An Inside View of the UCF Invitational
Sept. 17, 2001
CORAL GABLES, Fla. (www.hurricanesports.com) – – ORLANDO, FL — Welcome back for another year’s worth of Hurricanes distance running.
The summer was not kind to the Hurricanes in 2001. What looked like a very promising 2001 team–returning the top five from last season and adding two new freshmen–is now laden with injuries. The guys on the team are still in a positive frame of mind, focusing on the bigger races towards the end of the season. We all know that if we work hard, things can come together for us when it counts.
We travelled up to Orlando with four men to get a race in under our belts. Apparently, the weather felt it should help get us into the true cross-country spirit, and dumped rain on the race course for the hours leading up to the race.
The 8,000 meter course was pretty soft, primarily grass and dirt/sand trails with several sharp turns. A typical Florida course, there were no hills, but the weather slowed things down a bit. There was a large field registered to race and it turned out to be much more competetive than expected.
Upstart Sophomore Matt Mulvaney put in a tremendous summer of training and has been running very well thus far. The plan was for Jeff Gaulrapp, Mulvaney and myself to run together for the first couple miles and then let loose. Mulvaney and I had planned on going out a little slower than in the past in order to power home the last couple miles.
When the race started, Mulvaney, Gaulrapp and I managed to find one another in the first half mile and we worked together through the mile–Gaulrapp and Mulvaney at 5:05, myself at 5:08. Gaulrapp and Mulvaney surged ahead at that point and attacked the chase pack that had formed behind the race’s eventual winner, Chris Duncan of the University of Florida.
Gaulrapp made another strong move at the 3-mile mark (apparently the 3-mile mark had been mismarked, causing him to believe he had fallen well off his intended pace).
Gaulrapp, last year’s team MVP, came across the line in 8th in 25:48. Mulvaney ran a new personal best of 25:59, finishing 11th, a brilliant season opener for the South Hadley, MA native. I fell off the pace over the last couple miles finishing 23rd in 26:44. I wasn’t unhappy with the race, but I can’t say that I was pleased. There’s a long way to go before this season’s over and I’ve got a lot of improving to do.
Canadian freshman Danish Ahmad ran his collegiate debut finishing as our 4th man in 81st place with a 29:57.
The team looks ahead to the Florida Intercollegiates in Tallahassee on the 22nd of September. If we can put everything together, we hope to be able to improve on last year’s 3rd place team finish. Hopefully sophomore Scott Sadowski will be healthy enough to rejoin the line-up as well as freshman Billy Bludgus, who hopes to make his collegiate debut.
-Daniel Boniface
