Spiked Shoe Society December 2009 Newsletter

1. Track Talk
The Spiked Shoe Society at the College of William and Mary
December 2009 http://www.spikedshoesociety.org
Dear Friends of Track & Field/Cross-Country,
Greetings, fellow William and Mary harriers and track and with the basic cost of traveling with both teams—air, hotel, food—to
field athletes, near and far! meets coming in at $10,000 per meet, and the College able to supply
less and less, it may be that budget constraints begin to affect the
Such fantastic news to share: the men’s cross country team, choices of competition venues. The teams traveled to compete with
which already had won Regionals by 50 points and was Oklahoma this year, a team that ended up #1 at the NCAAs—but if
ranked 7th in the US, placed 5th at the NCAAs November the funds aren’t there in the future, competition will have to remain
23, becoming the 2nd best W&M team EVER, after the 1973 much closer to home, and therefore be less varied and valuable for
team that placed 4th. This year’s team counts three All- the team.
Americans, starting with Jon Grey (17th at NCAAs), Patter-
son Wilhelm (34th) and Colin Leak (40th). In addition, It would simply be a shame for such talented athletes to be con-
Coach Alex Gibby received the Southeast Region Coach strained by the artificial ceilings of governmental budgets. Your $5,
of the Year Award. $500, or $5,000 makes an enormous difference: whatever you can
give will directly benefit these young athletes.
The women, coached by Kathy Newberry, placed 2nd at
ECACs for the third time in 4 years. Meghan Burns, Emily Please log in to www.spikedshoesociety.org in order to donate to the
Anderson, and Kayley Byrne all placed in the top 10. At team, and to check out performance updates, great photos, and
Regionals, they upset then-#28 North Carolina, and Meghan video of the NCAAs. Through the site you can also invest in an in-
Burns and Emily Anderson were All-Region. The 4th place scribed brick adjacent to Zable Stadium. The login is wmalumni and
finish matched W&M's best ever women's effort, last accom- the password is sunkengardens. You can also use the enclosed en-
plished in 1998. And Emily Anderson successfully defended velope. There are also naming opportunities at Zable Stadium for
her title at the CAA meet. alumni who want to make large donations. One recent donor, for
example, had the starting line named for a former coach. If interested
Fantastic performances, all! e-mail kenhalla@gmail.com. Many thanks to our donors, big and
small, who have been supporting the teams thus far.
The times that we live in, however, are not especially sup-
portive of public institutions. We all know that throughout the Wishing you health and happy miles in this holiday season.
country public funding has been cut right and left, and that,
unfortunately, affects William and Mary directly. As Coach
Gibby describes, “The administration is more than willing to
support the program. But money is so tight, it just isn’t there.
Increasingly, we depend on alumni for funds to support us.”
Ken Halla
Randy Hawthorne
The support of all alumni, big and small donors alike, has
made a tremendous difference these past few years. But
Emily Furia
The Spiked Shoe Society
Board of Directors Volunteers
Co-Chairs Website videos and pictures Newsletter
Randy Hawthorne ’67 Coach Emil Davis ’85 Harald Anderson ’89
Juan Conde ’86 Coach David Fritz Emily Furia ’01
Randy Hawthorne ’67 Tim O’Dowd ’80
Committee Rick Platt ’72
Glenn Crafford ’77
Podcasts Jason Schoener ’07 (men's write-ups)
Jacob Frey ’04
Ken Halla ’86 Ali Henderson ’04 Jennifer Svan ’93 (women's write-ups)
Sue Haynie ’88
Ali Henderson ’04 Facebook (Type in “Spiked Shoe Society”) Alumni Team Organizer
Marcie Homan ’95 Kristyn Shiring ’07 Ken Halla ’86
Brian Hyde ’96
Ron Martin ’74 Fundraising Letter Special thanks to
Brigid Dorsey ’83 Bob Keroack ’79

2. Find us online at
William and Mary Men Cross-Country Season Updates
Oklahoma State Cowboy Jamboree remember since I have been here,” said Direc-
tor of Track and Field Dan Stimson. “We
The men’s team traveled to Stillwater, Okla- rested five of our top seven runners and gave
homa for the highly competitive Cowboy Jam- some of the younger guys a chance to run in a
boree, finishing a close 2nd place to 5th-ranked championship meet.”
Northern Arizona, 52-58. Juniors Jon Grey
(Lancaster, PA) and Patterson Wilhelm It proved to be a successful strategy as the men
(Lynchburg, VA) didn’t waste any time taking won their 10th consecutive CAA title in dominat-
the early lead the first two miles of the race. ing fashion, outscoring second place George
“We felt like we had put out a solid perform- Mason 21-57. Ben Massam and Charlie
ance for our first race of the cross-country sea- Swartz took the early lead in the race establish-
son,” said Wilhelm. ing a pace for the rest of the team. Following
It was a solid race for the Tribe as Grey fin- close behind was junior Brian Skoldowski
ished in 8th place with a time of 24:11 followed (Newark, DE) who used his middle-distance
closely by Wilhelm in 9th (24:15), seniors Colin kick to win his first individual conference title.
Leak (Chadds Ford, PA) in 10th (24:16) and Sklodowski’s time of 25:06 won the race by six
Ben Massam (Chatham, NJ) in 12th (24:22). seconds, making him the 15th W&M runner to
Lewis Woodard (Charlotte, NC) rounded out win the CAA Championship.
the scoring for the Tribe in 20th place (24:33).
“We started to find our team identity and began “Team-wise this was a great win. We had a few
refreshing ourselves on how to race effec- guys step up with huge performances,” said
tively,” said Wilhelm. Sklodowski. Some of those performances in-
cluded sophomore Chris Tyson (Arlington, VA)
Pre-National Invitational finishing third and redshirt sophomore Max
The ninth-ranked Tribe finished 4th in the Blue Werner (Sterling, VA) earning his first spot on
Race at the Pre-National Invitational in Terre the All-CAA team in sixth place. Also finishing
Haute, IN—the best finish ever by a W&M team with All-CAA honors were Swartz (4th), Mas-
since the meet was split into two races in 2001. sam (7th), and senior Harry Miller (Portland,
Jon Grey had an exceptional race, finishing OR) in 9th.
fifth in 23:54. Grey became the first Tribe run- NCAA Southeast Regional
ner to finish in the top five at the Pre-National
meet, bettering former All-American and volun- W&M successfully defended its Southeast Re-
teer coach Ed Moran’s sixth-place perform- gion title in Louisville, KY, earning an automatic
ance in 2003. bid to the NCAA Championships with a 50-point
victory over 2nd-place North Carolina State.
Patterson Wilhem and Grey were in the lead Patterson Wilhelm was the team’s top finisher,
pack through the 5k. After passing 5k in 14:59, taking fourth place in 30:07 and earning a spot
Grey took the lead through the 6k mark narrow- on the All-Region team for the third consecutive
ing the lead pack down to a few athletes, then year. Jon Grey (5th; 30:08) and Colin Leak
held on to finish 5th. Wilhelm placed 12th in (9th; 30:25) earned All-Region honors for the
24:05. Rounding out the Tribe scoring were second time. ZB Gates and 2009 CAA cham-
Colin Leak in 23rd place (24:17), redshirt pion Brian Sklodowski finished 11th and 20th
freshman Zach “ZB” Gates (Fishers, IN) in respectively, earning their first All-Region hon-
33rd place (24:27), and senior Charlie Swartz ors. Ben Massam and Charlie Swartz also
(Manassas, VA) in 55th place (24:44). competed, taking 29th and 42nd, respectively.
CAA Championships The last time the Tribe won back-to-back re-
gional titles was 1970-71.
The Tribe took to the hills of New Market, VA,
on a windy Halloween morning looking to scare IC4A Championships
the rest of the conference with another domi- The Tribe took second to Duke at the 101st
nating performance at the CAA Champion- IC4A Championships, which were held Novem-
ships. “This is one of the best teams that I can
(Continued on page 4)

3. Find us online at www.spikedshoesociety.org
William and Mary Women Cross-Country Season Updates
Oklahoma State Cowboy Jamboree PA; 12th, 21:42.21). Betsy Graney took 14th
with a 21:52.4, barely missing all-CAA honors.
The women knocked off their first top-20 na-
The women’s seventh-consecutive conference
tionally-ranked team at the Oklahoma State win ties the squad with Butler for the second-
Cowboy Jamboree on October 3 in Stillwater.
largest active streak in the NCAA.
With the seniors leading the way, the Tribe
beat No. 16 Northern Arizona by 10 points, en NCAA Regional
route to a third place finish behind No. 30
Texas Tech and Kansas. Senior Emily Ander- Meghan Burns led the Tribe to fourth place at
son (Golf, IL), a three-time All-American, was the Southeast Regional on November 14 in
the top runner for the Tribe on the 5K course, Louisville, Kentucky, as the team upset North
taking 12th place with a time of 17:46.9. Seniors Carolina. Although the College’s finish matched
Kayley Byrne (Oak Hill, VA), and Meghan the women’s best-ever effort at regionals, dat-
Burns (Coopersburg, PA) also earned spots in ing to 1998, it wasn’t enough to earn one of 13
the top 25, finishing 20th (17:58.1) and 23rd at-large team bids to the NCAA Champion-
(18:04.5), respectively. Rounding out the scor- ships. With her 15th-place finish and a time of
ing for the Tribe were graduate student Darcy 20:56.3 on the 6K course, Burns nabbed her
McDonald (Lititz, PA), in 36th place (18:18) and second all-region accolade, as did fellow senior
junior Betsy Graney (Harper Woods, MI), who Emily Anderson, who was a few paces behind
was 39th in 18:19.8. Also competing for the in 21:01.2, good for 17th place. Sallie Ford and
Green and Gold was senior Sallie Ford Kayley Byrne also crossed the line seconds
(Lynchburg, VA), who clocked an 18:37.6 for apart, with Ford clocking 21:34.8 for 33rd, and
54th place. Freshman Katie Buenga Byrne finishing 36th with a 21:39.8. Junior
(Greenville, DE) finished less than a second Betsy Graney was the Tribe’s only non-senior
behind Ford, placing 57th. running. She placed 45th with a time of 21:51.0.
Also competing for the Green Gold were Kelly
Pre-National Invitational McElroy and Darcy McDonald, who took 52nd
and 77th, respectively.
On October 17, the team earned a solid 15th-
place finish in the 37-team White Race in Terre ECACs
Haute, IN. The Tribe beat four higher-ranked
teams, including No. 12 Baylor. The veterans The women ended their season with a strong
led the way again, with all five Green and Gold kick, taking a close second to Boston College at
scorers coming from the class of 2010 or the 25th ECAC Championships on November
graduate school. Emily Anderson clocked 21 and earning four individual All-East honors.
21:21.0 over the 6K course to finish 29th, Continuing her late-season peak, Meghan
Meghan Burns was 50th in 21:39.4, and Burns paced the Tribe with a third-place finish
Kayley Byrne finished 91st with a time of and a time of 17:14.7 on the storied Van Cort-
22:01.5. Next for William and Mary was Sallie landt Park 5K course in the Bronx. Also placing
Ford in 22:10.4 for 103rd, and not far behind in the top 10 for William and Mary were Emily
was Darcy McDonald in 22:28.5 for Anderson and Kayley Byrne, finishing in fifth
133rd. Betsy Graney and freshman Krissa and seventh with times of 17:29.5 and 17:32.5.
Loretto (Toms River, NJ) rounded out the var- Burns, Anderson and Byrne scored All-East
sity squad in 23:16.4 and 23:20.0, respec- recognition for the second time in their careers,
tively. while senior Sallie Ford earned it for the first
time with a 16th-place showing and time of
CAA Championships 17:51.3. Also running for the Green and Gold
With an impressive five runners earning all- were Darcy McDonald, Kelly McElroy, Krissa
conference honors, the women took home their Loretto, and sophomore Kelsey Budd
seventh-consecutive Colonial Athletic Associa- (Oakton, VA). In the team scoring, the women
tion conference title at Newmarket Battlefield beat CAA rival James Madison by a wide mar-
State Park in Virginia, out-scoring runner-up gin, 60-116.
James Madison 33-40 and trouncing the other
eight teams on the 6K course. Emily Ander-
son defended her title from a year ago, running
20:35.7 for the victory. Her time was the sec-
ond-fastest in conference history behind Ali
Henderson ’04’s 20:14 in 2003. Second for the
Tribe, and second overall, was Meghan Burns
in 20:49.1. Also nabbing all-conference acco-
lades for the Green and Gold were Kayley
Byrne (7th, 21:30.5), Darcy McDonald (11th,
21:40.46) and Kelly McElroy (Wyomissing,

4. Find us online at www.spikedshoesociety.org
(Continued from page 2) team so special.” said Wilhelm. “We can hope-
fully get podium [top four] next year.”
ber 21 in Van Courtlandt Park in the
Bronx. Five Green and Gold runners earned All Like Leak, Woodard gives Gibby credit for his
-East honors, led by sophomore Chris Tyson's improvement from last year’s 149th place finish.
second-place finish (25:24.9 for 8k). Tyson's “Gibby holding me out of meets this year was a
performance was the best W&M finish at the good move,” Woodard says. “I felt more confi-
event since Matt Lane's victory in 1998. Junior dent and fresh. I would have been happy with a
Skeeter Morris (Burkeville, VA) earned All- top 100 finish, but the race went better than
East honors with a ninth-place finish in a time expected.” Rounding out the scoring was ZB
of 25:36.7. Redshirt freshman John Pence Gates in 126th place (31:10.6). “ZB ran the race
(Columbus, IN) and Max Werner placed 16th of his life at regionals and had an average race
(25:54.3) and 18th (25:56.5). Junior Peter at NCAAs,” said Woodard. “He’s a top guy
Asaro (Gloucester, MA) rounded out the All- who’s going to give you everything he has.”
East runners for the Tribe with a 22nd-place CAA Champion Brian Sklodowski and Ben
showing in a time of 26:04.5. Redshirt fresh- Massam finished 202nd and 212th for the
man David Adley (Pittsburgh, PA) placed 45th Tribe.
with a 26:31.4.
Senior Colin Leak grabbed the final All-
NCAA Championships American spot by finishing 40th in 30:21.4, a
result that’s been a long time in the making.
On November 23, the men’s team made its After finishing 211th and 249th in his first two
13th-consecutive appearance at the national NCAA Championships, Gibby sat down with
championships, placing 5th, and for the first Leak and formulated a new plan in which his
time in history, multiple Tribe runners earned runs and workouts would be more controlled. “I
All-American honors in a single meet. Coach always wanted to be an All-American,” Leak
Alex Gibby was voted the Southeast Region said. “But I would go for broke and take myself
coach of the year for the third time since 2005. out of the race or get injured.” The new plan
resulted in drastic improvements as Leak fin-
Senior Jon Grey was spotted among the na-
ished 94th at last year’s championships. After
tion’s top runners as they turned in a blistering the final workout of the 2009 season, Gibby
4:21 first-mile split. “I wanted to get out hard so talked to Leak on his cool-down and said,
I wouldn’t have to fight my way through the “Colin, I don’t want you to race for All-
pack like I did last year,” he said. This proved American.” Leak was upset at first, but took
to be a good move as Grey finished 17th overall Gibby’s advice to heart. Instead, he ran a con-
in 29:51.4, a solid improvement from his 78th trolled start with Lewis Woodard, which put him
place finish at last year’s championships. Fol- in place to do what Leak had always dreamed
lowing close behind was Patterson Wilhelm,
of. Both runners advanced from 90th to 50th
who finished 34th in 30:18.9 and also became place by the 8k mark. Leak moved up to take
an All-American for the first time. “The team the last All-American spot and Woodard fin-
works well together, which is what makes this ished 53rd in 30:30.2.
Alumni News
*Will Tarantino ’05, who is fighting brain cancer, is hiking across the Colorado Plateau to raise
money for cancer research. To learn more, visit willpowerresearchfund..com.
*Congratulations to Tara Guelig '03, who ran 2:54:27 at the Twin Cities Marathon on October 4.
*The CAA recently named 25th-anniversary teams for men's and women's cross-country. William
and Mary alumni took 15 of the 25 men's spots and 9 of the 25 women's. Tribe athletes are listed
below; to see the complete rosters, visit caasports.com.
Men Women
Mike Brown ’98 Kevin Krause ’92 Meghan Bishop ’07
Jacob Frey ’03 Christo Landry ’08 Janice Brown ’93
Sean Graham ’03 Matt Lane ’01 Julia Cathcart ’06
Ken Halla ’86 Ed Moran ’04 Emily Furia ’01
Jeff Hedley ’06 Steve Swift ’04 Ali Henderson ’04
Charlie Hurt ’05 Howard Townsend ’98 Marcie Homan ’95
Brian Hyde ’96 Paul Vandegrift ’92 Jackie Kosakowski ’05
Mike Keally ’06 Kathy Newberry ’00
Cathy Stanmeyer ’91
The 25th anniversary track & field teams will be announced the week of December 14th.

5. Find us online at www.spikedshoesociety.org
See More Stories, Pictures, Videos, and Updates Online
This newsletter is just a snapshot of everything that has hap- The most important thing about the Spiked Shoe Society is you.
pened on the team over the past few months. By taking the Let us know what you want to see on the website or in this news-
Spiked Shoe Society online it is our hope that we can keep eve- letter. Tell us what you’ve been up to since you’ve graduated.
ryone up to date while simultaneously reducing paper mailings. Have you run in any interesting races (it doesn’t matter how fast,
Going online also allows us to take advantage of the many rich most of us are “retired” after all)? Any exciting life changes?
multimedia outlets available on the web. We’ll put it up on the blog so your old teammates can catch up
with what you’ve been doing. The Spiked Shoe Society is here
Visit www.spikedshoesociety.org for regular updates on team- for you so help us make it better by becoming an active par-
mates past and present. There you’ll find photographs and video ticipant!
from races, radio-style interviews available for download as pod-
casts, meet results, and links to news stories covering current If you’ve ever wondered what your old teammates have been up
student athletes and alumni alike. to, chances are good they’re wondering about you too! Be sure
to include your full name and graduation year with any stories or
While you’re there, feel free to leave a comment on any story. information you send in.
Let us know what you think! Plus you can sign up to receive
updates by email or in your favorite RSS reader. Please e-mail Ken Halla at kenhalla@gmail.com if you have
any news, ideas, or thoughts so he can put them on the webpage
Looking to get in touch with fellow classmates? You can find or in the newsletter.
contact information for old friends at the alumni database (login,
wmalumni and password, sunkengardens). While you’re there, This issue welcomes our new editor, Emily Furia (’01). In addition
take a second to check your own email and mailing address. to being a professional editor (she has been an editor at Bicy-
cling magazine for more than eight years), she has a personal
To help you keep in touch with your friends and teammates, The
connection to the current teams (Coach Newberry was one of her
Spiked Shoe Society has set up groups on several social net-
college roommates) and she looks forward to helping spread the
working sites. In particular, you can find us on Facebook and
news of Tribe runners past and present, as Randy Hawthorne
LinkedIn by typing in “Spiked Shoe Society”
and Ken Halla have done so well for so many years.
Yes, I support Friends of W&M Track and Field and Cross-Country
Yes, I support Friends of W&M TRACK AND FIELD & CROSS-COUNTRY. My gift is $ .
Enclosed is my check, made payable to Friends of W&M Track and Cross-Country.
Charge my MasterCard/Visa/Discover# ______________________________________________________________________
Exp. Date: 3-Digit Sec. Code: ________
Name: Phone (H) (W)_____________________
Address: ________________________________________________________________________________________________
City, State, Zip: E-Mail:___________________________________________
Does your firm match gifts? ______ Name of company: _______________________________________________________
My gift is designated for: WOMEN’S TRACK AND FIELD & CROSS-COUNTRY (0758)
MEN’S TRACK AND FIELD & CROSS-COUNTRY (0469)
FRIENDS OF TRACK AND FIELD & CROSS-COUNTRY ENDOWMENT ($2,500)
: NAME ON “FRIENDS” ENDOWMENT _____________________________
: DESIGNATION SPIKED SHOE SOCIETY ENDOWMENT/MEN’S TRACK
WOMEN’S TRACK AND FIELD ENDOWMENT
Please send completed forms to: W&M Tribe Club P.O. Box 399 Williamsburg, VA 23187

6. Track Talk
The Spiked Shoe Society at the College of William and Mary
December 2009 http://www.spikedshoesociety.org
Tribe Men Take Fifth at Cross-Country NCAA Championships
After defending their Southeast Regional title, the men Both the Men’s and Women’s teams won their respective CAA
placed fifth in the NCAA championships, making them the championships—the women for the seventh consecutive time and
second best W&M team EVER (after the 4th in 1973). In the men for the tenth.
addition, three runners earned All-American honors, the
This issue includes a special request for donations. With increased
first time in W&M history that more than one runner has
budget cuts, our teams need you more than ever. Increased support
done so. The men exceeded the polls, which had them
has allowed the teams to travel to meets as far away as Oklahoma,
ranked seventh and expected to place sixth. Leading the
in large part because of our generosity. Competing with the best
team were Jon Grey (finishing 17th), Patterson Wilhelm
teams in the country helps our athletes improve and gives the Wil-
(34th) and Colin Leak (40th). Lewis Woodard finished 53rd,
liam and Mary name more exposure, which leads to better recruit-
and rounding out the scoring was ZB Gates in 126th place.
ing. We all know how this cycle works, and it all begins with a few
CAA Champion Brian Sklodowski and Ben Massam finished
donations. You can donate using the enclosed envelope or elec-
202nd and 212th for the Tribe. Prior to the race, head coach
tronically via the spikedshoesociety.org page.
Alex Gibby received the Southeast Regional 2009 Cross-
Country Coach of the Year Award. Lastly, if you would like to volunteer for Track Talk or the Spiked
th Shoe Society, or if you can help the Spiked Shoe Society in other
This was the 13 consecutive year the Tribe has competed
ways, please contact Ken Halla at kenhalla@gmail.com.
in the NCAA Championships.
The College of William and Mary 1st Class Mail
Post Office Box 8795 U.S. Postage Paid
The Spiked Shoe Society Williamsburg, VA
W&M Athletics Permit #26
Williamsburg, VA 23187-8795