Showing posts with label Van Cortlandt Park. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Van Cortlandt Park. Show all posts
Wednesday, November 14, 2007
MileSplit Foot Locker National Power Rankings
The newest MileSplit Foot Locker Power Rankings have been released. Vince McNally (10th), Carly Seymour (3rd), and Neely Spence (4th) are all still ranked and getting ready to take their talents to Vanny for next weekend's Foot Locker Northeast Regional.
Sunday, October 14, 2007
PA makes it mark at the New Balance Manhattan Invite
WOW!!!
What a day Pennsylvania had at Van Cortlandt Park aka Vanny.
Carly Seymour wins Eastern States by setting a new course record (Carly's 13:55 broke Nicole Blood's record of 13:57) and leading her team to a 9th place finish. Considering Nicole Blood's record at Vanny, countless Foot Locker Northeast Regional titles plus a US Junior National crown, it puts Carly in very elite company. Emmaus would finish in 11th, they were separated by US #2 Midlothian in 10th. Fayetteville Manlius showed why they are #1 as they dominated the field, and beat runner-up Saratoga Springs, 87-159.
The great day PA had didn't stop there. North Penn sent a message to all of PA and the nation as they had the fastest team average of the day, 12:57, in Boys Varsity D race. Not only was it the fastest of the day, but it is the 2nd fastest all-time average. Very impressive considering all of the teams that run the invite year after year. Bradd DelMuto would be very proud of his alma mater.
Max Kaulbach (12:27) and Chris Aldrich (12:38) go 1-2 in the Boys Varsity E race. The race lived up to its billing, but in the end, Max was a little more race sharp than Chris, but it's only October and there is plenty of racing left. Germantown Friends won the team title as well, while West Chester Henderson was 4th. Barring some unforeseen occurrence, this race all but solidified Germantown Friends will be racing NTN Regionals, so Max will not be at Van Cortlandt Park on the 24th. But Chris Aldrich will. What a great opener for him. It appears everything is heading in the right direction, as he heads into the championship portion of his season.
What a day Pennsylvania had at Van Cortlandt Park aka Vanny.
Carly Seymour wins Eastern States by setting a new course record (Carly's 13:55 broke Nicole Blood's record of 13:57) and leading her team to a 9th place finish. Considering Nicole Blood's record at Vanny, countless Foot Locker Northeast Regional titles plus a US Junior National crown, it puts Carly in very elite company. Emmaus would finish in 11th, they were separated by US #2 Midlothian in 10th. Fayetteville Manlius showed why they are #1 as they dominated the field, and beat runner-up Saratoga Springs, 87-159.
The great day PA had didn't stop there. North Penn sent a message to all of PA and the nation as they had the fastest team average of the day, 12:57, in Boys Varsity D race. Not only was it the fastest of the day, but it is the 2nd fastest all-time average. Very impressive considering all of the teams that run the invite year after year. Bradd DelMuto would be very proud of his alma mater.
Max Kaulbach (12:27) and Chris Aldrich (12:38) go 1-2 in the Boys Varsity E race. The race lived up to its billing, but in the end, Max was a little more race sharp than Chris, but it's only October and there is plenty of racing left. Germantown Friends won the team title as well, while West Chester Henderson was 4th. Barring some unforeseen occurrence, this race all but solidified Germantown Friends will be racing NTN Regionals, so Max will not be at Van Cortlandt Park on the 24th. But Chris Aldrich will. What a great opener for him. It appears everything is heading in the right direction, as he heads into the championship portion of his season.
Monday, October 8, 2007
Van Cortlandt Park aka Vanny
With the brisk temperatures rolling in this weekend, Fall is truly upon us. And with that, we are six weeks away from Foot Locker Regionals. As always, they are being held at one of the most storied courses in the country, Van Cortlandt Park or just simply "Vanny". Racing there is special. An opportunity to test yourself against the scores of people who have raced through the park and experienced the "Back Hills". The "Back Hills" is the location where the race generally breaks open. The finish is deceiving. When you slip out of the woods, you can see the finish in the distance, but it is not as close as you wished it was, it is still about a half-mile away.
The following piece is excerpted from "Cross Country Running" by Marc Bloom, editor, The Harrier:
"Van Cortlandt Park is America's cross country Mecca. It is not paradise by any means. It has not the prettiest course nor the most difficult. It does not have the best facilities. It is just that it lies smack in the middle of the most populous megalopolis, in an area rich in cross country tradition, where sponsors and those of influence have chosen to operate. Located as it is on the fringe of New York City, Van Cortlandt is most accessible. Public transportation funnels there from every neighborhood in the city. The subways are close by. Highways and turnpikes touch the park from distant locales in neighboring states.
"Therefore, in a given season, more runners race its trails than any other cross country site in the nation, if not the world. There are several distinct programs that merge at "Vanny" as it is called. The biggest is for the high schools. Manhattan College (and before it NYU), and Fordham University sponsor meets with a combined entry in excess of 10,000....over the "time tested" 2.5 mile course.
"At the Foot Locker Northeast Qualifier the high schoolers move up to the 5000m, the same route now used by women competing at the collegiate level. Essentially, it's the first 3.1 miles of the famed five mile course. When the men's college teams compete, they pass through the 5,000m finish area, then another two-mile loop remains. The flats are repeated, then along the cowpath a sharp left is taken up onto the infamous Cemetery Hill, a steep, rocky incline about 4.2m into the college run. "Cemetery" --that's the way it's referred to--just "Cemetery"--rises about a hundred feet during its length of about 300 yards. Its peak stands 150 feet above sea level. It's a killer alright, and the jibes abound. Runners die up there. They're dead and buried, laid to rest. Its name is so perfectly suited for the cross country assignment that one would assume running there had some historical relationship to it. Not so."
The following piece is excerpted from "Cross Country Running" by Marc Bloom, editor, The Harrier:
"Van Cortlandt Park is America's cross country Mecca. It is not paradise by any means. It has not the prettiest course nor the most difficult. It does not have the best facilities. It is just that it lies smack in the middle of the most populous megalopolis, in an area rich in cross country tradition, where sponsors and those of influence have chosen to operate. Located as it is on the fringe of New York City, Van Cortlandt is most accessible. Public transportation funnels there from every neighborhood in the city. The subways are close by. Highways and turnpikes touch the park from distant locales in neighboring states.
"Therefore, in a given season, more runners race its trails than any other cross country site in the nation, if not the world. There are several distinct programs that merge at "Vanny" as it is called. The biggest is for the high schools. Manhattan College (and before it NYU), and Fordham University sponsor meets with a combined entry in excess of 10,000....over the "time tested" 2.5 mile course.
"At the Foot Locker Northeast Qualifier the high schoolers move up to the 5000m, the same route now used by women competing at the collegiate level. Essentially, it's the first 3.1 miles of the famed five mile course. When the men's college teams compete, they pass through the 5,000m finish area, then another two-mile loop remains. The flats are repeated, then along the cowpath a sharp left is taken up onto the infamous Cemetery Hill, a steep, rocky incline about 4.2m into the college run. "Cemetery" --that's the way it's referred to--just "Cemetery"--rises about a hundred feet during its length of about 300 yards. Its peak stands 150 feet above sea level. It's a killer alright, and the jibes abound. Runners die up there. They're dead and buried, laid to rest. Its name is so perfectly suited for the cross country assignment that one would assume running there had some historical relationship to it. Not so."
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