It was a strategy he carried into the race that paid off. Before the meet, he and his coach decided that Mazzocco should take off at the four-mile mark and say "catch me if you can."
This was a change in strategy due to the additional length of a 10,000 meter (6.2 mile) race. This was Mazzocco's first 10K race of the year.
He accommodated nicely, noting that he ran off adrenaline from the encouragement of a few onlookers to pull away from a tight pack and beat Villanova standout runner Jonathan Fasulo by four seconds.
"I'm happy with it. I was pretty nervous [before the meet] and I was trying to relax and thinking of ways not to screw it up [during the meet]," Mazzocco said.
His teammates did their part, as a happy Groves noted that this was the first meet in which the team ran to its potential.
Senior Chris Pruitt followed Mazzocco, finishing in 35th place (31:29). Junior Joel Moceri took 39th (31:33), senior Josh Loren took 46th (31:44), and freshman Dan Diechert finished out the scoring in 66th (32:08).
Villanova was the big winner on the day team-wise, taking first with 55 points, beating out Georgetown (57), Princeton (91) and American University (95). The Lions finished the meet with 187 points.
As Mazzocco stood around after the meet, he smiled and chatted politely with those offering congratulations on a job well done. On this day, he deserved every last one.
"He has a unique ability to pull himself together for thirty minutes at a time," Groves concluded.
