Coach Patrick Castagno has brought his Tatnall girls to the McDonald's X-Country Festival at Maymont for the past two years and the meet certainly has served a middle of the season measuring point for the top team in the state of Delaware against some of the best teams in the Southeast region. Tatnall finished second In 2006 and sixth in 2007 at Maymont, but their best performances came toward season's end after Maymont to help qualify them for Nike Team Nationals both seasons.
The girls from Wilmington, Delaware have to very encouraged at the potential for this year's group after starting off their 2008 season with a huge win at Maymont on Saturday over nationally ranked and Southeast #1 ranked Collins Hill of Georiga on sixth runner tiebreaker. MileStat.com's Brandon Miles interviews Coach Castagno after their season opening win at Maymont.
MileStat.com: Coming into the meet, what were your expectations of your girls team?
Coach Castagno: Since this was our first 5K invitational of the season, we simply wanted to have a solid performance and finish feeling like we did well overall - #1 through #7.
MileStat.com: Immediately after the race, did you realize how close it could be with your team and Collins Hill?
Coach Castagno: We tried to tabulate the score on our own after the race but we must have missed one or two CH girls in the chute because we had our score at about 10 points more than Collins Hill. We figured it was close but didn’t think we few enough points for the win.
MileStat.com: What individuals on your team did you think really stepped up to help you knock off the Southeast #1 ranked squad?
Coach Castagno: We gave our athlete of the week award on the team to a freshman, Haley Pierce, who ran last year with us as an 8th grader. She really stepped up her game and decided she was going to take it out with our top two girls. She PR’d by 40 seconds over her time from last year and placed 8th in the race (our 3rd girl). In addition to Haley, our #2 runner, Katie Buenaga, also had a lifetime PR and ran with confidence. She placed 7th overall. All the girls ran strong but these two had nice breakout races.
MileStat.com: Do you think the experience racing at Maymont in past years for some of your runners helped in your team's win?
Coach Castagno: Our kids really like this Maymont trip and get excited about it every year. Most of the team knew the course but we like running it on Friday afternoon then discussing it and our strategy in our team meeting in the hotel before they go to sleep. The Maymont experience is a season highlight for us. We tell the new kids that McDonald’s give out fries in the chute after you cross the line. We keep them going for a while with that one.
MileStat.com: What is it about Maymont event that keeps the Tatnall team coming back year after year?
Coach Castagno: There are many things that keep us coming back. This is the most well run invitational we attend each year. We know that Dan Ward and the group of organizers go after good talent and ensure that the race keeps improving each year. We like the Maymont park too. The grounds are beautiful and the course is challenging. It is just a quality event that even our parents don’t mind driving 4.5 hours to watch their kids run. We had 21 parents and 29 runners attend this year!
MileStat.com: What did you think about the meet changes this year such as switching to chip timing as well as allowing unlimited entries in JV and freshmen races?
Coach Castagno: The chip timing was a nice addition and was just another improvement that helped speed up the posting of results and the accuracy of those results. Since we are a small school, the unlimited entries did not help us that much but is a huge draw for the bigger teams.
MileStat.com: What does a victory at Maymont do for the confidence of this team for the remainder of this season?
Coach Castagno: We are happy with this win and it has definitely helped draw us closer as a team but we understand that it really does not mean that much this early in the season. The SE regional meet is still 2 months away so we take our first meet as a starting point and go from there. Last year we were 6th in the invitational race here then made it all the way to NTN after placing second in the SE regional meet. A lot can happen in 2 months! Collins Hill has an amazing team with an excellent coaching staff. We know better than to think that a win here means we have arrived. We have a lot of work to do still and our girls are excited about the journey.
