The coaches have been very pleased with the overall level of improvement we have been seeing in practices lately.
The less experienced runners have advanced to a new level of fitness and are developing a sense of pace so that they are now able to consistently complete more challenging workouts. Our veteran runners are are now moving through a gentle transition from longer, more endurance oriented workouts to shorter, faster paced work. In either case, we have been seeing a very high level of engagement, motivation, effort, and focus. When we see this is in practice, we begin looking forward to see how this all shows up in competition.
Well on Wednesday we got a little taste for all of that. At the mid-way point in the season, we can see that we have taken some very significant steps forward. We will try to highlight a few of those here.
HIGHLIGHT #1 - Entire roster has met minimum time standards - 5 runners ran Spring Lake course for the first time!
We are very pleased and proud to report that on Tuesday before the meet, all of our remaining team members that had not yet achieved the minimum fitness standard (2 miles in 14:00 for boys, 16:30 for girls) were able to do so. This meant they were able to wear the MCHS jersey in competition for the first time on Wednesday!
HIGHLIGHT #2 - 43 runners achieve their personal records (PRs) on the Spring Lake course!
We had an unusually high proportion of our runners set new personal records. While some of this was due to very favorable running conditions, most of it was due to just plain hard work and consistency, and that our runners have accepted the challenges that the coaches have put before them. Congratulations to all runners achieving PRs! Special recognition goes to Kenya Wheeler-Esquivel, Ellie Petty, and Eva Byrne for improving over 15% from their first race at Spring Lake just 4 weeks ago!
We have seen many runners morph from "just finishers" to "racers" in a very short period of time! Welcome to the sport of competitive cross country! (Click here for complete results)
Name / Prev PR /New PR / % Improv / Time Improv
Wheeler-Esq, K 29:30 23:11 -21.4% 6:19
Petty, Ellie 28:31 23:10 -18.8% 5:21
Byrne, Eva 30:13 25:25 -15.9% 4:48
Azcarraga, L 22:42 19:18 -15.0% 3:24
West, Zack 20:48 17:53 -14.0% 2:55
Gottlieb, J 25:35 22:02 -13.9% 3:33
Barker, Sarah 29:04 25:22 -12.7% 3:42
Frye, Haleigh 24:46 21:48 -12.0% 2:58
Hordyk, Kayla 25:03 22:05 -11.8% 2:58
Issel, Gracie 25:03 22:12 -11.4% 2:51
Smail, Tommy 21:27 19:04 -11.1% 2:23
Frankl, Willie 21:28 19:06 -11.0% 2:22
Gilmartin, C 25:58 23:08 -10.9% 2:50
Keefer, Tanner 21:34 19:15 -10.7% 2:19
Mahoney, Sophia 23:19 20:58 -10.1% 2:21
Nelson, Dylan 19:46 17:50 -9.8% 1:56
Palladino, S 22:35 20:27 -9.4% 2:08
Hossli, Erik 21:17 19:18 -9.3% 1:59
Perry, Samantha 22:41 20:45 -8.5% 1:56
Bellaire, B 22:32 20:44 -8.0% 1:48
Eik, David 20:08 18:36 -7.6% 1:32
VanDenburg, J 22:03 20:50 -5.5% 1:13
Metcalfe, Colin 17:21 16:25 -5.4% 0:56
Rennard, Alec 20:55 20:01 -4.3% 0:54
Natoli, Andrea 19:07 18:18 -4.3% 0:49
Nguyen, Ryan 18:10 17:24 -4.2% 0:46
Dippel, M 22:00 21:12 -3.6% 0:48
Bartlett, Colin 16:59 16:27 -3.1% 0:32
Hicks, Trysha 23:13 22:32 -2.9% 0:41
Hay, Dante 16:53 16:24 -2.9% 0:29
Purugganan, S 17:00 16:32 -2.7% 0:28
Silow, Adam 18:54 18:23 -2.7% 0:31
Jones, Spencer 17:27 16:59 -2.7% 0:28
King, Michael 18:35 18:06 -2.6% 0:29
VanDenburg, P 21:40 21:08 -2.5% 0:32
Murray, Gus 17:12 16:50 -2.1% 0:22
Lynch, Austin 19:25 19:03 -1.9% 0:22
Nicklas, Drew 23:38 23:12 -1.8% 0:26
Kraus, Lauren 18:21 18:07 -1.3% 0:14
Luft, Harrison 16:09 15:57 -1.2% 0:12
Wuu, Timothy 16:47 16:40 -0.7% 0:07
Ramos, Sophia 20:39 20:31 -0.6% 0:08
Birkland, Kelly 19:42 19:40 -0.2% 0:02
HIGHLIGHT #3 - All-Time Lists for Spring Lake Course Dented
For a mid-season dual meet, we also saw some unusally high level performances on the top end of the spectrum (we usually don't see these types of efforts until the end of October or November!). We had some athletes "pencil in" new entries into the ALL-TIME marks for the Spring Lake Course. (we say"pencil-in" because we anticipate they will be revised again on November 4!) Congratulations to all of thes following athletes!!
* Boys Varsity - team time of 81:21(aggregate time of top 5 runners) was the 21st fastest ever on the course, and the #5 ever for Maria Carrillo.(Harrison Luft 15:57, Colin Gibson 16:12, Austin Rivas 16:23, Dante Hay 16:24, Colin Metcalfe 16:25)
* Girls Varsity - team time of 94:26 was the 13th fastest ever on the course, and #7 for MCHS (Lauren Kraus 18:07, Andrea Natoli 18:18, Brynna Thigpen 18:56, Taylor Graham 19:25, Kelly Birkland 19:40)
* Andrea Natoli, time of 18:18 makes her the 29th fastest girl to ever run Spring Lake, and 3rd fastest freshman girl ever, the #8 all-time runner from MCHS
* Lauren Kraus, time of 18:07 ties her for 22nd on the all-time list, the 17th fastest ever junior girl, and ties her for #6 on the MCHS list with Jacqui Wentz!
* JV Teams - the boys and girls JV teams had outstanding performances yesterday - we need to do some research, but we think they may have been the fastest JV performances on record for an NBL competition. Our 12th fastest runner on the day (ie,5th JV runner) ran 16:59 for boys (Spencer Jones) and 21:06 for girls (Ashley Gunderson). Most years, the winning JV time at NBL finals is around 17:00 for Boys and 21:00 for girls!
HIGHLIGHT #4 - Both Boys and Girls Teams Ranked among top teams in NCS Division 2.
According to Cross Country Express, our Boys are currently ranked #2 in NCS Div 2 and the Girls are ranked #1. All this means is that we are making good progress toward our goal of State Championship Meet berths (must finish among top 3 teams in NCS Div 2 race). If we continue to train consistently and avoid injury/illness, we will certainly be in the mix to compete for North Coast Section titles and advance to the State Championships!
