Hugh Jackson '09 -- This past weekend, February 10th, the Wabash Little Giants traveled south to DePauw. Normally a place that is avoided by all Wabash men, the Red Pack went to find out how their fitness was coming along. Normally there comes a point just before the end of a season or prior to a championship where the workload becomes very difficult. Now was a time in the season when the runners looked to test their fitness gains when they were most distressed from the weeks prior. As expected by Coach Roger Busch, the Little Giants came through. While not every race was a personal record, many of the runners presented the 700 athlete meet with some of the best doubles of the day. Freshman Micah Milliman ran a solid 1600m leg of the DMR and set a new pr in the 3k 9:14. Working together with Milliman in the 3k, I came through in 9:11, 22 seconds faster than my time in the race from last year. Nathan Bates and Geoff Lambert were another duo who worked together for solid performances. Another attempt at national qualifying times saw Geoff Lambert setting the 800m meet record and Bates lowering his lifetime best. The two teamed up once again to clean up their heat of the 4x400m relay in demanding fashion, both splitting 50 and some change. Freshman John Henry, a newcomer to the team, turned in a good 1200m DMR leg and 1k double. Lastly, team captain Dennis Frazee ran a solid 5k time of 15:46 while still at high mileage, showing that he is ready to roll against Gheny at the Indoor Conference Championships coming up March 2nd-3rd.

Posted by Roger Busch at 11:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Geoff Lambert '08 -- The Red Pack started to get into the heart of their indoor season this past weekend at Denison with the NCAC Relays. The track team won this meet three years ago and this was the goal when they arrived at Denison. At this meet, the team runs different events than the standard indoor track meet. There is a distance medley (1200,400,800,1600), a sprint medley (200,200,400,800), and a 4x800 relay, just to name some of the events we do not typically run. The distance medley was Geoff Lambert, Wade Heiny, Nathan Bates, and Hugh Jackson. They entered the meet with the intentions of running at close to 10 minutes as possible (we were trying to qualify for the NCAA Indoor Championships). We left the meet somewhat disappointed because not only did we not run the time we wanted to, but we lost to Denison in the process. Needless to say our last few track sessions have been with this loss in mind. The sprint medley was made up of all sprinters, but they still ran well, taking 3rd overall. The 4x800 relay was made up of Hugh Jackson, John Henry, Micah Milliman, and Dennis Frazee. They ran smart and ran tough while muscling out a 3rd place finish. Frazee and Milliman also ran the 5,000m before this, running times of 15:45.13 and 16:23.29, respectively. The distance team has been depleted over the last few weeks, but we are starting to see our hard work pay off and will be getting some key runners back in the near future.

This next weekend, the Wabash Track Team travels to rival DePauw. The meet should be a key meet for the distance team. These past two weeks have been devoted to maintaining our base that was established early in December. As a result, we have been running higher mileage and longer workouts. This Saturday will conclude a two week cycle which means that we will key in on our races to see where we are at fitness and speed wise. As of right now, we have entries in the 800m, the 3,000m, the 5,000m, the mile, and we may also have a Distance Medley Relay. We are at a point in our season where we need fan support the most in order to get through these next few weeks, so if you could make the 30 minute drive to DePauw this weekend we would love to see you there. If not, we will see all of you the following weekend when we race at home.

Posted by Roger Busch at 02:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)