Final Thoughts

Below are some snippets from stories about athletes who ran for area colleges.

The first comes from Jim Lambert of the Star-Ledger, who is passionate about his coverage of the New Jersey track & field scene. After Rutgers' graduate Julie Culley won the 5,000-meter run to advance to the 2012 London Games, Lambo wrote:

I was so jacked after Culley's performance that I wore green and yellow socks (North Hunterdon's colors) and a Rutgers track t-shirt when I went on a run yesterday. When my watch hit 15:13, I stopped and thought about how awesome it must be to be Julie Culley right now.

Running Times Magazine had Columbia graduate Liam Boylan-Pett writing pieces for the mag and he gave some insight into his experience in the 1,500-meter semifinals, writing:

A 1500m race that goes out slow is simultaneously the best and worst thing in the world. Running a 65-second lap when you’ve prepared your body to run somewhere in the 56-60 range feels as easy as an early morning shakeout. But in the pack, the mood is eerie, because you know that at any point someone might go. You are on pins and needles.

And finally Mark Ziegler of the San Diego Union-Tribune took a close look at the women's 1,500-meter champion Morgan Uceny, who ran at Cornell. Only now, living in Southern California, has she begun to realize how 'country' Indiana is. Here's Ziegler's lede:

Morgan Uceny grew up in Plymouth, Ind., with a population of 10,033 and a high school basketball gymnasium that seats 4,600. So when she won the Indiana state cross country title as a freshman and then quit as junior to focus on basketball, well, that’s what you do in rural Indiana.

You also raise goats and steers for the annual 4H competition at the county fair (she won that a few times, too).

“People think we’re country,” Uceny said. “I didn’t think we were that country. Now that I live in San Diego, I’m like, ‘OK, maybe we’re a little country.’”