Blogs : NCAA Division III Blog

Post-Regionals Quotes: Part 2

CENTRAL

Chris Erichsen, St. John's, 1^st: "The region meet went about as well as I could have hoped.  I ended up winning the meet, which was one of my goals at the beginning of the season.  Team-wise, I was hoping we could have finished in the top two and earn an automatic bid to the national meet, but we ended up qualifying anyways by finishing third.  I think everyone on our team is feeling pretty confident heading in to this weekend's meet.  So far this year, we haven't been able to put all the pieces together at any one meet.  If we have all seven of our guys run well, I think we're going to be happy with the results."

Chris Dunker, Nebraska Wesleyan, 6^th: "It was great to be able to compete for the Central Region Championships again this year. There were several very good runners and competitors and it was a lot of fun to race against them. After I finished, it was a relief to see so many of my teammates finish in the top 35. At first, I thought we had finished 2nd as a team, but to later learn that we won was something special. We have a great group of guys and they earned every piece of it.  Since we were able to compete on the Nationals course this past weekend, I think that we have a good idea of the type of race we need to run to maximize our finish at Nationals. We have had a solid year of training and our guys are ready to compete. I know that we are going to have a lot of fun competing against the other great schools and individuals that represent Division III so well."

Janet Dobyns, Luther, 1^st: "It was great to see a solid team effort and to put five women in all-region.  Our performance at regionals will definitely provide us with more confidence going into Saturday but we will approach this championships meet as we have in all our races this season - with a lot of enthusiasm, a good effort, and great camaraderie.  The central region had many competitive individuals and teams and it will be even more exciting to add seven more regions to the mix to test our strength.  I was pleased with my race and was glad to have the opportunity to contribute to the team's continued success.  I followed my gut from moment to moment throughout the race as to how I should position myself.  After the first 4k I hoped that I would be strong enough to hold off the tough competitors behind me up the short hill and straightaway into the finish.  Though I was glad I could help my team with my finish, I was even more thrilled to watch as my other teammates came in with strong finishes and seeing all of the Luther fans and teammates that came out to support us.  Our team is excited to continue the season on to nationals!  I plan to give my best effort and to really enjoy the nationals experience this weekend. I feel very lucky to have the opportunity to toe the line and I feel honored to represent the other thirty some women on my team that have worked so hard these past few months.  I have confidence in our training and program as it prepares us well to produce great championship races."

MIDEAST

Brian Harvey, Carnegie Mellon, 1^st: "I am obviously very pleased with the results of Regionals.  Going into the race I had a great deal of respect for Place from Allegheny and both Ramsey-North and Letts from Haverford who are all experienced, talented runners.  However, I knew that if I could keep them within striking distance, I had confidence in my finishing kick to maybe surprise a few people.  With about 1k to go in the race, Place and Ramsey-North made a surge and pulled about 30 meters away from the lead pack.  They maintained this distance from me until about 200m to go when I fortunately was able to find another gear and sprint by both of them.  It was an extremely fun race.  I was also very excited with the way our team ran, with all seven members of the team running significantly faster than when we ran on the same course six weeks prior.  Regionals was a huge mental boost for our team and we all feel like we our peaking at the perfect time in the season.  Individually, I would be ecstatic with a top 10 performance.  A minor injury I suffered at the beginning of the season might turn out to actually have helped me in the long run because it forced me to take a few weeks of down time at the beginning of the season.  As a team, if everyone runs to their potential, there is no reason we can't finish in top five teams in the nation which would be the best finish in our school's history."

Ryan Place, Allegheny, 2^nd: "Our team's strategy going into the Regionals was to ensure an honest pace was set early in order to keep unforeseen adversaries at bay.  Personally, it was my hope to hang with Haverford's top guys to the last mile where the winner would be decided a series of surges. Fortunately, Haverford's Ian Ramsey-North made use of our same strategy by setting the tempo early in the race, which set the stage for a battle over the final mile.  Everything seemed to be going to plan until the final 100m when CMU's Brian Harvey reminded me that I should have not factored him out of the overall contention so easily.  Haverford's pack again proved to be stronger than anticipated, which resulted in another runner-up finish for our team. (Congrats to Brian and Haverford for their respective wins).  My team and I have never had this much confidence going into a National meet, but have consequently never held ourselves to such high expectations as we do now. Whenever a team returns nearly all of their top 7, as we have, it is their goal to improve upon their past year's finish.  Unfortunately, our past year's success has set the team's standards accordingly high to the point that they are not easily attained by an even superior team.  Nonetheless, it is still our goal to improve upon the 3rd place finish from last year and is my goal to better 6th as an individual.  In short, we'll be praying for a swamp, as last year, and running to win, as always."

Ian Ramsey-North, Haverford, 3^rd: "Regionals was good.  We ran well as a team, had a good spread from 1-5, and we have plenty left for Nationals.  It was a fairly conservative, tactical race.  Not wanting to use too much we avoided pressing the pace early and kept it pretty packed up.  Then with about 1200 to go I tried to break it open a bit but had left it too late to shake Harvey and Place.  But that was okay, the goal was to run controlled and qualify.  We're feeling really good heading into nationals.  We have worked hard through 5 months of training and racing and now we get to see what we can do.  It's certainly a nerve-wracking place to be but it is also why we run and I think everyone on the team is excited about having the opportunity to show ourselves and our competitors what we can do."

Cait Bradley, Dickinson, 2^nd: "Regionals was a tough race for me but for our team it was really great.  As a whole everyone ran really well, we had a couple of girls who really stepped it up and everyone else just did what they needed to do and were really consistent with what they've been doing all season.  I think the level of competition has increased in the Mideast region from the past couple of years, and we were really happy with our performance.  [For Nationals,] I'm excited, a little nervous, but excited.  We talked tonight as a team about just doing what we've been doing all season and as long as we do that, we'll be happy with the results.  And we're really excited about our Men's team qualifying!"

Laura Paulsen, Johns Hopkins, 4^th: "I thought regionals went really well with coming in 4th and having the team place 3rd and qualify for nationals! Almost everyone from the team ran a PR and I was really excited about finally breaking 22 - I think I ran 22:02 at the Paul Short Invite on that course, which was so frustrating. Even though I placed lower than last year, 4th versus 2nd, I was happy with my time and being able to run with some of the best girls in the region again.  I'm definitely looking forward to Nationals and trying to become an All-American. Last year I got a little bit overwhelmed with how many fast people there were and the conditions of the course, but hopefully this year, being there with the whole girls team and being a little bit more experienced will be a huge help. As for the team, it's the first time a team from Johns Hopkins has been able to go to Nationals so I think we're all going to be really excited to just go out there and run our hardest. I think our biggest expectation is just to have a lot of fun racing and enjoying nationals and then seeing how that will turn out in terms of results."

SOUTH/SOUTHEAST

RJ Cowan, UT-Tyler, 1^st: "Regionals was the most bitter-sweet moment in my running career because we have a very strong team that just didn't come together on the day, but overall it was a blessing just to be able to run and compete.  At Nationals I will pray for God to teach me how to run, just as I did at Regionals. My teammate, Ben Donnan, and I will both be looking to crack the top-35 for All-American spots, we aren't as accomplished as many of the competitors there, but we will race with heart."

D'Ann Arthur, Trinity University, 1^st: "Well my performance at regionals was a shock for both me and my coaches. I was diagnosed with stress fractures in both my femurs in the middle of September, which put me out of running for a good 5 weeks. There was a slight chance that I could come back for regionals, and so I was cross training like crazy so I didn't lose any of my fitness. I ran about 3 mini workouts going into regionals, but was still only ran about 30 miles the week before. I knew I had the potential to still be in the top 10 going into the race, and that was about it in terms of my expectations. Somehow I took the lead with about 1200 m to go and ended up winning the race... it was definitely a shock, but it really helped boost my confidence about running after being injured for so long. Going into nationals, I really don't have too many set goals... I would love to be All-American and think I can do it if I raced like I did this past weekend."

WEST

Kevin Chaves, Occidental, 1^st: "I felt it went out at the perfect pace, which gave me confidence. After that it was just a constant push to the line. I certainly didn't think I was safe from getting caught by Boggs until the very end, so afterwards I was pretty relieved as well as very happy.  I'm feeling really good right now. I feel like I'm healthy for the races that count for the first time in my collegiate career. That alone is providing most of the confidence that I'm going to have, and other than that, I just have to see what happens. I'd love to surprise some people next week, but really I just want to finally take home an all american certificate."

Julian Boggs, Colorado College, 2^nd: "Regionals was the first race this season, as it is most seasons, where I finally started to feel really fit. I was disappointed not to be able to defend my regional championship, but Kevin is a great runner and great guy and we're both looking forward to putting up a good showing for the West in St. Olaf on Saturday.  Every race so far I've felt better than the last, and that trend will hopefully continue through nationals."

Sarah Zerzan, Willamette, 1^st: "Regionals played out really well; the team worked together and finished very strong.  The course was a bit rough, but we all ran smart and it paid off.  It was incredible to be able to be part of a 1-2 finish at the regional championships; seeing Maddie cross the finish line was definitely one of the highlights of my career.  I was really happy with how regionals went.  I'm feeling pretty nervous, but also pretty excited, heading into nationals.  This is the best team that I've ever been on, and I'm really interested to see what we can do at the national level.  We'll want to make our presence known, that's for sure.  As far as my own goals go, my top priority is to help out the team.  We'll see how everything shakes out, but it should definitely be an interesting race."