September 27, 2005

This past Saturday the team competed in the "Great American Cross Country Festival" in Cary, North Carolina. It is a mega meet with numerous high school and college divisions. The competition in our race proved to be very tough. We competed against some of the best teams in the region.

One of our main strengths, and something we did very well at this meet, was pack running. The top group, consisting of Forsyth, Krol, Roland, Leventhal and Rothbart, stuck together until the final stretch of the race. They pulled each other along and ran outstanding times. Sophomore Bryan Forsyth lead the pack, finishing the race in 26:22. Junior Kile Krol, the team personality, finished next. Sophomore Jeff Roland had a standout race and broke the 27 minute mark by over 10 seconds.

Vikram Srivastava and I, both freshmen, ran just over 27 minutes with sophomore John Devlin and freshman Brian Mortenson close behind. Rob Leventhal, Emory's acclaimed 800 meter track star who has consistently been one of the top runners, cramped up during the final stages of the race. He still managed to be the 6th man on the team.

Besides the satisfaction of running a successful race, we also had fun on the 6+ hour drive to and from the meet. We have such a good time as a group. The freshmen, myself included, are starting to feel comfortable with the program. We are becoming a solid team that will support each other throughout the season.

Our first year coach and former Emory athlete, Jon Newberry, is proving to be very effective. He is well respected and even completes some of our hardest workouts. With the leadership of the top juniors, Kile Krol and Rob Leventhal, and the great coaching of Jon Newberry, our young team has much to look forward to.

Isaac Zimmerman is a freshman from Fargo, ND

September 19, 2005

This past week the team raced at the Vanderbilt Invitational, which is the hometown of Bryan Forsyth. The race actually was pushed back a week, which allowed for another week of intense training. We had a tough workout on Tuesday in Piedmont Park doing mile repeats in the foamy grass, but it paid dividends. On Saturday, as a team, for as long as I have been at Emory, we hadn't raced to our plan more perfectly. Our top runners went out what looked slow and hit pace exactly. We were probably in 30th place after the first mile, but that is when we started picking off runners left and right for the rest of the race. I do not think it could have worked any better. Forsyth led the team with an impressive 2nd overall finish with Rob (Leventhal) and I following behind in 5th and 6th respectively. Jeff Roland proved that mono was the cause of a sub-par season last year with a nice finish behind Rob and I. On a side note, Michael Rothbart indeed finished the race this week after a disappointing race at Sewanee. His confidence is now back and we are looking for big things from him in ensuing races.

Freshmen are always good to have on a team especially when they end up in your top 5. Isaac (Zimmerman) aka Mouse, finished fifth for the team, showing he worked hard this summer to help out the team. We were missing our other potential freshmen stud Vikram (Srivastava) due to illness, but with him in the mix our team is looking rather nice.

The most impressive fact from our race this weekend, which gives me personally great hopes for our team, was our 1-5 split being 45 seconds. This is without Rothbart at full strength and Vikram even racing. We could have our top 7 under 1:00 minute. Anytime a team has a 1-7 split under 1:00 minute, it is tough to beat. This is encouraging because as a young team with no returning seniors, we now know the potential is there. Now all we have to do is continue to work hard and drop our times together.

Emory's men's cross country team has not lost a regional meet in a long time, and we do not plan on breaking this tradition.

Kile Krol is a junior from Moline, Ill.

September 19, 2005

The past week proved to be an incredible one for our team. It was filled with hard practices and workouts and on Saturday we had the first meet for which we really had time to prepare. It definitely showed. After a disappointing third place finish at our first race, winning the Vanderbilt Invitational was a huge confidence builder for the team. Not only did we capture the championship for non-NCAA Division One schools, we were the top team overall. We proved that we will be highly competitive this season despite being young.

There are no seniors in the top ten on the team this year and the only upperclassmen are two juniors; the rest are freshmen and sophomores. We have a number of outstanding freshmen that have really contributed to the team. Isaac Zimmerman has really stood out, as has Vikram Srivastava. Bryan Forsyth, who has led the team thus far, is only a sophomore. Through his hard work he is expected to lead the team to the NCAA national meet, with the help of classmates Jeff Roland and Michael Rothbart. Rob Leventhal and Kile Krol have provided the leadership for the team. They are the only upperclassmen on Varsity having strong finishes in both races.

After the first race of the season it was apparent that we had a lot of work to do to prepare for the post season and last week we did serious training. We had one incredibly tough workout and we were able to improve because of it. We will continue to train hard to prepare for UAA's and to defend our championship title at the NCAA regional meet. Although some thought this would be a rebuilding year, it has become clear that this team will settle for no less than a berth at the NCAA National Championship.

This week we will focus on the Great American Cross Country Festival, a highly competitive meet in North Carolina. We will again be competing against NCAA Division One schools and looking to come away with another strong finish. Although the spread at the last meet between the number one runner and the number five runner was an extraordinary forty-five seconds, we look to improve that time this week. Having our full team for the first time will really help since medical complications prevented us from having our full varsity squad during the previous two meets. With everyone healthy, we look to successfully represent Emory Athletics and the winning reputation it has garnered.

Evan Goldberg is a sophomore from Harrisburg, PA.