We achieved mixed results last Thursday at the League Cluster Meet on the varsity levels and some very impressive performances at the lower level races.  We had a great week of training and made lots of progress in our practices.  The progress from these workouts will show up in our future meets.

SUMMARY:  Our boys finished fourth in the dual meet scoring.  Even though the three teams that finished ahead of us (Trabuco, Foothill, and El Toro) are highly ranked teams in CIF, we still have to set our sights on catching them at the league finals.  We ran 81:35 as a team.  Last year, with Conrad running about 25 seconds faster than Shane (our top runner this year), we ran 81:22 (about the same as this year) while we ran 84:15 in 2005, 84:53 in 2004, 84:54 in 2003, and 84:55 in 2002.  This was a good meet for our boys.  We needed a great one, but we will take this one.

We have been working hard and have had high expectations for ourselves.  I felt that some of our runners ran a bit back for most of the race and even though we came on strong towards the end of our race, we missed on being in the top three.  However, these results should give us a renewed commitment and determination to prepare even better and totally for the next time at our league meet.  Even though these results do not hurt our chances to reach our CIF goal they do point out that we must understand the importance of working as a group throughout the race.  If we run as a group in the race, we will achieve the same results we do in our practices.  When we go alone, we are not as aggressive as when we are in a group.  Fortunately, we still have the time to get ourselves together and finish in the top three in our league and advance to the CIF Prelims.  The Orange County Championships is a must meet for us to get the CIF ranking.  We need to finish in the top ten to open up some eyes.

Our girls ended up fifth in the meet with a 1-4 record.  We suffered more losses in this meet (4) than we did the past 8 years of league competition (3).  That being the case, we still sport a pretty impressive 64-7 record for the past 9 years.  This is something that we can all be proud off and use as an added motivation to add to the team’s legacy.  Our girls ran 97:39 this year compared to the 94:55 last year, the 96:12 in 2005, the 97:25 in 2004, the 94:11 in 2003, and the 95:50 in 2002.  Our girls’ team is a good cross country team.  I take full responsibility for the results in this meet.  We will be back strong this weekend at the County Championships meet, we will preserve our rankings, and we will make it to the State meet.

Take a look at the results sheets to see how much most of our athletes improved from last year.  Great job!  I guess the hard work does pay off!

ATHLETES OF THE WEEK:  Kayla Benedetti keeps improving and ran at the #3 spot for our team (first time Kayla has finished in the top 5 on our team).  She ran a strong race and put on a very strong finish.  Josh Kingsland continues to race very tough and broke 18:00 for the first time in his young career.  He has a great work ethic and is highly dedicated to breaking even the 17:00 barrier.

WEEKLY SCHEDULE:

1)  Orange County Championships on Saturday at Irvine Park.  WHS to Jamboree and right turn.  Jamboree dead-ends into the park.  Make sure that you are in the extreme right lane when you approach Chapman.  It will cost to park ($5 ?).  Park in the zoo parking lot if possible.  Parking spaces go very fast.  If you arrive late, park at the college lot and there will be a shuttle to the meet.  Do not park at the shopping center as they will ticket and tow cars away.  The bus will leave at 6:00am for all the athletes and it will return about 2:30pm - 3:00pm.  The final schedule of races is posted below.

2)  Final Schedule of Races:

• 7:30am          Novice Boys (22:30 or slower)
• 7:45am          Novice Girls
• 8:15am          Frosh Boys
• 8:45am          Frosh/Soph Girls
• 9:15am          Soph Boys
• 9:30am          Varsity Girls (Wweepstakes)
• 10:30am        Varsity Boys (Div. II)
• 11:15am        JV Girls
• 11:45am        JV Boys

AWARDS FOLLOWING THE LAST RACE.

** The top seven athletes in each grade are honored as First Team All Orange County.

3)  We will be having our Annual Bar-B-Que and softball game after the last race.  Bring your gloves and make sure your family attends this event.  We need to have the parents bring their gloves and go for the sixth victory in a row over the athletes.  As usual, I will be keeping an honest and accurate score for this game!
  

4)  For the Bar-B-Que:   

• Freshman athletes - salads, lettuce, fruit or pasta
• Sophomore athletes – desserts
• Junior athletes - appetizers such as veggie trays, cheese/crackers, or salsa/dip and chips
• Senior athletes - BBQ supplies (cheese, buns, lettuce, tomato, onions, mayo)

***** Remember that pain is temporary and pride is forever.