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Freshman Dana Guglielmo was "oooooooh sooooo close" to winning the 3K steeple. Her 10:36.11 improves her to #24 in NCAA East Regional...and improves her #2 All-time ranking for the Spiders... She has the #2 freshman time in the NCAA East Super Region...Heat was the word of the day...Heat in the form of records falling everywhere at this year’s A-10 Championships and heat from the temperatures that climbed into the 90’s. In all I believe 7 records fell at this year championships including the 10K record set by our own Matt Llano's with a time of 29:43.12 . We had a lot of great performances including Llano’s 10K/5K double which I'll cover more of right here tomorrow...but none of our athletes were more impressive than freshman Dana Guglielmo and junior, Julie Rechel.
It’s not too often that I comment so strongly on a 2nd place finish, but she has come far since last August…And her near victory in the 3K steeple (see Dan Petty photo below) was a heart breaker for sure, that impressed Lori and I with her lack of fear and willingness to endure and embrace pain, something every Champion must do. I will say the same for Julie Rechel’s effort in the 10K. She raced to win…She had purpose…She could have chosen the easy route but she chose the route to victory. And even though they both ended with 2nd places they were Champions in every other sense. That’s a key element that separates good athletes from Champion Athletes….Making sacrifices along the way is also key and as an track & field athlete you must be at your 100% best when you compete.
As freshman Adam Spatacco told me after his huge personal best in the men’s 1500M… He said, “As I stood on the starting line Coach I thought about how much I put into this moment and it made me realize just how much I wanted it today”. Poetic words for a coach to hear from a freshman... Simple, pure, crystalline…He gets it! How do you explain these things? It takes time ….patience and sacrifice. If you invest little of yourself then you have little to lose when you LOSE…and you will LOSE because there are other athletes out there patiently training with purpose and urgency while making the sacrifices necessary to explore their inner self. These decisions and choices are what allow an athlete to bring out the pure, primal competitive instincts that course you’re their veins. Only the Champions fully comprehend this.
FROM TWITTER POSTS:
Day 2 of the A-10 Outdoor T&F Championships set to begin...National Anthem played to honor our country....
First event this morning is the women's javelin...35.33m for Monica Howard's 1st throw in 1st flight of the javelin… Howard's 2nd throw 33.04M… Howard's 3rd throw of 1st flight in javelin was a foul… Howard in 4th at the moment
Flight #2 warming up in Women’s Javelin... Heather Roush's 1st throw in 2nd flight of javelin HUGE throw 43.64m to take the lead by 3 meters. She has made a statement with that throw! Could the streak continue for Spider javelin throwers? They've won the previous 5 straight A-10 javelin titles…THE STREAK CONTINUES!!!. Heather Roush won the javelin..that's 6...check that...6 women’s javelin titles in a row for our Spiders.
Chris Eccelston great series in the javelin improving with each throw to place 3rd in 58.64m. Best series of throws this year. He kept getting better with each attempt...
Half mile run from throws area back to track for the 4X100 relays moments away…
2 heats for the men's 4x100...Spiders are in the fast heat#2....Lane 9…Football players Michael Parker will hand off to Justin Rogers who will hand of to Jon Thompson and will hand to anchor leg, Tremayne Graham….Rough baton exchanges...very rough...got the stick around to 7th in the heat...great anchor by Graham to get BACK to 7th place.
Women's 4x100 on the track …*&%$...our women dropped the baton on 1st exchange...not a good start on the track … You have to trust your marks and execute exactly as you practice...especially in the 4x100. We did not do that here today.
Freshman, Dana Guglielmo 2nd in steeple (10:36) yesterday ran ~4:36 to place 7th in Ht2 of the 1500M...8th overall… Freshman Lydia Morton (4:53) Diana Filtz (5:03) in heat #1
Freshmen Adam Spatacco (~4:04) and Mike Petrakis (~4:06) in heat #1...both personal best's...Garrett Graham had a tough day in ~3:59.
Next up the 100M dash final… Justin Rogers (10.80) for 5th and Tre Graham (10.98) in 8th in the 100m dash final… Not a great start for Tre. Appeared to slip out of the blocks…
Sophomore, Andi DeFonce placed 2nd in Ht#3 of 800M with a PR 2:14.82...looks like 9th overall. Freshman, Stephanie Paradis (2:20.39) and Senior, Alyssa Mankin (2:21.39) in Ht#2
M's 5k on the track...A stacked field… A who’s who within our league of distance runners…Hot is an understatement. The track temperatures must be in the mid 90 degrees…The heat will be a factor here today.
5K starts and Llano takes lead at 1600m after 4:50…71.8 lap...Llano. Adu (UNCC), Kauffmann (X) in a row... Llano throws in a 66.9 lap and only Adu covers…He follows that lap with a 68.8… Llano continues to lead...Adu wants no part of lead…The two of them are 9:29.5 at 2 miles...with Llano trying drop Adu. Nothing is changing… With 2 laps to go Llano still leads and Adu shadows him...it will take a huge kick to win…. With 1 lap to go Adu goes around Llano...Llano is covering his move….It’s a battle down the back stretch…200m to go and Llano challenges… Llano finishes 2nd in14:41 to Adu's 14:38...Grandt 12th in 15:40....Brutal heat...around 90 degrees…Not to sound bad but it looked like a death march for everyone except Llano and Adu...
W's 5k up next...temps will be a huge issue. It seems hotter if that possible. Sun is straight up and baring down on the athletes….Amy Van Alstine (JR), Beth Kelly (SO), Rachel Sykes (FR) in the 5k for us. Another stacked field…Amy takes the lead at 1200m wanting to push early to keep the pace honest…. Athletes are dropping due to the heat. Medical staff is very busy. Nearly everyone is grabbing water to throw on themselves…Amy leading at 10:02 at 3K…Amy finishes 2nd in 17:03...Freshman, Rachel Sykes 18:04...Beth Kelly DNF due to heat
Team scores…our Women's Team 5th...and our Men's Team 7th. Tough because our men are only 4 points out of 5th place.
Lori Quote: "We had some great performances this weekend. Overall we did well and about as high in the team standings as we could... Roush, Ney, Van Alstine, Rechel, McGovern and Guglielmo were great and came ready to perform... Our league is getting better each year and teams are responding with an expectation that our athletes will do the same."
Steve Quote: "Overall we had a good meet. Everyone competed hard and laid it on the line for the team... There were places we could have picked up 4 points though. I don’t like ‘missed’ opportunities.”
Some team members following the meet...
Johanna Ubiwa, X'auntasia Johnson and Jasmine Cottle.
Matt Llano, Tim Quinn and Chris York after the 10K.
Julie Rechel, Erin Lunny and Emma Berry after the 10K.
Meaghan McGovern on the podium for her 3rd place finish in the hammer throw.
The man.........Dan Petty after taking "weekend a break" from his job with the Denver Post so he could...1) fly the redeye from Denver to Boston...2) then catch a bus to Amherst, MA to meet our team...3) then take photos and shoot video of our Spiders for 12 hours on Saturday in 90+ degrre heat... 4) then stay up all night editing his photos to send to me...5) so he could then get 3 hours of sleep so...6) he would be ready to shoot photos and video for another 6 hours todayin 90 degree heat so he could...7) then 30 minutes after the meet hitchhike into downtown Amherst so he could... 8) catch a bus to Boston and then...9) take the redeye home back to Denver so that he could... 10) be back to work at 8:00AM on Monday morning. 
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