in meets by coach mike on 08 Sep 2007

Things change and not always for the better. Not to long ago, this was a big meet. Probably close to twenty teams. So big there were two open races. One for your JV team and another for the rest of your team. First thing that changed has been the numbers on each team. There was a time when there might be 20 plus guys on the boys team and 12 to 14 on the girls team. Now your lucky to have 7 girls and a dozen boys. This meet has a different format, its a flighted race. This means each team puts their number 7 in the first race and all the number 7′s race. Then you move onto the number 6′s and so forth. Makes for a long day, but can be very exciting. I remember going to the meet and watching that number 1 race with a pack of 10 good runners all together. Fighting for position, fighting for an inch. Fun to watch. Time has changed that. Other schools decided to have meets on the same day, some schools have went to different meets in the state, the teams from out of state, have started attending meets closer to home. So the meet is down to 6 teams on the boys side and 4 teams on the girls side. Its sad.

Like most meets there were good stuff for us and some bad, I have to say probably more good. We raced well, this format is tough on the kids, because if you have one runner that has a “bad” race it can kill you team wise. There is no where to hide! We battled today, Kubicki bounced back for his best race of the year, he was our only first place winner. Drew was solid again in the number 2 race. Nix raced very well in the number 3 spot. I decided to “bark” a little today at Nix, he was setting number 3 in his race, I ask him during the race, if he was going to give up or make a run at this guy. He didn’t answer me, I reminded him I wanted an answer! “Yes Coach” He finally caught him. Number one on the boys side was also a good race for 2nd place. Jordan and the Centralia runner was side by side the whole race. I knew Jordan was going to have problems with the finish, because he doesn’t have much of a kick, he needed to get away from him early, he wasn’t able to make that move, so he got out kicked. We talked after the race and he told me fear had held him back. Thats a good point. Its the fear of making a move to early and not having anything to finish with. But its a fear you have to conquer, you have to trust your training. A lesson learned, when racing someone with a better kick, you have to put some space between you and him sometime before the last 200 meters. The rest of the boys had good days Tyler in number 7, Goff in the number 6. Jaron had some problems in the number 4 race, his hip or lower back started to bother him, once again there are no timeouts no subs. But to his credit he finished the best he could. Now we have to get him healthy.

On girls side, best race of the day was probably LB or Lindsay, her race was a lot like Jordan’s. Side by side the whole race then got out kicked to finish 2nd. She is still not in the best of shape, but I like her racing toughness. Mollie had the best  time for the team in the number 1 race, Meghan finished 3rd in the number 2 race, she got a little to far behind, had to battle back to get 3rd. Courtney and Alyssa keep looking strong and are working hard, thats all you can ask. Abby and Paige race well in their races. We were without Kaity today, sore ankle. Ellie raced the open, so we are getting her back in shape. Tessa seems to having fun with the team.Open race- Clark continues to race well, Davis had a good day. Grayson looked strong, Alec is still trying to get in shape.

Boys were 2nd, girls 3rd. Mt. Vernon’s teams both won.

Still was a sad day to see this meet struggling to stay alive!

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