Coach Flatow is heading to Collegeville, Pennsylvania to watch the 2022 Continental Conference Indoor Track and Field Championships at Ursinus College. Along the way, he is stopping to visit some Monta Vista Track and Field alumni. Here are some updates on his trip.
If you are here for the first time, and want to read the updates in order, start at the bottom and move upwards…
Day One of the Centennial Conference Indoor Championships
Finally! Here we are in Collegeville, Pennsylvania, in the indoor stadium of Ursinus College (home of the Bears) for the Centennial Conference Indoor Track & Field Championships.
If you have never been to an indoor track meet, it’s a blast. Everything is up close and personal, athlete and coaches and fans are everywhere. The sightlines are often horrible but the offset is that you are usually so close you have to watch where you stand so you don’t impede the outside lanes. It’s not possible to keep a clean infield in most indoor facilities because there is zero space, and all the field events are crammed inside a 200m oval also, so the area feels more like a rock concert than a track meet.
The events themselves feel FAST. A 200m oval is standard. In a 4x200m relay, each leg is a full lap. There is a break line for the 400m. The curves are tight so there is a bigger penalty for being stuck in an outside lane, and since the straightaway is only 5om long if you are going to pass someone you need to be committed and GO.
An indoor distance medley is the BEST. Today, the Hopkins team and the Swarthmore women were right together when the 1200 legs handed off to the 400m legs…the Swarthmore sprinter was slightly ahead and flying when she down the backside straight, and was coming up to lap a struggling 1200m runner from Bryn Mawr who was just hanging on for the last 100m. The Bryn Mawr runner drifted a bit to the outside of lane one coming into the second turn and you could see the Swarthmore sprinter think ‘here we go’ and she dove inside, banging shoulders. The Hopkins sprinter went right into the gap that Swarthmore made on the inside, and they disappeared from my view around the turn. Seconds later they were coming around again, somehow Hopkins had caught Swarthmore in the next 80 meters; and the Hop girls made that slim margin stand up for the next mile and a half. Hop wins by 0.62 seconds, 12:17.38 to 12:18.00! The crowd was going wild the entire time.
Day One ended with the Hopkins women romping with 133 points compared to Swarthmore’s 36, while the Hop men were nursing a smaller lead, 75.5 points to host Ursinus’ 53.5.
Can’t wait for tomorrow!
Women’s DMR:
DMR Pandemonium:
Triya ready for tomorrow!
Stop Five: Philadelphia
After lunch in Baltimore with Johns Hopkins cross country/track & field head coach Bobby Van Allen (2021 NCAA cross country coach of the year!), it’s a quick train ride to Philadelphia where Bridget Gottlieb (MV 2014, captain of the 2013 CCS champion cross country team, Johns Hopkins 2X All-American and scoring member of the 2014 national championship team) is now working at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. Tomorrow…finally…the Centennial Conference Championships. Go Hop!
Coach, Bridget and Hopkins teammate and friend Gina D’Addario (now at Penn veterinary school):
When coach makes you do one too many repeats:
Stop Four: Baltimore and Johns Hopkins University
We are getting close now! A quick train ride up from Washington, DC to Baltimore includes a visit to Washington’s Union train station–a real beauty. In Baltimore, Triya Roy (MV 2020), a sophomore runner for Johns Hopkins, met me for lunch and gave me a quick tour of the parts of campus that she visits every day. Triya was all-CCS for Monta Vista, and has already scored points for Hop in the 2021 Continental Conference outdoor track and field championship meet.
Stop Three: Washington, DC
A quick stop in Washington to swing by the White House (no, the President did not run cross country for MVXC, his loss) and dinner with Kiersten Chuc (MV 2014). Kiersten went on to compete in college for Carnegie-Mellon University–and she set a new all-time Carnegie-Mellon record in the hammer throw! Kiersten still holds that record, I believe. Kiersten now lives in Washington, DC, working as a consultant.
Stop Two: Chapel Hill and Durham, NC–Continued
Coach Flatow got a tour of Durham, including the Duke University gardens and campus. We also took a drive through the North Carolina countryside with an important objective: A country ice cream store attached to a dairy farm. Yes, this was worth the drive, it was amazing ice cream! This was ‘Christina Day’ so we also went by the Duke University hospital to see the Emergency Room where Christina works as a nurse. Christina agreed to a photo, but drew the line when I asked Paru to fake some convulsions so we could actually see the ER in action. Wouldn’t that have been interesting?
The next day included a tour of the University of North Carolina campus, where Paru is a PhD candidate. Paru works in a beautiful old building…and a subterranean office that is appropriate for grad student servitude!
MultiMedia Update: Check out Ellie Hsu’s 400 Shootout vlog!
Christina’s Apartment:
Duke Medical Emergency Room Entrance (hopefully, you never need this, but if you do there is a great nurse there to help you out):
Some pretty solid ice cream:
University of North Carolina Statistics Department:
Christina and Paru and MVXC:
Stop Two: Chapel Hill and Durham, NC
After an easy flight from Dallas to Durham, a very nice dinner with Christina Jennings (MV 2015) and Paru Meyyappan (MV 2017). Christina went on to Boston College and is now a nurse in the emergency room at the Duke University hospital. Paru ran on the Carnegie-Mellon cross country and track teams and is now pursuing a PhD at the University of North Carolina. Both Christina and Paru competed at the California State Championship Cross Country Meet (Christina in 2014 and Paru in 2016) as part of the MVXC varsity team. Pizzaria Toro was a really nice place…and they were verifying vaccination status at the door, which was nice to see.
Stop One: Dallas, Texas
Erica McLain was the long jump and triple jump coach at Monta Vista in the 2012 and 2013 track seasons. Before that, she was a star athlete at Stanford University, winning multiple NCAA championships in the triple and long jump. After graduating from Stanford, Erica turned professional and won US championships, and competed in the Beijing Olympics in 2008. After earning an MBA at the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Business, Erica is now living in Celina, Texas, and had her first baby in 2021. Coach Flatow made his first stop in Dallas to say hi and visit Emerson.
Coach Erica:
The Dallas Airport:
Coach Flatow, and Erica’s Family in Dallas:
