Penn Relays: ‘Nova women lose distance medley

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Thursday, April 28, 2011
Posted: 10:15 p.m.

By Dave Zeitlin
CSNPhilly.com Contributor

Sitting in a corner outside Franklin Field, a sea of runners passing her by every second, Emily Lipari tried her best to hold back tears.

The Villanova University freshman was part of the Wildcats acclaimed distance medley relay team that many thought would shatter a Penn Relays record Thursday. Instead, Lipari and Villanova struggled from the start, stumbling to a 13th-place finish at the College Womens Distance Medley Championship of Americaa result that was as surprising as it was devastating for the supremely talented Cats.

Then, with some help from her teammates, Lipari did the only thing she could do: She got back up

Things just didnt fall into place from the start, said Lipari, who ran the opening 1,200-meter leg in 3:27.18, about seven seconds off her personal best. I just felt really sluggish. Theres nothing I can do about it. You have good days and you have bad days. Running is a learning experience and I learned, definitely, that if you have a bad race you dont dwell and if you have a good race you dont celebrate. Ill pick up from this. Ill learn.

And yet, its still hard to explain what happened. Villanova womens track coach Gina Procaccio wondered how her star-studded team of Lipari, junior Christie Verdier, sophomore Ariann Neutts and senior Sheila Reid fell off so badly in one of the marquee events at the Penn Relays.

The same foursome had won the same race at the indoor NCAA championships in March with a time of 10:52.52, before setting their sights to the Penn Relays, where they hoped to shatter the carnival record of 10:48.38 (a mark, not coincidentally, that was set by Villanova in 1988).

But after Liparis poor start, Verdier then dropped the baton during the next leg of race, making the hole too high to climb out of, even with strong runs from Neutts and Reid.

Villanova ended up finishing the race in 11:26.49, ahead of only Stony Brook and nearly 30 seconds off the pace set by Georgetown, which won the event in 10:51.49 on a rainy day in front of over 20,000 fans at Franklin Field. Two-time defending champion Tennessee (10:56.20) and Virginia (10:57.13) came in second and third, respectively.

Everything that could have possibly went wrong, went wrong, Procaccio lamented. Emily was seven seconds off her best, so that pretty much put us out of the race regardless of what happened with the baton. It would have been really tough to win seven seconds down off the leadoff. We knew Georgetown was pretty tough, so we kind of had to be right with them, leg for leg. So then we dropped the baton and that kind of added to itmade it impossible.

Indeed, even Reid, the Wildcats All-American anchor and one of the best distance runners in the nation, couldnt pull a rabbit out of her hat to make up what was a nearly 200-meter deficit when she got the batonalthough she did move the Wildcats out of last place.

Reid ran the mile-long anchor leg in 4:43.83, and Neutts ran the third leg (800 meters) in 2:10.76. But as Procaccio said, the race was lost in the beginning when Lipari fell behind early in the 1,200 and then Verdier finished the second, 400-meter leg in a dismal 64.73 seconds because of the dropped baton.

When its that bad, you just laugh, Procaccio said. I mean, what are you going to do? It was tough.It just wasnt meant to be.

And it wasnt just Villanova that was shocked by the results. The winning team was surprised, too.

I feel for them, Georgetown coach Chris Miltenberg said. Over the last three, four years, I think weve gotten a lot better because Villanovas made us better. Obviously theyre phenomenal. Since I started coaching at Georgetown, theyve done nothing but beat us. I have the utmost respect for us. I know theyll be back.

They will be backand very soon, too. Friday at 1:30, Villanova will compete in the 4x1500 Championship of America, an event the Wildcats have won eight times in school history.

And if the team needs more of a silver lining theres this: all four girls from the DMR relay team will be back for another season.

Your teammates hold you up, pick your head up and tell you its going to be OK, Lipari said. As a freshman, its great having upperclassmen who have my back. I know when it comes to tomorrow, my teammates will hold my head up and well go for it again.
Email Dave Zeitlin at djzeitlin@gmail.com

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