This is our video that one of our runners made, it has both the D2 Nationals 4x4 and 4x1 finals on it. We are featured in the all white speedsuits. D2 Track Nationals 4x1 and 4x4
I haven't made an entry in some time, I have been so busy. From going to nationals, coming home, job hunting, etc. Well I had never been to the west coast before, like every where I go for the first time I have certain expectations of what it would be like. Going to the LA area, I expected people just being everywhere, fly cars driving down the streets, an extremily chaotic highway system. What I didn't expect were high temps in the 50s and low 60s, snow in some parts, and tornadoes right around the corner from where we were staying. Pretty strange whether for LA I must say, but I ain't complaining, it was awesome just to be in Cali for free. The whole trip was pretty cool and ran smoothly, with the exception of the hotel clerks who misplaced our uniforms we ordered (they were found). Well on to the running portion of the segment. We sent 20+ people to nationals between the men and women. On the men's side we had 3 Shot throwers, 2 Hammer guys, 2 discus guys, Javelin thrower, a 1500 runner, steepler, a pole vaulter, 4x1, and 4x4. Everybody placed in atleast one of their events besides our two distance guys. Our 4x1 had 2 great races throughout the competition, in prelims they ran to a school record of 40.26, and in the finals ran 40.33 to place 5th. In the 4x4 we ran the 3rd fastest prelim time, and then finished 4th in the finals. Our finish in the 4x4 was good enough to clinch our highest finish ever at nationals since we have been in D2 at 3rd place. The year in a nutshell has been fun, but very very hectic. It seems so long, going place to place week after week. It has been nice to sit at home and relax for a little bit. Don't get me wrong I'm excited for the next season, I can't wait to go to the University of Findlay for the first Indoor meet. But, right now I'm relaxing waiting for monday when I start to train again. This next year I plan on running the hurdles, not just out of the blue, but forreal. An old high school coach who tried to get me into the hurdles years ago is going to help me train. I'm just excited for the next year, we have 3 out of 4 on our 4x4 back and we have some pretty nice runners coming in to compete for spots as well as some veterans. We are looking to improve off both nationals placements this coming season, we can do it, but in order for it to happen we have to start right now!
Good Luck to everyone competing for spots on the Olympic team!
So I wanted to name this entry "don't call it an upset part 2", only problem with it is that it was an even bigger upset than our two relay wins over the Ohio D1s. Well the week began with practice, 1x250 and 4 cruise in's on tuesday, and a recovery day on wednesday. Wednesday night we had a team dinner with the University's president and we gave team awards. Freshman of the year went to Mike Jeffrey who placed in the weight at nationals and is I think 4th on the list for Hammer. Running MVPs were Nicky B and I, Field MVPs were Rob Klenk Weight thrower and Dan Tierney Pole vaulter. Our overall MVP was Brian Vickers who is our National title winning shot put thrower.
On Thursday we went to Michigan for our conference meet, usually conference is a one team race for first. Grand ValleyState usually dominates, beating the field by 100 at times. THey have won like 6 or 7 outdoor titles in a row. But, alot of teams thought that we could upset the GV this year, I didn't want to be heart broken so I tried to keep my mind off the possibility and just focus on my races. I ended up running the 400 prelims, and the 400 sticks. In the sticks a guy inside of me hit the third hurdle into my lane causing me to completely stop and have and took me out of the race. The next day in finals, all I had was the 4 and the 4x4, I finally got my time down in the 4, running 47.81 coming in third to my two teammates. Joe went 47.7 and Nick 47.4, overall in the sprints we cleaned house and the field events too. We had some suprising efforts, Nick jumped 46 feet in the triple jump, his first time ever triple jumping. Rob Klenk provisionaled on his first throw of the year in the Jav and A couple of our shot throwers threw huge PRs also.
All during finals everything is going our way, Al upset their all american hurdler. Tierney upset their national champion Pole Vaulter it was all so perfect. After the 5k they tallied up the points for the meet and we were up by half a point, with one event left the 4x4. Our seed time was 7 seconds faster than theres was, so all we had to do was pass the stick and win. At the end of the meet we got our trophy and alot of other schools were glad to see us win, unbelievable ovation from the other schools when we got our trophy.
GLIAC Conference Awards
Running athlete of the meet- Darrin Tape Northwood Univ, winner of 100 and 200
Field Athlete of the meet- Robert Klenk Ashland Univ, Hammer Throw and Javelin Champ
Freshman of the Yeark- Alan Dunson Ashland Univ, 110 Champ
So its Penn and Drake Relays weekend, exciting, right?? Yea, maybe for some but not me. As much as my teammates and I would like to go, we couldn't. So we were at IUPUI (Indianapolis) this weekend, which by the way is an incredibly beautiful track. We took sprinters and throwers, some of our distance went to Hillsdale for the Gina relays. Well this was an interesting day to say the least. I did terrible, running the 400 in a 48.9 and into a nasty wind on the backstretch. The only thing I did the whole entire day. But, othere on our team fared better. Our 4x1 ran a 40.67 moving up on the performance list. I didn't expect that today, their best run came last week at 40.8 with lots of competition. In this weeks race they were pretty much uncontested the entire time. Joe started it off making up a little bit of the stagger, gave it to Nick who completely owned the backstretch despite a terrible handoff with Joe, by the time Nick gave up the stick he passed everybody, and Brian and Jerry brought it home. Al Dunn had a good day also, he provisionaled at 14.51 in the hurdles, he ran his first clean race of the year. He is starting to come along, getting faster each and every week. He also ran a 22.01 which is a PR for him, Boobie also PR'd in the 200 at 22.3 I think? I gave Ilia, who's block skills are the worst on the team next to mine, some tips on blocks right before her 200 (Ironic isn't it). Needless to say, she came out the blocks like a beast, took her PR down from a high 26 to a 25.6!! She was sooo excited, grinning from ear to ear. Then we had the weekly purple clash, this week Brian Ryman vs. Nick Bellanco in the 200. Brian is a lil banged up right now, but he ran really welll 21.3, Nick was right on his tail though running 21.4. It was a pretty exciting race, considering we aren't used to seeing any of us on the team being that close to Brian.
I said it was an interesting meet because all of our runners were done at ummm.. about 6. Well we waited for the shot put to be contested that was probably was over by 8, no big deal. BUT! the women's pole vault was yet to be contested. Usually this is no problem, because either A. I have a ride that can take me home. Or B We are an hour away from Campus. This time neither A or B were true. The Pole vault didn't finish until about 11ish. We probably got on the road at 11:30, usually not a problem. Except its spring fest here in Ashland, lots of things to do for once, but we have a 4 hour drive from Indianapolis to enjoy . Not cool, so we come strolling back into Ashland at 3:30AM, which is a killer. GRRRR... besides the extra long stay in Indianapolis it was a good day, pretty funn meet good weather and everything. Oh yea, Joe Horn, I forgot about him. Provisionaled in the Decathlon with no training! Also provisionaled in the 400 portion on for the Dec, and runs a 10.7 seasonal best in the 100. Gets a days rest and leads off the 4x1 to the 40.67, absolutely incredible. He's provisionaled in 4 events this season 4x4 4x1 400 and Decathlon, regional athlete nomination could be in his future.
Next week, we have conference! GLIACs in Saginaw, MI. I'm pretty excited for this, actually for the whole week. 2 papers and a presentation and I'm done with 2 of my classes, leaving me with only two finals on next monday. Hopefully we can lower our 4x4 time a couple tenths to go automatic.Well thats all for the week, oh BTW GO LA LAKERS!
This week was pretty cool as far as the workouts, short distance fast speed. Trying to get those times down. I was lookin at the calendar, and I couldn't believe how fast this season has gone. With only 2 meets left, where did time go? I've only ran the 400 open once this season, and the meets are numbered.
The day that our team had circled on their calendars had finally arrived, ALL OHIO CHAMPIONSHIPS. The only meet in which all the Ohio D1's and D2's come to. The day started really gloomy, lots of clouds, a few rain showers here and there. But, it all soon cleared up and got partly cloudy skies with a cool breeze by the time the meet started. We knew going into this that this weekend would probably be the best time to qualify, so we loaded up our relays wth the intention of putting down some solid provisionals. First thing first, 4x1 loaded field (to our standards), everyone is looking for Ohio State or defending champion Akron to win this. Gun goes off Joe makes up most of staggar on the rest of the field, Nick maintains strong with a 10.2 behind him creeping a little bit, then to Brian who breaks out into a lead, to Jerry who cruises in first place. Right now, the stadium is in shock because a D2 team just won the 4x1. Alot of people were asking around who the "Purple Team" is. Same scenario in 4x4, this time Cincy and OSU were supposed to duke it out for first place honors. Gun goes off, Nick leads off to a pretty good leg, brings it home in first to me, I stretched the lead over OSU to about 15 meters along the backstretch in which I run a 22.1. They cut the lead a lil bit by the end, 3rd leg was Joe he ran a smooth race, OSUs guy jumped on him quick but held him off pretty easily and stretched the lead a lil bit, giving it to Ryman who cruised in to a 3:10. This is the second time us 4 have all run together in the 2 years we have all been together, the first time doesn't really count since one of us fell during the cut off indoor. Not too many people expected a D2 school to come in and sweep the sprint relays at all ohio, but they should have . Just kidding, but everybody in D2 or D3 enjoys an occassional victory over the D1 big boys.
We had our annual quad with Youngstown State, Akron, and Kent State. As always, the weather was atrocious, with high 40s and freezing cold rain. Last year was even worse, but they moved it inside to their Indoor track, which was a win-lose situation, since none of the marks counted. Performance wise we had a great meet, girls 4x1 provisionaled, Abby Kacsandi nearly hit the automatic mark when she jumped 5'7. Al Dun ran a PR in the 200, Nicky B. ran a 48.1 in his first 400 race of the season, and we had 2 girls provisional in the LJ, and like always we had great efforts in the throws, even with out our best throwers who competed at Sea Rays. The meet was just a stepping stone towards this weekends racing. We have the All-Ohio championships in Cincinnati, its an all D1 affair, with the exception of us and Findlay. So it will be extremily competitive for a D2 like us. I'm really looking forward to this meet, because last year we didn't run a 4x4 there, and this year we are coming in as the #2 seed with Ohio State being the only team that has run faster indoor or outdoor than us. We raced them once already, they beat us pretty convincingly, it would have been a little closer if I didn't fumble the baton. With Brian back for outdoor it should be very very interesting to see how this race goes.
So about a year ago, I made a deal with a coach at a local middle school. The deal was that he would exchange a glazed donut for my expertise in the high jump LOL, yes a glazed donut. I agreed on helping his team out, and I began coaching two weeks ago. I like to give back to kids, to see there face when they first learned I was going to coach them was priceless. They haven't had a high jump coach in years. These kids just go out goof around while coaching themselves, total chaos. But, they were so happy that I was coaching them, their parents after introducing themselves told me how excited there kids were to work with me.
I thought that it was important to tell them my story and development from awful athlete to all american, mainly so I could stress the importance of never giving up on your dream, and to show them that anything is possible. I also told them about friends of mine that grew up being the star, and lost all push and motivation to get better. I wanted them to know that even though some of them are good right now, that they are in the 7th and 8th grade and in order them to get better they needed to work hard and remain focused, or else they will stagnate and will never be any better than what they are right now.
So with the formalities out of the way, I started at the very beginning. Simple repeat jumps off their jumping legs and bridges, than jumps standing on a chair working on arching and looking back at the fence behind them. Also, bicycle kicks over low height and 3 and 5 step jumps over a bungi. I really didn't want them doing too much on my first day, most of the kids were easily doing everything I asked. I just wanted them to focus on form. First day was pretty hard for me to keep the kids attention. Girls and Boys were busy flirting with each other, you know the middle school boys picking on some of the girls because they think they are pretty. It was diffucult to keep them focused and listening to me, so I had to seperate the practices. Boys on wednesday and girls on monday.
The next to practices I did pretty much the same things I did the first day. Same drills, same set up, because I had new people who hadn't been with us and I had to reteach them everything. In practice, I keep stressing form.. form.. FORM.. I refused to move the bar over 5 feet, even though 3 of our kids PRed at 5'2", I just wanted them to pretend the bar wasn't even there, and to visualize doing the bridge in mid air. The first meet came, and we took 1-2-3 in a meet with 5 teams. One of our kids went 5'6'' and the other two went 5'4'', which isn't bad for the first meet of the year and two weeks of practice, especially since they all PR'd. We've got a invitational meet on saturday, and we had a jump off today. The two kids that went 5'4'' squared off against each other. They both went over 5'6'', and one of them went over 5'8'', he is athletically gifted, he can touch the goal post so hops are not a question. It was just a matter of him learning how to get his body parallel to the mat instead just jumping over and being diagnol to it. I explained that to him before he jumped and he cleared the 5'6'' easy as well as the 5'8'', after which I stopped him from going up. The winner from the meet decided he wanted to jump too, and he also went 5'8'' with room to spare. So it should be interesting by the end of the year at conference, I want to sweep the top 3 spots in the high jump.
The week overall was pretty crappy, cold, windy, cloudy. Every electronic I own is breaking. Ipod, camera, phone, xbox, and my car went out friday morning on the freeway 45 min away from school. Yea, pretty crappy right?
Monday: easy day did hurdle warm ups and ran a few at about 70%. Afterwards made my debut coaching middle school high jump.
Tuesday: Ran 6 x 320 with hurdles, at 40 to 44 seconds through the 300 and a 20 meter excelleration. By far the hardest workout that we have done this year. Weather was awful, 40 degrees and super strong winds.
Wednesday: recovery. More coaching middle school kids.
Thursday: 5x200 with hurdles. Looked pretty decent over the hurdles, alternating legs very good.
Saturday: Meet in Cincinnati, we had some very good performances. 4x1 ran a 41.03 uncontested, they looked pretty good, but the race was over after Nick got the baton on the 2nd leg. Joe got 2nd in the 200, not suprisingly Brian Vickers won the Shot and the disc, and Klenk won the hammer. Dirt won the steeple and Tierney won the vault. 4x4 was second with a decathlete and a miler running on it. Our miler Max dropped a high 49 split, and we ran about 3:18. We put him in a bad spot though, we ran our two fastest legs first and second, had a pretty large lead over Siena Heights and Cincy (maybe 2 or 3 secs). Lead went down a little bit and on the anchor leg Max was on the anchor leg with a guy who just ran 46 earlier in the day. He held his own though and tried to fight it off, but he got caught. Oh well, that was a hell of a leg for a miler. We will see Cincy in two weeks at all-ohio with a full 4x4, when we get joe and Brian back it could get very interesting between us, Cincy, Akron, and O-State. I am so excited to run an all out 4x4 with Brian on it, he didn't run indoor and we finished 7th at indoor nationals. He runs a 46 open 400, its gonna be interesting to see how we improve.
Now to my 400 hurdles, if I could describe it in a word that word would be 'interesting'. Coach told me to not go out too hard, so I didn't lol. I didn't do too well I was a little shaky on my hurdling skills, and didn't use my left lead leg too much. At the 200 mark I jumped about 39 feet in the air, and was waaaay behind. When I got on on the straight I had soooo much energy left and just busted it, I caught some guy, and tripped coming down off the last hurdle and messed my stride up and couldt get two guys that were a lil ahead of me. All in all, I feel like I can run 50 times better in the 400H. I have zero form right now, I need more than a weeks practice. Still for never running the hurdles ever in my life I didn't think a 57 was that bad. Next week: We are at Akron for the Northeast Ohio championships. Home meet for me, lots of family and friends there. Should be a lot of fun.
Finally we are finished with indoor! No more tiny 200 meter track curves. Actually I don't mind indoor all that much, well atleast when we are at Akron and Kent because of their 300M tracks. those 200 flat curves are unforgiving on my long legs, I am a mid 48 runner on those two tracks, but I have never broke 50 on a flat track . So we ran our first meet at Coastal Carolina University last weekend, which is pretty cool since this is my first time in the three years I have been in Ashland that we have traveled somewhere for a spring trip. Only our sprinters made the travel down, our throwers went to the Raleigh Relays this weekend. It was such a relief being in South Carolina in the sun, instead of the 18 inches that we got at the beginning of Spring Break. It was a good time, we had some good weather, good fun, great inside jokes, and alot of putt putt. But, most importantly we had some nice times. I didn't do so good high 48 400, dropped baton in the B team 4x1, a 3:16 4x4. I think I sort of set myself up for failure though. We had just tried to peak the week before at nationals, So i was expecting sub 48 in the 400, and we were getting back an all American in Brian Ryman (46.8 in the open 4) who didn't run indoor and didn't run the 4x4 that day. So I was expecting a 3:10 or 3:11 in the 4x4. Other than myself we had good performances in a very good meet, Alissa won the 100H in 13.7, Brian won the 200 in 21.3, Jerry, Nick, Joe also ran sub 22 200s. Our men's 4x1 went provisional with absolutely horrendous handoffs. Al ran a 14.9 in his first 110 race at 42 inches, Lisa won the Heptathlon, and Steph went 55 in the 400.
Well we had a weekend off as the throwers went to Raleigh, but we are going to Cincy this weekend as a full team. In which I make my debut in the 400 Hurdles . Pretty nervous about this, with zero hurdle experience in the past should be interesting, updates will be posted when I'm finished.
Goals for Outdoor: 400- 47.4 400H-52.00 4x4- 3:08
I mentioned Lots of Putt Putt earlier in my blog. Well our crib was surrounded by a putt-putt course. A little weird when I wake up in the morning to see someone doing warm up putts in my front yard. I'm the 2nd pic in purple running the 400, Brian is running the 200 in the 3rd pic
I thought it was fitting to start my first blog to introduce myself. I go by the name of Edwin, some people call me Ed, some call me Eddy, Swann, EZ, actually too many names that I care to list. Well, I am from Youngstown, OH its about an hour east of Cleveland and an hour west of Pittsburgh, I now go to Ashland University its in the middle of nowhere here in Ohio. I have been running since the 7th, it started off as an alternative for getting cut off the basketball team. I was never any good in track, only reason that I did it was the girls . When I got to high school I began to get taller (I'm 6'5'' now), so basketball was in my future, I made the freshman team and started. After basketball season I thought about quitting track after one year to focus on just basketball, but I lettered in Track via the high jump, I still wasn't any good bests of I think 5'8'' in high jump, and 62 in the 400 and 2:25 in 800.The following summer, I was introduced to the weight room and thats when Basketball took a back seat to Track. Ran PR's of 52 in the 400 and 2:07 in the 800. At the end of my Junior year I had bests of 1:55 in the 800 and 50.4 in the 400, which are pretty solid combo numbers, not great but solid numbers. I didn't get any recruiting buzz, nobody contacted me, I received about 3 or 4 letters from schools. Matter of fact I got more letters in football, in which I played maybe 20 plays the entire season, in my one and only season I played. So I knew i had to do my own recruiting. Tried to contact several division 1 schools in the area with no luck. Contacted Ashland, they brought me in for a visit and liked what they saw. Only one problem. They wanted me to run the 1500! I was kinda skeptical about that, but I signed. Running the 1500 required me to join the Cross team at AU, so while I should have been running miles in the summer, I couldn't due to the fact that I was nursing a stress fracture i recieved after our district finals and had to run on for regionals in which I missed out on state by a tenth of a second. Well anyways, I'm excited about cross country and 3 weeks before the start of the semester I get a call telling me the head coach retire, and that I was now going to join the sprinting group. So now here I am, running the 400. I've been on the D2 provisional list twice in the indoor 400, once in the DMR, and twice in the 4x4 indoor and once outdoor. We finished 7th this year in the 4x4 at nationals
. Not cool, so we come strolling back into Ashland at 3:30AM, which is a killer. GRRRR... besides the extra long stay in Indianapolis it was a good day, pretty funn meet good weather and everything. Oh yea, Joe Horn, I forgot about him. Provisionaled in the Decathlon with no training! Also provisionaled in the 400 portion on for the Dec, and runs a 10.7 seasonal best in the 100. Gets a days rest and leads off the 4x1 to the 40.67, absolutely incredible. He's provisionaled in 4 events this season 4x4 4x1 400 and Decathlon, regional athlete nomination could be in his future.
. Just kidding, but everybody in D2 or D3 enjoys an occassional victory over the D1 big boys. 
.
. Pretty nervous about this, with zero hurdle experience in the past should be interesting, updates will be posted when I'm finished.
.