Post-Collegiate Cats Working with Gagliano

Frances Koons, Sean Tully, and Nicole Schappert are among a group of post-collegiate runners training together under the tutelage of Frank Gagliano. Most of the session are evidently taking place at Rutgers. Here is the story from Walt Murphy.

Frank Gagliano--One More Training Group
by Walt Murphy

It didn't take long for Frank Gagliano, affectionately known as "Gags", to gather together another group of runners who will train under his guidance.

After spending a number of years on the West Coast, where he was the coach of the Nike Farm Team at Stanford and The Oregon Elite T.C. in Eugene(after leading the Reebok Enclave in D.C.), the native New Yorker returned home to the East Coast in late 2008 to tend to family matters. He got back into coaching slowly late last year, taking 2008 Olympian Erin Donohue and former Seton Hall star Rob Novak under his wing. They will now have plenty of company during their training sessions at Rutgers, where the group meets 2-3 times a week.

"Rutgers has been great for letting us use their facilities", said Gags. (Of course, it helps that he was a former head coach at the New Jersey school and the current men's coach, Mike Mulqueen, ran for him at Manhattan College!). "We look forward to supporting some indoor track meets in the Armory and outdoor meets in the New York-New Jersey area, as well as meets in Boston".

Here is the current roster for the as-yet unnamed group of middle distance runners (with their former college affiliation and PRs)

Erin Donohue (North Carolina) 1:59.99, 4:03.49, 4:26.48
Rob Novak (Seton Hall) 1:46.85, 3:40.90
Frances Koons (Villanova) 4:13.23, 4:33.24i, 9:01.02i, 15:43.78
Delilah DiCrescenzo (Columbia) 4:12.78, 9:02.50, 15:40.00,
Julie Culley (Rutgers) 2:10.43, 4:13.18, 4:34.80, 8:55.62i, 15:21.87
Nicole Schappert (Villanova) 2:08.06, 4:17.99, 4:35.97i, 9:12.51i
Christine Whalen (Georgetown) 2:04.49, 4:21.21
Deon Bascom (Pittsburgh) 1:48.52
Sean Tully (Villanova) 1:46.84, 3:46.63, 4:01.95
Liam Boylan-Pett (Columbia) 1:48.28, 3:40.15, 3:59.40i
Alex Wechsler (Lafayette) 3:45.96, 4:05.82
Aidan Walsh (FDU) 3:43.99, 4:04.97
Max Smith (Providence) 3:39.93, 3:56.46, 7:55.19i

Also trainng with Gags one day a week (in Rye, NY) are veterans John Trautmann, the 1992 Olympian at 5000-meters, St.John's assistant coach John Honerkamp, who had bests of 1:47.26 and 3:41.58 in the late 1990s, Tom Nohilly, who was 4th in the steeplechase at the 1992 and 1996 U.S. Olympic Trials, Lesley Higgins, who was an All-American in the mile and 3000 at Colorado in the early 2000s, and Katie Hitchcock-McManus, who ran 2:07.74 for Boston U. back in 1997.