Re-Cap of Huskie Invitational

9/13/08

This was our first trip to the Huskie Invitational which was held in DeKalb, IL at Northern Illinois University. We held out our top 6 men and top 5 women from the St. Louis meet. I held these individuals out because we are putting a lot of emphasis on the bigger meets in late October and November. Both our men's and women's squads have excellent opportunities to qualify for nationals. I don't want to waste a good performance in the early part of the season.

If you were anywhere in the upper midwest this past weekend, you know the kind of weather conditions we were dealing with. Rain, Rain, and more rain. I think the races were actually kind of fun for the kids. Their feet would literally sink into the grass 2-3 inches each stride. I told them before the race that we were concentrating completely on racing performances today rather than times. Times were incredibly slow. 26:40 for the men's winner!! I wanted each athlete to make sure they passed at least three runners during the second half of the race. As we all know, times don't necessarily mean a whole lot in XC. Courses are short, long, muddy, etc. For me, a good race is one where you either move up in the second half of the race or you at least hold your position. I always tell the kids to judge their racing performance first and their finishing time second. The overall goal is to beat as many people as possible.

Men-
We only lined up 5 runners for this race; we also ran 3 unattached guys(8 Marquette guys total). Unfortunately, one of the freshmen(Dominick Rosario- Edina, Minnesota) dropped out of the race with a hamstring injury, so we didn't register a team score. Our number one runner at this meet was Blake Johnson from Saline, Michigan. I do feel that Blake will be in our top 7 and most likely in our top 5. He placed 5th overall with a time of 27:06. Senior Drew Craig was next across the line for us in 9th place. Drew is recovering from injury and seems to be making great progress. Drew is another guy that should be somewhere in our top 7. Garrett McKnight, another freshmen from St. Charles, IL, was the next across the line for us in 12th. Garrett is running well despite the fact that he was more of a 400m/800m runner in high school. With the increased base, he'll hopefully have an outstanding track season. Overall, I was happy with the men that ran. This was a great experience for them and it helped get them ready to compete at Notre Dame on October 3rd.

Women-
We ran a much larger squad on the women's side. We had a total of 11 athletes who competed. We aren't red-shirting any of the females so that's why their squad was a little larger. The women got 2nd place as a team despite the fact that we held out our top 5. Wisconsin ran their full women's squad and they swept the top 7 spots. We were able to beat UW-Milwaukee, UW-Green Bay, and Northern Illinois without running our top 5. I feel very good about the depth that we have this year. Our #1 girl was Sophomore Laurie Dalrymple from Elmhurst, IL. Laurie is a transfer student from Tulane University. She placed 8th overall with a time of 19:23. Laurie was unable to run our first meet because of illness, so its nice to have her back competing. She is another one who will be in our top 7 and possibly top 5. Newcomers Sarah Verdoliva and Kate Horan were the next across the line for us. This was only Sarah's second cross-country race EVER!! She normally trains with the sprinters, however she wanted to give XC a try and she is doing great! Kate Horan is a freshmen from St. Louis, MO. She is 5'10 and she uses that long stride to power herself down the course. Like the men, I thought this was a great experience for the women. We could very easily run into conditions like this again. We'll be well prepared for another monsoon if we have to race in one!!

Also, the regional rankings came out yesterday. Here they are:

Great Lakes Men
1. Michigan
2. Wisconsin
3. Notre Dame
4. Michigan State
5. Indiana
6. Marquette
7. Miami (Ohio)
8. Ohio State
9. Cincinnati
10. Eastern Michigan
11. Dayton
12. Ohio
13. Oakland
14. Kent State
15. Butler

Great Lakes Women
1. Michigan State
2. Wisconsin
3. Michigan
4. Notre Dame
5. Akron
6. Miami (Ohio)
7. Ohio
8. Marquette
9. Cincinnati
10. Toledo
11. Indiana
12. Purdue
13. Butler
14. IPFW
15. Central Michigan