Similar case years back in the A-10, Karl Savage had not even made the conference team at St. Joe's as a sophomore (top 12 can run) and was added to the team late when someone got sick. He ended up finishing 2nd overall in the race.
He won the race a couple of years later and curb stomped the field by about a minute.
I was a middle of the pack Ivy XC runner in the mid-90s. Did Tony Barocco make Princeton's varsity squad at all before he won the race in 1997?
Ok, we're finally getting some good responses.
Sloppy wrote:
One and done for SUNY Geneseo runner Alex Brimstein. Won the only XC SUNYAC race he ran.
https://www.tfrrs.org/results/xc/4762.html?athlete_hnd=3277904#25362
Anyone know why Brimstein didn't run xc the first 3 years?
ivy98 wrote:
I was a middle of the pack Ivy XC runner in the mid-90s. Did Tony Barocco make Princeton's varsity squad at all before he won the race in 1997?
Now we're talking. Bringing me back to the basically Pre-Internet era. I remember hearing Tony won and was amazed by it. All of the younger guys at Princeton when I was there (1996) seemed to barely be on the team and then a bunch of them just rocked it after I had graduated.
Explorer wrote:
Zach Sullivan of La Salle University finished 2nd in the A10 as a 5th year senior running 23:55. That was the first 10-man A10 Championship squad he had ever made.
I think a common denominator might be the fact that Ireland took over for both guys in the middle of their careers. It can be easy for coaches to give up on head cases or injury prone guys. A new coach is likely to give them more of a fresh start.
I remember when I got hired at Cornell, I looked up the college stats of all of the guys and asked my best runner, Bruce Hyde, 'OK who are the talented guys that haven't done anything due to injury?'
As a coach, you are looking to coach talent.
rojo wrote:
ivy98 wrote:I was a middle of the pack Ivy XC runner in the mid-90s. Did Tony Barocco make Princeton's varsity squad at all before he won the race in 1997?
Now we're talking. Bringing me back to the basically Pre-Internet era. I remember hearing Tony won and was amazed by it. All of the younger guys at Princeton when I was there (1996) seemed to barely be on the team and then a bunch of them just rocked it after I had graduated.
According to GoPrincetonTigers.com's Info Central and their list of XC Letterwinners, Barocco won letters from 1994 to 1997 (while he only received track letters in 1996 and 1998). Rojo - does this mean he was a XC varsity squad member? I'm assuming so.
http://www.goprincetontigers.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=10600&ATCLID=205425405Hi All,Apologies if this is poor form responding directly to a post about me. Some old friends shared this, and it's brought back some great memories. I was, in fact, on the varsity squad for most of my time at Princeton. I suffered quite a few injuries during my freshman through junior years, which partly explains things (to the point that I had a full year of eligibility after my 4 years.) That Heps race in 1997 was the first time (from what I can recall) that I competed in the varsity race. I can assure you that I was as surprised as just about everyone else. My favorite anecdote from that year was when one of our better track athletes came up to me one day after practice and said "I didn't think you were any good!" I think he meant it as a compliment...-TB
C/M Runner wrote:
rojo wrote:Now we're talking. Bringing me back to the basically Pre-Internet era. I remember hearing Tony won and was amazed by it. All of the younger guys at Princeton when I was there (1996) seemed to barely be on the team and then a bunch of them just rocked it after I had graduated.
According to GoPrincetonTigers.com's Info Central and their list of XC Letterwinners, Barocco won letters from 1994 to 1997 (while he only received track letters in 1996 and 1998). Rojo - does this mean he was a XC varsity squad member? I'm assuming so.
http://www.goprincetontigers.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=10600&ATCLID=205425405
Brimstein didn't make the cross country roster till his senior year. He was one of the best steeplechasers in NY his senior year in 2009 and from what I understand he wanted to go to an Ivy league school.
It didnt work out and he went to a small community college without track his first year out of school. He then started at Geneseo his sophomore year in the spring semester and the coach had to race him back into shape and he ended with times of 4:07 1500m and 9:42 in the steeple for the year.
His Jr year he didn't make the roster for XC on a really great Geneseo team that got 4th at D3 nationals. They had a time trial to make the roster and he wasn't in the top 15 kids on the team. He then started training like a madman and ran 8:30 in the 3k and a 4:11 full mile indoors. He later made D3 nationals in the steeplechase that year.
His senior year he won the SUNYAC conference meet, the regional meet and got tenth at xc nationals. Ended his career as a 14;20 guy at Geneseo.
[quote]SpookyGhost wrote:
Brimstein didn't make the cross country roster till his senior year. He was one of the best steeplechasers in NY his senior year in 2009 and from what I understand he wanted to go to an Ivy league school.
Geneseo is also known as Harvard on the Hill!
tlove wrote:
My favorite anecdote from that year was when one of our better track athletes came up to me one day after practice and said "I didn't think you were any good"
"I thought you'd be bigger."
tlove wrote:
Hi All,
Apologies if this is poor form responding directly to a post about me. Some old friends shared this, and it's brought back some great memories. I was, in fact, on the varsity squad for most of my time at Princeton. I suffered quite a few injuries during my freshman through junior years, which partly explains things (to the point that I had a full year of eligibility after my 4 years.) That Heps race in 1997 was the first time (from what I can recall) that I competed in the varsity race. I can assure you that I was as surprised as just about everyone else. My favorite anecdote from that year was when one of our better track athletes came up to me one day after practice and said "I didn't think you were any good!" I think he meant it as a compliment...
-TB
{/quote]
Tony, thanks for posting. Normally I hold the anonymity of my sources to be sacrosanct but I much enjoyed the following quote Tony made earlier today on an email exchange between a couple of Princeton alums this morning.
The following cracked me up. A classmate of Tony emailed him to let him know about this thread and he deadpanned:
[quote]tlove wrote:
As I stumble towards my 40th Birthday, this has brought a big smile to my face. I should reply and explain that my sudden change in form was the result of 30-40 miles a week, lots of doubles tennis, a summer fling, and a glass of wine and a cigarette every evening.
Rojo, could you interview Aubrey Myjer?
Appreciate this post. That was me. A mid pack D1 guy with no scholarship but I managed to make the team each year and outrun many scholarship guys on several occasions. Never made the top 8 but I worked hard, never missed a practice and consistently improved. Back then (mid 90s), it always used to irk me to see really talented guys who could have been great never put in the work. I have seen many scholarship guys never make it all four years. In retrospect, I am proud to just say that I was on the team and did my best to max the potential. You never know until you give it all you had. Now, I am not sure if this would make for an interesting story, but there are a lot of us out there with passion for this sport who busted it out and landed somewhere in the middle.
Not XC but I think of Johnny Van Deventer a few years ago from Yale...ran a school fastest 4:02 in his first competitive collegiate mile as a senior.
http://yaledailynews.com/blog/2011/03/03/track-van-deventer-11-explodes-at-heps/