Jake Marren

September 8, 2003

It is hard to predict the success of an entire season from Saturday's performance. What was easy to discern is the fantastic character of this team.

I have never entered a season with so much confidence in a group of athletes and friends. Saturday's victory was not nearly as important as the affirmation of a long summer's training and establishing a base upon which to build our goals. I would like to honor a few of my friends in this little entry for their contributions to the team and all the hard work they put into creating a great program.

When the team met for training camp in August, the best surprise was to see my old friend Paul Tufaro well conditioned and most importantly, excited about running. Indeed this is the sense I get from all of the returning seniors. Phil, Adam, Paul and Hugo all returned in fantastic shape. I can't express how great it is, after three years of ups and downs, the possibility of all five of us ending our careers running our best.

Our freshmen also have me very excited. Rob Leventhal cracked our top seven in his first collegiate meet ever. Kudos!

Now that camp, the first week of classes, and the first race have passed, the team needs to get focused on the long season ahead. Soon the freshmen will all have their animal names and despite all the excitement and fun that accompanies the beginning of the season, we need to be patient and prepare diligently for the things that truly matter.

Winning the University of the South Invite certainly was fun but as my old high school coach used to say, "They don't hand out the gold medals in September". Anyway, they asked me to write these entries until November, so we will try to save the best material for then.

Jake Marren is a senior from Jacksonville, Fla. He would love to answer e-mail questions from Emory recruits and fans.