblad--- of Lundblad and Lundblad, local national ultra marathon champion couple-- was spooked by three high school hoodlums. She was a little startled, but she’d seen worse.
Rachel Schonberg’s visiting mom ran a lap for the soccer team at 6:30 in the morning, as did Rob Shook’s wife--just when we thought he couldn’t get any cooler. He knows all the words to rap songs, he’s already taught the gym crew to run the soccer table computer and he shows up with his cool running wife.
Bryan Hill ran just for the heck of it in the freelance category in Chacos and Carharts;
Jason split the cross-country team into A and B division, with the A division taking the win – even though the event was fun based, not competition based, some people just have to show off. Total in mileage covered through out the 10 am Saturday to 10am Sunday run for each team is below:
Cross Country A team – 54 laps – 162 miles (50 miles by Kevin Lane);
Cross Country B team – 43 laps – 129 miles;
Staff and Faculty Super stars – 41 laps – 123 miles;
Women’s Soccer – 36 laps – 108 miles;
Freelance Runners – 25 laps – 75 miles (27 miles by Brian Wright);
Staff and Faculty dogs – 15 laps (45 miles, 180 trees marked, one squirrel scared out of it’s wits);
Men’s Soccer – 13 laps (but they ran three at a time, so they totaled 117 miles-no after dark runs);
Men’s Basketball – 12 laps (and many of those in fear, so that’s worth like 50 miles or something).
And from your proud and fit staff and faculty: Anne L and Natasha – 4 laps, Mark L, Stacey, Annie, Weesie, Ed, Britt, Cathy Kramer, and Lightning – 3 laps (2 of Litning’s at 3am), Tracey, Evan, Shaun - 1 lap, Christine Swoap, JB, Natalie – 2 laps, David Moore camped out and took the 3:45-6am shift. Total miles run by a variety of Warren Wilsonites, on the trails painstakingly maintained by our infamous and fabulous trail crew: 897 (according to how you count the bball men, and not counting all the folks that were unsigned up friends of the runners)
September 21 -- XC Meet at Lenoir -- Rhyne College
The Warren Wilson team traveled a mere 75 miles out of the mountains to a hot, humid, sticky southern fried cross country meet in Hickory, NC. The little stubby white Owl bus parked next to several mammoth buses which tends to speak volumes about what the competition will hold. Virginia Technical Institute, App State University, NCAA DII and DI schools—WWC was the only small school there, and even though told not to worry, the warm and fuzzy coaches did just a bit. The race goals remained the same (turns out, real runners set more goals than us weekend runners – “hope I make it back to my car”—they decide how quick each mile will be, hereinafter called Pacing. So the question, in a field of big-bussed-fancy-gym-bagged-paid-to-run- runners with tents and massage therapists and trainers and PROfessional drivers (sounds nice doesn't it, board of directors? New president? Anybody out there?) was, can the owls control their pace in such a fast field of runners? Our new uniforms were awful nice, even though we stepped off the mini bus in dirty farm workin' clothes--we still had nice smiles and encouraging words at the starting line like: “Who are we? Wawwen Wiwson...Why are we, Wawwen Wiwson???...Cause we love....Wawwen Wiwson.....” Some Elmer Fudd version of a chant that only Chas Beiderman could dream up. Honorary Assistant Coach Spencer does better with his L sounds at 5 years old. The WWC Women's team toed up to the line at race start to the chant from the Men's team (the other Men's teams were on their hour long warm up runs), and breaking up the seriousness of the teams that surrounded them.
The WWC Women (6th overall) quickly found position in the pack letting the highly competitive have their way in the front. The start was fast, too fast. The WWC women's team, trying to stay in control of the P word, found themselves way under their projected first mile times. Led by Chelsea Gay the team found their pace in the second mile and sustained through the third. At the finish, the Virginia Tech Team, Lenoir Rhyne and ASU Teams dominated the field. For WWC, finishing 6th overall was impressive and a great opportunity to learn control.
The WWC Men's Team (5th overall) did a great job in a seriously fast field of runners. Running together for the most part to help with pacing, Kevin Lane and Chas Beiderman settled into a fast 5:45 min./ mile, followed by Tal Gold and Will Franklin 10 seconds back. At the finish, Chas and Kevin found themselves in a competitive grouping of runners. Chas made a fast pass with 100 meters to go to hold of the pack, Kevin followed to finish one second behind Chas. Will and Tal took the last turn into the final straight together with two other competitors. Will dropped the hammer, in classic Will style, and started a sprint 200 or more meters from the finish. A burst of energy like that rarely sees a response. And so it was Will finished strong followed by Tal edging out one of the two competitors in the pack.
Women's Times: Chelsea Gay 22:22, Sara Fagan 26:28, Mary Phillips 27:00, Emily Brigham 27:05, Rachel Melo 28:03, Rebecca Wood 28:39
Men's Times: Chas Beiderman 29:36, Kevin Lane 29:37, Will Franklin 30:49, Tal Gold 30:56, Geoffrey Steen 31:52
September 15 -- Berea Meet -- Berea, KY
The WWC XC Team raced this week at Berea College in Kentucky. Berea is one of the few work schools like WWC with a beautiful campus and course. High was in the mid 60s--amazing day to run. Highlights: The coach asked the team for their predictions that were reasonable times for the first race. Everyone raced faster than what they thought was reasonable and most did better that what the coach expected. Most importantly, team members stayed controlled in terms of pace throughout the race.
Considering the field, big NAIA, and NCAA schools, little WWC did exceptionally well for a first meet of the year.
Race/Results for the Men (6th Place):
Highlight Runner on the Men's side, Kevin Lane and Geoffrey Steen. Kevin stayed completely on Jason's predicted pace (faster than his predicted pace). He hit the last three miles to the second as well as the finish time--29:29 a great start to the year. Geoffrey, ran controlled for the first three miles then picked up the pace. Feeling good, he picked his way through the pack of runners finishing in a high enough place to put his team in the fifth position in the tough field of runners, many of them from Kenya. The Kenyans were fast, genetically gifted and introduced the teams to the speed and seemingly effortless stride that is the pride of their country. Pacing each other, they came through the first mile at a 5-minute pace, forcing the entire field of runners to follow in their wake. For WWC, Chas Beiderman and Kevin Lane came through together at the first mile at 5:35, which was in front of the main pack of runners. They were followed by Will Franklin and Tal Gold pacing each other at a perfect 6 min./ mile pace. The men's team finished 6th but was only 3 points off of Georgetown College and only 10 points off of University of Virginia (Wise)--a good first run for the WWC team. Individual Results: Kevin Lane 16th Overall – Time of 29:29 for 8km (5.1 mile) course, Chas Beiderman 20th Overall – Time 30:11, Will Franklin 24th – 30:35, Tal Gold 25th – 30:36, Geoffrey Steen 35th - 31:39
Women's Race/ Results (7th Place):
The highlighted WWC Women's runner was Chelsea Gay- a transfer freshman. Chelsea broke out of the women's pack early in the race and followed the breakaway group to the front of the field. The field was lead by a UVA runner who crossed the first mile mark at a tough 5:54 pace. The runners spread out quickly and Chelsea held her place towards the front. Crossing mile one at 6:37 and keeping a good form. Aubrey Delone and Mary Phillips ran together, keeping a great pace at 7:20. The women's field continued to spread, but Chelsea came into the home stretch in tenth overall. A fantastic first race finish and a great time of 21:58. Individual Results: Chelsea Gay - 10th overall – Time of 21:58 for 5k (3.1 mile) Course, Aubrey DeLone - 29th Overall – 24:13, Mary Phillips - 32nd – 24:19, Rachel Melo - 49th – 27:31, Rebecca Wood - 50th – 27:32