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Recent News and Updates - E-mail
cquick@d211.org
Sunday, August 26, 2007 - First
Competitions are Next Week
Our first two competitions are next week, and
I could not be happier with the way that this team is shaping up from top to
bottom. Saturday's workout was a true momentum builder after an
arduous week of bad weather and cancelled practices. We managed to
keep our mileage up though, and if we string together a bunch of practices
like Saturday we will be tough to beat at all levels. Very exciting.
Championship Mentality
I have talked to you guys before about how
Championship Standards = Championship Results. I ran across this quote
below in an article that Coach Bush posted on our message board. It is
from US 5K runner Matt Tegenkamp as he prepares to race the best in the
world at the ongoing Osaka World Track and Field Championships. Check
it out:
"I think if I go there and run the way I’m supposed to and do
what I have been doing, I should make the final—hopefully get in there with
the big guys and mix it up and see what I can do. It is the final of the
World Championship and if I do get into the final, I want to go there and
really mix it up. I want to run a smart race, but when the time is right,
I’ll be up there in the front, trying to compete with the best." - Matt
Tegenkamp
I love the absolute defiance of this
quote. Teg is not favored to medal, but he is well-prepared and
prepared to risk something. His belief in himself is strong, and he
knows the virtue of being right up front competing with the best.
Let's grab this same "go for it" attitude as we head into our competition
season. You guys are in great shape. Now have the courage to use
it. Can you tell I'm excited yet?
Driving Directions - I put hyperlinks
on the schedule to the left that lead you to rough directions for each of
our meets.
Mileage and Archive Updates -
Week 1 and
Week 2 mileage has
been posted, and I threw the most recent news into an
archive page.
Our mileage is pretty close to that of last year's team despite having to
miss almost two full days of practice in the middle of Week 2. Summer
mileage counts need to be finalized by this Friday. Bring your charts
to Friday morning practice and we'll post them on the CC board to show
everyone all of the work that we put in this summer.
Sunday, August 19 - First Workout
Results
I'll post some observations and analysis of
Week One later, but here are the results of our annual
3 x mile
with the girls team. We had a phenomenal workout, equaled only by
our 2004 team that placed 2nd in the state. Thirteen guys averaged
under 5:20 per rep, and Mat Smoody demolished the all-time record of 14:29
set by Glenn Morris before that 2004 season. Smoody ran 4:31, 4:42,
4:33 for a time of 13:46. Check out this year's result as well as past
years in the Workout section.
Workout Observations
You know that the team had a phenomenal
workout when I start to try and figure out how we possibly could have run so
fast. Short course? Spikes? Good weather? I think
the latter two may have been a factor compared to other years, but the
biggest factor is probably the ridiculous amount of mileage put in by the
guys this summer. Some of you made incredible leaps, and I am now
excited to get to the first meet and see whether recent good workouts will
lead to solid early races. It is starting to get exciting. Here
are some of my highlights from Saturday:
 | Only two sophomores have ever broken
16:00 in this workout in the six years that we have done it.
Glenn Morris ran 15:36 to set the previous sophomore best, but we had
three athletes break that mark on Saturday: Chano Bernardo (15:06 -
5:02, 5:10, 4:54), Alec Bollman (15:11 - 5:10, 5:02, 4:59), and Jeff
Larson (15:29 - 5:19, 5:04, 5:06). What great potential for the
coming season! |
| Our depth is way better than last year
(or any year for that matter). We had 13 guys under 5:20, and we
had eight guys in front of last year's third man (Dettloff in 15:19).
This competitive mix of guys should push us to be a great varsity
team. |
| Juan Perez (15:09) and Adam Bethke
(15:08) are the most improved juniors with Luke Kierys (15:28) not far
behind. Those times put those guys on par with other juniors who
have been major top five contributors in the past. |
| Our incoming freshmen ran great.
A.J. Laskowske ran an identical time to two other great freshmen for
us (his brother Tom and Glenn Morris), and he wasn't even the top
freshman. Erik Bethke had a great workout to break 17:00.
In fact, Erik was the first freshman ever to average under 5:40 per
mile. Congrats! |
| Our freshmen who ran the 6 x 800
workout turned in incredible results. It is clear to me now that
having more incoming freshman run in our 6th-8th grade Early Bird
program is paying off. At least 10 freshman came at various
times this summer, and that work is starting to pay off. Reuben
Frey (17:45) and Sam Kwak (17:47) broke 18:00, and Lucas Roehrborn was
close behind at 18:02. Baumgartner, Keurschner, Allen, Gates,
and Snowden all broke 20:00. |
| Check out some grade comparisons for
this year's seniors:
- Smoody - Jr (14:30), So (16:14), Fr (19:52 in 800s)
- O'Brien - Jr (16:23 in 800s), So (16:13), Fr (17:54)
- Mourousias - Jr (16:00), So (17:09), Fr (19:03 in 800s)
- Lopez - Jr (15:44), So (17:30), Fr (19:56 in 800s)
- Conley - Jr (17:51), So (19:18), Fr (23:36 in 800s)
- Anderson - Jr (19:24), So (22:09), Fr (24:45 in 800s)
- Kwak - Jr (no run), So (no run), Fr (25:08 in 800s)
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| Our depth is pretty strong in our
sophomore class. Mike Grobner ran 16:34 coming back from injury,
and both Justin Smith (16:38) and Tirth Patel (16:53) were under
17:00. Brian Sund also had his best workout of the year to run
17:00. All of these guys worked hard over the summer and will
surprise some people with their improvements. |
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Devil's Lake - Team Trip Picture (Thanks Sean McCauley)
Our two team trips this summer took us to
Wisconsin and Michigan. The pic above is from our first trip to
Devil's Lake. Many thanks go out to Scott Starcevich, Steve Mourousias,
Howard Larson, Gerry O'Brien, and Matt Sheehan for driving and serving as
chaperones. We had a ton of fun, highlighted by our midnight hike,
bouldering up the cliffs, and running a savage 16 x uphill at the
Ampitheater Hill. It was so savage that I killed my patellar tendon
and haven't been able to run since! Thankfully, the boys were okay and
worked hard.
Our second trip was the now traditional
adventure up to Coach Miller's cottage in Michigan for Camp Sand. We
had a lot of fun, running 49 miles in four days and getting to know each
other a lot better (especially when it rained and we all had to cram in the
cabin). Camp Sand saw an expanded edition of the Sugar Bowl run with
the varsity taking on the sand mountain at the end of an 8 mile hill run.
Kevin O'Brien made it up to the top first, coming within a minute of Steve
Finley's Sugar Bowl record. The other trip highlight was the great 25
x 400 workout we ran on the last day there. Everyone sucked it up and
all 13 guys ran under 80 the whole time with 10-11 averaging under 75
seconds with 75 seconds of rest. Not bad for a bunch of dead-legged
guys!
Cross Country Team Philosophy
I was flipping through the article collection I made a
couple
years ago and thought that I would put the stuff I wrote out here in web
form. Under the CC Team Philosophy link, I have
compiled all of my writing from Running the Pirate Way. It is
much more effective just to put it out here than print new copies each
year. If any of you have stories or pieces to add just send them along
to cquick@d211.org.
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