Saying goodbye to coach Mike Woods

After a 23-year coaching career at Geneseo, cross country head coach and track and field assistant coach Mike Woods will retire at the end of the spring 2015 track season. During Woods’ nearly quarter century-long tenure, the Knights have earned dozens of SUNYAC Championships and national honors, including the school’s first and only team National Championship with the 2005 women’s cross country team. Woods has also received 28 SUNYAC Coach of the Year distinctions.

Woods’ role in cross country at Geneseo began long before he assumed the head coaching position in 1992. He joined the school’s first intercollegiate cross country program when he was a freshman in 1964. After an athletic career that spanned both high school and college, Woods noted, “It was just a natural offshoot for me to want to coach.”

Following graduation, he taught English at York Central School for 33 years where he established and coached its first cross country team. Woods retired from coaching high school cross country after 21 years in order to make more time for his children, but was almost immediately encouraged to apply for the open head coach position at his alma mater. At first, Woods said no to the job, but his children encouraged him to pursue his passion for coaching at the collegiate level.

In his first year, Woods faced the task of changing the team’s culture, encouraging the athletes to strive for excellence. He soon began taking “the best athletes to the best meets … all the meets where we’d get our butts kicked.” Woods has consistently motivated the Knights to face Division I teams at highly competitive meets like the Penn Relays, where they compete every year.

“There’s a certain level of excellence at Geneseo that’s expected in the classroom and I expect that same level from the athletes,” Woods said. “There’s a definite connection between the classroom and competing here.”

Both of his closest colleagues—track and field head coach Chris Popovici ’06 and assistant cross country and track and field coach Dan Moore ’06—said that the dedication to athletics Woods inspired in them while they ran for the Knights motivated them to work as coaches post-graduation. This dedication is defined by Woods’ emphasis on the word “believe” as a key concept of the team.

“He instilled that in us as athletes and then as coaches to pass the message along to the current athletes—to get them to believe in themselves, to believe in the training, believe in the program,” Moore said.

Popovici added that Woods’ legacy will remain fundamental for the team after his retirement.

“It’s a program that he’s built and it’s still building,” he said. “It’s still strong. It’s not going to crumble; he’s built such a culture and an infrastructure here amongst the current athletes. Campaigning so hard to have alumni back in the program coaching has maintained that legacy and that culture that’s been created.”

Following his retirement, Woods will continue to be involved with the cross country and track teams as a volunteer, but he also looks forward to spending more time with his grandchildren, reading and returning to teaching.

Current team members noted that they will miss his encouragement and insight.

“He’s more than just your coach, he’s your biggest fan,” senior Joanna Castrogivanni said.

Senior Sean Fischer added, “He’s been probably the biggest motivator for me to do anything while at college. He can just push on the things that you care about the most until you’re willing to sacrifice for your whole team.”

Woods said that above all, he has striven to instill a passion in the hundreds of athletes he’s coached both for running and for teamwork.

“That’s my philosophy: try to make it fun for them and try to make it an enjoyable experience,” he said. “I’m not a yeller and a screamer, I’m just a supporter and that seems to work pretty well.”

Top-ranked XC preps for conference meet

With two first-place finishes at the Inter-Regional Rumble held at Oberlin College on Oct. 18, the Geneseo men’s and women’s cross country teams are going to take a well-deserved break before they head into the rough part of their season. With another first place overall finish from senior Cassie Goodman, the women’s team had solid races from all of their top finishers—the Knights top seven runners all came in the top 23. Behind Goodman were sophomore Marissa Bellusci and juniors Ashton Hughes, Jacquie Huben and Rayanne Luke.

The men also had a successful day, with senior Cohen Miles-Rath finishing first for the Knights, 12th overall. The rest of the men’s top five runners all came within 20 places of each other. Behind Miles-Rath were sophomore Alfredo Mazzuca, junior Brendan Wortner, freshman Alex Burks and sophomore Adam Murphy.

With nationals fast-approaching, the Knights are in fantastic position in the regional rankings—first overall. Geneseo has not won a regional title since 2010. The women are also in great position, ranked second in the region.

Some of the teams that are ranked behind the men had good performances over the weekend of Oct. 18. Given the slippery conditions that were present at the course, the men and women should both remain where they are.

“The conditions were truly terrible,” head coach Mike Woods said. “It was real bad and it slowed some people down, but others definitely stepped up.” With the conditions feeling like a mud pit at Oberlin, the Knights powered through and gave strong performances.

With both teams winning on Oct. 18, they now have the weekend of Saturday Oct. 25 off before heading back to work on Nov. 1 for the SUNYAC Championships at SUNY Brockport. The cross country teams can now take this time off to buckle down and get ready for the SUNYAC championships that are ahead of them.

With the leadership of runners like Goodman, senior Keira Wood, Miles-Rath and senior Tim Mateer, these runners have given the Knights guidance throughout the season. They will need to continue their leadership throughout the remainder of what could be a tough schedule for the Knights. Even though the teams both look to be in good position, they can’t afford to let their guard down now when their goals are within sight.

Wood surprises in 1,500-meter race

As junior Keira Wood stepped up to run her first 1,500-meter race in two years, she wasn’t sure what to expect. Competing against athletes from all three divisions at Bucknell University’s Bison Outdoor Classic on April 11, she relied on endurance built up from a strong cross country season. Wood’s results were better than she expected.

“My plan for the [1,500 meter] was just to go out with the pack, kind of hang out in the middle, let them do the work and see what happens during the last lap and just go for it, and it all worked out great,” she said.

Wood surpassed her previous 1,500 time by nine seconds, achieving a new personal best of four minutes and 37.79 seconds – currently the ninth fastest time in the country. She placed third in her heat and tenth overall at the Bucknell meet.

Although the 800-meter is Wood’s main race, she has spent the first weeks of the outdoor track season training for both the 800 and 1,500 meters. She said a number of factors came together to help her performance in this particular 1,500.

“Everything just fell into place for Saturday night. The weather was perfect: perfect temperature, zero wind, under the lights,” Wood said.

The sheer ferocity of her race on Saturday April 12 left Wood fatigued for her 800-meter race the following morning, but also engaged her competitive spirit. After starting the season off with a strong finish, she said she knows she can speed up her time and hopes to make it to nationals.

According to assistant coach Mike Woods, the distance runner is “without a doubt one of the leaders on the team.” He attributes Wood’s success in the 1,500 to a strong close in the race and her hard work.

While the Bucknell meet is normally only distance and hurdles runners against top Division I schools, Woods said he sees her evolving in the both the 800 and 1,500 as the season continues.

Wood has been involved with track since seventh grade and said that she’s developed a longstanding passion for running.

“It keeps a balance in my life and definitely keeps me structured with time management,” she said. “I would not be able to do well in academics if I didn’t have athletics.”

Geneseo will host the SUNY G Open on Saturday April 18 and Sunday April 19, while qualifying team members prepare to attend the Penn Relays on April 24 in Philadelphia.

Indoor track runs past opponents

Senior indoor track student- athlete Tom Clark drew on his experience as he readied for the 3,000-meter race on Feb. 22 at the Marc Deneault Invitational at Cornell University. “I think being a fifth-year, I have a huge advantage,” Clark said after winning the race against some much-heralded competition. “A lot of what we do in distance running is based off of aerobic training, and I have five extra years of aerobic training under my belt.”

Even with extra training, Clark faced a loaded field. On top of competition from Geneseo teammate junior Cohen Miles-Rath were three Syracuse University freshmen, including Nick Ryan, who won three state championships in his senior year of high school and finished second in another.

“[Ryan] is a super talent. If I was a freshman, I would never have said, ‘I’m going to beat [Ryan],’” Clark said.

Given the race’s talent, Clark was expecting a faster pace, but once the gun went off, Clark found himself keeping up with the pack.

“It worked out perfectly for us because it was ever-so-slightly slow, but we were keeping them honest; we were right on their heels the whole time,” Clark said, referring to the Syracuse runners.

Around the midpoint of the race, Clark surged ahead and increased the tempo of the race while gaining a lead on the other runners. Over the last mile of the race, Clark maintained his speed and fought off a late kick by the younger runners to hold on for victory with a time of 8 minutes, 29 seconds.

Even though the time was the best of the day in the event, assistant coach Mike Woods said that, had the situation been a little bit different, Clark could have gone even faster.

“They didn’t race until right at the end,” Woods said. “They thought they would just sit and let him go and they could run him down. Well, they couldn’t run him down, but if they had raced from the get-go, [Clark] probably would have gone four or five seconds faster. He had more in the tank.”

Other notable performances from the invitational included Miles-Rath’s fifth-place finish in the 3,000-meter run and junior Keira Wood’s second place finish in the 800-meter run.

At a separate invitational at the Rochester Institute of Technology, junior Allison Hoh took second in the 60-meter hurdles, freshman John Panus was second in the 5,000-meter run and junior Phil Longo bested a stacked long jump field with a jump of 6.84 meters, a personal record.

The Knights will compete next at the SUNYAC championships on Saturday March 1 at SUNY Brockport.

Goodman races against time for indoor nationals

A long race like the 5,000-meter run takes a great amount of concentration in order to keep pace and be aware of other runners. Thankfully, junior Cassie Goodman has found a way to handle the 25 laps on an indoor track. “The first 10 laps, I kind of just check out – I just run, don’t look at the laps, don’t look at the time too much coming around to the finish … I know it always starts to hurt around lap 12,” Goodman said. “Once it gets down to the last mile, that’s when you kind of have to start thinking, ‘OK, you have to work a little bit harder and move your arms a little bit more. Stay relaxed, but keep it moving.’”

The strategy worked for Goodman on Saturday Feb. 15, when she won the 5,000-meter race at the Tufts University Cupid Challenge indoor track meet with a time of 17 minutes, 57 seconds. Goodman helped Geneseo sweep the 5,000-meter races, as junior Cohen Miles-Rath, battling sickness at the time, won the men’s race, posting a winning time of 15:02.

Goodman’s race came down to a duel between her and two Colby College runners.

“I went in pretty confident,” Goodman said. “I just tried to keep them [at] an arm’s length the whole race, and then at the last mile, I was able to pick them off. So it was a good race.”

Assistant coach Mike Woods was with the members of the team who traveled to Massachusetts for the meet, and before the race, he and Goodman talked about her race strategy.

“Our plan was to just to stay running 43 seconds per 200 [meters], and out of 25 laps, I think she ran 0:43 on 21 of them,” Woods said.

“She spent 20 laps sitting behind two girls … I told her, with 800 left, ‘You have to move on those girls,’ so she dropped a couple 0:42s, went by both of them, and ended up winning and running her fastest time of the year, breaking 18 minutes,” he added.

Goodman currently sits 34th nationally in the event and needs to take about a half minute off her time in order to go to the NCAA Division III national meet, a tough but doable task.

“I think it’s possible … especially [at the Eastern College Athletic Conference meet, one week before the national meet]. Going in with really good competition, I think it’s definitely possible,” Goodman said. “But also, everyone else is going to get faster these next two weeks. So, you never know; it could happen.”

The Knights are back in action on Friday Feb. 21 at Rochester Institute of Technology’s Orange and Brown Invitational and Saturday Feb. 22 at Cornell University’s Marc Deneault Invitational.

Replacing talent key for indoor track

Despite losing national championship-caliber runners on both the men’s and women’s sides, the theme of this year’s indoor track team will once again be not to rebuild but to reload. “You never replace anybody in this sport. You just simply [say], ‘Next person up,’” head coach for his 10th year Dave Prevosti said. “Fortunately, we have a nice setup because last year we were pretty young, and we all got older and we have an amazing incoming class.”

Arguably the biggest loss from last year’s team on either side is Alyssa Smith ‘12, who won the NCAA Division III outdoor track and field steeplechase event in the spring 2013 semester as a graduate student. In indoor, Smith was a key part of the distance medley relay team that placed third at the NCAA indoor championships. Although Smith, who ran the 1600-meter leg, and Caitlin Kowalewski ‘13, who ran the 800-meter leg, are gone, junior Keira Wood and senior Allison Hoh return to anchor the team and lead the women’s side.

The distance running part of the team will once again feature many cross-country standouts, including senior Lauren McKnight, juniors Jacqueline Huben, Joanna Castrogivanni, Cassie Goodman and Alyssa Knott and freshman Sara Rosenzweig. The Knights’ arsenal of sprinters is boosted by the return of junior Kristen Gottstine from injury and the addition of freshman Erin O’Connor, who starred on the soccer field this fall.

Jumpers will thrive from the experience of senior Carrie Levinn and the talent of freshman Joanna Heath, last year’s New York State Section V long jump champion. Finally, junior Elyssa Slawinski, who is overseas until the spring semester, and senior Danelle Turney will look to improve on last year’s solid throwing campaigns.

On the men’s side, junior Cohen Miles-Rath is the only returning member from last year’s distance medley relay team that also placed third at the national championships. Fresh off of a fifth-place finish in the SUNYAC cross-country meet, Miles-Rath will have many cross-country teammates by his side, including junior Ryan Moynihan, brothers senior Patrick Wortner and sophomore Brendan Wortner and freshman Matt Jorgenson, to form one of the league’s better long-distance groups.

In the field events, juniors Luke Taverne and Phil Longo will again look to dominate competition in the high jump while welcoming freshmen David Pollock and Brendan Macey to the fold in a unit that Prevosti thinks is just as good as the distance runners. Sprinter freshman Austin Donroe should make an immediate impact in a needed area, and lastly, the throwing squad regained senior Zach Markel from injury, who Prevosti says has been the “anchor” of the team for a couple of years.

Both squads will look to assert their talents at the opening meet of the season on Saturday Dec. 7 at the SUNY Brockport’s Early Season Run. The Knights will then be off for break before returning a week before classes begin in January to begin training for the spring semester.