Penn senior cross country runner Matt Gioffre can empathize with what his freshman teammates went through on Saturday -- running their first collegiate race at an unfamiliarly long distance.
He had to do the same thing four years ago.
While at Ridgewood (Conn.) High School, Gioffre feasted on the standard prep cross country diet of five-kilometer (3.1 miles) races.
But the college cross country distance is five miles. And as Gioffre will tell you, those last 1.9 miles are a bear.
"In high school I though 5K was pretty far," he said. "When I'd be running and getting to 2 1/2 miles I'd think, `Only a half mile to go.'
"Now it's just half the race."
Penn's large freshman component (13 of 23 runners on the team are freshmen) made its first attempt to get used to the distance in Saturday's Fordham Invitational.
And while the adjustment wasn't easy for most of them, the results certainly weren't bad. The Quakers placed sixth in the 17-team field, and three of Penn's top five runners were freshman.
Granted, Penn treated the race in New York's Van Cortland Park as a glorified workout, and two of the Quakers' top returning runners -- senior Anthony Ragucci and junior Anthony Sager -- did not run. But the frosh performance was still encouraging.
"I think it's going to help our team out," Gioffre said. "The freshmen need early racing. They're used to running way out in front, by themselves."
Penn coach Charlie Powell made sure that didn't happen on Saturday. Many of the Quakers' freshmen, most of whom ran `out in front' because they were stars in high school, stayed in an eight-runner pack with upperclassmen for most of the race.
Well, actually, it was about five kilometers of the race. Right around the point at which a high school cross country race would have ended, three Penn freshmen (Matt Van Antwerp, Dan Treglia and Nolan Tully) dropped off the then-six-runner pack.
That was no surprise to Powell.
"Coach said on the bus, `How many of you freshmen got to the 5K and said, `Oh crap, I've got another 1.9 miles to go?'" said Van Antwerp, who finished fourth on the team with a time of 27 minutes, 29 seconds.
Most of the Penn rookies raised their hands.
Still, a freshmen, Dustin Lieb, was Penn's top runner in the Fordham Invite. Utilizing a kick in the last 1,000 meters, Lieb finished in 27:11. But although he has run road races as long as 10 miles, he still wasn't quite used to the five-mile distance.
"It's a pretty tough transition because it's almost a full two miles further," Lieb said. "But at the same time, I don't feel like I've really raced an 8K (five miles) yet."
That's because Powell didn't treat the race as a race. Penn trained hard both before the race (double-digit mileage on Friday) and after the race (the Quakers' cooldown was to run the course again).
"We weren't harping on the racing part of it," Gioffre said.
Senior Matt Caporaletti was the Quakers' No. 2 runner, while Gioffre (27:19) was the third Red and Blue harrier to cross the finish line.
The distance is no longer a problem for Gioffre, but the adjustment period was a long one. The Penn senior said he didn't get used to the five-mile distance until his sophomore year.
"It's mentally tough to get used to it," Gioffre said. "And some freshmen don't get used to it ever."
