Sept. 15, 2016
Event: COMMODORE CLASSIC
Day, Date: Sept. 17
Host: Vanderbilt
Site: Percy Warner Park
Start Times: Men’s 8k: 9 am l Women’s 5k: 10 am:
Course Maps: Men: HERE l Women: HERE
Entry list (by team): HERE
Results: HERE
Hosting their lone home meet of the season, the Vanderbilt women and men will welcome a 20-school field to Percy Warner Park on Saturday for the Commodore Classic. The meet will be feature more than twice as many teams than the Commodores competed against in their season opener two weeks ago. Here’s a closer at the Classic:
l Moving on up: The Vanderbilt women jumped up two spots — to No. 26 — this past Tuesday when the USTFCCCA released its first regular-season rankings of the year. The Commodores, who have won back-to-back NCAA South Region titles and have advanced to the NCAA Championships in each of the past five seasons, were ranked No. 28 in the USTFCCCA’s preseason poll.
l Looking at the field: This weekend’s meet will feature more than 250 runners in each race, and will include teams from all across the nation. Vanderbilt will be one of six SEC schools in action, along with Mississippi State (ranked No. 19 in women’s poll), Georgia, Missouri, Auburn and Tennessee. The complete list is comprised of: Alabama State (w/m); Auburn (w/m); Belmont (w/m); Butler (w/m); Creighton (w/m); Davidson (w/m); Eastern Kentucky (women only); Eastern Michigan (women only); Georgia (w/m); Lipscomb (w/m); Louisville (w/m); Marshall (w/m); MTSU (w/m); Miss. State (w/m); Missouri (w/m); Morehead State (w/m); Murray State (w/m); Northern Kentucky (w/m); Ohio State (w/m); SE Missouri (w/m); Tennessee (w/m); Tennessee Tech (w/m); Tennessee-Martin (w/m); UAB (women only); Vanderbilt (w/m); and Western Kentucky (w/m). .
l Scheduled to run for Vanderbilt: The Commodores are slated to have 20 athletes wearing the black and gold this weekend. Scheduled to run for Vanderbilt on the women’s side are: Reagan Anderson, Reagan Bustamante, Maddie Criscione, Devon Grisbaum, Megan Huebner, Ginger Hutton, Courtney Kriegshauser, Lauren Moffett, Mailin Struck and Sarah Tsai. On the men’s side, it will be: Dan Arthur, Caleb Casolaro, Sam DeFabrizio, Waqqas Fazili, Nikos Gkotsis, Andrew Irvine, Evan Suzman, Harrison Thomas, Jake Van Geffen and Jason Vincze.
l Most recent action: The Vanderbilt women opened the season on Sept. 3 with an impressive showing at the Belmont Opener. Led by Sara Tsai’s dominating first-place time of 17:29.9, the Commodores placed five runners among the Top-8 — with a gap of just 19.5 seconds — and won the team title with 24 points. Maddie Criscione was the second Commodore across the line, finishing third overall at 17:43.5. Devon Grisbaum was fifth at 17:46.1. Reagan Anderson was seventh at 17:47.7 and Megan Huebner was eighth at 17:49.4. On the men’s side, Jake Van Geffen took 19th with a time of 15:48.3 to pace the Commodores, who finished fourth among the D-I teams. (Full recap and results: HERE)
l QUOTING THE COACHES: Here’s what head coach Steve Keith and first-year assistant coach Rebekah Smeltzer had to say about this weekend’s meet.
Head coach Steve Keith:
On the success of his team at the season opener two weeks ago: “The cooler temps may have allowed us to run faster. But nonetheless, it was our best team average ever for an opener. We had some runners step up who had not necessarily been in our front group previously and that was nice to see.”
On the level of competition at this weekend’s Commodore Classic: “There will be some quality out-of-region teams and with some strong SEC squads which makes this year’s edition a particularly challenging field.”
On the outlook for the men’s team and the impact of the freshmen: “The contributions by the freshmen — along with the expected growth and maturity of the upperclassmen — make this year’s men’s team a much tighter group.”
Assistant coach Rebekah Smeltzer:
On the VU squads competing against a much larger field at this race than the season opener: “The increase in field size and competitiveness on Saturday is going to be a slight adjustment in that it may take the groups until the 1k (for the women) and 1mile (for the men) to potentially find each other, especially if they don’t get out aggressively. In order to have a successful race, we need to focus on getting out aggressively while still maintaining our composure, building momentum as the race progresses, finding jobs to do and, as always, attaching to teammates and finishing with them.”
On the possible carry-over effect from the success season opener: “We were excited with how we started the year off. It shows just how hard the team has worked in the off-season. Every race is a stepping stone to the next on. We make note of what we did well and acknowledge the areas in need of improvement and make sure to apply those the each time out.”
l Looking back to last year: Paced by a pair of freshmen, Caroline Pietrzyk and Sara Tsai, the Commodores sailed to a second-place finish at last year’s Commodore Classic. Pietrzyk finished third overall with a time of 17:04.8. She was joined in the Top-15 by Tsai, who posted a time of 17:27.2 and took 14th place. Vanessa Valentine was the third Commodore across the line, finishing 23rd at 17:40.4. She was followed by Regan Anderson, who was 25th at 17:42.8, and Megan Huebner in 38th at 17:51.0. On the men’s side, Vanderbilt notched a 14th-place finish. Jake Van Geffen led the way for the Commodores, finishing 72nd at 26:27.4.
