January 22, 2006

RESULTS

Mass Velocity had a great turnout for the GBTC Invitational. There were some problems with the registration seeding but everyone got their problems resolved. Another potential problem that was averted was the confusion about the starting time for the Masters 60m event. From the GBTC forms, more than a few of us incorrectly deciphered the start time as noon but in fact it started closer to 11am. Fortunately, everyone entered in the event arrived early enough to run.

In the Masters 200m, they had 3 heats. It could have, and should have been run in two heats. One last observation - the 400m was right before the 200m and those two events should have been further apart.

In all it was a well-run meet with results posted quickly. I hope to get more comments, observations and photos from all who were there. Tucker Taft was able to rope a few non-members into helping us put two, 4x200m relays on the track. (See photos below.)

Warren Graff writes "Tucker did a fine job of setting them up to be fairly even and we saw a stellar finish with Carroll (big bad Butch) Blake coming from behind to nip Roger at the finish. The other person in the photo you may not have met is a good friend of mine and Roger who came up from NYC and runs for the Aura club - Ron Johnson, who has been a power for years in the 200 (National Champ at least once that I recall at Reggie). Ron is a recently-turned 60-year-old. Great turnout today!"

Tuck writes "My two cents: The relays were a lot of fun. Thanks, Warren, for hanging in there. I felt like a mother hen trying to keep all her chicks in line trying to keep two relay teams together. As soon as I would line one person up, someone else would jump ship. But when all was said and done, despite a bit of belly-aching, I think everyone enjoyed the relays, and largely by luck I managed to get the two teams almost perfectly balanced. The times were 1:46.58 (B team) and 1:46.74 (A team). You can't get much closer than that. And notice that the average 200m times were 26.65 and 26.69, respectively, not too shabby at all for cobbled-together teams."

Tuck reminded me, "You might want to add that both Carroll Blake and Charlie Kelley got personal bests in the 400m. Carroll in a stunning 55.98, and Charlie in a dramatic 57.40, just nosing out Roger (I believe the technical term is that he "Ralph'ed" Roger)."

Team One: Tucker Taft, Lee Hess, Warren Graff, Roger Pierce
Team Two: Ron Johnson, Charlie Kelly, Bob Pomeroy, and Carroll Blake

Exchange 1 - Tucker Taft to Lee Hess & Ron Johnson to Charlie Kelly

Roger Pierce, Pershing Reid and John Oleski

The Following Photos (and many more) Are Available from AccelPhoto

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