Track | Orange surprises loaded field with 3rd-place finish in 4XMile
By McGhee Cost
Posted: 4/28/08, 10:33 PM EST Section: Sports
When Chris Fox found out the Syracuse cross country team was nationally ranked for the first time in school history last fall, he hoped it would be the foundation of a special year for the SU track and field program.
So as Fox watched distance runner Kyle Heath become the third man to cross the finish line of the 4XMile relay event at the Penn Relays in Philadelphia Saturday, he saw it as a culmination of something that had been brewing since that time: the arrival of Syracuse onto track and field's national stage.
Heath, along with Dan Busby, Jordan Davis and Jeff Scull, recorded a time of 16:31.99 and a third-place finish in the 4XMile relay of the Penn Relays meet, finishing just behind teams from Texas and Virginia. "The Championship of America" heat in which the Orange competed is considered one of the most prestigious events in track and field, and was run in front of a live audience of 40,000 people.
"Just to get in the event is an honor, but to get in there and do great is a big deal," Fox said. "It was a seminal day for the program, and it's a bigger step than any we've had all year."
The rest of the Syracuse track and field team fed off of the relay team's positive energy, continuing its winning ways at the Penn Relays and Big Red Invitational in Ithaca, N.Y. SU added two more athletes, Ramon Sosa and Annabelle Pellerin, to the growing ranks of those to qualify NCAA regional competition. Additionally, two other athletes who had already earned regional invitations, Jillian Drouin and Sheron Mark, garnered regional invitations from the NCAA for other events.
Though a third-place finish that didn't result in any NCAA qualifications may not seem like much of an accomplishment or motivator for a team, achieving such a result at the Championship of America level is considered a monumental finish. No Syracuse team has been capable of achieving such a feat in the past several decades, failing to so much as receive an invitation to compete.
So as Fox watched distance runner Kyle Heath become the third man to cross the finish line of the 4XMile relay event at the Penn Relays in Philadelphia Saturday, he saw it as a culmination of something that had been brewing since that time: the arrival of Syracuse onto track and field's national stage.
Heath, along with Dan Busby, Jordan Davis and Jeff Scull, recorded a time of 16:31.99 and a third-place finish in the 4XMile relay of the Penn Relays meet, finishing just behind teams from Texas and Virginia. "The Championship of America" heat in which the Orange competed is considered one of the most prestigious events in track and field, and was run in front of a live audience of 40,000 people.
"Just to get in the event is an honor, but to get in there and do great is a big deal," Fox said. "It was a seminal day for the program, and it's a bigger step than any we've had all year."
The rest of the Syracuse track and field team fed off of the relay team's positive energy, continuing its winning ways at the Penn Relays and Big Red Invitational in Ithaca, N.Y. SU added two more athletes, Ramon Sosa and Annabelle Pellerin, to the growing ranks of those to qualify NCAA regional competition. Additionally, two other athletes who had already earned regional invitations, Jillian Drouin and Sheron Mark, garnered regional invitations from the NCAA for other events.
Though a third-place finish that didn't result in any NCAA qualifications may not seem like much of an accomplishment or motivator for a team, achieving such a result at the Championship of America level is considered a monumental finish. No Syracuse team has been capable of achieving such a feat in the past several decades, failing to so much as receive an invitation to compete.
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