Bulldog Tracksters At Whitworth For Sam Adams Classic
4/6/2013 12:00:00 AM | Track and Field
SPOKANE, Wash. - After a successful weekend at a couple of select meets, Gonzaga University's track team is back in the full mode this Saturday as the Bulldogs stay home for the Sam Adams Classic at Whitworth University.
While only 15 student-athletes competed in either the Stanford Invitational or the San Francisco State Distance Carnival in the Bay Area last week, head coach Pat Tyson and assistant coach Patty Ley will have a full- complement of participants available this week.
Five school records fell last week, and Ley is giving most of her women the weekend off, while Tyson will put most of his stable of distance runners in the 1500 meters for some speed work.
"A couple of weeks ago we put a lot of guys in the 1500, so we'll put a lot of guys in the 1500. Brent Felnagle is a cross country guy, so he can run a 5000. The other guys will all be running the 1500 - steeplechasers Nick Roche and Patrick Richie; 800 meters runner Andy Phillips will run the 1500; Tate Kelly, coming off a 10K is still a little tired but workouts have been going pretty good despite that; Chris Boyle, Ned Fischer and Conor McCandless will all run the 1500 meters.
"McCandless has a little sore arch and they may need another week so I'm not sure we'll run him this week. We don't want to set him back," Tyson said.
"Everybody will get the week off. Lara (Tuthill) will race an 800 because she wants to. The rest will have the time off so we don't have a real long stretch of meets. Amelia (Evans) and Emily (Thomas) were on a recovery cycle anyway," Ley said of two of her 10,000 meters runners.
Ley said what the Bulldogs do this week is based on what is coming up the following week.
"We will be just in the 800 and 1500, and a 4x400 relay coming back. Looking ahead we plotted out where these athletes will be in a couple of weeks. So some of the 5000 meters people will run a 1500. Next week should be a real good meet. We'll put them in their primary events against some really tough competition," Ley said of the WAR VI coming up April 13.
Both coaches were still excited about last weekend.
"Two school records were thrashed," Tyson said of McCandless in the 5000 meters and Roche in the 3000 meters steeplechase.
"McCandless, who had run only one 5000, dropped to the low 14's, is ranked 41st and if he runs a 13:59 I think it gets him to Austin," Tyson said of the NCAA West Preliminary Meet. "We have plenty of time to get there. He was real brave, stuck his nose in the race and stayed engaged the entire way."
Ned Fischer is another who "stuck his nose in it, too. He broke the school record and is really blooming. He hasn't had a bad race in all of 2013 counting the indoor season. He was one that wasn't on our regional or conference cross country varsity list. It's a pleasant surprise. He's going to help us," Tyson said of the 5000 meters runner.
The steeplechase is one area of greatest improvement this spring.
"The steeplechase was also a nice one. Roche with a 9:09. Even though the benchmark is to break nine, 8:50 sounds pretty awesome. We're getting there. I have to give a lot of credit to Rich Nelson for working with Roche on his water jump. He had a little fear. He hasn't mastered it yet, but he's come a long way, thus the improvement and 8:59 should get him an airline ticket to Austin. Patrick Richie also ran brave early and struggled over the last two laps, but he put himself in the race," Tyson said.
Ley was equally as excited about the happenings of a week ago.
"It was nice to see seven PR's and a nice first, great effort in the 10K by Amelia very early in her freshman year. We've maybe had freshmen run faster later in the year. It's a tough thing with an 8 a.m. start and she did a good job of figuring it out. She did a fantastic job," Ley said.
Some veterans also had their time in the spotlight last week.
"It was good to see school records from Lindsey (Drake), Lauren (Bergam) and Emily (Thomas)," Ley said of the 5000 meters, 3000 meters steeplechase and 10,000 meters, respectively. "Lauren kind of got in a spot where I expected the competition to be a little sharper than it was, but it was still okay and she raced well. She's still about 25 or 30 seconds faster at this point than last year. We have to feel really good about that."
Veterans Drake and Thomas also drew praise from their coach.
"Lindsey and Emily both did an excellent job of remaining patient early and trusting the races were going to go plenty fast; just racing and trusting times would come from races," Ley said.
Drake had the tougher outing of the two.
"Lindsey got gapped on the last lap because they were lapping people. She had gotten to the inside, she's good at maintaining her position in the lane but she got jammed up just a pinch. The other gal moved, but she lost a couple of steps. Lindsey was closing on the leader and almost had the win. It was a nice PR and school record and knowing she has more," Ley said.
Thomas had another strong outing.
"Emily was another who stayed calm early and ran a great race. It was well raced. We're working on getting her recovered and ready to go. I'm keeping my fingers crossed; she's sitting 28th in the West and it should hold, but weird things have happened. We need to get her ready for the end of the year and get another good time out of it. What we're hoping now is to get her tome time run that time in Texas again. She's raced there and it helps to have that background," Ley noted.
"We're five weeks from the West Coast Invitational," Tyson said of getting a qualifying mark for the NCAA West Preliminary May 23-25 in Austin, Texas. "We know what we have to do. We have some meets to do some things. You can't race hard every week."
