Pre Nats Meet Summary: Friday, October 17, 2009
I know you are thinking late as always - let's consider this perfect timing for the MVC Conference meet! I think you all will enjoy this interview with Sophomore, Jeremiah Vaughan who was the top finisher for the Sycamores at Pre Nats a week ago Saturday.
My View:
This marks the 5th or 6th meet that a different Sycamore has finished as the top Sycamore. That makes my job easy on deciding who to interview, Ski are you up again? No pressure... Indiana State finished 19th out of some 35 teams at the Pre Nats, that is pretty good considering most of the top ranked teams in the country were in Terre Haute.
The Sycamores seemed to get off to a pretty good start to the race at Pre Nats, nothing unreasonably quick or anything like that. Considering the entire field went through the first K at like 3:00 flat I would say they got out of the gates ok. From my view the team ran a much better final 3k than they did at Indiana Intercollegiate, this tells me that these guys are in good shape.
They also moved up to 7th in the the Great Lakes Regional, I personally was really happy with the way the Sycamores competed. However I don't think the team and people inside the team (coaching staff etc.) is satisfied with the way we preformed. From what everyone is saying this is a down year for the Great Lakes Regional - but let's not get ahead of ourselves, this "young" Sycamores team has been put in a position to make that National meet and that's all that really matters at this point in the season. These guys can't worry about how weak the regional is, if they take care of business then they will make the National meet.
Post Race Interview:
sycamorerunner.com: Vaughan you ran well at Pre Nats, so tell us how is the Pre Nationals meet any different from other meets throughout the year?
Vaughan: Pre Nationals is different from other meets because of all the teams that come to compete. This meet has most of the top teams and runners in the nation at a single location and that is only one thing that makes this meet special. The other is in the race itself. The teams come to Pre Nats to show off what they are capable of and to beat other teams that are in their regions. The race is really intense because the runners know who they need to beat and it makes it that much more exciting to watch and run in. Most meets the runners need to know who they need to beat but the whole excitement and intensity of the meets is at a much lower scale than at Pre Nationals.
sycamorerunner.com: It is indeed always exciting, from my view on back of the lead Gator the course was a mess. What kind of condition was the course in and did it effect the race in any way?
Vaughan: Because of all the rain we have been getting over the past couple of weeks the course was wet and muddy. Some areas weren't so bad but others, like corners, were muddy if you were going to run the tangent. Overall the course wasn't that bad, the worst spot was probably the beginning because mud was flying up everywhere. I believe it effected the race, it made it slower and a little more slippery. The grass was also a little higher because no one could get out and mow it because it was so wet.
sycamorerunner.com: Hopefully we don't get much more rain between now and nationals. I would think that the conditions might have changed your race strategy. What was your race strategy and did everything go according to plan?
Vaughan: My strategy and the team strategy were about the same. I knew I had to get out to a fast start or I would have been caught up in the back which would have made it harder to move up during the race. After the first K I knew I had to start picking people off one by one and that is what I tried to do until the very end. The team goal was never to settle and I tried not to do that.
sycamorerunner.com: Yeah, like I said before I thought the entire team moved up most of the race. You really seemed to be in the zone man! Was the team happy with the 19th place finish? Do you think we were able to move any closer to an at large bid for nationals or do we still have some work to do?
Vaughan: I think the team was a little happy with the performance we had on Saturday but I believe they all know we have more to give. I think we might have moved a little closer at an at large bid since we did beat some teams we needed to beat but we still have a lot of work to do. How we race in the coming meets is what is really going to determine if we can clinch an at-large bid or not.
sycamorerunner.com: I tell you what you guys don't seem to be content with what you have done to this point, that could be the mark of a great team. You personally seem to have been really running strong these last couple of meets, what do you think has been the difference for you?
Vaughan: During the beginning of the season I was not running as many miles as I am. I increased my miles because of Keeney, he told me that I needed to do so, so I did. And by doing that I have been feeling a little stronger when I am running. I also have been doing more core lately. The team usually have core groups on Tuesday's and Thursday's but since of class conflicts I can not do it with them so I end up doing it by myself later that night. The last thing is I have been getting more sleep. I am usually in bed around 10:30 every night and because of getting more sleep I feel more rested and able to push it a little more in practices which will then help me push it a little more in the races.
sycamorerunner.com: Scott and Eric both have showed that they have great leadership qualities, I don't doubt that the team will be ready to preform every week with those guys being the leaders that they are. What are the keys to this season from this point forward?
Vaughan: The main things for the rest off the season is to get a good four weeks of training, eat and stay healthy, get plenty of rest and get ready to run at Conference in two weeks and Regions in four. We know it is going to hard to beat Southern Illinois at Conference but if we do what we need to do in the coming weeks I believe we can do it.
sycacmorerunner.com: Thanks for the interview Vaughn and congrats on a great performance at Pre Nats - good luck at the Mo Val Conference Championship meet, bring home the hardware boys!
Results:
Jeremiah Vaughan led the Sycamore effort, finishing 79th overall with a time of 24:56.9. Scott Keeney was right behind in 89th spot with a time of 25:03.4 while Eric Schulz finished 97th with a time of 25:07.5. Indiana State’s Michael Disher came in 106th with a time of 25:14.4 and Craig Padgett finished 114th in 25:22.5 to round out the ISU scoring.
Also for Indiana State, Andrew Lepkowski was 136th overall with a time of 25:33.8 and Dustin Betz finished 185th with a time of 26:07.9.
I know you are thinking late as always - let's consider this perfect timing for the MVC Conference meet! I think you all will enjoy this interview with Sophomore, Jeremiah Vaughan who was the top finisher for the Sycamores at Pre Nats a week ago Saturday.
My View:
This marks the 5th or 6th meet that a different Sycamore has finished as the top Sycamore. That makes my job easy on deciding who to interview, Ski are you up again? No pressure... Indiana State finished 19th out of some 35 teams at the Pre Nats, that is pretty good considering most of the top ranked teams in the country were in Terre Haute.
The Sycamores seemed to get off to a pretty good start to the race at Pre Nats, nothing unreasonably quick or anything like that. Considering the entire field went through the first K at like 3:00 flat I would say they got out of the gates ok. From my view the team ran a much better final 3k than they did at Indiana Intercollegiate, this tells me that these guys are in good shape.
They also moved up to 7th in the the Great Lakes Regional, I personally was really happy with the way the Sycamores competed. However I don't think the team and people inside the team (coaching staff etc.) is satisfied with the way we preformed. From what everyone is saying this is a down year for the Great Lakes Regional - but let's not get ahead of ourselves, this "young" Sycamores team has been put in a position to make that National meet and that's all that really matters at this point in the season. These guys can't worry about how weak the regional is, if they take care of business then they will make the National meet.
Post Race Interview:
sycamorerunner.com: Vaughan you ran well at Pre Nats, so tell us how is the Pre Nationals meet any different from other meets throughout the year?
Vaughan: Pre Nationals is different from other meets because of all the teams that come to compete. This meet has most of the top teams and runners in the nation at a single location and that is only one thing that makes this meet special. The other is in the race itself. The teams come to Pre Nats to show off what they are capable of and to beat other teams that are in their regions. The race is really intense because the runners know who they need to beat and it makes it that much more exciting to watch and run in. Most meets the runners need to know who they need to beat but the whole excitement and intensity of the meets is at a much lower scale than at Pre Nationals.
sycamorerunner.com: It is indeed always exciting, from my view on back of the lead Gator the course was a mess. What kind of condition was the course in and did it effect the race in any way?
Vaughan: Because of all the rain we have been getting over the past couple of weeks the course was wet and muddy. Some areas weren't so bad but others, like corners, were muddy if you were going to run the tangent. Overall the course wasn't that bad, the worst spot was probably the beginning because mud was flying up everywhere. I believe it effected the race, it made it slower and a little more slippery. The grass was also a little higher because no one could get out and mow it because it was so wet.
sycamorerunner.com: Hopefully we don't get much more rain between now and nationals. I would think that the conditions might have changed your race strategy. What was your race strategy and did everything go according to plan?
Vaughan: My strategy and the team strategy were about the same. I knew I had to get out to a fast start or I would have been caught up in the back which would have made it harder to move up during the race. After the first K I knew I had to start picking people off one by one and that is what I tried to do until the very end. The team goal was never to settle and I tried not to do that.
sycamorerunner.com: Yeah, like I said before I thought the entire team moved up most of the race. You really seemed to be in the zone man! Was the team happy with the 19th place finish? Do you think we were able to move any closer to an at large bid for nationals or do we still have some work to do?
Vaughan: I think the team was a little happy with the performance we had on Saturday but I believe they all know we have more to give. I think we might have moved a little closer at an at large bid since we did beat some teams we needed to beat but we still have a lot of work to do. How we race in the coming meets is what is really going to determine if we can clinch an at-large bid or not.
sycamorerunner.com: I tell you what you guys don't seem to be content with what you have done to this point, that could be the mark of a great team. You personally seem to have been really running strong these last couple of meets, what do you think has been the difference for you?
Vaughan: During the beginning of the season I was not running as many miles as I am. I increased my miles because of Keeney, he told me that I needed to do so, so I did. And by doing that I have been feeling a little stronger when I am running. I also have been doing more core lately. The team usually have core groups on Tuesday's and Thursday's but since of class conflicts I can not do it with them so I end up doing it by myself later that night. The last thing is I have been getting more sleep. I am usually in bed around 10:30 every night and because of getting more sleep I feel more rested and able to push it a little more in practices which will then help me push it a little more in the races.
sycamorerunner.com: Scott and Eric both have showed that they have great leadership qualities, I don't doubt that the team will be ready to preform every week with those guys being the leaders that they are. What are the keys to this season from this point forward?
Vaughan: The main things for the rest off the season is to get a good four weeks of training, eat and stay healthy, get plenty of rest and get ready to run at Conference in two weeks and Regions in four. We know it is going to hard to beat Southern Illinois at Conference but if we do what we need to do in the coming weeks I believe we can do it.
sycacmorerunner.com: Thanks for the interview Vaughn and congrats on a great performance at Pre Nats - good luck at the Mo Val Conference Championship meet, bring home the hardware boys!
Results:
Jeremiah Vaughan led the Sycamore effort, finishing 79th overall with a time of 24:56.9. Scott Keeney was right behind in 89th spot with a time of 25:03.4 while Eric Schulz finished 97th with a time of 25:07.5. Indiana State’s Michael Disher came in 106th with a time of 25:14.4 and Craig Padgett finished 114th in 25:22.5 to round out the ISU scoring.
Also for Indiana State, Andrew Lepkowski was 136th overall with a time of 25:33.8 and Dustin Betz finished 185th with a time of 26:07.9.