2014 meet reviews

Coach Ausema’s meet reviews - 2014 | results | main Gonzaga XC page

2014 team video highlights

Team photos - login gonzagaxc, password "eagles" | 2012 video highlights | 2013 video highlights

Lake Forest results | Gonzaga results with splits | photos | RunWashington coverage

An excellent start to our season! We “weathered” the heat very well and competed very well, with most of you following the game plan by running with your teammates. Looking at specific races –

Varsity – had a strong team race. Jacob competed nicely with the lead pack, which became the chase pack midway through when Murray broke away. Peter and John stuck together for over a mile and then ended up in no-man’s land for the end of the race. There probably won’t be many races like this in terms of competition – nice job with keeping up the pace. Paul and Harry also formed a nice group and looked very strong at the end, catching a few guys down the stretch. Connor started out strong but faded. Will followed the plan and got in a good tempo run with only moderate discomfort. Nice to pick up an early victory – can we get another before WCAC?

JVA – Luke and Jack had a strong start and were in good position to make a run at the leader at the mile mark. Jack faded, but Luke finished strong as well. Michael G started slow and then discovered more left in the tank and was coming on strong at the end – an excellent start to the season. Michael J picked up Jack the second half and they finished well together. Fernando looked choppy and struggling the last part of the race, and did Michael R. Tom looked strong throughout. A close 2^nd place to Charter after a couple of our guys lost places in the 2^nd half of the race.

The freshmen trio had an excellent debut race after some confusion at the starting line for JV 3^rd team. John T wound up leading for most of the way and looked very solid, while Will almost chased him down at the end. Jonathan H faded a bit due to congestion, but even the 19:52, when adjusted for heat, becomes one of the better freshmen performances we have seen here (Mike C ran 21:02 in 2008!). Some outstanding performances down the line too – Will G, Quinn, and Holden all looked very good, and freshmen Andy B, Jack A, and Daniel C also turned in excellent debut races. Will Gately looks to be slowly returning to form as well. We scored 19 points to defeat the combined strength of the other teams.

Most Outstanding Performances

Varsity race: Jacob
JV A: Michael Gold and Luke R
JV 3rd team: Travis, Spartin, Quinn

Barnhart Invitational results | Gonzaga results with splits | photos

Most Outstanding Performances

Varsity: Harry Monroe - awesome job moving up with our next group
JV - John Travis
Open race - Michael Gold, Macyko, Griffith

With so many races, here is a summary of how each team finished:

Frosh/Soph Varsity B 6^th, 156 points Harrington, 17^th, Krivda, 20^th

Junior/Senior Varsity B 6^th, 171 points Bullock, 17^th

Varsity races

Freshmen 2^nd, 40 points Colucci, 2^nd; Travis, 12th

Sophomore 4^th, 66 points Monroe, 7^th

Junior 11^th, 129 points Floam, 11^th

Senior 15^th, 157 points none

Review

A solid overall team performance today, with many strong performances moving guys towards end of season goals. Comments about individual races follow.

Varsity B races – in both races we had some nice performances, with lots of guys moving “up” relative to their previous races for the season. These races had some of the hottest conditions of the day, and with no shade on the course it was tough to go hard for 3 miles. Curtis Bullock had the most impressive performance overall, moving up nicely throughout the race to grab a medal and a big PR. Riley McGee also had a good opening race and seemed to have a lot left, covering lots of ground in the last mile. John Harrington had a good breakout performance as well.

Freshmen: John C pushed hard the entire race, and although he spent more time as “hunted” than “hunter” still almost pulled off the win. A gutsy performance in the intense sun. John T had his rhythm thrown off and fell back a bit from where he hoped to run, but still closed well and looked strong at the end. Jon H had a good first half to the race before his congestion caught up to him, and Will struggled with IT band issues. Andy Beckham had a very nice race and was closing in on Jon at the end. We scored a team-low 40 points, and probably could have nearly cut that in half if everyone was running healthy and strong throughout – an excellent team race.

Sophomores – Harry ran well in the chase pack, though he looked a little out of rhythm in the second half of the race. Jack looked solid but was not quite able to find the gears to move into the next group –there were quite a few runners in the ~20 second ahead of you. Will Gately had a clutch performance and gets team MOP for the day – we had a potential big hole in the lineup with Luke injured and he filled in nicely. We would have fallen 2 more spots in the overall team scores without Will in the lineup!

Juniors – Jacob had a strong 2 miles, finished solid but not as strong as we would like. A gap opened up that made it hard to keep pushing. Michael G had another strong race and continues to improve and impress. Jack Poz and Shareek both looked strong throughout, and Shareek passed at least 10 people in the last ~80 meters which was fun to see.

Seniors - a tough race to assess overall. Will made big strides and felt better than he has all year, and hopefully is primed to return to normal in the coming weeks. Peter, Connor, and Paul seemed to be running well but were probably ~30-50 meters back of where they should have been by mid-race, and there were a lot of points in that zone. Connor finished strong and knocked some points off, while Peter appeared to hold his spot and Paul faded. We have some work to do.

Most Outstanding Performances

· Frosh/Soph Varsity B John Harrington

· Junior/Senior Varsity B Curtis Bullock

Varsity races

· Freshmen John Colluci, Andy Beckham

· Sophomore Will Gatley

· Junior Jack Posluszny

· Senior Connor Griffin

Salesianum | results | Gonzaga results with splits |

A solid day overall – I think we conquered the hills! We should now be feeling ready and confident for Lake Fairfax. Lots of guys had strong performances, racing well over the hills. In the freshmen race, Jon started aggressively and looked strong most of the way. He faded a bit in the last mile, showing some lingering effects from the illness. Without 2 strong runners in the lineup, others filled in the gap nicely. Mick G had a breakthrough race, as did Macyko. Cindea looked good too, and Beckham started well but faded a bit. Jack had a speedy finish but looked to be feeling a bit of pain after the top of the first hill.

The JV races had a lot of competitive action. In the C race David, Philip, and John Hills all looked very strong, as did Chandler. In the B race, Jack Poz had another strong race and Shareek seems to be figuring out this cross country thing. In the A race we had nobody up front, but a nice tight pack with a small spread earned 6^th place out of 22 teams, not too shabby. It’s worth noting that our team finishes were affected somewhat by all of the injuries currently affecting the team. The varsity finish would likely not have changed, but with everyone healthy, my quick guess is that freshmen would finish 2^nd, JV A 4^th, JV B 1^st (it would have taken only one spot change to finish 2^nd, since we had a 3-way tie!); and JV C 1^st or 2^nd.

The varsity had a solid and competitive race. Jacob had his best overall performance, though he still lost a bit in the last 800. We had an impressive pack of 4 with 800 to go, which split up a bit; Harry was flying at the end, Will and John looked like they had some race left in them, and Peter was dropping a bit. Michael held his own in his first varsity race and paced with Paul most of the way before the latter also had a last 800 fade.

Most Outstanding Performances

JV A – Will Gately
JV B – Jack Poz, Shareek
JV C – DiBari, Hills
Freshmen – Gormley, Macyko.
Varsity - Floam

Most Outstanding Performances

Freshmen - Barnes, Troxell (runner-up)
JV - O'Donnell, McGee
Varsity B - Ribich
Varsity - Harry Monroe

WCAC Championship | results | Gonzaga results (no splits) | RunWashington coverage

Most Outstanding Performances:

Freshmen - Travis, Macyko ("runner up")
Varsity B - Mata, Hannan
Varsity - Floam

DC Championships | results

Most Outstanding Performance:

State Championships | results | Gonzaga results with splits

Most Outstanding Performances

Varsity - Will Wimbish, Harry Monroe
JV - Will Guarini

Jesuit Championships | results | Gonzaga results (no splits)

Most Outstanding Performances

Varsity: Monroe and Colucci
JV: Griffin, Bullock
Freshmen: Hurley

Nike SE Regional Championships results | Gonzaga results with splits | Results with 2K splits | photos | video

A solid ending to the season, tempered by some tough races for a few guys. In the JV freshman/soph race we turned in a strong team performance and pulled off another victory. We are still the only winner of this event, held in 2008, 2013, and 2014. This year's win was achieved without the help of two potential returners from last year's group (Ritter and Beckham), and thus we might have even scored a bigger margin of victory (I am guessing we could have scored in the mid 40s). Travis had his strongest race since early season before his injury, and Hurley also looked strong. Spartin had a solid race as well. In the "regular" open race, Will G continues to improve by leaps and bounds - hopefully he can pick up at this point beginning next season. Bullock looked very strong at the end and had a big PR. Nice performances by Poz and Branch as well.

In the championship, we had 2.5 strong races, but unfortunately 5 good races are needed for a successful team outcome. Will had his best race of the season and solidly beat last year's time, while Harry is the first sophomore we know of in Gonzaga history under 16:30, and more than 10 seconds faster than Crozier in 2009. Jacob looked good for the first half of the race but lost a lot in the last mile. Connor had his best race since coming back from injury but is still not in top shape. Peter had a fast start by faded significantly, and Paul experienced major cramps mid-way. Compared to past teams, we had a 5-man average better than in 2012, and just a big slower than in 2011 and 2008.

Most Outstanding Performances

Championship - Will Wimbish
Open race - Will Guarini and Curtis Bullock
Freshmen - John Travis