September 27, 2008

WYSS LEADS RAMS TO VICTORY AT GREENSBORO INVITE
Black and Gold claim five of top-10 spots

GREENSBORO, N.C. – Given Jay Wyss’ recent running schedule, racing for eight kilometers must have seemed like an easy day in the park.

Wyss, a senior from Richmond’s J.R. Tucker High, led the Virginia Commonwealth University men’s cross country team to victory on Saturday in the university division of the 25th annual Greensboro Cross Country Invitational.

Wyss covered the course in 26 minutes, 15 seconds to win comfortably by 15 seconds. Teammates Piotr Dybas (3rd), Joey Wingo (6th), Stephen Mutisya (7th) and Tim Rusterholtz (10th) also finished in the top 10.

The Rams had 27 team points to finish ahead of North Carolina Central and North Carolina A&T in the 18-team event.

Wyss just finished a segment of training that had him running 12-15 miles daily for 12 weeks.

“The idea,” he explained, “is to get yourself strong and, once you take a step back, you’ll reap the benefits of that as you refresh your legs. I never really had to push (today). It is a nice feeling, a nice way to win a race.

“It was like a workout. We ran the same pace in a workout this week. In fact, the race was a little bit slower.”

Head coach Julian Spooner expected his team to win the meet. The Rams won it the previous three seasons. He wanted his runners to do more than win – he wanted them to run well as they continue to prepare for the Colonial Athletic Association championships scheduled Nov. 1 in Manassas.

“We run well in this meet every year,” Spooner said. “We like the course. It is a true cross country course – the mud, the woods, a little bit of everything. It is tough. The surface is good.

“We’re right where we want to be at this point in the season. Tyler and Stephen are ailing a little bit but they did a good job of toughing it out. I think my guys are running very well.”

Spooner said Wyss was “very controlled. We all started out slow. We were way back. Then we started moving up. Jay was in 16th placed at the mile. He kept moving up and took over with about two miles to go. He won pretty comfortably, had a couple more gears left. I’m happy with everybody. For the time of year and the way we’ve been working, it was a good day.”

Said Wyss, “It was just a stepping stone along the way for myself and everyone on the team as we make progress toward the conference meet. We’re hoping for a strong finish.”