Pair of 5th Place Finishes from Box 5 at Eddington

On a somewhat steamy morning of racing, our boys found “the pack” as a means of heating up the course and making history in the process. Matt Richtman surged to victory, using a new approach as front-runner from the gun. His victory was three seconds faster than his time last fall, in warmer conditions.

Behind Richtman, it was Daniel Occhipinti who passed twelve runners from the mile mark to net 27th place and earn a new course PR at 16:35. Peyton Heiser took “the edge” with the chase pack and finished just 26 seconds off of Occhipinti’s pace, :20 better than 2016. Sam Webster was on his heels at the chute, just two places and 00.3 back. Wielgos net a new course PR 4 seconds later at 17:04, to complete our scoring and help the team to a fifth place finish.

Henry Nosek joined in the fun by finishing as our sixth runner, and pushing the scores of  40 other scoring runners. Aidan Lodwig also did damage to the other scoring teams by netting a course PR and pushing 35 scoring runner totals up.

The frosh soph crew loaded Box 5 with their full arsenal. Neal fought dehydration and cramping to grind out an 8th place finish. Seth Nosek locked down at Top 20 performance with a :45 course PR time. Dallal moved up to 24th, with a time of 18:12.  Ethan Walker just missed a ribbon at 37th, in 18:30, but served as an excellent target for Popovich who was in next at 39th overall to complete our score.

Fitts was in the chute next as a strong 6th runner, defeating 56 other scorers from teams in the race. Abruzzo crossed the line 5 seconds later, pushing 55 more runner’s totals, and netting a 1:20 PR at home.

Parker Malone set a career best time in the heat, running :57 faster than at Detweiller last weekend. No one improved more than that, from last week. Dunne was 1:02 faster than ‘16, in PR time and just two places ahead of Aaron Lodwig who set his best course standard at 19:54. Huber also set his new 3 mile best, finishing in 20:42.

Jack Holder managed the biggest drop of the day by  dropping 2:10 off his ‘16 Eddington performance.  Sussland followed with a new course best to beat, at 24:05.  Woods was within :04 of his ‘16 Eddington performance, and will get two more reps on the home course with conference and the new Knight Run in October.

Unfortunately, the FS race was our last of the day as the heat took too many runners to the trainer or ER. The great value of hydration was on display as the ambulances left the campus. We net a pair of trophies on the day, and some critical lessons regarding meet preparation. We’ll be much sharper this weekend without the distractions of hosting a meet and adding extra time on our feet on Friday night. Get ready for a big week! It's "Peak Week!"