What a nice day and meet this year’s Yucaipa Cross Country Invitational turned out to be!

Check out the video clips for all races.

REVIEW:  The weather was a lot better this year than last and the schedule allowed for us to watch and cheer for each other’s races.  Even though the course was challenging, our athletes registered impressive finishes (we earned 5 team plaques and many individual medals).  We had many athletes earn their first medal ever at this meet.  We welcome to our team our three new members.  Denisha Booth, Kristen Provencher, and David Loo competed and completed their very first ever cross country races.
  
We have worked hard the past two weeks or so, we have competed with tenacity during this time and both our boys’ and our girls’ teams have shown glimpses of being on target to reaching our team goals for the season.  This meet gave more validity that we are having a very nice season and that we are making progress each day and each meet.  Our lower-level athletes continue to demonstrate that they are learning how to handle the demands of a cross country race and their results keep on getting better and better.  Lots of smiles on many faces on Saturday.  It is rewarding to see that many recognize what special opportunities and memories are available in cross country and that, even though the activity is tough and demanding, the rewards and results make cross country a must sport to be part of.
  
Our boys, led by Shane Berglas and a great grouping, finished 2nd in the race and ran 83:12 compared to 84:18 last year (same course) and 84:59 two years ago (pretty much the same course).  This was the 5th fastest time of the 57 schools in the meet.  Our girls, led by Christine Babcock’s course record first place finish, won the race and ran 95:34 compared to 102:02 last year and 97:11 in 2005.  This was the 2nd fastest time of the day.
  
We had great PRs on this course this year.  Take a look on how much these athletes improved from last year:   

• Yadlin (22:00 – 23:04)
• Kim (22:25 – 26:16)
• Barriga (23:15 – 26:16)
• Jones, H (24:14 – 27:53)
• Babcock (16:44 – 18:48)
• Murphy (19:34 – 21:07)
• Wozniak (21:56 – 23:50)
• Dunn (22:24 – 25:30)
• Lin (24:17 – 27:40)
• Belford (26:17 – 27:53)
• Mahon (17:13 – 19:46)
• Dugwyler (18:26 – 19:37)
• Kelly (19:35 – 24:10)
• Banta (20:17 – 21:57)
• Jacobs (21:18 – 26:23)
• Berglas (16:08 – 16:50)
• Wozniak, J (16:36 – 17:04)
• Jones, R (16:44 – 17:14)
• Fleming (16:52 – 20:07)
• Evans (17:03 – 18:12)
• ten Bosch (17:47 – 18:56)
• Race Champ Swedlund (17:47 – 18:58)
• Profenius (18:24 – 19:28)
• Obayashi (18:25 – 21:46)
• Solomon (20:38 – 21:33)

Very impressive results.  It is amazing what hard work can do.
  
Our frosh athletes did a great job also.  Brooke ten Bosch was the 3rd best varsity athlete for the girls with an excellent time, Karla Burris-Johnson ran very well in her first varsity race, Josh Kingman ran 18:09 (highly successful varsity athlete Michael Evans ran 18:12 last year as a frosh runner), Andrew Burde ran 18:48, and Will Herron ran 19:34 to just mention a few of them. 
  
ATHLETES OF THE WEEK:  Ryan Jones had a break-through week in training and an excellent race at Yucaipa.  It seems that Ryan is close to regaining his form from last year that earned him a top-ten on the WHS list.  Clarissa Lara ran a courageous race with her hurt foot and helped the varsity girls capture the Division II title.
  
WEEKLY SCHEDULE:
  
1)  FIRST LEAGUE MEET THURSDAY AT IRVINE PARK  (To get to Irvine Park: WHS to Jamboree and Turn Right.  Jamboree dead-ends into the Park and is a little tricky here, as you have to stay on the far right lane to pass Chapman Ave.  It will cost you to park).  The bus leaves at 1:15pm and you will be dismissed from your 5th period class.  Please dress at lunchtime so that you can get to the bus by 1:10pm.  Tell your 5th period teacher that you will be leaving for the meet before Thursday.  Get your assignment for the day ahead of time.
  
2)  The schedule of races is:   

• 3:00pm - Soph & JV Boys
• 3:30pm - Frosh/Soph and JV Girls
• 4:00pm - Varsity Boys
• 4:30pm - Varsity Girls
• 5:00pm - Frosh Boys

  
3)  El Toro, Trabuco Hills, and Foothill will be our toughest opponents in the boys.  We need Jordan, Ryan, Danny, Shane, Dillon, Derrick, and Michael to form the group we are capable of putting together and work our way through the opposing runners.  Trabuco has not been running as well as they did last year.  El Toro is not the same team as last year.  Foothill is very good up front but not that strong on the 4th and 5th spots.  We can all finish ahead of the #4 and #5 runners of Foothill and El Toro.  For the girls, we have the chance to finish #1 and #2 in the race against our opponents.  This means that we need Brooke, Madison, and Clarissa to just beat the number 5 runners from the other schools and we win 27-28 against them.  We can do this.
  
4)  The meet will have all six Sea View League teams in the same race.  However, the meet is not going to be scored as an Invitational meet but as a dual meet.  In other words, we will compete against each of the schools head on.  At the end of the meet, we will have 5 scores for each of the races we have teams in.
  
5)  Saturday’s workout time will be 9:00am.  We will use this day to work on our speed.  It is the time of the season that speed is featured.  The strength and endurance we have gained from the long intervals and hills need to be turned into speed.  It takes a good 3-4 weeks for the speed to gain hold.  No one should miss this workout.  Arrange your schedule to make this time.  This is mandatory workout for all.
  
6)  Team pictures are on Friday at 3:30pm.  Pick up envelopes during the week if you are interested in purchasing a team picture (16x20) or a combo (team and individual shots) packet.  Athletes must be dressed in team uniform for the pictures.
  
7)  Bring sweats to all of our practices at this time of the season (the sun goes down earlier and the temperature drops quickly at the end of our practices), keep following the nutrition suggestions we have made, do not share your water/drink bottles (sick-season is upon us), keep hydrating even though the weather has started to cool down, do homework at lunch and tutorial so that you do not go to bed later than 10:00pm or 10:30pm, keep up with your 50 push-ups a day and 150 sit-ups a day.
  
***** Enjoy another week of improvement!