Nov. 29, 2012
2012-13 Schedule
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PHILADELPHIA - The 2012-13 men's indoor and outdoor track and field team returns 35 letterwinners from last season, highlighted by 18 IC4A qualifiers and 15 individual meet champions. With the addition of 14 newcomers to a squad that saw tremendous growth and progress in 2011-12, head coach Mike Glavin holds a high level of expectation for success this season. Led by a quartet of senior captains in Garrett Barbalinardo, Patrick Donnelly, Jon Mazzio, and Andrew Townsend, Saint Joseph's has a definite chance at remarkable success during the 2012-13 indoor and outdoor track and field seasons.
The Hawks will open the season at the Jack Pyrah Invitational on Saturday, December 1. Start time for all field and throwing events is scheduled for 11:00 am at Haverford College in Haverford, Pa. Running events are slated for noon.
HURDLES
The junior trio of Derrick Henry, Griff Roberts, and James Rodgers returns to lead a core group of veterans in the hurdles this season. Rodgers led the team in the outdoor 400m hurdles (54.58) while Henry and Roberts posted solid times in the outdoor season as well.
"Derrick is an intermediate hurdler and I have a feeling that this will be a breakthrough year for him," stated Glavin of his three-year hurdler. "He's training consistently with Roberts and Rodgers and I think that this will be the breakout year for him. Roberts walked on as a freshman and Rodgers came out for the team last year, and they all run within a second of each other. If they keep that development going, we could put three guys in the outdoor finals this year."
Rounding out the hurdlers will be sophomores Nicholas Beninato and Matthew Sutorius. Sutorius led the Hawks in short hurdles last season with team-best times in the indoor 55m and 60m hurdles as well as the outdoor 110m hurdles.
SPRINTS
After an explosive sophomore season in which he led the team in the indoor 55m, 60m, 200m, and 300m and outdoor 100m and 200m, junior Jonathan Eisemann returns as Saint Joseph's "go-to" sprinter. Described by his coach as "the number one short sprinter" at Saint Joseph's, Eisemann qualified for IC4As in the outdoor 100m dash last season and proves to be a threat all the way up to the quarter-mile.
"Jon is hardworking," said Glavin. "If he feels like you're not giving him enough work in one area in which he thinks he can improve, he adds that in by himself."
Sophomore Tyler Gallen posted team-best times in both the indoor and outdoor 400m and the indoor 500m. Gallen won the 500m at Giegengack with a time of 1:04.11 while Roberts took the indoor 600m for the Hawks and won the 500m at Thompson with a time of 1:07.97. Junior Tyler Dougherty will also return to the sprints after placing in the top three on the team in all but one of his sprinting events last season.
Leading the long sprints will be captain Barbalinardo, who qualified for the IC4As with a time of 500m (1:05.10) at PSU Nationals last season. Joining him to compete in the long sprints will be junior Peter Larmann and sophomores Matthew McGarvey and Brendan Robert.
Beninato, Henry, Sutorius, Rodgers, juniors Christopher Kinney and Michael Yap, sophomores David Furman and Nick Pedano, and freshmen Christopher Banks and Alec Peabody will also look to add a plethora of talent, both old and new, to the sprinting events.
DISTANCE
In the 2011-12 indoor and outdoor track seasons, the distance events saw 17 returning runners break through IC4A qualifying times in 11 different events. In addition to individual IC4A goals, there were also 15 champions in nine different events at the combined outdoor and indoor individual meets.
In terms of IC4A qualifiers, Steven Butenewicz qualified in the indoor 800m, captain Townsend in the outdoor 800m and indoor 1000m, Dave Manion in the indoor 1000m, Logan Mohn in the indoor 1000m and mile and outdoor 1500m and steeple, Aaron Leskow in the outdoor 1500m, and Kevin McDonnell in the indoor 3000m and 5000m and outdoor 5000m and 10,000m.
Townsend finished second in the Atlantic 10 last season in the 800m at the outdoor finals and scored highly at the IC4As in the 1000m.
"Andrew has become a factor in the 800m in the Northeast," said Glavin, "and I'm expecting that he'll end this year as one of the four or five fastest half-milers in Saint Joseph's history."
Captain Mazzio qualified for the IC4As in three events: the indoor 3000m and outdoor 5000m and 10,000m.
"Mazzio is a phenominal story for us and is what you would call the prototypical Hawk athlete," said Glavin. "We don't always get these hardcore stars. We go out and find people who we think are going to work to be as good as they can be, and we're banking as coaches that as good as they can be is going to be better than average. Jon was an above-average two-miler out of high school and he is now 14:23 for the 5000 last spring, which is an outstanding time."
The 4x400 team of Henry, Robert, and Gallen, the 4x800 team of Manion, Butenewicz and Matthew McGarvey, and the DMR team of Tommy O'Kane, Michael Rankin, Dougherty, and James Gentile also qualified for the indoor IC4As.
In terms of individual meet winners for the indoor season, McGarvey won the 800m at Jack Pyrah, Mohn won the mile at the Gotham Cup, McDonnell won the 3000m at Geigengack, and Paul Szulewski won the 3000m at the PSU Relays.
The 4x400 team of Henry, Robert, and Gallen won three different meets, with their fastest time coming in at 3:17.89 at Geigengack. Roberts and Kyle Lampart were a part of the 4x400 winning team at Thompson while Gentile and Beninato were part of the 4x400 winning team at Delaware.
"Kyle is one of the many guys we've had through here who has yet to break through, but he's got one more year left and he fights for it and does everything to deserve success," said Glavin. "This is the season for it."
The 4x800 team of Manion, Butenewicz, and McGarvey won the PSU Relays.
"Steve [Butenewicz] is another one of those half-milers who is going to make the 4x800 team really good," said Glavin. "It'll be one of the top at the IC4A East Indoor Championships and it'll probably be one of the top ten relays on the Northeastern Seaboard."
According to Glavin, the solid sophomore group of Gallen, who placed fourth in the 400m at the outdoor A-10s, McGarvey and Robert will prove to be an offensive threat in the relay department this season.
"McGarvey will be on that 4x8 and the other two freshmen both made the championship 4x4, so all three are quarter-milers that are really high level," said Glavin. "We have a really good sophomore class, and they are going to make a real impact this season."
During the outdoor season, the 4x100 team of Henry, Dougherty, Gallen, and Eisemann, the 4x400 team of Gallen, Barbalinardo, and Robert.
"Check any results from the end of the season and Garrett [Barbalinardo] was on the 4x400m team because he wants to be on that 4x400 and is having no part in being kicked off," said Glavin of his senior captain. "He is a tough, hard-training competitor who can now handle the workouts and goes all in. The interesting thing about him is that he has very little time for anybody else who is not all in, which makes a good leader."
The 4x800 team of Townsend, Butenewicz, and Manion also qualified for the IC4As.
"Dave [Manion] is another one of those half-milers who will again be a hinge in the 4x800m relay. Last year he ran a 1:53 in a relay split and he's one of those guys who always finds a way to fight his way back on."
In terms of individual meet winners for the outdoor season, McGarvey won the 800m at the Lafayette 7-Way, Mohn won the 3000m steeple at the Lafayette 7-Way, Manion won the 800 at the Delaware Open. The 4x100 team of Henry, Dougherty, Gallen, and Eisemann won the Delaware Open while the 4x400 team of Gallen, Butenewicz, Roberts, and Henry won the Delaware Open.
McDonnell won the 5000 at the Penn Relays and 10,000 at the Atlantic 10 Championships and has indoor and outdoor eligibility left this season.
"Kevin comes in and has a work ethic that is like, "Here's where I am, but can I get there? If i get there, how long will it take until I can get there?" He's staring at the possibility and goal of making the NCAA finals."
McDonnell made the NCAA preliminaries two years in a row, but only 12 runners from the entire eastern half of the nation are selected to travel to the NCAA finals.
"He wants to be among the top 24 individuals who make it to the NCAA finals," said Glavin.
Glavin demonstrates nothing short of praise for the following two upperclassmen, captain Donnelly and graduate student Dan Roark.
Donnelly, a transfer from Missouri, joined the team in January of his sophomore year and did not waste any time making an impact.
"The improvements in him as an athlete have been phenomenal for us, and he's a type of competitor that gives us depth on this squad."
Roark, a transfer from Quinnipiac, missed making the NCAA preliminary round in the 3000 steeple, a race with 35 barriers, by 1.5 seconds last season, proving to be a force to be reckoned with in the event.
"Dan transferring here was a great thing for us. He has personality and character and he keeps things lively. At the same time, he ran a 9:05 in the steeple, so he's high in quality and has sheer, dogged determination."
Transfer graduate student James McBride, juniors Ryan Anderson, Max Margiotta, Sean Staltari, sophomores Michaelel Cassidy, Brady Deckert, Thomas Harrington, and 11 newcomers will round out the middle distance runners for the Hawks.
JUMPS
The Hawks will return two jumpers in senior Vinh Nghi To and Yap
To will return for both the long jump and triple jump while Yap will focus his efforts on the long jump.
"Vinny walked on as a jumper, and he and Yap work together all the time. They make sure that they get certain stuff from me and do it on their own during one part of the day and then run with the sprinters at another part of the day. He simply wanted to continue what he was doing from high school."
Entering the mix of jumpers will be freshman rookie, Peabody.
"Alec is a highly talented sprinter with a phenomenal mastery of his long jump. He will be a good sprinter and jumper for us."
OVERALL
With a solid group of veteran experience combined with the spark of new talent, the 2012-13 track and field season promises to be one for the record books.
