Drivers needed for Off Campus Training Runs!

As mentioned at our parent meeting back in August, an important part of our training program are the off campus runs. These are typically 2-3 times a week at either Channel Drive (Annadel), Park Trail (Annadel) or Howarth Park (Spring Lake/Annadel). They allow the coaches to give the kids an opportunity to run on "real" cross country trails, which keeps it more fun, interesting and challenging! In order to transport a roster of 84+ kids it takes many parent volunteers to help.

We know that some of you either missed the opportunity to sign up at the parent meeting or have started later in the season. Here is what you need to know:

Coaches and seniors transport about 33 kids on any given day, which means we need 51 more seatbelts....approximately 8-9 more drivers each time we leave Carrillo. We meet on the basketball courts at the entrance to the track at 3:30pm (3pm on Mondays) for short announcements from the coaches, then load up the vehicles for the trip to the park. After dropping off you passengers, you are free to walk or run, run other errands or just relax until the kids finish approximately one hour later.

Be there to pick them up and take them back to MCHS typically around 5:30pm.

With a roster this large, it has been a challenge every time so far to find enough rides.

If you are able to help out, please contact Melanie Bartlett with dates available and #passengers at RMBartlett5[at]aol.com. See below for upcoming dates - thank you!

Wed 9/19 - need 10 more seats
Mon 10/1 - need 10
Thursday 10/4 - need 24
Friday 10/5 - need 33
Thursday 10/11 - need 36
Monday 10/15 - need 15
Thursday 10/18 - need 44
Friday 10/19 - need 33
Thursday 10/25 - need 42
Friday 10/26 - need 35

Puma Depth on Display at Viking Opener, Sep 15

Congratulations to all the Pumas that took part at the Viking Opener!  The coaches were very proud of how our runners stepped up and raced well. 

The theme for the day was "test your limits" and this meet provided a chance for some of our runners further down the roster to show what they could do and score points in divisional races, and they certainly stretched themselves and took full advantage of the opportunity.

Photos:

• Photos Courtesy of Todd VanDenburg
• PD Running Blog

Personal Records:  We continue to see fantastic year over year improvements.  Twenty six of the thrirty runnners who had run this course before beat or matched their PRs!  We had some athletes put up RIDICULOUS improvements - here are a few:  8% improvement: Jordan Scoby, Ellie Petty, Sophia Mahoney and Brooke Talkington; 9% - Castine Jaffe and Clare Gilmartin; 10% - Evan Drake; 11% - Jacob Everest; 12% - Brendan Bellaire (fo real) and Sam Gearing; 13% - Ean Franceschi; 19% - Jackson Yates; and 21% (3:28 improvement!) Jeffrey Marin.  Great job everyone!

• Click here for complete PR Report

Team Results:

• Boys Frosh/Soph; 2nd (out of 23 teams)
• Girls Frosh Soph: 3rd (out of 20 teams)
• Boys Junior: 1st (out of 18 teams)
• Girls Junior/Senior: 1st (out of 20 teams)
• Girls Open: 1st (out of 17 teams)
• Boys Open: 2nd (out of 18 teams)

Individuals:

• Top 15 in their race: Jr Boys: Michael King (6th), Spencer Jones (7th), Dante Hay (9th); Jr/Sr Girls: Sophia Mahoney (9th),  Claire Greco (12th), Kelly Fitzgerald (13th); F/S Girls: Shawn Cichosz (10th), Abby Orgish (11th); F/S Boys: Jordan Scobey (5th); Ryan Nguyen (15th); Open Girls: Sophia Ramos (3rd) Allison Bartlett (4th) ,Tessa Nicklas (7th); Ellie Petty (10th), Kayla Hordyk (12th), Brook Talkington (15th); Open Boys: Jackson Yates (6th), Antoine Thibault (7th), Lucas Azcarraga (8th), Tommy Smail (9th), Kevin Moe (12th), and Quinn Gavin (14th)
• Top 15% of Runners in their Grade: Frosh Boys: Jordan Scobey (2nd frosh boy overall), Ean Franceschi (7th), Jackson Yates (17th), Antoine Thibault (18th); Soph Boys: Ryan Nguyen (12th), Evan Drake (14th); Juniors: Michael King (6th), Spencer Jones (7th), Dante Hay (9th); Frosh Girls: Abby Orgish (4th overall frosh girl), Castine Jaffe (8th); Soph Girls: Shawn Cichosz (7th); Junior Girls: Sophia Mahoney (5th), Kelly Fitzgerald (7th); Senior Girls: Claire Greco (6th)
• Complete Puma Individual Results Report

Season End Celebration Set for Dec 8 + Changes to Schedule

Everyone please save the date for our season end celebration:  Saturday, December 8,  from 6 to 8pm at the Maria Carrillo Small Gym!

Also - we have a final change to our competition schedule.  The coaches have decided to drop the Rough Rider Invitational on 10/13 and add the Clovis Invitational on 10/6.  The Clovis meet will have a roster of roughly 25 - it will include Varsity plus the top 5-7 Frosh/Soph runners.  The ideas is to leave MCHS around noon on Friday, stay the night in Fresno, race early in the day and be back in Santa Rosa by mid afternoon on Saturday.  This meet uses the same course used for the California State Championships in November.  More info to come.

Click here to see updated schedule.

Sep 12 Super Septo Results

The coaches were very pleased with the work that we put in at this meet.  Not all work is physical - in this case it required mental focus and discipline.  We gave the team some very specific pacing assignments and pacing groups -- and with just a few minor exceptions they did a very good job of hitting paces and staying together.

One measure of our success using this approach is the "spread" between our scoring runers.  This is the time gap between the finishes for the team's first and fifth runners.  The girls did a good job with this - keeping a very narrow gap through most of the race and finally finishing with a 1:16 spread between runners #1 and #5.  The boys did even better - their gap was only 18 seconds!

• Link to Boys Varsity Results
• Link to Girls Varsity Results
• Link to Boys JV Results
• Link to Girls JV Results

Information for Viking Invite on Sep 15

Coming up this weekend is a "nearby" and fun meet- The Viking Opener. This meet format is a bit different - it is mostly made up of small teams segregated by grade level. We will be using this meet to provide an opportunity for some of our faster runners further down the roster to show what they can do!

• Driving Instructions! - click here to get parking passes. You will need to park at Swimming Lagoon parking lot (click on map left to enlarge- Montgomery Drive to Channel Drive to Violetti entrance) - BUSSES ONLY will be allowed at Oak Knolls "back entrance" via Hoen!
• Athletes! Please verify that the information on your race tag is correct, especially the specified gender and grade level. Otherwise, you may be disqualified from your race. You may only compete in your grade level race or the Open race - you may not 'race up' a division. If there is any problem - please let Ruben know!
• Schedule: 7:30 - 8:30 a.m. Course open for walking 8:35 Junior High Boys and Girls (unlimited) 9:00 Frosh/Soph Boys (5 max.) 9:20 Frosh/Soph Girls (5 max.) 9:45 Alumni 10:15 Junior Boys (5 max.)10:35 Junior/Senior Girls (5 max.) 11:00 Open Girls (unlimited) 11:25 Senior Boys (5 max.) 11:45 Open Boys (unlimited) 12:10 Team Award Presentation
• Puma Race Rosters: click here to see rosters
• Results! Will be posted on site as they become available, and can also be viewed online at: http://espn.go.com/high-school/track-and-xc/california and http://running.blogs.pressdemocrat.com/

Ed Sias Interviews on Flotrack

Posting some of the post race interviews from Flotrack

Watch more video of 2012 Ed Sias Cross Country Invitational on flotrack.org

Watch more video of 2012 Ed Sias Cross Country Invitational on flotrack.org


Watch more video of 2012 Ed Sias Cross Country Invitational on flotrack.org


Watch more video of 2012 Ed Sias Cross Country Invitational on flotrack.org


Watch more video of 2012 Ed Sias Cross Country Invitational on flotrack.org

Watch more video of 2012 Ed Sias Cross Country Invitational on flotrack.org

Watch more video of 2012 Ed Sias Cross Country Invitational on flotrack.org

Updated and Complete Ed Sias Recap

We had a really fun and gratifying day at the Ed Sias Meet on Saturday, September 8. It was great to see so many parents and siblings making the trip out to Martinez to help with transit, watch the races, attend to our runners, take some pictures and generally support our team!

• See some great photos here (thanksToddVandenburg)
• More photos here (PD Running Blog)

This was our first “real” meet, so we learned a lot about the 2012 edition of our squad. Like a Polaroid photo (remember those?) it’s interesting to see a picture emerge. Here’s what we are learning:

• We have a great group of young people. These guys are a joy to be around, and they seem to enjoy each other’s company. There is a terrific “vibe” of sincere support and friendship! They are also (generally) very good about listening to instructions and taking them to heart.  They also love to race!
  
• We have an unusually deep level of talent. Looking over the results of this meet, you can see that the median runner on our team (middle of the pack) is in the top 25% of their peers among the 1700 runners that competed. Our JV squads are faster than 75% of the Varsity teams among the 40+ schools that took part! As someone phrased it, “we have an embarrassment of riches.”
  
• The peak is high. The top of our team can be very good – barring injury and illness, we are in great shape to challenge some of the MCHS all-time team marks and to meet or exceed our season end goals at NBLs, NCS and State! The challenge will be to manage our emotions and expectations through the season – want to peak at the big meets at the end.

And now, a recap of the meet...

Personal Records: We always start out by recognizing improvement – this is the foundation of everything we do.

25 of 29 runners that had previously run this course improved their times and set a new PR. Some exceptional, extraordinary improvements included Sam Perry (-7%), Eillie Petty (-8%), Michael King (-9%), Sophia Mahoney (-9%), Evan Drake (-9%), Shannon Palladino (-10%), Zac West (-14%), and Ryan Anderson (-17%) – WHHAAT???? (this is not a typo)

• Click Here to see PR Report.

Team Placings:

• Frosh Boys, 2nd place (out of 18 teams).
• Frosh/Soph Boys, 1st place (out of 28 teams)
• JV Boys, 6th place (out of 23 teams).
• Varsity Boys, 1st place in Large School Division (out of 15 teams)
• Girls Frosh/Soph, 1st place (out of 19 teams)- this was a remarkable performance! - we had 6 girls finish in the top 9 (140 runners in this race). Only two teams in the Varsity races ran a faster team time.
• Girls JV, 1st place (out of 19 teams). These girls did a terrific job of running together as a pack and finished with 4 runners in the top 9, and the top five in the first 15 spots!
• Girls Varsity, 6th place (out of 16 teams). We placed our top junior and senior girls in this race, and they did a really solid job of holding their own against some tough competition.

Individual Placing:

• Runners that finished in top 10 in their race (there were 21 of them!): Jackson Yates (9th in Frosh Boys), Spencer Jones (won JV race), Michael King (2nd in JV race), Zac West (4th in F/S Boys), Ryan Anderson (2nd in Boys V), Harrison Luft (6th in V Boys), Colin Bartlett (7th in V Boys), Nick Jensen (10th in V Boys), Shawn Cichosz (3rd in JV Girls), Abby Orgish (4th in JV Girls), Castine Jaffe(6th in JV Girls), Emma Wright (9th in JV Girls), Andrea Natoli (won F/S Girls), Shannon Palladino (2nd in F/S Girls), Shaz Breedlove (3rd in F/S Girls), Carolina Avelar (5th in F/S Girls), Allie Ahern (7th in F/S Girls), Sam Perry (9th in F/S Girls), Allison Bartlett (3rd in Fs/JV unltd), Ellie Petty (6th in FS/JV unltd), Tessa Nicklas (8th in fs/jv unltd) - interesting fact:  although we comprised just 4% of the runners at this meet, we took 23% of the "top 10" places in the races we competed in!
• Runners finishing in top 10% of the runners in their grade: Carolina Avelar (3rd fastest of 160 frosh girls at meet), Allie Ahern (4th frosh), Abby Orgish (9th frosh), Castine Jaffe (14th frosh), Emma Wright (18th frosh); Andrea Natoli (3rd of 239 soph girls in the meet), Shannon Palladino (5th fastest soph), Shaz Breeedlove (6th fastest soph), Sam Perry (14th soph), Shawn Cichosz (17th soph); Brynna Thigpen (10th fastest senior girl of 123); Jordan Scobey (5th fastest of 262 frosh boys), Ean Francheshi (12th frosh), Jackson Yates (19th fastest frosh), Zac West (8th of 307 soph boys), Ryan Nguyen (29th soph ); Ryan Anderson (3rd junior of 257), Colin Bartlett (6th junior), Nick Jensen (8th junior), Spencer Jones (22nd junior), Michael King (26th junior), Harrison Luft (11th of 172 senior boys at meet).
• Click here to see complete Puma individual report

Finally- posing with all our awards at the end of the day before heading back to the bus...