Friday, April 29, 2011

Villanova Men Claim Penn Relays DMR Championship of America


Villanova wins the DMR for the 24th time in Relays history!

Albany’s Christopher Burke set the pace on the opening 1200 leg, then Indiana’s Chris Vaughn took control on the 400. IU’s Daniel Stockberger set the pace for 600 meters of the 800 leg, before being overtaken by Arkansas’ Duncan Phillips and Villanova’s Samuel Ellison. On the anchor leg, Virginia Tech’s Michael Hammond took the early lead with Villanova (Matthew Gibney), Arkansas (Dorian Ulrey), Indiana (Ben Hubers) and BYU (Miles Batty) trailing. Albany’s Paul Lagno joined the leaders with two laps to go and took the lead on the penultimate backstretch. Batty powered into the lead with 200 meter to go, but had no response for Gibney and Ulrey.

Villanova clocked 9:37.93 off these splits: Brian Tetreault (2:57.86), Carlton Bowers (46.89), Samuel Ellison (1:51.03), Matthew Gibney (4:02.16).

Here's what the folks at FloTrack said about the race:

Villanova rode the strong kick of anchor leg, Matthew Gibney, to claim the 2011 Penn Relays DMR title.

Gibney was able to kick past distance studs Dorian Ulrey of Arkansas and Miles Batty of BYU for the 9:37.93 win. Arkansas came in second at 9:38.40, while BYU was third at 9:38.60.

Nova continues a streak of upset victories in the Penn distance relays, as Georgetown and Boston College were underdog winners in the women's DMR and 4x1500 relays earlier in the meet.

The 2011 NCAA Indoor DMR champion BYU Cougars did not quite have enough this time, as Gibney and Ulrey were able to kick past Batty with 150 meters remaining (Batty did receive the baton just back, and still split the second fastest mile time in 4:01.34).

Indiana (2nd indoors) got out to an early lead thanks to a 2:56.5 opening 1200 leg, but could not hold on late (47.4 400 and 4:03 anchor). Surprisingly, the fastest anchor actually went to Providence's David McCarthy, in 4:01.25. That was good enough to propel Providence from 8th to 5th.

But the story was Villanova's unlikely victory. Gibney unleashed a perfectly timed kick to slingshot off the turn and blow past Batty. Batty, having run a 3:36 1500 at Mt. Sac weeks ago, had to have thought the race was in hand with 200 to go. He stormed to the lead with 300 left, looking untouchable. But it was Gibney and Ulrey who had a little left in the tank.


Results


1 Villanova 9:37.93
Brian Tetreault (2:57.86), Carlton Bowers (46.89), Samuel Ellison (1:51.03), Matthew Gibney (4:02.16) AB

2 Arkansas 9:38.40
Thomas Cattin-Masson (3:01.11), Marek Niit (45.82), Duncan Phillips (1:49.05), Dorian Ulrey (4:02.43) AC

3 BYU 9:38.60
Brian Weirich (2:59.14), Cade Lindahl (46.40), Justin Hedin (1:51.74), Miles Batty (4:01.34) AA

4 Indiana 9:39.24
De'Sean Turner (2:56.53), Chris Vaughn (47.46), Daniel Stockberger (1:52.06), Ben Hubers (4:03.20) AD

5 Providence 9:40.99
Julian Matthews (2:56.96), Brian Stannard (49.12), Alex Wallace (1:53.67), David McCarthy (4:01.25) AM

6 Columbia 9:44.91
Adam Behnke (2:58.90), Sam Miner (49.09), Harry McFann (1:51.67), Mark Feigen (4:05.27) AJ

7 Binghamton 9:45.17
Casey Quaglia, Cazal Arnett, Jesse McCormick, Erik van Ingen AO

8 Albany 9:45.62
Christopher Burke (2:58.94), Alie Beauvais (47.05), Nicolas Santos (1:50.98), Paul Lagno (4:08.67) AT

9 Georgetown 9:46.07
Billy Ledder (3:01.38), Toby Ulm (47.81), Theon O'Conner (1:50.30), Andrew Springer (4:06.58) AF

10 Virginia Tech 9:46.70
William Mulherin (2:58.58), Ebenezer Amegashie (49.07), Tihut Degfae (1:50.64), Michael Hammond (4:08.42) AG

11 Rider 9:49.23
Christian Gonzalez (3:47.16), Dave Brown (00.52), Greg Wesh (1:52.80), Mike Soroko (4:08.77) AN

12 Penn 9:49.36
James Finucane (3:02.34), Brian Rosenthal (46.98), Matt Chylak (1:54.02), Michael Cunningham (4:06.03) AP

13 Tennessee 9:52.43
Jordan Chaney (3:00.00), Varick Tucker (48.20), Joe Franklin (1:53.31), Eric Ryan (4:10.93) AH

DNF Dartmouth DNF
Anthony Romaniw, Jalil Bishop, Joseph Woiwode, Tom Robbins AK

No comments:

Post a Comment