On October 17, 2020, the Whitney Distance Team raced a post 2-mile time trial on the same course as the traditional early August route, capping off the strangest training season of all time. Despite the many challenges these young runners have experienced in recent months, the level of improvement was certainly noteworthy.
There were 51 runners for the post time trial, most of whom ran the pre-time trial two months prior. Of all the runners who ran both, 12 unfortunately did not see an October PR (personal record). Six of them either equaled their time, or were within 10 seconds, which is still quite impressive considering all the heat and air quality interruptions. But of the runners who ran both the August and October time trials, nearly three-quarters of them did hit a PR.
Some of our runners PR’d by only a few seconds, but a PR is a PR! It was nice to see most of our top upper class girls improve over their August result. Seniors Haley Bedrin, Jessica Becker, and Kirsten Ransford all ran faster in October. This is especially worth celebrating because it is very difficult for upper class runners, after years of training and experience at a high level, to hit PR’s. But these ladies did… nice job! Other upper class girls, maybe a bit younger and newer to the sport, also PR’d… Kylee Wibbeler and Anna Giorgi.
On the guys side, again it is difficult to show great improvement if you’re already a high performer and you’ve been training consistently for years. But we’ll brag about three such runners here… Junior Hunter Schwab seems to have renewed determination this year as he has made significant gains; Hunter ran 58 seconds faster than he did in August. Fellow junior Calvin Parcher, also really turning a corner this year, bettered his mark by nearly half a minute. And senior Aidan Ransford, one of our top runners (who also happens to be one of the top runners in the league), improved by 23 seconds since August. Now Aidan will say that it’s because he didn’t race too well at the August event. But when we did the Team 5K just a couple weeks before this time trial, Aidan not only broke 17 minutes, but hit a lifetime PR for 5K, on any course–not just an improvement over a previous effort, but a lifetime PR. So his drop in time is especially noteworthy.
Most of the noticeable improvement will naturally come from younger runners who are just now beginning to train properly. Quite a few of our freshmen are in this category… Perry Hutchinson and Landon Wibbeler PR’d. Fellow freshmen Anthony Berg, Peyton Boyd, and David Hurren averaged close to a half minute PR over the August time trial. And still other freshmen improved by even bigger margins… Charlie Peek (41 seconds) and Noah Reed (71 seconds) ran extremely well. Akanis Surapak showed the largest gain among freshman boys, dropping his time by nearly two and a half minutes.
Freshman runners on the girls squad also saw lots of PR’s. Taylor Bettencourt continues to steadily improve, hitting a PR. Katie Hart dropped her time by over two minutes. Zoe Cloud had the most substantial improvement among all runners on the team, hitting a PR by more than 3 minutes! And finally, two of our fastest freshman girls made big leaps as well. Sophie Bowen and Grace Scott each bettered their previous mark by over a minute, with Grace’s time of 13:55 being in the mix for top 7 overall.
The other half of frosh/soph, the sophomores, were equally as impressive. Callum Turner, who is one of our top runners overall, bested his August time. Callum had a great season last year, and continues to work hard and get better. He is always at practice. Aidan Barkve, Jaden Rapp, and Nick Nottoli all hit improved marks as well. Corbin Peek, becoming more and more known for his vicious kick at the end of races, dropped nearly a half minute off his time. And Nick Herrmann and Tyler Herceg were our most improved sophomore boys with their half minute PR’s.
And finally, we had two sophomore girls with noteworthy performances. Ashanti Elie ran 35 seconds faster in October than in August. Great improvement! And our fastest overall girl on the day, Katie Kopec, eclipsed her sub-12 min PR from August, going 11:51, and setting a new Whitney Distance course record.
That puts a bow on the very extended summer conditioning. A lot of this has been unchartered territory, so we were very satisfied to see such a high number of runners with improved marks. Race Day adrenaline is something that can only materialize on a true race day, so this is one ingredient missing. Nice to know we still have that in our hip pocket to magnify these improvement margins achieved solely through intrasquad events. The best is yet to come! Let’s just hope the regular season does actually happen…