April 4, 2002
RALEIGH, NC (www.hurricanesports.com) — – After a successful trip to the Raleigh Relays last season, Coach Mike Ward packed up his distance corps and made the return trip to North Carolina for this year’s meet.
We flew into the Raleigh/Durham International Airport on Thursday night and had a day to settle in before the men’s and women’s 10,000-meter run.
Unlike last year, in which not one member of the Miami Hurricane’s track squad ran a 10k, we had sophomore Matt Mulvaney entered in the men’s race and senior Jennifer Geroux and junior Melissa Norris entered in the women’s.
Geroux and Norris took to the track first, gutting out the 25-lap race under the lights. Geroux went out hard and then finished strong recording a personal best of 37:03. Norris ran solid as well, running a 37:35. The times handily qualified the 10k duo for the Big East Championships.
Mulvaney took the track next, seeded 36th in a field of 38. He went out and ran a very smart race, clicking off his first 3 miles in what seemed like effortless fashion. Cruising through the 5k-mark in 15:41 (a mere 13 seconds slower than his open 5k two weeks early), Mulvaney showed no signs of faltering.
Muscling his way through the next 3 miles, Mulvaney hit the bell lap at 30:32. He needed to drop a 67-second last quarter to hit the sub-31:40 needed to qualify for the Big East Championships-this, after running the 24 preceding laps at an average of 76-77 seconds.Mulvaney tore down the backstretch, passing a few runners with whom he’d run the whole race. He rounded the final turn and poured it on down the final straight. Senior Jeff Gaulrapp and I sprinted over to the finish to see if he’d make the mark.
He powered his way across the line then crumpled onto the track.Both Gaulrapp and Coach Ward had timed him at exactly 31:39.19. We would have to wait for the official mark to see if he had in fact qualified for Big East.Sure enough-the time came back: 31:39.43. Mulvaney had qualified.Mulvaney was overjoyed-he had placed 16th, 20 places higher than his seed. As part of his qualification celebration, Mulvaney pulled out a fat cigar he’d purchased in the Miami International Airport.
At 5’5″, possibly the shortest man on the track, Mulvaney sauntered out of the stadium smoking a fat stogie, drawing giggles and extended index fingers from teams everywhere.
Gaulrapp and I joked with Mulvaney at how close he had cut it.
“Close?” Mulvaney said. “I had 5 tenths of a second to play with.”
Three racers down, three qualifiers. Only Gaulrapp and I remained.
The following day, we warmed up for the steeplechase in mid-afternoon. It was pleasant weather for a steeple, not too cold, not too hot, and it looked as though the predicted rain would hold off long enough.
Gaulrapp and I were both seeded in the top 7 and had good position on the starting line. Moments before the race began, we talked about race strategy. We wanted to hit 72-second laps which would equate to a 9-flat steeple.
“Let’s not do anything crazy,” I said. “We don’t need to go out in 68.”
The gun went off and Gaulrapp and I settled into the pack. I was making a conscious effort to go a little slower than normal.
“Sixty-Seven!” I heard the race timer yell.
I let out an audible profanity, but there was nothing I could change about it, I had to keep going.
We went crashing over the water barrier, for the first few times-I had really forgotten how tough the steeplechase really was-3,000 meters, 35 three-foot high barriers, 7 of which have water pits.
Gaulrapp surged on ahead, hitting the mile mark at 4:48. I went through in 4:53 but was already feeling dead tired. I was really starting to labor and on my fifth time over the water barrier I clipped the toe on my trail leg, nearly tripping me into the drink.Early in the race, I had been keying off of Adam Daniels of Georgetown. He placed second in the Big East steeplechase last year and qualified for the National Championships in Eugene, Oregon. He surged ahead of me at this point and I went with him.
I figured something must have been wrong. Perhaps he’d been injured and missed valuable training, because he really started to die. I passed him with 450 meters to go.
With 400 meters left, I saw the clock tick past 8:15. I needed a 74 second last quarter to come in under the 9:30 Big East qualifying mark.
Up ahead, Gaulrapp battled on with the chase pack, and eventually finished 5th in 9:10.I accelerated through the last turn, fought over the last barrier and made it across the line, just in time with a 9:29.
Not my best performance by any stretch of the imagination, but at least it was a Big East qualifier. I would race again.
More importantly, Coach Ward’s distance corps had gone 5 for 5 at the Raleigh Relays.We’ll be back in action here in Miami on April, 13th. Come on out to Cobb Track.