Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Olivia Johnson on the Golden Eagle Spotlight

Junior Olivia Johnson was a guest this week on MUTV's Golden Eagle spotlight.

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Re-cap of Midwest Collegiate Open at UW-Parkside

Men- Overall, I was very happy with our men. We had several great performances and I think we are moving in the right direction. Sophomore Blake Johnson was our #1 runner this past weekend with freshman Connor Callahan coming in only 2 seconds behind Blake. Connor ran an outstanding race for a freshman. The team did have a pretty big snag when our normal #1 runner, Nick Szczech, dropped out of the race with some heat issues. Nick is somewhat prone to heat exhaustion and he started getting dizzy and light-headed around the 4.5 mile mark. Losing your number one obviously hurts the team score, but our depth made up for the loss. Our other lone junior, Brice Cleland, is also experiencing some health issues that have left his energy stores a little depleted. We just found out that Brice's iron levels were deficient. So right now, my main priority is to get our normal #1 and #2 guys back to a healthy state so that this team can really roll. These guys are young, but they are stepping up in a big way! Here's how things unfolded for the guys this weekend:

6. Blake Johnson 25:32 sophomore
8. Connor Callahan 25:34 freshman
14. Peter Bolgert 25:59 sophomore
21. Brice Cleland 26:14 junior
25. Keith Schueller 26:20 sophomore (top 5 within 48 seconds)
28. Jerry Kerska 26:30 freshman
29. Patrick Keeley 26:32 sophomore (top 7 within 60 seconds)
33. Dominick Rosario 26:38 sophomore

Women- The women also had a great team performance this past weekend. We had some great front running, but we also had strong team depth. Its hard to be a good team without both! We went up against two other Big East schools in West Virginia and Louisville. West Virginia is currently ranked 4th in the country, however they held out three of their top women due to flu-like symptoms. Louisville and WVU tied for the win with 44 points and we earned 3rd place with 47 points. The Marquette women continue to impress me and the scary thing is that I know we can still run a lot better. With that being said, we're taking a slightly different approach this season in that we're taking it "one day at a time." Our slogan is, "just today." Too many times in the past we have looked too far ahead to future races. We're taking it one workout and one race at a time. Also, another big change is that several of the girls are taking at least one and sometimes two days off per week. We're trying to save our legs more for the harder workouts and races, hopefully leaving them healthy and fresh on race day. Let's hope this new strategy works out in the long-term! Here is how our girls did this weekend:

5. Olivia Johnson 18:02 junior
8. Jayne Grebinski 18:08 senior
10. Anna Weber 18:23 senior
11. Kristin Pelzel 18:24 junior
13. Molly Arenberg 18:26 junior (top 5 within 24 seconds)
23. Laurie Dalrymple 18:49 junior
24. Sarah Verdoliva 18:54 senior (top 7 within 52 seconds)

Monday, September 21, 2009

Midwest Collegiate Open at UW-Parkside

Below are links and video related to Saturday's Midwest Colligaite Open held at UW-Parkside.

Click here for the meet preview.

Click here for Coach Nelson's meet preview podcast.

Click here for the meet recap.

Click here for meet results.

Coach Nelson's meet recap will follow shortly...


Monday, September 14, 2009

Women at Marquette: Historical Note of the Week

In 1909, Marquette University became the first Catholic university in the world to offer coeducation as part of its regular undergraduate program. Since that time, the role of women at Marquette has changed and expanded dramatically, with women now making up more than 50 percent of the student body.

During the 2009-10 school year, Marquette is celebrating the 100th anniversary of this landmark event in the university’s history. A committee of faculty, staff, students and alumni are planning a year’s worth of activities, including an alumnae memory project, guest speakers and lectures, commemorative publications, and faculty, staff, student and alumni events.

Check out the Historical Note of the Week highlighting the 1981 NAIA Women's Championship Cross Country team here.

Thursday, September 10, 2009

Re-cap of the DePaul Opener-

http://www.gomarquette.com/sports/c-xc/marq-c-xc-body.html

Women-
Overall, I was very happy with the women's performance at the DePaul meet. It was a 4-team meet between Marquette, DePaul, Northwestern, and Loyola. It was a fantastic way for us to open our season. Our top five ladies went- 1,2,3,5,7 with a total team score of only 18 points. Times weren't tremendously fast because of the thick grass and several 180 turns. Jayne Grebinski looked very comfortable in her victory. She took command of the race at about the mile mark and never looked back. I was also very impressed with Kristin Pelzel's performance. Despite this being her junior year in college, Kristin has never had a full summer of training due to constant injury. She was in 2nd place for most of the race until Olivia Johnson passed her with 400m to go. Olivia also ran a strong race to finsh 2nd place in the race and for our team. Anna Weber ran a solid race to place 5th and newcomer Molly Arenberg rounded out the scoring for MU placing 7th overall. Besides the alumni race, this was Molly's first competitive XC race EVER!! I was also very impressed with our 6th runner, Sarah Verdoliva. Sarah was 9th in the race. This is only Sarah's 5th XC race ever and she still has much room to improve. We did hold out two ladies who would have definitely been in our top 8, Laurie Dalrymple- bruised foot and Courtney Kelly- Achilles tendinitis. Here's how everyone did:

1) Jayne Grebinski 14:28
2) Olivia Johnson 14:33
3) Kristin Pelzel 14:37
5) Anna Weber 14:49
7) Molly Arenberg 14:52
9) Sarah Verdoliva 15:00
17) Amanda Beggs 15:18
18) Maureen Keane 15:21
19) Carly Windt 15:23
25)Christina Sliepka 15:43
26) Kate Horan 15:45
30) Carly Condon 16:02
32) Bekki Misanin 16:11
33) Jessa Hackman 16:14
41) Melissa Budelier 16:39

Men-
The men weren't quite as dominating as the women; however they easily won the meet and I was very pleased with their performances. We had some nice front running and we had a great pack. We'll need to work on getting our 3 and 4 runners closer to our #2. Nick Szczech led the golden eagles placing 2nd in the 4-mile race. Nick ran even 5:00min pace to finish at 20:00. After all of his struggles last year, I am so happy to see this guy running well. Sophomore Blake Johnson placed 4th overall with a very strong race. Blake has always been very reliable. Brice Cleland should have placed a little higher, but he is still recovering from a knee injury he sustained this summer. He seems to be getting stronger each week and I'm sure he'll be racing alongside of Blake by our next meet at Parkside. Brice ended up being our #4 runner at DePaul, placing a few seconds behind freshmen Connor Callahan from St. Louis. Sophomore Peter Bolgert wrapped up our team scoring finishing a very respectful 11th. Peter is another guy who suffered from injuries almost all of last year. It's great to see him back training and racing strong! Here's how the guys did:

2) Nick Szczech 20:00
4) Blake Johnson 20:23
9) Connor Callahan 20:39
10) Brice Cleland 20:42
11) Peter Bolgert 20:52
12) Dominick Rosario 20:56
13) Patrick Keeley 20:57
14) Jack Senefeld 21:01
15) Patrick Maag 21:09
16) Jack Hackett 21:10
18) Keith Schueller 21:13
22) Anthony Gedwill 21:22
25) Jon Newman 21:40
27) Taylor Peliska 21:49
28) Jerry Kerska 21:51

Our next meet is at UW-Parkside on Saturday September 19th.

Tuesday, September 8, 2009

Over Hill and Over Dale...

Each month the Marquette University Archives releases a featured assortment of digital images. This month they are featuring some historical images from MU Cross Country. Most of the images are part of a much larger collection about the MU Athletic Hall of Fame collection that archives is currently working on, but will not be ready until early next year.

Click HERE to view the collection.

The page is also currently posted on the Libraries' homepage, where it will be highlighted for about two weeks. You can access the homepage here.

Thursday, September 3, 2009

UPDATED Alumni Run Results


Below are the updated results from the Alumni Run on Saturday August 29th. We made a couple corrections and, with the help of David Uhrich, added some interesting info. Read on...



WOMEN'S RESULTS

1. Olivia Johnson- Jr. 11:33.7
2. Jayne Grebinski- Sr. 11:39.8
3. Cassie Peller- Class of 08 11:41.3
4. Anna Weber- Sr. 11:45.9
5. Molly Arenberg- Jr. 11:46.3
6. Michaela Courtney- Class of 07 11:51.9
7. Laurie Dalrymple- Jr. 11:52.1
8. Terri Emond- Class of 06 12:02.1
9. Sarah Verdoliva- Sr. 12:04.8
10. Kristin Pelzel- Jr. 12:04.8
11. Jessie Henderson- Class of 03 12:10.5
12. Amanda Beggs- Sr. 12:14.1
13. Maureen Keane- Jr. 12:20.4
14. Courtney Kelly- So. 12:20.6
15. Carly Windt- Fr. 12:27.9
16. Leslie Lawton- Class of 05 12:29.2
17. Christina Sliepka- Fr. 12:38.4
18. Kate Horan- So. 12:50.8
19. Melissa Budelier- Fr. 12:57.9
20. Bekki Misanin- So. 13:00.0
21. Jessa Hackman- Fr. 13:00.7
22. Carly Condon- Fr. 13:11.3
23. Kara Hughes- Class of 86 13:32.9
24. Reilly Hall- Fr. 14:03.3
25. Melissa Burghardt- Jr. 14:03.7
26. Laura Linnean- Sr. 14:05.5
27. Toni Uhrich 15:22.4
28. Jackie Herrington- Class of 03 15:35.1
29. Amanda Sucharda- Class of 03 15:35.1
30. Diane Held-Munzenmeier- Class of 84 15:38.7
31. Sharon Fritz- Class of 09 16:57.1
32. Alyssa Davis- Jr. 16:57.4
33. Marissa Handley- Jr. 16:59.8
34. Lauren Benjamin- So. 17:01.3

Blue & Gold Team- (1)(2)(4)(5)(7) = 19 points
Alumni Team- (3)(6)(8)(11)(16) = 44 points

Most Improved Alums
Diane Held-Munzenmeier
2008 2009
18:15 15:38 = -2:37!
Amanda Sucharda
2008 2009
15:54 15:35 = -:24

Furthest Distance Traveled:
Kaitlyn Chambers- Cleveland, OH 435 miles
Terri Emond- Wyoming, MN 352 miles

First Master’s Runner:
Kara Hughes Class of 86 13:32
First Field Event Athlete:
Sharon Fritz (Jumps) Class of 09

MEN'S RESULTS
1. Tommy Schmitz- Class of 07 9:44.2
2. Nick Szczech- Jr. 9:45.4
3. Blake Johnson- So. 9:51.8
4. Connor Callahan- Fr. 9:54.4
5. Matt Dunlavy- Class of 01 9:55.2
6. Brice Cleland- Jr. 9:58.6
7. Peter Bolgert- So. 9:58.9
8. Jack Hackett- So. 10:01.9
9. Dave Henderson- Class of 06 10:03.3
10. Patrick Maag- Fr. 10:05.4
11. Jack Senefeld- Fr. 10:05.7
12. Patrick Keeley- So. 10:09.1
13. Keith Schueller- So. 10:09.3
14. AJ Gedwill- Fr. 10:09.6
15. Dominick Rosario- So. 10:09.8
16. Taylor Peliska- Fr. 10:17.1
17. Jon Newman- Fr. 10:32.8
18. Jerry Kerska- Fr. 10:52.6
19. Mike McCarthy- So. 11:05.2
20. Ben Schmitz- Fr. 11:08.5
21. Billy Schlottke- Fr. 11:10.7
22. Jeremy Williams- Class of 07 11:15.9
23. Chago Navarro- Class of 95 11:18.1
24. Kyle Saginus- Class of 09 11:23.0
25. Brent DesRoches- Class of 07 11:36.1
26. Joe Herington- Class of 02 11:44.8
27. Jay Crichton- Class of 05 11:45.4
28. Kurt Keuter- Class of 08 11:46.5
29. Pete Lawrence- Class of 94 11:54.2
30. Jed Burey- Class of 08 12:00.1
31. Sal Graziano- Class of 04 12:19.5
32. Nick VanDerra- Class of 09 12:45.2
33. John Rydeski- Class of 81 12:47.4
34. Dave Uhrich- Class of 85 12:54.9
35. Jeff Grant- Class of 81 13:03.7
36. Nick Newton- Class of 04 13:09.7
37. John Duffy Class of 82 13:24.7
38. John Mroz- Class of 95 13:30.8
39. Tom Cassady- Class of 09 13:40.0
40. Tyler O’Brien- Jr. 13:44.6
41. Scott Roberts- Class of 82 14:18.0
42. Tom Sage- Class of 08 14:41.1
43. Antonio Jones- Sr. 14:41.4
44. Cameron Harvey- Class of 02 15:00.3
45. Andy Ballard- Class of 06 16:24.4
46. Jonathon Rosploch Class of 05 16:24.4
47. Jon Kusowski- Jr. 17:13.6

Blue Team- (2)(4)(7)(10)(12) = 35 points
Gold Team- (3)(6) (8)(11)(13) = 41 points
Alumni Team- (1)(5)(9)(22)(23) = 60 points


Most Improved Alums
Dave Uhrich
2008 2009
14:30 12:54 = -1:06!
Nick Newton
2008 2009
13:45 13:09 = -:36
Matt Dunlavy
2008 2009
10:25 9:55 = -:30
Dave Henderson
2008 2009
10:31 10:03 = -:28

Furthest Distance Traveled:
Jay Crichton- Burlington, Ontario, Canada 580 miles
Matt Dunlavy- Kansas City, KS 570 miles
Cameron Harvey- Nashville, TN 560 miles
Brent Des Roches- Beavercreek, OH 400 miles

First Master’s Runner:
John Rydeski- Class of 81 12:47.4

First Field Event Athlete:
Nick VanDerra- Class of 09 12:45.2

Tuesday, September 1, 2009

MU T&F / XC on Golden Eagle Spotlight

Marquette Athletics is greatly enhancing how it uses the Internet and over the summer has really expanded its video coverarge of all sports particularly with interviews. Here are a few like that are cross country and track and field related. Much of it can be viewed at GoMarquette.com, but all can be found by clicking HERE to link to the Marquette Athletics YouTube site.


Jayne Grebinski interview on Monday August 31, 2009


Jim Allen Hall of Fame Introduction - Inducted on August 22, 2009


Coach Mike Nelson Interview on August 6, 2009


Junior Nick Szczech Interview on July 16, 2009


Senior Track & Field Captain Rachel Thiel Interview on July 8, 2009