Terps Highlight Terps Twilight

With many teams heading to conference meets this weekend, the Jim Kehoe Twilight Meet was basically Terps vs Unattached. Now in its 4th year, it was another great evening of racing around the oval, with calm, slightly humid conditions leading to some great performances.

In the Jim Kehoe Men's 800m, Greg Jubb absolutely lit up the track, winning in 1:50.60 on even splits of 55. Incredible race for Greg, who now may extend his season to the Swarthmore Tuppeny Twilight in two Mondays. Louis Foudos was disappointed to not crack 2, instead finishing at 2:01.74. GRC's Chuck Kascur ran a terrific 1:54.08, and Ryan Witters was right behind in 1:54.37.

Next up was the 1500m, where Chris Snyder had his best race of the season, breaking 4 (3:59.74). Tristram Thomas ran another consistent race, crossing in 4:00.47. In heat 2, Tim Burns and Arjun Majumdar both looked a little tired, running 4:14.03 and 4:22.77, respectively. In GRC action, Jason Myers (4:01.52), Sam Boimov (4:05.04) and Dave Wertz, the ageless one, came across in 4:08.62.

Of course the evening's marquee event was the Charles Torpey Maryland Alumni Mile, and this year's race featured an awesome field. There were a few late scratches, but a couple of last minute entries buoyed the field. The pace was slow to start, with the leaders passing 809m in just about 2:30. Then Conrad Laskowski went into OD and became the first two-time champ, defending his 2011 title in about the same time as last year (4:46.46). Dougie, who is even more jacked than usual, ran 4:54. After being sick for the past week and change, Tom Stott just didn't have it in him, and finished at 5:09.63. I got passed by Danielle Siebert in the last 150m, finishing in my 3rd slowest time in my 4 attempts at this race. Greg Jubb, dressed incognito, crossed in 5:42.75. Denise Knickman was the 3rd woman, breaking 6 (5:59.01).

We'd like to thank the University of Maryland Track and Field team for once again hosting an awesome event, particularly Danielle Siebert for her efforts in organizing the Alumni Mile. Don't forget, while the team's future looks not as bleak as it did a few months ago, there is still a lot of work to accomplish in order to #saveumdXCandTrack - so keep pledging your support!

Who Let the Dogs Out

Who, who, who, who-who?

Great turnout of racers and spectators tonight at the 3rd Annual Maryland Twilight Meet, I think we were actually the largest "team" of people running!

Women's 1500m got things kicked off, with Diane baiting the Maryland twins into her trap and dropping the hammer with 300m to go to earn the victory.  Her time (4:42.51) was a little slower than last year, but hey, winning is winning.  Meg D was hanging on, ultimately finishing in 4:57.72, which is probably a few seconds faster than her equivalent flat mile from a few weeks ago at Westminster.

Men's 1500m was real interesting.  Tristram took the race out and sat on the front for a little over 2 laps as GRC guys Hanson and Wiggy were on his heels.  They overtook him, but he stuck to them like glue to the finish.  He set a season best 3:56.31, and that's the the 2nd fastest time (behind Berdan's 3:54 from a few years ago) ever for our group.  Ed came through the half in 2:07, but faded a little over the second half to finish at 4:06.73.  Arjun finished real strong, making sure he beat a few of the dudes in the heat, running a 4:14.70.

The evening's real event was the Alumni Mile.  Finally this year boasted a larger, and more competitive field.  Our little pack up front of Conrad, Dougie, Prada, Tom Stott and myself came through in 2:25-2:28 through the half, before Conrad rolled us, finishing in 1st at 4:47.12.  Dougie ran 4:52.74, and Prada ran a strong last 200m to finish at 4:56.99.  Tom, just a few days off a marathon and flying back from the WC, had one of his best races to date, finishing at 4:57.86 (about 5 seconds faster than 2 years ago at Alumni Mile).  I had one goal for myself, and despite having 4 clocks confirming a sub 5 effort, I got hosed where it counted - the official results.  5:00.11, can you believe it?  I had 4:59.6 on my watch, Pat had .66, Alyssa had .7 and Brad Jaeger had .9.  Bummer.  Bobby Van Allen, who thought he might not break 6, ran a 5:32.05.  I'd say that's pretty good. 

It was a nice trip to CP, a good warmup and a nice little cooldown through North Woods, where a rave was going on.  Then some crappy food at Plato's crappy Diner. 

DON'T FORGET THIS WEEKEND IS BEER MILE.

Meet at the Majumdars House (if you don't know where it is, ask)
We can probably start congregating around 6pm. 
The race will have a post time of 6:30pm tentatively.
Following the event, perhaps we can look to grill - either way there will be some kind of dinnering going on (whether we order pizzas, whatever.  I will post more info about this)
BYOB.  You just need 4 beers, but that's for the race.  If you want to drink more beers after, bring those as well. 

Freaks Come Out at Night

Twilight...no, not the super sexy vampires, but the place to be on the anniversary of the first sub 4 minute mile (Sir Roger Bannister, 1954). A hearty crew made the trip in an absurd number of vehicles to my alma mater to compete in the 2nd Annual Maryland Twilight Meet. We arrived to find out they bumped all the events up, so thankfully we got there when we did.

Men's 800m: Jordan raced first at 6:50pm. The wind had just started to settle. Jordan was sitting in the middle of the field for the first lap, but then used a strong 2nd lap to really move up. I can't remember what his position in the heat was, but he finished 10th overall in a NEW TWSS record, 1:58.01. This represented a drop of 3.76 seconds from the MSU meet. AND he blew chunks after the race again. I got pics. Lots of chunks. Ate two double cheeseburgers and fries beforehand. Louis Foudos ran to a 2:06.64 which was 6 seconds faster than his previous best this season!

Women's 1500m: In a pretty competitive field, Diane ran one of the smartest races I've ever seen. I figured she'd have some tired legs after the amount she ran Sunday, but apparently not tired enough to go 75-75-72-51. Yeah, negative splits the 1500m. She made up so much ground that for a second we thought she might catch the leaders. She finished 3rd overall and was just a shade over 2 seconds over her PR! Since nobody has ever raced an outdoor 1500m, this is a new team record as well.

Men's 1500m: Ed, Arjun and Louis were all in the same heat. Ed got out well, and sat on the outside of lane 1 in about 3rd position. His pace was solid, and he kicked hard to run a 4:02.54. This is the 2nd fastest time he's ever run by 3 seconds, and achieved his goal for the season! Arjun's goal was to run under 4:10, and he ran a very strong race, looking more focused than some previous races. He finished at 4:07.60 which is 4 seconds faster than his previous time this season. Louis, just shortly after the 800, managed to run 4:40.40.

All in all it was a great meet in College Park, truly amazing performances and already putting pressure on the weekend's festivities for PDAW. Afterwards our crew of Pat, Melissa and Diane's friend Mark headed down to Route 1. AND promptly got shut out of the bars because we were too OLD. Student night everywhere we went, no entrance without student ID.

WHAT THE F***!!!