Dan Piazza: SUNY Maritime Cross Country
By John M. Benson
November 2, 2007
Dan Piazza of Pawling has helped the SUNY Maritime Cross Country Team win the first Skyline Conference of New York championship by any Maritime team in any sport in the history of the school.
Piazza graduated last fall with the Class of 2007 at Pawling High School. In his senior season at Pawling, Dan was a scoring member of the five-man team that placed a phenomenal second at the 2006 New York State Cross Country Championships held at Warwick Valley, with teammates Colby Delbene (state second as an individual), Rafael Stabe, Reid McGrath and Jon Nash.
Dan also holds the Pawling High School record in the pole vault.
Jack Power, Piazza's cross-country and pole vault coach at Pawling High School, said upon hearing of Dan's success at Maritime, "That's great news. Dan always had the potential to be a good runner at the 8K distance. Three miles was just too short for him. Now that he's focusing on distance running, not pole vaulting, it appears his running is really coming around. I think Dan will have a great career and only improve as he continues to run. We look forward to Dan joining us this summer. Having him around will be great for the younger kids, and it goes to show you that if you keep with it and continue to work hard as a runner, it'll eventually pay off."
Placing third for Maritime and tenth overall at the Skyline Championships held at Bard College, Piazza was a critical member of the Maritime team in just his freshman season.
Dan has been running as Maritime’s third man all season, with an average time of 331:15 for the 5.0-mile courses.
The Maritime team recorded 48 points, outrunning the second place team by 14 points. The men's team captured the first-ever Skyline Conference Championship, and for this achievement, the team has been named as Maritime's Athletes of the Week. Placing 1st out of 8 teams, Maritime had runners at 4th, 5th, 10th, 11th and 18th places, beating the 2nd-place Bard by 14 points for the win.
Three members of the team, Daniel Piazza, Clint Watson and Thomas Williams, were named to the All-Conference team for their top-10 finishes.
Piazza wrote to the Harlem Valley Herald after the conference championships,“Running at Maritime is very similar to my cross country career with coach Jack Power at Pawling High School. The team I am on now has only 10 guys on it, so it is small just like high school, and my coach was a runner himself when he was in high school and in college (D1 runner). The coach, James Driscoll, is tough but it is rewarding, and like Coach Power, Coach Driscoll loves to win.
“Also, the transition from a 5K (3.1) mile race to an 8K (5.0) mile race was not that bad. We kept up the miles this season, running over 480 miles between September 10, 2007 to October 20, 2007.
“This Saturday we will be running out Eastern Conference Athletic Championship (ECAC) in Massachusetts and then the following weekend we will be running at the Regional NCAA Meet at Van Cortland Park. These two meets are being run for fun and the experience. It’s impressive how we started the year off with no coach, and ended the year with Maritime's 1st Skyline Championship. Overall, we had a great season and I am sure over the next four years our success rate will only improve.”
Piazza plans to enter the United States Coast Guard upon graduation from Maritime College.
Senator Vincent Leibell obtained the prestigious scholarship to Maritime College for Piazza through the Cadet Appointment Program of the New York State Legislature.
|
