High SchoolDistance Rankings: Section V

Our first round of High School Distance Rankings comes from Section V. Congratulations to our Leaders so far--Notre Dame-Batavia, Geneseo, Palmyra-Macedon & Pittsford-Mendon! We look forward to more excellent running out of Section V this year. (Look for the remaining sections to be ranked in the coming days, and updated weekly)

CLASS A

1.       Pittsford-Mendon

2.       Rush-Henrietta

3.       Honeoye Falls-Lima

4.       Victor

5.       West Irondequoit

6.       Fairport

7.       Pittsford-Sutherland

8.       Penfield

9.       Brighton

10.   Hilton

CLASS B

1.       Palmyra-Macedon

2.       Penn Yan

3.       Newark

4.       Bath-Haverling

5.       Byron-Bergen-Elba

6.       Geneva

7.       Batavia

8.       Dansville

9.       Aquinas

10.   Hornell

CLASS C

1.       Geneseo

2.       Oakfield-Alabama

3.       Pavilion

4.       Holley

5.       Wayland-Cohocton

6.       Gananda

7.       Campbell-Savona

8.       Pembroke

9.       Perry

10.   Canisteo-Greenwood

CLASS D

1.       Notre Dame-Batavia

2.       Keshequa

3.       Alfred-Almond

4.       Harley-Allendale-Columbia

5.       Wheatland-Chili

6.       Bolivar-Richburg

7.       Fillmore

8.       Gennesee Valley

9.       Northstar Christian

10.   Jasper-Troupsburg


SECTION V OVERALL

1. Pittsford-Mendon

2. Rush-Henrietta

3. Honeoye Falls-Lima

4. Victor

5. West Irondequoit

6. Geneseo

7. Fairport

8. Palmyra-Macedon

9. Penn Yan

10. Notre Dame-Batavia

(Another note on methodology: this is not scientific but--like the college rankings--a "writer's" poll. I take a combination of men's and women's times, meet performances and the like in events longer than 1500m. The result is what you see--a combined measure of where distance running thrives in New York State.)

Marathon Review (4/29)

A couple of great performances around the United States from some intrepid NY marathoners this weekend. Katie Aldridge of Alpine won the Gettysburg North-South Marathon on Sunday with a time of 3:05:50. It is Katie’s third marathon win, after winning the 2010 Atlantic City Marathon and Erie Marathon at Presque Isle. Her time qualifies her both for Boston and a guaranteed entry at the New York City Marathon in 2013.

Meghan Davey of Rotterdam was the runner up at the Kentucky Derby Festival Marathon in Lexington, KY over the weekend, clocking a 3:09:50. Her previous best finish was a 7^th place at the Gansett Marathon in 2011 in Rhode Island.

More to come!

Cherry on Top: The Payton Jordan Invitational

As if your track weekend wasn't already incredible--the Payton Jordan Invitational is happening right now at Stanford University! This is a last-ditch effort for American Olympic hopefuls to achieve that elusive “Olympic A Standard” in the 1500m, 5000m & 10000m.

Mitch Goose is there! The Iona senior will be throwing it down in the Men’s 5000m in a few minutes. He was this week's College Men's Runner of the Week over here. The 10,000m field is stacked, too--more on that later.

Follow the race live over at Flotrack, here. We’ll provide updates periodically on Twitter and post-race coverage as it becomes available.

Kenya Announces Olympic Marathon Teams

...Yeah, we got this.


From Marathon Guide, the Kenyan Athletic Department has announced its 2012 London Olympic Marathon Team. You'll notice a few glaring omissions:


Men: Wilson Kipsang, Abel Kirui & Moses Mosop

Women: Mary Keitany, Edna Kiplagat & Priscah Jeptoo

 






























Missing? The man with the world record (Patrick Makau) and the man with the ridiculous sounding "world's fastest marathon ever" (yet of course, not a world record--thanks IAAF), Geoffrey Mutai.


Kipsang is the class of the men's side, running a 2:04:44 to win last weekend's London Marathon.


The women's side looks like it came straight out of the most recent London Marathon leaderboard, with Keitany running something like 2:18.


It's a talented group of runners, to be sure. They are all tested and at least one (Kipsang) is known for both his legs and his mouth. Still, this is a field America can compete with.


How will Keflezighi, Hall, Abdirahman, Flanagan, Davila and Goucher stack up? Hall, Flanagan and Davila bring the best times on the American side to bear against the competition, and with Meb, the proven ability to hang with race favorites for 26.2 miles. Olympic gold is the goal, and as countries continue to announce their 2012 London squads, the plot thickens.


American gold starts here, today.

Runners of the Week--4/29

Happy Sunday! I hope everyone is recovering from their Penn Relays hangovers nicely. Time to get back to New York and into the thick of our state's outdoor track and road racing seasons. Congratulations to this week's Runners of the Week, for meets ending April 29th!

High School Men

-CAMERON CONEYS, Senior, Harborfields: A scintillating 9:32 victory in the 3200m this weekend in the Bob Pratt Smithtown Invitational. This was a PR for Cameron, and 15 seconds faster than any other 2-mile race so far this season. He is a top contender in a very competitive Section 11 and Class A this year.

High School Women

-MARY CAIN, Sophomore, Bronxville: Section I, meet your diva. Bronxville sophomore Mary Cain put on such a show at the Penn Relays this weekend that she'll have talking heads erupting all season. And she's only a sophomore. Her killer 4:39.28 in the women's mile was a meet record in a year devoid of records. Everyone will keep coming back to her 62.5 second last lap gallup, but can Cain improve? Is she the shining star the distance running community has been waiting for? Time, determination and smart practice will tell.

College Men

-MITCH GOOSE, Senior, Iona University: Our two collegiate runners of the week come from last weekend's Larry Ellis Invitational. Most of our NCAA athletes are studying hard for final exams before heading to conference, regional and then--God willing--NCAA championships. Mitch's 3:45 showing in the elite 1500m running was good enough for this week's honors, as he helps lead his Iona team to glory in the remaining weeks of the season.

College Women

-LAUREN PENNEY, Freshman, Syracuse University: Lauren had a great meet at the Larry Ellis, running a season best 16:16 in the 5000m. A second place finish before final exams is great for this outstanding freshman runner for the Orange, who will be a 4-year warrior for an up-and-coming squad. She is coming off an impressive 29th place showing in her cross country debut last fall. She also broke SU's women's mile record earlier this spring.

America: Break This Record

In 1999, Hicham El Guerrouj broke the world record in the mile run, in Rome. He ran a 3:43.13.

13 years is too long. It's time to bring the mile back to America.

Penn Relays: Friday Recap, Saturday Preview

Friday was a big day for high school distance runners and collegiate relays.

In the Women's College 4x1500m relay, Iona was the sole NY representative. They placed 6th with a solid 18:22.25. Oregon took home the gold on this day.

In the Men's College Distance Medley Relay, Columbia took home a very strong 5th place performance. Their time of 9:43.21 was less than 8/10 of a second off the winner--Princeton--in one of the tightest match-ups of its kind in PR history.

The Boys' High School DMR had Arlington coming in at 4th, Stuyvesant in 10th, St. Anthony's behind them in 11th, followed by Monsignor Farrell in 12th and wrapped up by Port Jefferson.

The Boys' High School Mile featured a remarkably speedy field of runners. Zavon Watkins finished 6th in a time of 4:15.49. Christian Delago was next in 8th place at 4:17.12.

In the Boys' High School 3000m Championship, Marc Violone of Byram Hills was the first New Yorker across the line in 6th place at 8:35.46. He was followed by Kris Moran of North Babylon at 8:40.72 in 13th, Austin Lane of Greenwich Central at 8:49.45 in 17th, Thomas Awad in 19th at 8:52.55 for Chaminade, and rounded out by an 8:53.71 performance from Mitchell Kun of Sheepshead Bay.

GREAT JOB by all runners last night! We are looking forward to more of the same today, and here is what you can expect to see:

At 1:25 PM today, the College Men's Mile Championship. Columbia (#1 in our NY State Poll) and Navy (not from NY, but a fan favorite) will line up here.

At 2:05 PM, a "USA vs The World" event--the Distance Medley Relay. Two American teams will face off against teams from Canada, Ethiopia, Kenya and elsewhere.

At 3:00 PM we'll see the Olympic Development Mile, with quite a few New York runners from various clubs around the metro area and Syracuse Chargers. At 3:55 PM, the men will have their turn at the same event.

Today is the last day of this epic track meet. Tomorrow, we'll have a 5-day recap and name our MVNY (Most Valuable New Yorker) with a few runners-up. Run smart and run free!