The women’s indoor track team sent only one of its members, Ellen Davis ’07, to the NCAA Division III Championships in Terre Haute, Indiana on March 9-10, and she returned to Middletown as a national champion.
Davis completed the 5,000-meter event in a scorching 16:43.73, breaking her own team record of 16:46.61 by nearly three seconds and crossing the finish line 7.52 seconds ahead of her nearest pursuer, Shauneen Garrahan of Amherst who finished in a time of 16:51.25.
“I think that Ellen’s career really tells you what hard work can do,” said Coach John Crooke.
Crooke, the head coach for the cross-country teams and an assistant track and field coach who works with the distance runners, described Davis as a solid but unheralded high school runner who blossomed into one of the nation’s best distance runners.
“She made a decision pretty early on in her career that she wanted to become good,” Crooke said. “After a year, I told her she could win a National Championship one day. It’s exciting to see people do things that maybe they thought they couldn’t do when they first came to school here, and I’m very proud that I could help her in some way. It definitely shows what you can do with some talent and hard work.”
Davis earned All-American honors in the indoor track 5k for the third year in a row, as she finished fourth in the nation last year and eighth in 2005.
“Ellen is amazing,” said teammate Megan Kretz ’07. “She has been able to consistently improve each and every season. I remember her school record-breaking 5k from sophomore year. Her Nationals time this year was nearly 30 seconds faster that that.”
Davis also became just the second national champion in history of the Cardinal indoor track team, joining Jenna Flateman ’04, who captured the 2003 Division III national title in the 55-meter dash.
“I’m still the same person,” Davis said. “It’s a miracle. Still just little old me. But it is great to have something like this to show for all the years of work.”
Aided by years of relentless training, Davis employed her winning strategy at Nationals.
“My plan was to pull away at a mile and a half,” she said. “Going any later would have been too risky with the likes of Catherine Beck [of Tufts] and Shauneen [Garrahan] in the race. I made my decisive move as planned. Shauneen tried to go with me for a while but then backed off. So I was pretty much on my own for the last mile or so [5,000 meters is approximately 3.1 miles], with the chase pack about 10 or 15 meters behind.”
Crooke said that he expected good things from Davis in the race because she said that her legs felt great the day before.
“She took a chance in the middle of the race,” Crooke said. “There are different ways to run a race. Her best bet is to use her strength and force the issue, and that’s what she did. Halfway through, she basically put the race away with some pretty fast laps. Her initial spurt in the middle of the race gave her a four or five-second lead, which grew to almost nine seconds.”
Graduate student Owen Kiely ’06, the men’s team’s lone qualifier for Nationals, witnessed the women’s 5k race.
“Ellen’s race was incredible, but we knew she was capable of it,” Kiely said. “What made it so incredible is that she had the confidence to go out and make the move that she did, on the biggest stage. There were girls in that field who have run 9:30 for 3k and sub 4:50 for the mile, and Ellen had the bravado to go for broke mid- race. She dropped a move that was so definitive and ballsy that no one was willing or capable of covering it.”
Davis entered the race seeded fourth, a testament to the depth of the 14 competitors she faced in the race.
“I went into the race respecting the abilities of all of my competitors, but knowing that I could race against the best of them,” Davis said.
Davis had especially high praise for Garrahan, a fellow Little Three competitor.
“Shauneen ran four outstanding races at Nationals, proving herself to be one of the very toughest distance runners in Division III, so I’ve got to say that it was an honor to even race against her,” Davis said.
According to Davis, there were several ingredients that contributed to her victory.
“Other than four years of hard work and stellar coaching, I would have to say that my 2.2 pre-race warm-up miles with the evermore studly All-American Wes Fuhrman [’05] was what put me in an unshakable position to run away with the win,” Davis said. “We made sure to leave 10 minutes earlier than I usually would so that my opponents would see us on our return to the track. And when they did, oh, they were fuming with jealous rage!”
Fuhrman, like Davis, was a stellar performer in cross-country and track during his time at Wesleyan, and he was on in hand in Indiana to watch Davis and Kiely run in their respective 5k races on March 10.
Kiely, who automatically qualified for the Division III Championships earlier in the year, when he set a men’s team record in the 5k with a time of 14:26.75, finished 11th in the nation with a time of 15:02.56.
“I got tired this season from going too long without a break, and by the time Nationals rolled around I was shot mentally and physically,” Kiely said. “As always, I have big plans for the spring, but this is my final time around so I’m going to have to make it count.”
During the outdoor track and field season, Davis plans to try something new by running in the 10k event.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if she breaks the school record in her first 10k race,” Kretz said. “A 10k outdoor championship is certainly within the realm of possibility, and knowing Ellen, the odds look good.”
Crooke echoed the sentiments of Kretz.
“She is definitely capable of another national championship,” he said.
The men’s and women’s outdoor track and field teams will kick off the season on Saturday at the Trinity Invitational in Hartford, CT.
“I think that the women’s team has the potential to put together a pretty phenomenal 4×800 team, and it would be great to run at least one of those [during the season], but as usual our team goal is to score as many points as possible at the [April 28] NESCAC meet,” Davis said.
definitive and ballsy that no one was willing or capable of covering it.“
Davis entered the race seeded fourth, a testament to the depth of the 14 competitors she faced in the race.
”I went into the race respecting the abilities of all of my competitors, but knowing that I could race against the best of them,“ Davis said.
Davis had especially high praise for Garrahan, a fellow Little Three competitor.
”Shauneen ran four outstanding races at Nationals, proving herself to be one of the very toughest distance runners in Division III, so I’ve got to say that it was an honor to even race against her,“ Davis said.
According to Davis, there were several ingredients that contributed to her victory.
”Other than four years of hard work and stellar coaching, I would have to say that my 2.2 pre-race warm-up miles with the evermore studly All-American Wes Fuhrman [’05] was what put me in an unshakable position to run away with the win,“ Davis said. ”We made sure to leave 10 minutes earlier than I usually would so that my opponents would see us on our return to the track. And when they did, oh, they were fuming with jealous rage!“
Fuhrman, like Davis, was a stellar performer in cross-country and track during his time at Wesleyan, and he was on in hand in Indiana to watch Davis and Kiely run in their respective 5k races on March 10.
Kiely, who automatically qualified for the Division III Championships earlier in the year, when he set a men’s team record in the 5k with a time of 14:26.75, finished 11th in the nation with a time of 15:02.56.
”I got tired this season from going too long without a break, and by the time Nationals rolled around I was shot mentally and physically,“ Kiely said. ”As always, I have big plans for the spring, but this is my final time around so I’m going to have to make it count.“
During the outdoor track and field season, Davis plans to try something new by running in the 10k event.
”I wouldn’t be surprised if she breaks the school record in her first 10k race,“ Kretz said. ”A 10k outdoor championship is certainly within the realm of possibility, and knowing Ellen, the odds look good.“
Crooke echoed the sentiments of Kretz.
”She is definitely capable of another national championship,“ he said.
The men’s and women’s outdoor track and field teams will kick off the season on Saturday at the Trinity Invitational in Hartford, CT.
”I think that the women’s team has the potential to put together a pretty phenomenal 4×800 team, and it would be great to run at least one of those [during the season], but as usual our team goal is to score as many points as possible at the [April 28] NESCAC meet,“ Davis said.
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