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What's to see in D3 - ft. Interview with Charlie Meade of Emory

What's to see in D3 - ft. Interview with Charlie Meade of Emory

Oct 12, 2008 by Daniel Suher
What's to see in D3 - ft. Interview with Charlie Meade of Emory

Before I get started I have to say one thing...MAINE IS THE GREATEST STATE IN AMERICA, IT IS CERTAINLY BETTER THAN DELAWARE. For those of you wondering what this has to do with D3 running, the answer is nothing. So why am I writing this at the top of my article...I lost a bet. Since most of you would have no way of knowing this, While I went to school outside of Boston, I was born and raised in Delaware, while Ryan Fenton grew up in Maine (went to Clemson). Maine played Delaware in football this weekend, and if Maine won, I had to proclaim its superiority in my article...well I guess you now know the outcome of the game.

Moving on to what my article is really about, this week seemed to be the week of the B team, as many teams either chose not to compete or gave their varsity runners a rest after a few consecutive weeks of big time races featuring big time clashes. A few exceptions existed as the All Ohio and All New England championships took place this weekend. 

If you are looking for a link to he national rankings for this week, here you go...

Women:

http://ustfccca.cstv.com/sports/division3/spec-rel/100808aab.html

Men:

http://ustfccca.cstv.com/sports/division3/spec-rel/100808aaa.html

As was expected, North Central Jumped up to second in the rankings on the men's side, while Calvin dropped a few spots to 5th. On both sides the top ranked teams stayed the same, this time around however, both selections were unanimous. As we look at how the regions and conferences faired, the Northeast and Central led with 12 teams on the polls, the Northeast splitting evenly with 6 on each, while the Central was split 7/5 women and men. The UAA and WIAC each had 8 teams on the polls, with the UAA having an even 4/4 split and the WIAC divided 5/3 men and women. 

RECAP

MEN:

1st ranked Cortland ran their B team to a 6th place finish at the Hamilton Invitational.

2nd ranked North Central took second at Benedictine behind NAIA Goshen.

3rd ranked Lacrosse took 1st at Wartburg, ahead of 15th ranked Augustana (second) and 23rd ranked Platteville (third).

4th ranked Stevens Point finished first at Ripon College, besting 20th ranked Oshkosh.

5th ranked Calvin sent a B team to the Michigan intercollegiate and finished 8th in a mixed division field.

6th ranked Carnegie Mellon finished first at their home meet, also of note, their alumni team finished 8th.

7th ranked Williams finished 8th overall at the All New England Championships, behind 9th ranked Amherst (tied for sixth) but ahead of 35th ranked MIT (12th overall, 3rd D3), 16th ranked Keene State (13th overall, 4th D3) and 27th ranked Coast Guard which finished way back in 28th overall/ 12th D3.

8th ranked Haverford's B team finished fourth at Cabrini

12th ranked Ohio Northern finished 11th overall at the All Ohio championships. The scoring at this meet was done overall, and then scored with D3 teams only, with the order actually changing for two of the teams. 14th ranked Case was 6th overall and 1st in the D3 scoring. 24th ranked Mt. Union was the 9th team overall and the second D3 team, while 28th ranked Denison finsihed behind Ohio Northern in the D3 score (fourth) but ahead of them in the overall race (tenth).

19th ranked Trinity skipped the All New England meet and was victorious at Westfield State.

29th ranked Grinnell took 5th at the Lamb-Kohawk invite with their B team.

34th ranked NYU took second to Columbia at the NYC Metro Champs with out Schneider.

35th ranked Johns Hopkins was 5th at the Disney 8k.

WOMEN:

1st ranked Calvin took 4th at the Michigan Intercollegiate meet.

3rd ranked Wartburgh took first at home, ahead of 5th ranked Lacrosse (second) and 33rd ranked St.Olaf (third).

4th ranked Williams was 3rd at All New Englands, ahead of 7th ranked Middlebury (sixth overall, second D3), 6th ranked Amherst (9th overall, 3rd D3), 18th ranked Colby (13th overall, 4th D3) Unranked Tufts (14th overall, 5th D3 team) and 12TH ranked MIT (15th overall, 6th D3). 30th ranked Brandeis did not compete, and Amherst's Tropiano was second overall and the first D3 individual in 17:38 over the notoriously long 5k course at Franklin Park in Boston. 

9th ranked Case was 9th overall at the All Ohio championships ahead of 29th ranked Oberlin (14th overall, 2nd D3)

10th ranked Carleton was first at Westfield State

10th ranked Oshkosh was 3rd at Ripon

13th ranked Cortland finished 7th at Hamilton with their B team

14th ranked Johns Hopkins finished 6th at the Disney 5k

15th ranked St. Thomas finished 1st at the San Fransisco State invite, ahead of D2 Chico State

21st ranked Ithaca was second at Hamilton to Queen's College of Canada

24th ranked Wash U was 4th at Border Wars

31st ranked Whitworth finsihed 2nd to Western Oregon at Pacific Lutheran.

If this week did not excite you, next week should be a whole lot better with a number of big meets throughout the country Including the always fast Oshkosh meet.

 

Interview with Charlie Meade of Emory

Charlie Meade is  Junior at Emory University in Atlanta Georgia. Recently he posted the top 8k time of the season with a 23:41 at the Auburn Invitational. Charlie agreed to answer a few questions about how his running took such a big jump to where he is now.

Since many people reading this article may not know who Maddie Coffman is, tell them a little about yourself, where you grew up, how you began running (did you play any other sports before you started running)?

I grew up in Wellesley, Massachusetts (fifteen minutes outside of Boston, MA.) I played Pop Warner and Wellesley High School football from fourth grade to sophomore year of high school. It was then that I transitioned into track and field and cross country as my times started to drop and I slowly began to realize that my body type was not exactly cut out for varsity football. I have been running three seasons ever since.

You have made some big strides already this fall compared to your first two years, what did you do this summer running wise, and how did you balance it out to keep yourself sane?

This summer was definitely the most difficult running I've ever done. I was always exhausted after working 40 hours a week in Boston, and coming home at 6pm to try and get my daily run in. The schedule was brutal for the type of training that a college runner needs to stay in shape for the cross season, but somehow I managed to pull it together and stay relatively close to the training plan that my coach gave me. I ran 50-75 miles a week and tried to get a good amount of quality in on the days I was feeling good enough to push it. Coming from more of a track background, I still have trouble running really high mileage so I need to keep a high level of quality running in my training to keep me competitive in the 8k. One of the big reasons I managed to keep myself sane was that my team does a great job of staying connected over the summer. The Emory email conferences are a way for our whole team to post the mileage they have been running and the struggles they are facing with their training. Seeing what some of the other guys were doing definitely motivated me to stick to my training.

Speaking of big strides, this past weekend you broke 24 minutes by a significant margin, what were your goals going into this meet, and what can you and your coach take from this time?

Well, as much as I would like to take credit for breaking twenty-four minutes in an 8k, the truth is that the course was about 390-400 meters short. I still converted my time to around a 24:52, which would've been a pr for me over that distance. My goals for the season were really team-based, because I think this year is about establishing ourselves on the national stage as a competitive team, and not just another automatic bid out of the South region. I think too many people write off the South region as being a backdoor way into the national meet because of disappointing performances southern teams have had in the past. This year we want to prove that not only are there teams worthy of going to nationals out of the South region, but that they can hold their own against some of the more competitive schools in stronger regions across the country. I am also excited to see what our team can do at our conference and regional meets. The UAA conference is definitely very strong this year and we will have to be running on all cylinders to try and keep up with teams like Carnegie Mellon who are running extremely well this year. The South Region will also be very competitive. Last year the top three teams were all separated by one point. I think this year will be another dog fight between us, UT- Tyler, and Centre College.

What made you decide to attend/run for Emory? When you were deciding on schools what was your view of D3 and how has that changed now?

Emory caught my attention when I was looking at colleges because it seemed like a perfect fit for running and academics. It’s hard to answer this question without really plugging my school, but Emory really is a great environment for top-of-the-line academics and the best running weather any college athlete can ask for. I mean growing up in Massachusetts I always found it so hard to train during the winter, with repeated snow storms and sub zero temperatures. At Emory, it stays in the seventies until mid-December and never gets much colder then high forties during the peak of winter. It makes indoor track especially nice, because we can train outdoors on our track all throughout the year when other schools are stuck trying to find ways to train around prevailing weather conditions. Most importantly, the team is a great group of guys who I have been fortunate enough to become good friends with. We do a great job of helping each other train to the peak of our abilities while still being able to enjoy many of the benefits of the college lifestyle.

Emory is in a loaded conference where 6 of the men's teams have been ranked in the top 35 and 6 regions represented, what is it like to compete in the UAA?

As I said before, the UAA conference is definitely a great benefit to the schools that participate in its meet. The level of competition is so high that I feel like the conference meet always gets our team prepared to run hard later in the season at the regional and national meets. This year is no different. Case Western has put together a good team and Washington University and University of Chicago have some great young talent that will be developing as the season goes on. I think that there will be a lot of teams that will be separated by a few points and other teams that will show up and run great races that surprise a few people. I know that I am always aware of how the top runners at other UAA schools are performing and it drives me to run as hard as I do throughout the year. It’s a competitive environment that keeps our team driven through cross, indoor, and outdoor track.

What were your PRs in High School in XC and Track, and what are they now?

At Wellesley High School I ran 1:59 in the 800, 4:29 in the mile, and 16:40 in the 5k (cross country.) As of last year I was 1:55 in the 800, 3:57 in the 1500, and 14:53 in the 5k.

Your team is ranked 11th in the country and 1st in the South, what does this mean to you and how does your team feel about/treat national rankings?

We used to not put much stake in the rankings because we never thought we would get the respect we deserved. We definitely appreciate being acknowledged for the hard work we have put in this season. I think the general the consensus is that it is great to be ranked so high at this point in the season, but its where you finish at the actual national meet that separates the good teams from the great teams.

What if any pre race or post rituals do you and your team have?

Our team has a set time that we warm-up and do drills before races. It is pretty similar to what most other teams do to get ready for races. Personally, I have a set playlist I listen to get me pumped up for the race and I always like to calm down and visualize my race right before it starts. I convince myself that if I can visualize all the possible scenarios that could take place around my race plan, then I won't be surprised by anything that happens once the gun goes off. I'm not sure if it works, but it always gets me psyched to actually execute all the races I go over in my head.

What are your personal and team goals for this year, both for XC and track?

I sort of touched on this in an earlier question, but our team is really looking to make a name for ourselves on the national stage. I know that I am ready to step up and do the best I can for the team. Actually, the best quality about our team is that I am confident I could look around at anyone on the start line and know that they would give up everything for the team at any given race. We have a really tight bond that keeps everyone competitive and confident that they are ready to perform even on the biggest of stages.

Since the MLB playoffs are going on right now, I am going to need your picks from here on out. Who wins the NLCS, ALCS and World Series in how many games?

Well I may be a little biased, but anyone watching the playoffs saw the Bosox make quick work of the team with the best record in the MLB. I would have to say Sox in six games over the Rays and the Phillies in five games over the Dodgers. Then, the reigning World Series champs in five games over the Phillies.

Is there anything else you think FloTrackers should know about you?

As much as our team is improving in cross this year, we will be looking to carry our success over to track and cross next year where we will be returning six of our top seven runners. It should be a fun year and I'm definitely looking forward to taking the next step with our team.

Thanks Charlie for a great Interview

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