The Weekend Wrap Up

Wondering what happened this weekend??

Perhaps the best place to start would be the Millrose Games in Madison Square Garden. Pennsylvania's own Angel Piccirillo was racing in the girls mile. On the slow track she still raced to sub 5 in the mile and finished 6th in a field that included some of the best girl milers in the nation including third place finisher Ajee Wilson who split a 2:00 800 last spring. Angel is still getting back into track shape after a break out cross country season. She will come into the Indoor State Championships as the favorite in the mile and perhaps the 800m as well. On the men's side Chad Noelle won a tight race in 4:16 to cap off a fantastic stretch for him that included a 4:11 mile in qualifying.

Although I originally was going to be making the trip to my first ever Millrose games this year my trip was cancelled due to my 800m debut at Muhlenberg's home meet. Little did I know my old high school rival Chanelle Price would be running the same event the next day. Chanelle ran a blistering 2:05.61 in the 800m at Penn State Saturday less than 24 hours after I myself ran 2:05.78. Once again Chanelle bested me (although I ran on a 160m flat track and she ran on a 200m banked one so ...).

At that same Penn State meet Cas Loxsom was stealing the show from all other 800m runners in the nation with a 1:47.36 NCAA #1 time and Penn State Record (in addition to the fieldhouse and meet records). This effort for Loxsom comes after he set a school record in his very first 500m (61 seconds and change). Loxsom was paced through the opening laps almost perfectly by PA's own Bernard Bennent-Green from Cheltenham.

However, Loxsom was not finished his day after this spectacular 800m. Cas came back to run the second leg in a very exciting 4x400m that ended up setting the Penn State school record in 3:09.08. Pennsylvania's own Brady Gehret and Aaron Nadolsky ran the third and fourth legs in 46.9 and 47.4. Loxsom's second leg was a blazing 46.6. Gehret won the 200m earlier at the meet.

Besides Brady another Freshman phenom was burning up the track at Penn State as Nick Scarpello won the slower second in the invitational mile with a 4:09.11 finish. This is another fast performance for Nick following his quick 3k earlier this year. Scarpello talked about his training with us earlier this season and I am glad to see we have not jinxed his success.

Other notable performances were turned in by Georgetown's Ben Furcht in the 3k (8:16), Jim Spisak in the mile (4:12) and Micah Murray in the 500m (63.2)

Videos of all these performances (besides my 800m of course) can be seen on flotrack: http://www.flotrack.org/coverage/238132-2011-Penn-State-National-Meet/video/441019-M-4x400-F01-Invite.

The news on Loxsom's rival Robby Andrews says Andrews is injured although at the moment the site does not know the extent or cause of the injury.

Alex Monroe broke 15 in an excellent 5k performance for Division II Lock Haven.

In other college news Sam Ellison ran a new PR of 1:51.22 in the 800m at the Armory for Villanova and follwed it up with a 47.7 400m split. This comes after Ellison's very quick 500m (62 and change) earlier this season.

The veteran to Sam Ellison's rookie, Tom Mallon, ran a solid debut in the 800m for Stanford running 1:54.16.

Sources suggest Mallon will be joined next season by Luke Lefebure who broke 2:00 in the 800m at Glenn Mills very early in the morning in his debut in the open.

Kyle Moran, another 800m star, has allegedly committed to Duke and Penntrack reports Chris Campbell is committed to Penn State.

Campbell ran 4:23 this week to throw his name into championship discussion, while 9 minutes later, Tom Trainer had a PA #1 8:50 in the 3000m at the same meet at Glenn Mills.

Finally, the big news of the day was that Lukas Verzbickas, two time footlocker champion and indoor national 5000m record holder, has decided to take his talents to Oregon to join in on a historic tradition.