Posted on Jan 1, 1999

A week before John Glenn went back into space,
another space pioneer came to campus to help launch the F.W. Olin Center.

Harrison Schmitt, the last of twelve men to walk on the
moon, said he, too, would love to go back into space.

“But I'd have to talk with my wife first,” he
added. “She says I can't go without her.”

Schmitt — geologist, former U.S. Senator, adjunct
professor at the University of Wisconsin, and advocate of using lunar resources — spent
the day at Union talking to audiences that ranged from fifth-graders to members of the
College's Board of Trustees.

In a morning talk to more than 100 fifth-graders from
local elementary schools, Schmitt made traveling to space sound awesome and possible by
anyone.

When he asked the children whether they wanted to go the
moon or Mars someday, dozens of hands shot up. Schmitt replied that they might not only
travel there but live there. “By the time you're ready to go to the moon, fifteen or
twenty years from now, it may be much more routine,” he said.

The pupils peppered Schmitt with questions. He said the
greatest hardship was trying to move his hands in the bulky gloves astronauts had to wear,
and he delighted the children with space trivia — the astronauts drank regular orange
juice, for example, not Tang; they kept comfortable with water-cooled underwear; the food
wasn't bad, except for the salmon salad; waking on the moon is similar to cross-country
skiing, except you can go six times faster than you can on Earth; and water or urine that
was jettisoned from the spaceship provided a spectacular display when it exploded in the
cold vacuum of space into atomized ice particles.

Schmitt and fellow Apollo 17 astronaut Gene Cernan spent
three days on the moon in 1972, exploring the valley of Taurus Littrow and returning with
more than 250 pounds of samples for study. After leaving NASA three years later, Schmitt
was elected to the U.S. Senate from his home state of New Mexico. Today, he consults,
speaks, and writes on policy issues of the future, space, and the American Southwest.

Later in the day, in a speech after the dedication of the
F.W. Olin Center, he donned his hat as chairman of Interlune Intermars Initiative, Inc., a
company that advances the private sector's acquisition of lunar resources and helium-3
fusion power.

Saying that an increased standard of living required more
energy, he said we should start thinking of alternatives to fossil fuels — specifically,
the helium-3 found on the surface of the moon.

“There are at least one million tons embedded in the
lunar surface,” he said. “When you consider that one metric ton of helium-3
equals $3 billion worth of coal, and that thirty tons would provide for the entire U.S.
consumption of electricity, you see that the moon could provide energy sources far into
the future for the entire world.”

He said a good deal of engineering work is yet to be done
on how to mine the moon, and the capital required is extensive — an estimated $15 billion
over the next ten to fifteen years.

“I know the private sector won't want to wait ten or
fifteen years for a return on its investment, but when you realize that the Trans-Alaska
pipeline was a $15 billion effort, we think that we're in the ballpark for private
developers,” Schmitt said.

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Posted on Jan 1, 1999

Nearing the finish line of a grueling five-mile cross country race, Peter Flynn '99 hits the gas one last time and surges to a close
third-place finish in the New York State collegiate meet.

He coasts to the end of the finish chute, congratulates his opponents, pauses a few
seconds to catch his breath, and sets out to cheer for his teammates.

Minutes later he is off to jog a cooldown and get ready for the next event — a concert
with the College Orchestra, in which he is principal cellist. For the remainder of the
weekend, he will join a classmate to work on a design report for a flame-extinguishing
robot that they are building over the Internet with students in Ankara, Turkey. Sometime
during the weekend, he will sleep.

Welcome to the routine of Peter Flynn — runner, cellist, and mechanical engineering
major.

“You can always get everything done by not sleeping, everything but run well, that
is,” Flynn says. “When you're not sleeping, you won't run your best.”

Flynn says he doesn't go out much at night because he doesn't want his performances to
be jeopardized by lack of sleep. Yet his final collegiate cross country race, the NCAA
regionals, came at the end of a particularly sleepless week. In the final week of the
ten-week fall term, Flynn and a classmate spent a number of near-sleepless nights
finishing their design report for their robot. What didn't help the sleep schedule was the
fact that much of the collaboration with their teammates in Turkey took place early in the
morning, since Ankara is seven hours ahead of Schenectady time.

At the regionals, Flynn finished tenth, just twelve seconds away from his goal of
qualifying for the NCAA national championships.

“Peter and his teammates were disappointed that he didn't advance to the
nationals,” Union Coach Charlie Casey says. “But this is the reality of running
in college. You do your best to juggle academics and running, and sometimes the running
suffers.

“When you stand back and take a look at Peter's entire season, he had a wonderful
year, perhaps the best of any Union runner in at least a decade,” Casey adds.

Among Flynn's accomplishments were third place in the New York State Collegiate Track
Conference championship, second place at the Upstate Collegiate Athletic Association
championship, third place at the Westfield (Mass.) Invitational, and second place at the
Union Invitational. Twice he was named “UCAA Runner of the Week,” and based on
his finish at the NCAA regionals he was named to the NCAA Division III All-Region Cross
Country Team. Flynn was the obvious choice for team MVP at season's end, and the student
newspaper, Concordiensis, named him “Athlete of the Term.”

Flynn, of Newton, Mass., took up the cello at age five. “Playing the cello was
inevitable,” he says. “My dad had the preconceived idea that everyone in the
family would play an instrument. Music was a very important part of growing up.”
(Flynn's father plays violin and viola; his mother, piano; his twin sister, viola; and an
older sister, violin.)

“Our family played string quartets at church and at family reunions just to show
off,” he recalls. “My dad would get us out of bed early on Sundays and make us
play as a family.”

Flynn played in the youth orchestra at the New England Conservatory and with the
Greater Boston Youth Symphony Orchestra. He continued once he arrived at Union, where most
of his fellow students didn't know he was an accomplished cellist until his sophomore
year, when he performed a Bach cello suite at the College's opening convocation.

Hours after crossing the finish line at the state meet, Flynn was with the orchestra
playing a concert of works by Beethoven and Dvorak. “All day, I was thinking, 'I have
to perform twice today,'” he says. “But with the concert, you have practiced and
you know how it will go. It's predictable. With the race, even though you have practiced
and you have a strategy, it's very unpredictable.”

Flynn is working with a computer systems major (Bill Desrochers '99) and a team of
engineers at Middle Eastern Technical University in Ankara, Turkey, to design and build a
robot that will autonomously locate and extinguish randomly-placed flames. Flynn and his
Union teammate (with six other Union students and two faculty) traveled to Turkey in
January to participate in the final competition.

Flynn says the toughest part of the project is communicating effectively with the
students in Turkey. “At times, progress seems slow, I guess because it incorporates
aspects of real-world problems that are not addressed in the classroom,” he says.

In addition to tutoring freshmen and sophomore mechanical engineering students, Flynn
has been spending thirteen hours per week as an intern at Encotech, a Schenectady
engineering firm that uses computer models to monitor and analyze power plant efficiency.
In the fall of his junior year, he gave up a cross country season to study engineering in
Prague, the Czech Republic. Last summer, the wanderlust took him on a seven-week,
12,000-mile cross country trip around the U.S., during which he tested himself on a
fourteen-mile run in the 112-degree heat of Glen Canyon, Utah.

As for his future, Flynn says he would like to travel for about a year and then return
to start a career in alternative forms of power generation. He also wants to continue with
the cello, playing a few hours each week to keep active. As for running — “I have
been considering how hard I would have to train to run a four-minute mile, but that would
be more of a stretch than a goal. But I would like to try the marathon in about ten
years.”

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Posted on Jan 1, 1999

Men's
basketball celebrates 100 years

Back on Feb. 3, 1899, the Union basketball team took to the court to play the Amsterdam
YMCA. This Feb. 3, Union played Williams in a game that marks 100 years of basketball at
the College. Here are some memories from that first century.

Then and now

Basketball has not always been the fast-paced, high-scoring sport we watch on ESPN.

In fact, James Naismith founded the sport simply to give bored athletes at the YMCA
International Training School in Springfield, Mass., something to do during the long New
England winter of 1891.

Basketball's popularity spread quickly and, because those early games were often
ruthless and brutal, changes came quickly. Wire cages were set up around the playing court
to prevent the frequent brawls among players from spreading into the stands — and to
protect the players from the fans who threw bottles and nails onto the court. Backboards
were added to prevent the fans in the balcony from leaning over and interfering with the
game, by the 1930s the rules prohibited contact, and in 1936 the center jump after every
basket was eliminated.

Union Head Coach Bob Montana believes that the components needed to succeed as a player
and a team have been constant throughout the history of basketball — basic skills,
basketball intelligence, mental and emotional toughness. “The biggest difference is
that athletes today are stronger, quicker, and more agile,” Montana says. “But
that doesn't mean their basic skill level (shooting and passing, for example) and 'feel'
for the game have grown. Those are still the areas that make the difference between a good
player and a bad one. Athletically, today's players are better, but that doesn't mean
they're better players.”

From big crowds …

In its heyday, basketball at Union had fans hanging over the balcony in Alumni
Gymnasium to watch the game, and in the early 1970s record-breaking crowds jammed Memorial
Field House.

Joe Milano '36 — at 6'3″, the tallest player on the Union team — averaged 10
points per game, comparable to today's 25 or 30 points a game. He says that there were
basketball teams everywhere in the Capital District — YMCA, YMHA (Young Men's Hebrew
Association), General Electric, amateur, semi-professional, professional, and college
teams — and that the Union team even had male cheerleaders. Milano recalls handing his
gym bag to about half a dozen children waiting outside before a game and having them carry
his bag, gaining them free admittance. When the administration caught on to that trick, he
snuck the children in through the locker room window.

When the basketball team first moved into the field house in 1954, the court was
surrounded by a dirt track. As the crowds grew from into the thousands, the field house
became a dust bowl, with dirt everywhere — in the air and on the courts. Manager Paul
Rieschick '74 recalls having to sweep and mop the floor between halves.

During the 1972 season, the Dutchmen's games were broadcast on WGY radio, along with
the New York Knicks. When a snowstorm forced a game with Hamilton to be rescheduled to a
time when the Knicks also were playing. WGY chose the Union game.

That same season ended with a loss at the University of Rochester, ending a 15-game win
streak. As the team bus returned to Union at 3:15 in the morning, the players were told
there was a huge gathering at the Chi Psi fraternity. WGY had announced that the party was
open to the campus, the community, and to the players' families — and they were all at
Chi Psi to celebrate the end of a very impressive season.

Bob Pezzano '72, team captain, says, “To see how the campus and the community
supported us, and to see the bleachers expanded to support the crowds, was amazing. It was
hard to accept that we couldn't go to the NCAA tournament (due to league regulations), but
I feel very fortunate to be there when the team was turning around.”

… to smaller crowds

Since the late 1970s, attendance has declined to the point where games now attract 100
to 200 fans. Most observers tend to blame the introduction of televised basketball and the
ease of watching the Chicago Bulls or Duke vs. North Carolina. It takes a special event —
the night in 1981, for example, when Joe Cardany '81 was honored as Union's all-time
leading scorer — to fill the field house. Joe Wood '84, a member of that team, remembers,
“It was a very nice gesture for the community and students to come and honor
Cardany's college years. It was a really good night for the basketball program.”

Head Coach Bob Montana says the challenge is to bring the interest level back and to
get the students involved. “The interest in basketball is out there. You just need to
get them away from ESPN and to the field house. You need the students first, and the
community will come.”

A hockey town?

Perhaps a bigger “culprit” affecting the basketball crowds is hockey. The
basketball Dutchmen had packed houses through 1975, but in 1976 the crowd was cut in half
when hockey arrived at Achilles Rink — despite the basketball team's fine record of 18-6.

There are those who say the Capital District is a “hockey town” at heart. In
addition to Division I hockey programs at Union and RPI (which has won national
championships in the sport), the area has two minor-league hockey teams, high school
hockey programs that have produced state champions. and thriving hockey programs for
youngsters of all ages.

The priorities of the media reflect that change. Until the early 1980s, the local media
would give full coverage of the upcoming Union basketball season on Thanksgiving Day.
Nowadays, the sports pages and sports shows on television tend to focus on hockey and the
Division I basketball program at Siena.

Storytelling

From a Concordiensis story about Union's second game ever — a 35-5 loss on Feb. 10,
1898, to the Sitterlee Hose Co.:

“A large crowd was present, and it is but justice to say that the visiting team
was remarkably well treated. At the conclusion of the game, a banquet was tendered them by
the members of the hose company at their house. L.E. Montgomery, an old Union man,
presided and cordially welcomed the visitors. A musical entertainment followed the
banquet.”

Joe Milano '36, Ray McDowell '35, Jack Moffett '35, and Ralph Semerad '35, used to
travel home together after practice. They would pile into Milano's car and head to Mr.
Blue's — an emporium on Van Vranken where they each would have two beers apiece (at five
cents a beer). The first beer would be accompanied by casual conversation; the second was
“technical,” when they would discuss that day's practice and what needed to be
fixed for the next session. When they were through, each player chipped in a nickel for
gas money.

 

In the 1930s, Coach Nels Nitchman once set a substitute into a game, but the team
captain, Ray McDowell, stunned everyone by refusing the substitute. McDowell, an older
player who had played semi-professional basketball before coming to Union, said, “Am
I the captain or am I not? I can choose to accept the sub or I can choose to refuse the
sub, and I choose to refuse him.” The very furious Nitchman stomped his foot in anger
— right into the water pail. When he tried to get his foot out, he splashed water
everywhere, and his foot remained stuck.

Jim Tedisco '72 helped keep the team loose by doing impressions of politicians,
television personalities, and, of course, the coaching staff. Then Head Coach Gary Walters
had a habit of belching, so Tedisco did his share of imitating these belches, as well as
Walters's pep talks. The antics meant that the team did its share of running as well as
laughing.

To earn extra money at Union, Tedisco was hired as the mailman. Because he was a local
resident, Tedisco did not get mail, and consequently he didn't much care if anyone else
did, either. He often put the mail under his bed and took a nap. People would pound on his
door, demanding their mail, only to get a response such as, “Yeah, I'll deliver it
when I get a chance.” There were many times when students did not get their mail
until midnight.

Tedisco managed to come up with a story for every time he came late to practice, but
there was one time he was not so lucky. Tedisco lived at home in Rotterdam and would
commute to class and practice. On his way to practice one Saturday, he got stuck in a
parade. Needless to say, the coach did not believe his story, made the rest of the team
run laps, and kicked Tedisco out of practice.

The Concordiensis had a computer play a simulated game between two of the greatest
Union teams — the 19-3 team of 1971-72 with Tedisco and the 20-4 team of 1974-75 with
John Denio '76. The game was close throughout and came down to the last play. Tedisco
charged Denio and sent him to the foul line, costing Tedisco's team the victory by one
point. Tedisco commented, “That was before they made good software.”

Joe Wood '84 recalls a funny moment involving Joe Clinton '83. The Dutchmen had played
a game Friday night and had to travel five hours the next day to play New England College.
When they arrived, Clinton pointed to a spot on the floor about 40 feet away from the
basket and said he was going to take a shot from that spot because he was angry at Head
Coach Bill Scanlon for making them travel so far. Sure enough, two minutes into the game,
Clinton launches a ball from that exact spot. While his teammates thought it was
hilarious, Scanlon was furious and took him out of the game.

 

The shots heard round the field house

The late Bob Ridings was well known for firing the cannon at Union football games. On
Feb. 19, 1972, Union defeated Hamilton 110-79 in front of a crowd of 3500-4000 people. To
everyone's surprise — and shock — Ridings shot off that cannon in the Field House to
celebrate the team's 14th straight win. That same game was Jim Tedisco's last home game,
and Coach Gary Walters told the team at halftime that if they got their lead to 30 points,
Tedisco “can have some fun.” Tedisco pulled out all the stops and ended with 41
points, many of them long jumpers that would be considered three-pointers today.

Hitting the big time

During the mid-1970s, the Dutchmen made their debut in Sports Illustrated when the
magazine noted that the starting lineup came from large families. Bill Carmody '75, now
the head coach at Princeton University, came from a family of 11 children, and John Denio
'76, now an assistant professor at Albany College of Pharmacy, came from a family with 18
children. There were no twins or triplets.

The Dutchmen made their second appearance in Sports Illustrated a short while later.
The first names of 12 of the 13 players on the team began with a “J” — and
there were moments when all five players on the court were named Joe. “I tried to be
personable as a coach,” says then Head Coach Bill Scanlon, “but with so many
people with the same names, I had to go by their last names.”

Tedisco, now a New York State Assemblyman, broke all of Union's scoring records and was
named an All-American. During the 1998 NCAA Final Four in Indianapolis, Tedisco was
honored with the National Association of Basketball Coaches Silver Anniversary Award. Each
year, the NABC selects five All-American players from 25 years previous who excelled in
basketball and have contributed to their community. Tedisco was the first Division III
athlete to be honored.

Bill Carmody '75 and Coach Gary Walters both left Division III basketball and headed to
Princeton and the Ivy League. Walters is now the athletic director for the Tigers and
Carmody is the head coach of the men's varsity basketball team. Walters coached Union from
1970-73 and compiled a record of 53-13. Carmody, who played backcourt for Walters, has not
lost an Ivy League game in two years as head coach at Princeton. Princeton and Union had
their first meeting since March 20, 1920, with a game at Princeton on Jan. 25.

Three alumni with basketball connections made it to the pros — although it's not quite
what you might think. Joel Fisher '76 is now vice-president of Madison Square Garden; Paul
Rieschick '74 was the minor league general manager for the Visalia (Calif.) Mets after he
graduated; and Dave Dagostino '95 played minor league baseball with the Rhode Island Tiger
Sharks.

In the 1930s, John Fink '26, Ambrose Gilligan '26, and Sig Makofski '26 (an
All-American who later coached Mont Pleasant High School in Schenectady to a record of
461-35) often played in games against professional teams of that time, such as the
Schenectady Pros, the Troy Haymakers, and the New York (now Boston) Celtics, who played in
the Gloversville Armory. Joe Milano '36 played a bit of professional basketball in his
time and remembers making, at best, five dollars a game.

Students and athletes

Head Coach Bob Montana says that Union has been fortunate over the years to have had
some wonderful basketball players.

“To me, what makes them special, though, is that they are student-athletes, not
just athletes.” he says. “Basketball here feeds your passion for the game and,
at the same time, it develops qualities that will help throughout life.”

To make his point, he points to a list of basketball alumni from the past 25 years and
what they are doing now. The list includes teachers, lawyers, business executives,
engineers, doctors, a politician, and — yes, a few basketball coaches.

 

Stats to note

Union vs. the Ivy League

vs. Brown — 2-2 (last game 1927)

vs. Columbia — 1-11 (last game 1981)

vs. Cornell — 0-6 (last game 1922)

vs. Dartmouth — 3-3 (last game 1946)

vs. Harvard — 0-1 (1930)

vs. Princeton — 3-1 (last game 1920)

vs. Yale — 1-4 (last game 1980)

Union vs. selected Division I teams

vs. Syracuse — 3-15 (last game 1946)

vs. Fordham — 0-1 (1927)

vs. NYU — 8-12 (last game 1995)

vs. Army — 10-8 (last game 1948)

vs. Navy — 0-1 (1921)

vs. St. John's — 3-3 (last game 1931)

vs. Seton Hall — 1-0 (1931)

Union vs. Capital District teams

vs. Albany — 12-31 (last game 1994)

vs. RPI — 87-71 (continuing)

vs. Skidmore — 14-7 (continuing)

vs. Siena — 6-2 (last game 1974)

Union records

Overall record — 865-829

Winningest percentage — .929 (13-1 in 1915)

Losingest percentage — .000 (0-15 in 1954)

Most lopsided score, winning — 110-54 (vs. Vassar, 1994)

Most lopsided score, losing — 9-72 (vs. RPI, 1908)

Most overtimes — Five overtime loss to Rochester on Feb. 15, 1985 was an NCAA Division
III record.

Tallest player — Dean Gallup, 6'10 (1979)

Longest rivalry — vs. RPI (87-71, from Feb. 17, 1899)

Most points by Union — 115 (to 105 for Hobart, Jan. 24, 1987)

Fewest points by Union — 0 (to 4 for Watervliet YMCA, Feb. 25, 1899)

1st game — Feb. 3, 1898

1st win — March 1, 1901

1st winning record — 7-2 in 1911

1st postseason — Won the Northeastern League Championship in 1915 with record of 13-1

Coaching highlight — On Dec. 12, 1994, Bill Scanlon becomes only the 36th Division III
coach to reach 300 victories.

 

Coming up: A silver anniversary for women

The women's basketball team at Union will celebrate its 25th anniversary next year. The
Dutchwomen became a varsity sport in 1975 and, despite many talented players, have had
only four winning seasons. The last winning season came in 1991-92 with a record of 12-11;
the overall record is 174-279.

Included on the list of individual talent is all-time leading scorer Robin Romer '92,
who had 1,738 points. Andrea Pagnozzi '94 had 1,324 points and Amy Hitz '97 had 1,088.
Romer also tops the single season scoring chart (512) and leads in career and season high
steals with 230 and 67, respectively. Hitz leads Union in career rebounds with 947, and
Barb Weisinger '87 leads in blocked shots with 184.

 

Stats:

Lowest scoring game — 22-113 vs. Berkshire Community College (Feb. 9, 1979)

Highest scoring game — 90-74 vs. Southern (Nov. 29, 1997)

Most lopsided game — 22-113 vs. Berkshire (Feb. 9, 1979)

 

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Posted on Jan 1, 1999

Pericles, the Athenian statesman, claimed that “out of the greatest dangers
communities and individuals acquire the greatest glory.” At least Thucydides, who
like all ancient historians put his own words into the mouths of individuals whom he
thought he “knew,” reported that Pericles said so in his history of the
Peloponnesian War.

While it is a stretch to compare Athens and Schenectady, perhaps there is more of a
connection than one might initially think. After all, Minerva is the patron saint of both
Union and Athens.

In any case, we have a real challenge at the College. Despite the fact that we have had
great success during the past decade on the admissions front, sixty percent of the
students who choose not to attend Union after they have been accepted have indicated that
Schenectady is the reason for their negative decision.

Through the efforts of Schenectady 2000, of which I am a cofounder and vice chairman,
we are trying to address the needs of the City, with a focus on a downtown revitalization
based on new jobs, a movie theater complex, a tradeshow center, and a transportation hub
that will make Schenectady the northern terminus of the high-speed train to New York City.
And through the program that we announced on October 27, and that is described in great
detail in this magazine, we will address the issues in the area known as Seward West.

Why? Because, whether individually or institutionally, we all have an obligation to
improve the communities of which we are a part. In this particular case, it is also in
Union's self interest, since there is little question that the well-being of Union will be
determined — to an extent — by the well-being of Schenectady.

What has been happening over recent decades in Schenectady is not unique, of course.
Like many small cities throughout the country, Schenectady faces problems that range from
rising unemployment to a slumping real estate market. Seward West — again, like many of
the neighborhoods in those small cities — has been a neighborhood in decline, and the
problems there, both real and perceived, have been a growing source of concern to students
and faculty — and to potential students and their families.

For those who might question why college resources should be spent on projects
peripheral to the educational mission of Union, the answer is clear: We have a need, if we
are to attract the best and brightest students, to make Schenectady as safe and attractive
as possible. And, from a purely practical standpoint, Union, as one of the healthiest
economic engines in the entire Capital District, can serve as a key vehicle for
encouraging private investment.

In this nation, we equate, all too often, wealth and quality. A foolish concept, but
one shared by many. As a result of that belief, colleges oftentimes spend as little as
possible of their endowments, so as to allow their endowments to grow. To some, therefore,
we should draw as little as possible from our endowment in order for it to grow and for us
to become richer, that is, better.

While I believe that endowments should grow by the rate of inflation (and, of course,
by further gifts), I also believe that we must draw from the endowment enough to
accomplish the purposes that donors had in mind in making their gifts. We should also be
willing, in special cases, to use the income and appreciation beyond inflation from
unrestricted gifts to advance the institution. Seward West is a case in point.

A prudent risk. That is how I would label such an investment. It and other prudent
risks should be taken by Union. While Union has measurably improved during the decade in
every respect, and I thank those of you who have expressed those views to me, we need to
do more if we are to break out of the educational pack. We will.

In his history of the Peloponnesian War, Thucydides also said that “an adversary
numerically superior comes into action trusting more to strength than to resolution, while
he who voluntarily confronts tremendous odds must have very great internal resources to
draw upon.” Through actions such as we have announced for Seward West, and so long as
we have the internal fortitude to pursue them, we can overcome the financial strength of
others.

Of course, we need to develop our own financial strength further. Our purpose, though,
must be more than to simply gather well. It must be to strengthen further this marvelous
institution to which we have been entrusted.

Roger H. Hull

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Posted on Jan 1, 1999

There's a saying among ultra-marathon runners: “It never always gets worse.”

It's a saying that Daniele Cherniak '83 and
Steve Szydlik '88 know well. Having
“been there, done that” about six times per year over the last decade in ultras,
they know a great deal about the grueling and often misunderstood sport. And now they are
among the world's best.

Last October, each was among the top American finishers at the 100-kilometer (62-mile)
world championships in Japan. On a hilly and scenic rural course, Cherniak finished eighth
among women in 8:45:23 while Szydlik was sixteenth among the men in 7:25:41. She led the
American women's team to a bronze medal; he led the men to a fourth-place finish.

An ultramarathon race is a test of endurance, strength, character, and patience. The
races are longer than the standard 26.2-mile marathon, and common problems include
dehydration, heat, indigestion, muscle pulls, muscle tightness, cramps, and exhaustion.
But by “running through the bad sections,” as Cherniak puts it, an ultrarunner
can “still recover and have a decent finish.” Szydlik agrees: “The nice
thing about an ultra is that you can feel awful and then it comes back.”

At Union, Cherniak and Szydlik enjoyed cross country and track, but the races — no
longer than 10 kilometers — never seemed long enough. “By the time the races were
over, I was just starting to get warmed up,” recalls Cherniak, who majored in
physics.

Szydlik, who graduated as co-valedictorian with a degree in mathematics, began
ultrarunning in 1989, the same year that he began his graduate work in mathematics
(“the multi-year ultra”). Cherniak, who also did a “multi-year ultra”
en route to a Ph.D in physics, did her first ultra in 1984, but injuries forced her to
keep the mileage down for the next five years. Since 1989, when she took up ultras again,
she has steadily improved. Now, after a decade of serious ultrarunning, she — like
Szydlik — is on the world list.

Ultramarathons are run on roads, trails, and tracks. They can be point-to-point, or
held on loop courses. Rules allow runners to “go as you please,” meaning they
may take walking breaks, pause to drink or eat and even sleep. The only penalty from a
break is the time a runner adds to his or her finish time. Runners compete over a set
distance (such as 50 kilometers, 50 miles, or 100 kilometers) or attempt to cover the
greatest possible distance over time (such as twenty-four hours, forty-eight hours, or six
days).

The sport enjoys little media attention or commercial support. Runners like Cherniak
and Szydlik pay for much of their own traveling expenses with some support from running
clubs, ultrarunning organizations, and race organizers.

How do you bring yourself to run for longer than most people sleep at night? Training.
Lots of training. For Szydlik, that means running about 100 miles per week, including long
runs of 30 or more miles on the weekends. Cherniak runs twice daily, accumulating between
120 and 140 miles per week. Szydlik's running career has seldom been interrupted by
injuries, but Cherniak has not been so lucky. Her worst injury, she says, came in 1996 at
the world championships in Moscow, when a stress fracture (a microscopic break) turned
into a full fracture. The broken and displaced bone kept her on crutches for seven weeks.
Six months later, however, she was back to racing ultras.

Training means a huge time commitment (it can take twelve or thirteen hours per week to
train 100 miles), but both runners are blessed with flexible work schedules. Cherniak, a
research physicist at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, usually hits the treadmill for up
to an hour before work in the morning and does a second run on roads for up to two hours
in the afternoon. Szydlik, a mathematics professor at the University of Wisconsin,
Oshkosh, sandwiches his runs among lectures, office hours, and research.

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Posted on Jan 1, 1999

Michael Newell '74 does more at Union now
than he ever did as a student.

The father of three Union students (Jessica '98, now in the Master of Arts in Teaching
program; Jeremy '00; and Sarah '02), an
ardent Union football fan, an active member of the Chemistry Alumni Society, and treasurer
of the Alumni Council, Newell finds himself on campus often.

As a married student, Newell lived off campus with his wife, Karen, and had little
interest in extracurricular activities. In the 1980s, he became involved with Union again,
first by attending football games.

“The games were another thing I could enjoy with my kids,” he says. “It
just got to be a regular thing.” Newell hasn't missed a home football game in years,
and the family regularly gathers from different corners of campus to cheer on the
Dutchmen.

Newell, a chemistry major, began a doctoral program in the subject at the University of
Georgia before deciding that what he really wanted was a sales position that would
incorporate his technical background in chemistry.

“I liked the independence and the fact that it was different everyday,” he
says. “And I liked that there was some connection between effort and income.”

Newell has been in sales and marketing for several high-technology chemical
instrumentation companies for the past twenty years with a focus on new businesses. He now
works for Rheodyne, a company that produces high-technology valves that are a component of
instrumentation for chemistry and biotechnology. Although he travels extensively
throughout the United States, he uses his home in nearby Charlton, N.Y., as his main
office since it gives him the opportunity to spend more time with his family and maintain
his 200-year-old home (the house has been in his wife's family for about fifty years).

Working from home also means that Newell has a better chance to be outside, whether
it's fishing, hunting, backpacking, or canoeing. A longtime lover of nature, he is a
licensed New York State outdoor guide and past president of the New York State Outdoors
Guide Association. For a short time, he ran a small, part-time company with a friend that
offered guided trips.

The idea for the company came on a hunting trip with some friends. “We were
sitting on the shore of Indian Lake and it was thundering and lightening to beat the
band,” he explains. “We were all under this huge tarp with a fire at one end and
a lantern at the other, sipping wine and eating hors d'oeuvres. It was then that somebody
said to me, 'Wow. You really know how to set a camp. I'd almost pay for this.'”

Newell was careful not to push his children to attend his alma mater. “I think
that Union is a great place to get an education and learn how to think, but the kids
always knew that they had the choice to go wherever they wanted,” he says.

All three of Newell's children have thrived at Union, he says. Jessica was a resident
assistant for two years, was active in the Philomathean Society, and did extensive
research with faculty in the Civil Engineering and Geology Departments; now working on her
master's in teaching, she teaches earth science at Schenectady High School. Jeremy has
worked as a research fellow for two summers with Professor Andreas Kriefall in the English
Department, is active in the College Republicans and the Philomathean Society, and is a
student writer for the Sports Information Office. Sarah is also involved in the College
Republicans, the Philomathean Society, and is a sports information student writer, but is
also a member of COCOA House (Children of Our Community Open to Achievement), an
after-school mentoring program, and is a writer for Concordiensis.

Karen, Mike's wife, worked to put Mike through Union but went back to college herself
when the children were in school. “She was a great role model for the kids because
they were old enough to see their mother going to college and working so hard at it. I
think it reinforced their work ethic,” he says.

Newell's children all say that they might one day encourage their children to seriously
consider attending Union — or at least go to the football games. “I can definitely
see that happening,” says Jessica. “There is such a big love for this school in
our family.”

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