May 12, 2011

PHILADELPHIA, PA - With only a handful of days remaining until the NCAA Regionals, head coach Charles Torpey and the La Salle track team has some difficult decisions to make this weekend regarding a pair of important meets. 

"It's tough because the schedule has been shortened this year," said Torpey.  "Usually we get an extra week between A-10's and IC4A's, but this season we have to run them back-to-back."

The tough task for Torpey is deciding whether or not to run his fringe qualifiers in the ultra-competitive IC4A Championships this weekend at Princeton, or to instead send them to Swarthmore, where a less intense field will be trying to earn those final few spots for the NCAA Regionals in various distance and field events. 

"We know that at Swarthmore, our faster runners will be ahead of the pack and they might be able to shave some valuable seconds off their times and give them a better shot to qualify for NCAA's," said Torpey. 

For instance, Meghan Lutz, who is right on the fringe of qualifying for NCAA's in the 10k, will run at Swarthmore wtih the hope that she can distance herself from the field and run a faster overall time.  The same goes for Nick Crits in the 1500-meter, who is right on the verge of qualifying for NCAA Regionals.  

On the flip side, La Salle's strongest NCAA potential-qualifier, Meghan McGlinchey, will not be running the 5k this weekend with the hope that her time of 16:27.76 is already good enough to qualify.  

"We are going to roll the dice with her," said Torpey.  "If the season ended today she would be in, but you never know how things will pan out this weekend.  That is where that extra week of rest comes into play in addition to the short week of training due to graduation and our travel schedule."

La Salle has had a very rought week of traveling after A-10's concluded on Sunday in Charlotte.  The team did not leave North Carolina until early Sunday evening and returned to the Philadelphia region at 2 a.m. Monday morning. 

"Today was the frist day I felt the kids get their energy back," said Torpey.  "We've also had about half of the team leave now that exams are over.  The kids who are still training are in a tough spot this week."

There are some definite entries into the IC4A meet beginning on Friday at Princeton.  Sophomore Richard Klauber and freshman Joe Beveridge will both run in the 10k and freshman Nick Ross will run the 1500-meter.  

The men's 4x800-meter relay, which won gold last weekend at the A-10 Outdoor Championships, will also compete but will be without the services of their anchor, Terrence McPeak.

McPeak will instead run the 800-meter at Swarthmore in an attempt to shave a few seconds off his time and qualify for NCAA regionals.  

"We are walking a serious tight rope this week," said Torpey.  "I want our kids to have the best chance to succeed, but we also want to do what's best for their training schedules.  Because we lost a week that we usually get inbetween A-10's and IC4A's, some kids who want to run certain events will have to sacrifice a race or two."

Check back on GoExplorers.com this Sunday for Coach Torpey's comments and a full recap of the weekend's evetns.  

For more information about the IC4A/ECAC Championships, click here.