We all saw quite the great day of racing at the Women’s portion of the Valentine Invite. The men ran the show all day Saturday and did not disappoint!

The 800m: With Mike Rutt, Brian Gagnon, and NCAA #9 Joseph White in the field, we were all expecting a quick four laps. Unfortunately, things went haywire when Rutt tripped on the first curve going into lap 2 and took out half the field with him! Lots of momentum was lost for the runners who did finish in that heat and James Gilreith would win the heat with a late charge for a 1’49.33. It would be defending NCAA D3 800 Meter Champ Mitchell Black of Tufts who would come out on top, besting Gilreith’s time by a hundredth of a second out of the second section with 1’49.32. A few other local standouts include (but were not limited to) the following:

• BU Terrier Ethan Homan continues an outstanding campaign with a 1’51 out of that first section. Hurdling over a fallen Mike Rutt was included in that period of time.
• Bridgewater State alum Josh Goehring garners a new indoor 800m PR with a 1’52.79.
• Boston North’s Alex Engel runs another strong race with a 1’52.98.
• Battle Road Track Club’s Trevor Dutton puts on a gutsy performance in heat 5 to run a 1’54.72.

The Mile: The streak of sub 4 minute miles at the Valentine meet continues! This time it was Pembroke, MA native Joel Hubbard of Syracuse University who would come out on top with a new PR of 3’58.43. Hubbard would drag his teammate Adam Palamar and Asics pro Johnny Gregorek under 4 with him. Just missing out on the barrier was NE Distance’s Nick Ross, Dartmouth’s Joey Chapin, Ragged Mountain TC’s Macklin Chaffee, Yale’s James Randon, Samford’s Brandon Hazouri, Adam Godwin, and Navy’s Stephen Schroeder; all of those gents crossed the finish in four minutes flat and some change.

Of course there were other strong performances to shout out:

• Ethan Homan would bounce back from the 800m earlier in the day and crank out a 4’06.19 to win section 4 of the mile. Heck of a double!
• NE Distance’s Ryan Widzgowski would lay down another strong mile, running 4’08.68.
• Our fellow PUMA friend/employee Jordan Donnelly would unleash a late kick in section 5 and drive himself to a solid 4’11.14 finish.
• Mike Carlone continues to hold the status as GBTC’s fastest miler this season, setting a new personal record in the process (4’14.65)
• 2014 Bill Luti 5 Mile champ B.J Smith of Franklin Pierce cranks out a huge PR, lowering his high school 4’20 down to 4’14.31.
• Battle Road TC continues to have strong representation in the middle distances, toeing 6 athletes who would finish between 4’10 and 4’20.

The 1000m: University of New Hampshire’s Drew Piazza, who is currently NCAA #7 in the 800m with his time from two weeks ago, blasts away from the field in the second heat with a 2’21.97. Some fast New Englanders were in the mix too, including BU’s Matti Groll (2’24.09) and Bridgewater State alum Andy Sukeforth (2’25.07 - a four second PR for him).

The 3k: This was arguably the most impressive distance race to take place in the meet. Georgetown saw three of their Hoya trackletes crack the 8-minute mark, led by Ahmed Bile in NCAA #9 time of 7’51.77. The other sub-8 minute performers included Sligo athlete John Travers, Georgetown’s Amos Bartelsmyer, Providence’s Jordan Mann, Georgetown’s Michael Lederhouse, and Garden State Track Club’s Alfredo Santana. Some fast regional performers weren’t far behind:

• 2014 NH High School XC Champ Eli Moskowitz, now as a freshman at Brown University, puts on a fantastic showing in the 2nd heat, running 8’09.58.
• Brian Doyle (2nd OA at New Bedford Half), is coming back from injury without a hitch. He raced himself to a 8’09.73
• UNH alumni Kevin Greene and John Prizzi both run strong races, pulling off the 15 laps in 8’10 and 8’16 repectively.
• Rhode Islander Bobby Allen, continues to run strong post-college, finishing the 3k in 8’12.28

Aside from all these great performances, we cannot help but give a special shoutout to Sean Wade. The 50 year old broke the Men’s 50-54 age group world record with an incredible 8’43.63. The following day, Wade raced the Master’s Mile at the New Balance Indoor Grand Prix, placing 3rd in 4’29.09. Here he is below (chest #9) mixing it up with the youngins.

The 5k: Though no guys under 14 this time around, the races were still worth sticking around for. The charge was led by Wiliams College ace Bijan Mazaheri with a 14’11.49 with BAA stud Julian Saad not far back in 14’14.53. Mazaheri’s result puts him 2nd on the NCAA Division 3 performance list, right behind his teammate Colin Cotton, who busted out a 14’17.66 on a flat track at Smith College’s early season invite back in December. Of course that wasn’t all the fast guys. Other highlights include, but are not limited to the following:

• Though 10+ years older than most of the field, Battle Road TC’s Andrea Sorgato rolled along really well, blasting out a 14’24.88 for fourth overall.
• Heartbreaker employee David Melly crushes his first indoor race in some time with a 14’28.06 for fifth.
• 2015 Spanish snowshoe champion Nacho Hernando-Angulo hammers out a new PR of 14’42.44 in section 2.
• GBTC’s Jonathan Charlesworth and Adam Pacheck both run under the 15 minute mark along with Battle Road’s John Drago and Andrew Erskine

For overall results of the meet, pay a quick visit to Lancertiming.com. And more importantly, keep reading the Legion Media for more track and field coverage!

Check out our highlights from the women’s races here.