|
Coach is Ready |
And They're Off! |
The Early Leaders |
John Winning the race |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Francis & Scott going 2-3 |
Nordlund taking 4th |
Herrel taking 5th |
Albert taking 6th |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Philip taking 7th |
Jeff taking 8th |
Rajan taking 9th |
Skyler taking 10th |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Jeremy takes 11th from Josh |
Ben in 13th |
Sean in 14th |
Zander in 15th |
|
|
|
|
|
The alumni, as expected, dominated the dual meet scoring versus the Varsity. With 4 collegiate guys running 16:01 or faster, it might be a few years before the varsity can challenge them for this title.
In the 3-man (4-deep) competition, the coaches pulled off the surprise victory, lead by Coach John Welsh with his winning time of 15:44. The lead pack of 6 stayed together through two miles, where John (an alumnus of Dartmouth) pulled away. The next three spots would be decided on the track with Francis Reynolds '06 (15:52) out-kicking Scott Himmelberger '06 (15:53) in the last 100m, and Michael Nordlund '05 (15:55) hot on their heels. Not far back were Herrel Siller '05 (16:02) and Coach Albert Liu (16:09) - an alumnus of MIT.
Freshman Philip MacQuitty (16:39), running a little under the weather, came across the line 7th with Coach Jeff crossing less than a minute later (17:34), outdueling junior captain Rajan Narang (17:52), sophomore Skyler Cummins (18:04), junior Jeremy Jacob (18:12), and coach Joshua Jordan (18:12) - recently moved to the US from New Zealand.
"Sir" Charles Vickery '05, won both the "most dramatic appearance" and "most improved performance" awards. Just as the race was about to start, the crowd started screaming at the coaches to "Wait a second!" To our surprise, from behind the bleachers came Sir Charles sprinting towards the line clad in multi-colored spandex and his class of '05 Paly jersey. Despite little warmup, Charles proceeded to run 22:18, a 3 minute (or so) improvement from last year.
In the football game that followed the race, the 16 participating alumni proceeded to take down the varsity/coaches team despite being undermanned. The varsity got off to a commanding 21-7 behind the arm of Coach Jeff, an amazing end-zone catch by Austin Smith, and multiple interceptions by Philip MacQuitty. Riding the Sean Gasiorek - Ben Flamm duo, and a ferocious set of linemen, the alumni came storming back to take the victory 28-21.
The BBQ at Francis's house, with more athletic competition in the form of basketball, left all who attended sore, but also quite full of flank steak and egg nog.
Below see pictures of the top 15. (see all photos)
