An Inside view of the Hurricane Invitational - St. Patrick's Day Edition
March 19, 2001
CORAL GABLES, Fla. (www.hurricanesports.com) – – Welcome to a “Happy St. Patrick’s Day” edition of my quasi-weekly track meet synopsis!
Last week, we played host to what is quickly becoming a spring break hot spot for teams around the nation: The Hurricane Invitational. Texas, Wisconsin, Army, South Carolina, Syracuse, NYU all flew in for a few days in the sun (and that’s just to name a few).
The weather did not disappoint, it was a scorcher for most of the day. Most of the teams searched desperately for a drop of shade in Cobb Stadium. It made me happy to have the cool air-conditioned comforts of our locker room, where fellow steeplechaser Jeff Gaulrapp and I sat and watched NCAA basketball.
Seeing as how it was St. Patrick’s Day, Jeff and I decided to get into the Irish spirit. We bought some food dye and colored the water in the steeplechase pit a deep green. (Although it looked more like dirty water from the lake rather than the festive green we were shooting for)! But I think the other steeplechasers got a kick out of it, and it didn’t turn anyone’s shoes green, so it was win-win.
We had shown up early to watch the 1,500-meter run with freshman Scott Sadowski (currently red-shirting) ran unattached in the second heat. He posted a new personal best time of 4:12.45. A training partner of mine from this summer, Clay Schwabe of Army smoked a 3:46.87 for the meet victory. He narrowly missed the Cobb Stadium record by less than half a second. It was good to see Clay and his Army teammates, who I also trained with this past summer in Boulder, Colorado. It was a good day for our little Colorado training group as Will Wyche and Nick Gannt won the 3k and 800 respectively.
I also found similar success, earning my first-ever collegiate victory in the 3k steeplechase. Jeff Gaulrapp and I have been training really well since a disappointing indoor season and we were ready for a fast time.
We drafted off Clint Tisserand of Army for the first 1000 meters. I took over the lead at that point and we went through the mile in about 4:48. Jeff surged ahead with about 700 meters to go and tried to keep us on pace to break the school record. With about 80 meters to go I barely edged past him and finished in 9:10.49 to Jeff’s 9:11.56, both of which were under Chris Miller’s former record of 9:12.19 set in 1998.
It was a pretty amazing feeling to break a school record. It was also an honor to take the Cobb Stadium record from Jacob Busieni of Tulane. It only makes sense to me that a Miami track record should be held by a Hurricane. It was a special day as my parents made their first ever trip to Miami and were in the stands to see it.
I was very pleased with the performance, but it’s just a start. We are just beginning to show the country that Miami has some distance runners to be reckoned with. The distance program might not have a whole lot of respect now, but once we put these records out of reach, perhaps the track world will begin to recognize the Hurricane distance squad.
Ok, I’m off my soapbox now… another good performance was turned in by freshman Matt Mulvaney. Mulvaney had a friendly wager that he could put up a faster 3k time than I could in steeple. He came through with a solid 9:08.37, setting a new personal record, and winning his bet.
Jabari Ennis vaulted to a second place finish with a 4.87 meter clearance.
Joseph Mbayen returned to his old form, putting up solid times in the 100 and the 200 of 10.69 and 21.88 respectively.
Another good performance was turned in by freshman Vince Wilfork. He heaved the shot 16.04 meters, good enough for 4th place.
Decathlete Guy Emry had a strong day, qualifying to the Big East Championships in three events.
If you missed your chance to see the home meet this weekend, you’ll just have to make that little extra effort and come out to the meet this Saturday, March 24. It’ll take place across the city at Florida International University.
