Saturday's race

This saturday we will be back at the Parkside course in racine. This is the only course that we run twice so it is a good chance to measure progress. Everyone had a blow out race here last time so it will be interesting to see if they can shave some time off now that the ground is a little softer and the grass is a little longer.

Race times are:

10:00 JV Girls
10:30 Varsity Girls
11:00 Varsity Boys
11:30 Jv Boys

The temperature is supposed to be in the mid 70's and the sun will shine so basically it will be perfect.

Please note that the Men have new uniforms. They are black and white. It makes them very hard to see if you are looking for the old red uni's. Of course the warm ups are still red and the Girl's are still in red.

More videos from the archives

The BBC has online footage of Roger Bannister breaking the 4:00 mile. They actually show the entire race. You can see it here.

Can't stop the signal

The wife and I attended a sneak preview for the new movie Serenity last night. The movie opens this weekend and I would highly reccomend it. It is a sci-fi space opera along the lines of the original Star wars. It was done on a tight budget by a group of actors that were obviously having a lot of fun. The plot is average but the writing is excellent, the effects are well done, and there are some very funny lines. The audience last night laughed out loud about fifty times. Also, like Star wars, the language is clean, everyone keeps their clothes on, and the action is intense but not gratuitous. It was a great movie that should do very well. Go see it if you get a chance. I put a link to their site over on the side bar.

Griak from the outside

Dyestat had an observer at Griak and filed a report here
It gives a sense of just how good the competition was.

Griak Results

The course favored "mudders" and spectators thanks to an early morning downpour but some runners managed to post some eye popping numbers anyway. Simon Bailu from UW madison cruised to an easy win in the Men's premiere event. He covered the almost five miles in 23:43. His first mile was 4:32. Madison didn't take the team title though, that went to BYU.

In the races that counted. The Shorewood men placed 13th out of 43 teams dropping 4 places from last year in what was an incredibly stacked field. The race was won by Mike somebody or other in 15:34. Andrew Perkins who has been dominating the local scene was 5th or sixth. Our own Dennis Walsh was 23rd in 16:33. The team average time was 17:17 which was almost exactly what it was last year. So they ran even but the field surged past them. The men would have won the slower maroon division race, and they were the fastest Wisconsin team there. So, while the goal was to be top ten, the results were actually pretty solid. Dennis, Doug, Andrew, and Brian all PR'd over last year. Full results can be found here:

http://www.gophersports.com/Griak/Results.asp

The women were led by Claire who placed 6th in 18:42. If that sounds slow, it's because the ladies had the rare opportunity to run a full 5K, a distance usually reserved for the boys. The race was won in 17:46 ( you can relax Brian). The team finished 27th overall, which considering the spate of injuries was better than expected. If anyone has time, the Journal/sentinal should really be taken to task for their appalling headline in the sunday prep section. Honestly, it's a wonder they have any readers left with judgement like that.

Dom has an e-mail going around and Sarah should have a post up here soon.

There are pictures in the slide show links for those who care. And yes the music will get worse until someone sends me something better.

This week the runners are back at the parkside course.

Does anyone want to organize a post race cook out at the park?

Season Schedule

West Bend Invite-West Bend HS-Sat Aug 27-
Racine Horlick Invite-UW Parkside-Sat Sept 3-
Arrowhead Invite FR(B)/JV/V-Arrowhead-Thurs Sept 8-
Marquette Invite JV/V-Dretzka Park-Sat Sept 17-
GRIAK Invite-Minnesota-Sat Sept 24-
Racine Case Invite JV/V-UW Parkside-Sat Oct 1- 9:00
Shorewood Invite-Kern Park-Sat Oct 8-10:00 AM
Parkland Conference Meet-Pewaukee-Sat Oct 15-10:00 AM
WIAA Sectional OR-Mayville-Fri Oct 21-TBA
WIAA Sectional-Mayville-Sat Oct 22-TBA
WIAA State-Wisconsin Rapids-Sat Oct 29-All Day

Who was Emil Zatopek?

He invented the idea of interval training. The 'experts' laughed at him for training like a sprinter until he won the 5,000; the 10,000, and the marathon in a span of eight days at the 1952 olympics. And yes he set an olympic record in each one.
There is a short biography at this site :

http://www.runningpast.com/emil_zatopek.htm#1952_5k

as well as actual video footage of some of his races. If you have the bandwidth, it is well worth watching.

Going to Griak

I posted a selection of slides from last year's Griak event if anyone is interested. The first dozen pictures are from the men's college race and show just how dominate Wisconsin's top five were in the race. This is a great spectator's course and the weather is projected to be awesome.

Griak Invitational

Hello all!!!
Here is a link to information regarding the Griak Invitational.
I am also providing you with the team itinerary and meet information that pertains to our trip- hotel, dinner, etc.
If you have questions or need more information, please shoot me an e-mail!
Coach K
Minneapolis-Days Inn Univ Of Minn2407 University Avenue SE Minneapolis MN USTel: 612-623-3999Reservation: 1-800-544-8313FAX: 612-331-2152
http://www.daysinncom/

Driving Directions to hotel from interstate:
From I-94 From I-94, take the Huron Blvd. exit, go approximately 4 blocks to Washington Avenue turn right go 1 block to University Ave., turn right. Hotel will be on the left.

Driving Directions from hotel to course ( the local Minnesotan shortcut ):

Turn left on SE 25th Ave.
Turn left on University of Minnesota Transit Way
Turn right on SE 6th St.
Turn right on SE 15th Ave.
Turn right on Como Ave.
Turn left on Eustis
Turn right on Larpenteur Ave. – Course is on the left hand side of the road.

Driving Directions from hotel to course (the Mapquest version):

Start out going NORTHWEST on SE UNIVERSITY AVE / CR-36 toward SE WASHINGTON AVE / MN-122.
Turn LEFT onto SE WASHINGTON AVE / MN-122.
Turn LEFT onto HURON BLVD SE.
Merge onto I-94 E / US-12 E / US-52 S.
Merge onto MN-280 N via the exit on the LEFT.
Take the LARPENTEUR AVE exit.
Turn RIGHT onto LARPENTEUR AVE W / CR-30.
End at 2275 Larpenteur Ave W

Shorewood Cross Country Itinerary
Roy Griak Invitational
Saturday, September 24, 2005
Friday, September 23, 2005
11:45am Released from academic classes
12-12:30pm ALL traveling team members take a pre-meet run
LUNCH ON YOUR OWN!!!
12:50pm meet in parking lot at SHS
1:00pm Board vans and leave for Twin Cities
*There will be 2 rest stops along our trip
6-6:30pm Arrive in Roseville, hotel checkin

Minneapolis-Days Inn Univ Of Minn2407 University Avenue SE Minneapolis MN USTel: 612-623-3999Reservation: 1-800-544-8313FAX: 612-331-2152
http://www.daysinncom/

7:00pm Meet at vans to go to dinner
7:30pm Dinner at
The Old Spaghetti Factory
Minneapolis
233 Park Ave
55415
(612) 341-0949
www.osf.com/locations/minnesota.html

10:00pm Team Meeting – location TBA
11:00pm All athletes in your own rooms
12:00am All lights out!

Saturday, September 24th, 2005

7:30am Wakeup call
Eat, pack, get ready to travel to meet
(there will be no locker room facilities at the golf course!)
8:30am Board vans

9:00am First collegiate race begins

TEAM LUNCHES- you should eat at least 2 hours before your race.

12:55pm Boys Gold Race – Shorewood
1:40pm Girls Gold Race – Shorewood
2:25pm Boys Maroon Race
3:10pm Girls Maroon Race

TBA Team Dinner
Olive Garden
4920 Golf Road, Eau Claire, WI 54701-9098 (off HWY 53 N)
Phone: (715) 838-0707
TBA Arrival at Shorewood High School parking lot

Marquette ...

Okay, I'm short on time so this will be brief.
Claire won the girl's race going away all by herself like it was easy.
The guy's took second behind Tremper but well ahead of marquette and everybody else.
I bought a new version of photo show so now it is full screen and there aren't any stupid ads on the edge. Go ahead and click the link.

With this new version I can use my own music, if I had any that didn't make my kids eyes roll back in their sockets. So if you have an MP3 file that you think would be a better sound track, e-mail me and I will happily ditch the canned musack.

More numbers tomorrow, check Wisconsin runner if you just can't wait.

Cheers,

Race day Info

In the past this was the weekend our teams trekked north for the Smiley invitational to run against the better outlying farm teams, leaving parents a free weekend to do yard work. This year the yard will have to wait. This weekend the runners will be at the Marquette invite. This race will feature some of the very best teams in the state including Tremper, Madison West, Marquette, West Bend, and others. It will be run on the course that used to host the state meet and the weather is projected to be awesome. Wear comfortable shoes if you want to see the whole thing.

Schedule:

8:15 the athletes will need to be at the school.
8:30 the bus will leave the parking lot.
8:31 the bus will not be in the parking lot, so if you overslept your warm up just got a whole lot longer.

10:00 Freshman race
10:30 Jv Girls
11:00 Jv Boys
11:30 Varsity Girls
12:00 Boys Varsity

To get to Dretzka Park take Hwy 45 to the Menominee Falls area and exit onto 145 north. The park is about 1 mile north on 145 after you get off the exit.

The spaghetti dinner for the boy's will be at the Erickson's tonight.
The guy's packer party will be at Jake's on Sunday.

Over training?

Check out this page on the BBC.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4241958.stm

Fast Start?

Check out this article on the Marquette University women's team.

Page updates

If you haven't noticed yet, I cleaned up and expanded the links section on the right. Specifically I seperated out results oriented sites from the more general information sites. If there is a site out there that you think should be on the list let me know and I'll look at it.

Also Coach Kopplin has been officially given the keys to the site so she can post if she wants to. I am sure that she is just waiting for the right moment to say something brilliant.

Welcome aboard Coach K.

Dom's recap of Arrowhead

Based on a fairly strong start to the season the team seems a bit let down after our performance yesterday! They felt that we may have been a little further along, but we were not quite where we thought we should be. This may be do to illness/injuries that is plaguing the team.If each of the guys would have run 10-15 seconds faster we would have felt better about the race. The effort that Douglas Stewart put in was stellar!!! It is the best race that Douglas has run since his sophomore year at the state meet. A nice PR. Brian Valusek also had a PR at this meet, along with Ben Flanders and Sammy Dupuis.


On the JV side John Bassen had a PR and he now moves up to the 8th varsity position. Sam Quadagnino Pr'd by about 40 seconds and Andy Tisdel improved his time by over a minute. Jason glass also looked at a season PR of 22 seconds. I would also like to congratulate Nate Weber for finishing his first HS race ever as a senior. There must be something special about the team to get a first year runner out his senior year. (Nate it does get easier)
Overall it was a pretty good meet, but for our varsity it was a bit of a kick in the face. It would be easy to get discouraged and give up. I hope you realize we are going to get better, it’s just a matter of how much better we get.Good athletes learn to turn disappointment into motivation. The next 6 weeks of our season will be tough. I’m looking forward to it and hope you are too.

Times:

Walsh: 16:40
Stewart: 16:44
Haury: 17:06
Salmon: 17:08
Valusek: 17:14
Erickson: 17:24
Flanders: 19:13
Dupuis: 19:40
Bassen: 19:20
Guadagnino: 19:57
Tisdel: 21:14
Abraham: 21:19
Hackett: 22:19
Glass: 22:22
Weber: 22:59
Frosh Race 4000:
Phillips: 18:57
Bulluck-Mcswain: 18:19

Results from Arrowhead

Okay the results are not on Wisconsin runner they are on PTtiming so I added a new link called PT results over on the side bar for those of you who want all of the baseball stats. For the rest of you here are the highlights, and this week we will let the ladies go first.

Claire took a commanding lead in the first 10 meters of the race and never looked back. She finished in 14:35, 15 seconds ahead of Dettman from watertown and almost a minute ahead of the third place finisher. How good is 14:35? Well, suffice it to say that it is the fastest time run by a girl in the state of wisconsin so far this year at any level. Go Claire.

The women's team finished 7th overall out of 16 teams. Becca ran 16:27; Becky ran 16:29; Colleen ran 17:10; and Ashley ran 17:21. Nice job ladies!


The men's race suffered from high expectations. After the huge numbers they posted at Parkside more than a few of us were doing some aggressive projecting. However in cross country nothing is ever simple, that's why they run the races. You probably couldn't tell it from their faces after the race but the guys took third behind a very good Wisconsin Lutheran team and a Bay team that defies explanation this early in the season. Doug Stewart returned to form in this race finishing second on the squad in 16:44 (and had the biggest smile at the finish I might add). He was just behind Dennis at 16:40 and just ahead of Jake at 17:06. David was fourth at 17:08; Brian ran a strong 17:14; Andrew came back from an ankle injury to run 17:24; Flanders continues to PR, this time dropping his all time best to 19:13; and Sam ran with the giants, in some cases giving up over two feet to his opponents, and posted 19:40.

The guys did manage to beat Arrowhead, Watertown, Homestead, Nicolet, Catholic Memorial, and Brookfield central among others.

Just how good was Whitefish bay? Their fifth man ran 16:42; Their 8th man ran 17:19, and they had three runners in the JV race under 17:45. That is outrageously good.



As for the guys out front ... Dave Pede from Wisconsin Lutheran led the whole way. He went past the mile at @4:55 and the two at @ 9:5x. Perkins was about 20 yds back for most of the race and at the two mile mark it looked like Pede might be able to close the deal and run away with it. However Perkins closed the gap with a half mile to go and at the final turn he surged past Pede and Dave couldn't go with him. There is a slide of the final move in the slide show if anybody cares. Perkins finished in 15:24, that's a 4:58 pace for those of you scoring at home.

next week is at marquette. They are currently ranked second behind Bay so it should be another great race.

Finally there were a lot of parents out which was great. The runners really appreciate the support.

Scheduling Details

We will be ready to defend our title at the Arrowhead Invite on Thursday, Sept.8

Time Schedule:

1:45 The students will be excused from class
2:00 The bus will leave to go to the Arrowhead campus.
4:15 Boys Freshman 4,000 M Race
4:40 Girls JV 4,000 M Race
5:10 Boys JV 5,000 M Race
5:40 Girls Varsity 4,000 M Race
6:10 Boys Varsity 5,000 M Race

For a map to the race click on the underlined word Arrowhead at the top of the page. Otherwise the basic directions are :

From the East:
Take Hwy. 16 West to exit 183. Go straight thru the stop sign. Take a right at the next stop sign and continue straight. South Campus is the second left and North Campus is the third left.

The spahgettti dinners are tonight. The Flanders will be hosting the boys and the Ericksons will be hosting the girls.

The setting sun can be right in your eyes for a lot of the race so if you are coming to watch bring a hat or a good pair of sun glasses.

And as long as we are passing along tips, spectators should consider bringing their own water bottles. Running around in the heat yelling as the kids go by can be thirsty work.

Who exactly is our competition?

Good Question.

Shorewood is a Division 2 school based on enrollment. We are one of the only D2 schools in the Milwaukee area with a serious cross country team. That means that most of the teams we will race for the state title are from up north or out west, which means that we never run against them until state. Instead we run in a lot of large invitational meets in our area that are dominated by some of the better Division 1 teams.

Our biggest challenge this year will come from Monroe.
Monroe was Division 1 last year and has a very good group of Juniors returning. They won the Verona invite last week while we were winning the rebel invite. Just for fun a comparison of the top six runners last week looks like this :

Monroe ------------- Shorewood

Kehoe 16:28 ---- Walsh 16:40
Miles 16:44 ----- Haury 16:47
Wells 17:10 ------ Erickson 17:00
Klein 17:21 ------ Stewart 17:18
DeNure 17:33 --- Salmon 17:32

Liimatainen 18:06 - Valusek 17:37

Of course anything can happen over the course of a season. Ankles get twisted, bones break, fatigue and illness take a toll. However at the moment it looks like State could be very exciting and close again.

Who is our competition part 2

The following is a list of the Division 2 schools in the State :

Shorewood
Monroe
Catholic Memorial
Lakeside Lutheran
Tomahawk
McFarland
Dodgeville/Mineral Point
Mosinee
Luxemburg-Casco
Sheboygan Falls
Kiel
Chilton
Altoona
Platteville
Freedom
Winneconne
Lodi
Pewaukee

As you can see only two of these are from our immediate area.

Why Thursday's race is a big deal

The Arrowhead invitational attracts some of the best competition every year because it is a very flat and very fast course. This year will be no exception, with most of the top D1 runners committed to being there. Including Pede from Wisconsin Lutheran (picked to win D1 state this year), Perkins from Watertown ( the soph who has been breaking all of the records), Markson from Whitefish bay, MacFarland from Arrowhead, and of course the boys from Shorewood. On a team level Whitefish bay has a chance to win state in division 1 this year and are very highly regarded. The leaders will probably go out sub 5 minutes for the first mile, and still be under 10 minutes at the two. The winning time could be in the low 15:20's.

But here is the kicker... Shorewood has a chance to win this meet. That's right, if everyone has a good race we could have four runners in the top fifteen.

In case anyone cares a comparison of WFB times from last week look like this ( keep in mind that numbers between different courses mean almost nothing because conditions and length can vary a lot).

WFB ------------------- Shorewood

Markson 16:19 --------- Walsh 16:40
Sullivan 16:23 -------- Haury 16:47
Horton 16:39 -------- Erickson 17:00
Lybeck 16:48 -------- Stewart 17:18
McFadden 17:02 -------- Salmon 17:32
Stevens 17:35 -------- Valusek 17:37

So, mark your calendars and plan to be at what could be the premiere meet of the season. Just to watch Pede and Perkins dual is worth the drive, but to also have a chance to walk away with a team win makes this a must see event.

Be there!

Coach's Corner

Weather: Sunny and 75

Racine Horlick Rebel Invite

The Greyhounds showed one of the best TEAM cross country races that I have ever seen while coaching here in 7 years! The boys out ran Kenosha Tremper to win by 4 points. Tremper won the meet last year by 1 point. The group decided that the TEAM goal was to run with each other for as long as they could. They did that with our top 6 guys running within 2 sec of each other at the mile (5:25-5:27) They still worked with each other through the second mile with Dennis and Jake splitting out a 10:44 2 mile, followed by Erickson with 10:48, Salmon and Stewart were working together at 11:00 and Valsusek in 11:19. Ben Flanders and Sammy Dupuis followed through in 12:18.
Pack running is what makes the team stronger and they do not feel so alone out there, they feel as if they can push each other more to the finish line. The top 7 guys all PR’d from this course last year to this year. I will have this years times first followed by last years.

Score:

Shorewood 69 (5,6,9,21,28)32,101
Tremper 73 (2,4,15,17,35)58,69
West Bend West 122 (3,18,25,33,43)51,53

Dennis Walsh 5th 16:40/16:44
Jake Haury 6th 16:47/17:10
Andrew Erickson 9th 17:00/18:15 (huge PR) Nice Job!!!!
Douglas Stewart 21st 17:18/17:39
David Salmon 28th 17:32/17:48
Brian Valusek 32nd 17:37/17:57
Ben Flanders 105th 19:31/20:05
Sammy Dupuis111th 19:44 (Second fastest freshman on the course)

Our JV team placed 11th out of 14 and there were a few incomplete teams. We had a few boys out with injuries and we hope to have them back soon.

The JV runners were:

John Bassen 35th 19:59
Sam Guadagnino 56th 20:36
Nishan Abraham 77th 21:06
Tony Hackett 100th 21:41
Andy Tisdel 115th 22:09
Jason Glass 127 th 22:44
Ian Philips 186th 30:05

Congrats to these guys!!!

Full results can be found at www.wisconsinrunner.com

Up coming race will be the Arrowhead Cross Country Invite on Thursday, Sept. 8

Yours in running,

Dominic Newman

Rebel Results

Results are now posted here from Saturday.

Saturday Open Post

Okay, as promised this is the first "open Post" feel free to post comments on anything you want just keep the language clean. Use @#$%^$%^& if you must.

Thanks.

Two for Two

Today was another very encouraging day for the men's team. They beat Tremper by four points despite spotting them two places. Dennis returned to the front as the team's number one runner but just barely as Jake finished right on his shoulder. The really fun part was that the top five were still running as a pack at the mile plus mark and the top three stayed together until well into the third mile. It is almost impossible to beat a team that packs that tight at the front of a race. Results will be up at wisconsin runner later today so check the link on the right. I have a few new pictures up in the rebel invite slide show as well. Parkside is an awful course to take pictures on so don't hold your breath.

Preliminary numbers from memory look like this:

Dennis and Jake were 5th and 6th at around 16:4x
Andrew took ninth at 17:00 *
Doug was 21st at 17:18
Dave was 28th at 17:28

Yes that's three runners under 17:00 and it's only the second week!

Brian ran 6th on the team (17:3x), and Sam (19:44) finished just behind Flanders who finished about 19:30.

Also Flanders may have switched to a hair gel with a lower viscosity because he ran in the mid 19's despite logging over 60 miles in practice and rumors that he stopped to yak somewhere in the third mile. Go Ben!


The Ladies had a very tough outing. Claire didn't run ( vomiting/possible food poisoning). Sarah is out with a stress fracture in her hip; Erica didn't run ( injured); Santera didn't finish ( heat?). Becca Mahn looked solid (despite getting knocked down by a couple of morons from marquette who walked onto the course without looking) and a lot of JV runners got to move up, but the final totals don't reflect the true potential of this team. In the JV race Heidi improved four minutes over last week, which would be a great trend if she could keep it up.

Next up: Arrowhead. This is the fastest course that we will run all year. It is a great spectator course with awesome sight lines. The competition will include many of the top tier D1 runners. Don't skip this because it's on a Thursday.

The details for saturday

Horlick Rebel Invite

7:15 athltetes report to school
7:30 bus will leave the school
7:31 bus will not be at the school

9:45- Jv girls 4k
10:15- Freshman Boys 4k
10:45-Varsity Girls run 8
11:15-Varsity Boys run 8
11:45 -JV Boys unlimited

12:15- Open race (anybody who might be interested in running a 4000k fun run may enter)
Past participants Bill Haury and Coach Newman. Parents feel free to give it a try on one of the best CC courses in Wisconsin.

Please park at the UW-Parkside PE building parking lot. They will ticket!!!

Shirts will be sold for $8.00

This is considered to be the best pure cross country course in the mid-west. The weather is supposed to be great and there will be a lot of very good D1 schools here.

Directions: From Milwaukee take I-94 E to exit 339 (Hwy. E) on the north side of Kenosha. Look for UW-Parkside sign on freeway. Go east 4 miles to the stoplight. Continue about one mile to the first left turn. Look for the UW-Parkside parking lots on your right. The course is at the bottom of the hill below the parking lots.