For the past three years, Jared Ripoli has been IXC’s top men’s finisher.
Running as a 22-year-old alumnus, Ripoli was back on the scene at today’s Lucian Rosa Invite.
Yet the day belonged to the team’s freshmen, who comprised 3 of the team’s top 5 and 4 of the top 7.
“I thought it was really cool how we all worked off each other.” Said Josh Mollway, freshman, who was the team’s top finisher today with a time of 27:11.
Close behind was Brian Butcher, another freshman, at 27:13. Butcher got out fast and ran towards the front of the race, while Mollway conserved energy and caught up to Butcher before the finish.
With Mollway as an exception, the freshman men all had an aggressive start, running the first uphill mile near 5:20. Connor Farrell and Nathaniel Oommenn both ran close to Butcher in the first few miles. Farrell and Oommenn finished 5th and 6th for the club, respectively.
Upperclassmen Josh Feldman (3rd), Michael Frintner (4th), and Quinn Todzo (7th) rounded out the men’s top 7, giving the team a 4th place overall finish.
The IXC men were still short-handed today. Top runners William Wolf, Zach Mesplay, and Eli Walker all did not race due to scheduling conflicts.
Top-to-bottom, the men’s race offered lessons in savvy race strategy. Multiple athletes ran conservative first miles, giving powerful finishes. One such athlete was Jarod Meyer, who ran his season debut today.
Meyer got out conservatively, and as a result ran consistently in the second half of the race at around 6:10 pace. He picked up the pace significantly in the last 800 meters and, despite succumbing to leg spasms just short of the finish, ran a strong race in 30:04. Similarly, Evan Patel had an impressive finish, moving up several places in the final kilometer of the race.
Behind Meyer was Senior Austin Keuhr, who, through miles 2-4, consistently passed his competitors to move up through the race. “Austin ran a really intelligent, well-paced race.” Said Skogsberg
Times for every athlete was uncharacteristically slow for the Lucian-Rosa Invite. In previous years, similar races would have resulted in times 30-40 seconds faster. This may be attributed in part to the unusually warm and humid conditions.
Results: http://www.wisconsinrunner.com/results/2017rosa/2017_UW_Parkside_Lucian_Rosa_Invite_Men_Overall.htm