Great season everyone

Now that cross country is officially over. I will be moving back to the track site.
There probably won't be anything new until January.

I will see if I can recover a version of the slide show that crashed just before the banquet. If I can I will put it on a disc and Andrew will have copies for anyone who is interested.

Cheers.

Claire finishes in top 50

Claire more than held her own at the national championships in Indiana last week.
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Only one of Colorado's runners who scored in the women's race is a senior, and she was the fifth runner. Erin Marston finished in 165th and the other four runners were in the top 50. All of those runners have eligibility left.
Barringer is only a sophomore and Pasciuto a junior. Aislinn Ryan and Claire Maduza were highly touted freshmen coming into the program this year and showed they may live up to expectations. Ryan was 46th and Maduza 48th. Ryan was the seventh-best freshman and Maduza was the eighth-best.
The other two runners in Colorado's top seven, Emily Hanenburg and Hilary McClendon, are also freshmen.
--------------------------------

progressive dinner

The party has moved to the high school. I believe by the "s" room.

Party Time

Information for the team banquet

Date: Wednesday November 15th.

Time 6:00pm.

Place: SIS Commons.

Cost: $5 includes pizza and drinks,
athletes are free.

Send $ to Dennis at school, if possible
Pay at the door is OK, but
it's better in advance for planning purposes.

Families with last name A-K please bring a salad
L-Z please bring a dessert


Please plan to come if you can.

There will be a slide show at the end for those who can stay. If you have a particular picture that needs to be included please get it to Paul this week end.

A little video

Preps plus did another 30 second video spot on the boy's cross country team. They show Dennis and Kevin finishing as well as the celebration after the results were posted. However the spot comes at the 19:15 mark in the segment and there isn't a really good way to fast forward. However if you would like to see it the link is here:

http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=527454
Same link as last time, you want the clip from 11/04.

Enjoy.

pictures

state cc 2006

state cc 06

Four Time State Champions

It never gets old.

Wiggy !!!

The boys pulled off one of the greatest heists in the history of Cross country. It was absolutely unbelievable. The more I dig into the details the wilder it gets. Monroe still has no idea what happened. At the mile mark Dennis and Kevin looked solid but Dennis wasn't where he needed to be if he was going to have a shot to win the whole thing. That spot was already owned by Phil Thomas. Andrew was running with David, they looked relaxed but they were also slow. No big concern because we plan to start slow. Brian however was clearly in trouble and fading fast. I overherd the Monroe coaches say that they could forget about Shorewood and focus on CMH. It ticked me off a little. At the two mile mark we were in fourth and things didn't look good. Dennis was going to have to hustle just to make the podium and Andrew wasn't moving up. Brian was finished. You could tell it was killing him and he was giving everything, but the tank was empty. At the "600 yd to go turn" Dom and I counted and we were still looking like 4th. With all seven CMH runners ahead of Christian the chance to win a fourth straight title seemed to be over. I called my dad and told him the bad news.

I couldn't get to the finish from where I was ( because I am too fat and out of shape) so I missed the whole race which apparently took place in the last hundred yards. Dennis found his kick and moved from 8th to fourth overall, 2nd in the team standings finishing one place behind Monroe's first runner. Kevin held on for 7th overall 3rd in the team scoring. Andrew rallied for 26th /12. Then a miracle happened. David moved up into a five way sprint to the finish. All five runners recieved the same time; places were sorted out by the computer via chip. David beat Monroe's third runner Denure by a literal shoelace. Normally in running places are determined by where your torso is when you cross the line, however with chip timing the winner is determined by whose shoe crosses the line first. David knew that and kicked his foot forward ahead of denure just as they got to the line ( a two point swing ). That's four in for us, three in for Monroe, and 1 in for CMH. Where is Christian? Bill H. starts counting. The next six CMH runners come in, still no Christian. Monroe's 4th, 5th, and 6th runners cross the line and still no Christian. Finally Christian appears, he is dead even with Monroe's 7th and final runner. They both recieve the same time but Christian officially edges him for 99th overall 62nd in the team count. Monroe is openly celebrating. CMH, having put all seven runners ahead of our fifth are pretty confident that they have second. Our boys aren't saying anything but they look "wiggy". Only Mr. Haury is predicting a victory but even he is hedging. The board flashes the scores and the group goes wild.

Shorewood 94
Monroe 96
CMH 99
Dodgeville 103

Monroe is stunned. CMH is gracious. The guys put Dom on their shoulders and threaten to celebrate by tossing him in the pond... Cooler heads prevail. The TV camera moves in for interviews.

The nine point spread between 1st and fourth has got to be a record. Meets are never ever this close. Once again it took every member of the team to contribute an extraordinary performance to pull it off.

They did it, and they did it with style.

Congratulations Guys.State Champions... Four years in a row. Amazing.

The awards ceremony was priceless. Monroe shuffled up for their second place trophy without cracking a single smile.
The SHS guys looked awesome in black this year.

Pictures when I can get to a real computer.

A note from Dom ...

Parents when you show up to the meet. Do not be surprised if the kids seem a bit distant!! This is normal. I may even seem a bit wigged out myself. I get really into the meet and a bit too anxious. Those who have been around me know this and they do a pretty good job of keeping me calm.

Looking forward to seeing as many of you as we can!!

Dominic

The State Meet

2006 WIAA State Championship Meet

Saturday, Oct. 28, Ridges Golf Course, Wisconsin Rapids, Wis.

Boys Championship
- 5,000-meters
11 a.m. - Division 3
11:40 a.m. - Division 2
12:20 a.m. - Division 1

If you are planning to drive up:

Mapquest suggests taking I-94 to Madison and then going north on 39 to Wisconsin Rapids. It takes just over 3 hours. As you come into town there are plenty of signs for the meet, and most of the traffic at that time in the morning will be going to the race as well. A lot of the cars and vans are painted and decorated so it’s kind of like joining a parade. There are a number of remote parking lots with free shuttle buses that run all day. The best one in my opinion is at the local high school (Lincoln 1801 16th St S Wisconsin Rapids, WI 54494) because that is also where the awards ceremony will be after the races. There is officially no parking next to the course but it sure looked like a lot of people parked on the streets anyway. It does cost to get in; $6 I think. They do sell food at the meet but the lines can be huge later in the day, so you are better off packing sandwiches.

It is much more of a party atmosphere than most races. A lot of spectators are in costume and people watching can be entertaining.

The awards follow the last race and the ceremony is over at the high school. It takes awhile for everyone to get over there and for the officials to organize everything. It also takes a fair amount of time to go through all of the individual and team awards for all three divisions… so if you plan to hang around for the trophy pictures plan on getting done around 5 or 6.

The weather is predicted to be cold and rainy, which is not unusual for this meet. The team will set up the usual tent but that is really the only shelter there so dress for the weather.

Directions to the High School are here.
The official list of parking lots is here: http://www.wiaawi.org/x-countryboys/shuttleparking.pdf
THe official WIAA preview is here. They have a lot of facts wrong, but that's par for this group.

2006 Sectional Champs

All of the numbers

Here is the official link for the sectional results

http://www.wiaawi.org/x-countryboys/2006/tourneyresults.html

Just enough from everybody

The boys team overcame a pair of unexpected obstacles this morning coming up with the equivalent of a pair of aces on the flop. Ben got an early jolt of adrenalin when Dom called him to suit up this morning in place of an ailing John B. John is apparently in the hospital with a temp of 105. The next bump came a half mile into the race when Brian had to quit because he couldn't breathe. Brian is a tough runner but 17 minutes is a long time to hold your breath. That put Christian in the number five slot and the race literally came down to his place. Dennis (16:15) finished second behind a healthy Phil Thomas(16:09); Kevin (16:25)was 4th, just a hair behind Lepkowski; Andrew(16:53) was 8th; David (17:12) was 11th; And Christian (18:03) was 30th. CMH finished 3,12,13,15,17 and were sure that they had finally beaten us. However if you do the math ... even the "new" math you can see that the boys took first place by 5 points. Just enough from everybody to make it. David in particular passed two CMH runners in the last 10 feet, that's a five point swing and the definition of a veteran move. Thanks David.

The guys will be going to state for the eighth straight year. They have won 4 of the last seven including the last three. We will need either Brian, John, or Christian to run in the mid 17's if we are going to catch Monroe, but after the last two weeks I wouldn't bet against these guys.

The ladies ran a very very tough race. They finished third behind two of the best teams in the state. In fact CMH and WISCO will probably be 1 and 2 at the ridges. In any other sectional the ladies would probably have moved on. However the good thing is that they are a very young team with huge upside potential. If they stick together and run track this spring they will contend at state next year.

Pictures are up now in the slide show. Not a lot of the guys because I was too busy yelling and trying to count places.

Next week is state. The meet is in Wisconsin Rapids, an easy two hour drive from here. It is a great event that you shouldn't miss.


Cheers

Official details for Saturday

Saturday’s race will be at Tendick Park in Saukville just off of County O and hwy 33.
Bus leaves from school at 11:30
Boys Race: 2pm
Girls Race: 3pm
Parking is limited. Spectators are encouraged to arrive after 1pm to allow the parking areas to clear from the D1 race.
Long sleeved t-shirts will be on sale for $12.

A little advice ...

There are a lot of great articles on the Lets Run site bookmarked over in the links. The most interesting that I have seen in a while is one by the site administrator in which he looks back at his college career and talks about why he never ran up to his potential. The whole article is worth reading and I put the link at the bottom, however the key paragraph is this one:

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But most importantly, turning back to Gary Stolz and Vin Lananna, you need to believe in yourself that you're going to run fast. The All-Americans, the national champs, they are no different than you or me. They just run faster and there is no doubt in their minds they can do it (sure they are nervous on the line. I always said that if I didn't get nervous before races I would quit running because what would be the point of competing). A lot of people work hard, put in the work, but feel like they are not ready to reach the next level or are not sure they can reach it. Well racing is a hugely mental thing. And if there is any doubt in your mind as to how you're going to do, when it starts to hurt, you'll start questioning yourself and that will be it. Say you're in shape to run 29 minutes for 10k (4:40 pace). 4:50 or even 5 minutes pace is not going to be a walk in the park. So if you are not mentally prepared to race, when you are hanging on for your dear life at 4:45 pace you're going to question yourself and fall off. However, if you know that you can run that fast, you'll accept the discomfort as a natural part of the race and hang on and keep going. It's amazing how we all set mental barriers as to what we can do. Once they run a PR, a lot of people start running that time repeatedly.

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Read the whole thing : http://www.letsrun.com/2006/collegesuck.php

Q: Tendick Park?

A: It is the site of this year's sectional race hosted by Milwaukee Lutheran.

Tendick Park is located just off of Highway O in Saukville. That's a few miles due west of Port Washington. I believe that the races are in the afternoon around 2:00 but I haven't seen anything official yet. I will post more details when I get them.

The battle to move on may not be as dramatic as advertised for the guys. Wisconsin Lutheran has a pair of decent runners up front in the mid 16 range but then their times fall way off. Wisco was recently beaten by Whitnall, CMH, and King all of whom we beat.

Catholic memorial took third in their conference and posted the following times: 16:14; 17:14; 17:15; 17:19; and 17:50. As you can see our top five times fit in nicely ahead of each of theirs.

If eveyone runs to potential... the guys should win on Saturday.

The real test will be Monroe when we get to state. Hopefully they are peaking early because they are running some crazy times ( 16:01; 16:23; 16:46; 16:55; 17:00).

The ladies could really surprise if everyone can put their best race together, They seem to be peaking just right. They will need to get past Wisco if you are counting jerseys and they are closer than a lot of people think.

New sectional assignments

UPDATE: This entry was originally posted last spring, I am bringing it forward because I'm not sure any one saw it back then and I think that it is relevant. Make sure you click the read more tab at the end to see the full analysis.
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The new sectional assignments are out and they are very interesting. Whitefish bay is still in D1 so we wont get to run against them this year. Our new sectional is a lot closer to home, so we should be able to draw more spectators. The teams involved are also a big step up so we will have to give an honest effort to move on next year. The new race will be at Milwaukee Lutheran and it looks like this :

SECTIONAL #8 - MILWAUKEE LUTHERAN
Brown Deer, Catholic Memorial, Grafton, Greendale, Kettle Moraine Lutheran, Martin Luther, Messmer, Milwaukee Lutheran, New Berlin Eisenhower, New Berlin West, Racine St. Catherine’s, Saint Francis, Saint Joan Antida (Girls), Shorewood, Thomas More, Union Grove, Wisconsin Lutheran.


Wisconsin Lutheran was third in the D1 race last year, and Catholic Memorial has been right behind us for two years now. This will be fun!


Update:

I did a little checking ...

Wisconsin Lutheran took third in D1 last year. That included Pede who was first in the team scoring. He was a senior and so wont be back. Their third runner was also a senior. The other five were juniors. Their times range from 16:49 to 18:13. They will have at least three solid seniors next year ( sub 17:40).

Catholic Memorial took second in D2 last year. They only had one senior in their top seven. That was Weissenr, he was their #2 and ran 17:09. Their top three runners next year will be seniors and they should all be under 17:30. After that they have two freshman returning who ran right at 18:00.

We are losing our number two and number six runner from the last race. On paper if we can find a fifth runner under 17:40 we will be more than competitive, but we have no room for injuries this year.

Finally, just for fun I put the five returning runners from each team in a hypothetical race. I gave them their times from the state meet and then scored the imaginary race.

results:

Shorewood 32
Wisco 43
CM 45

As you can see, the three teams are about dead even in terms of returning talent.

And for those of you who really like irrelevant what if scenarios ... If you plug the Wisco times from the D1 race into the D2 results we would have beat them.


Clearly though, our new sectional has arguably the three best D2 teams in the state, so some very good team is going to be left home.

Of course anything can happen between now and then.

Conference Champs

The weather couldn't stay perfect all season, but yesterday was still a shock. The wind off of the lake probably took ten seconds off of the final times. However the runners didn't seem to mind.

It was close but the Varsity boys managed to pull off first place by four points. They defeated a very motivated Whitnal team that has been talking smack and predicting that they would crush us all year. Which of course just made it all that more satisfying. Dennis led most of the race despite the wind and had the kick he needed at the end to be the overall champion. He ran 16:05 so he is still a few seconds shy of the school record. Kevin ran a gutsy race and finished 6th. Andrew was back in form and ran 10th (17:00). David battled a bad back for 23rd and Brian stepped up and finished 30th. Jon and Christian will round out the State varsity squad with Sam, Ben, and Jason in reserve.

The JV Boys just missed beating Whitnall by two points. But they all ran really well. Sam was second overall and ran most of the course by himself.

The varsity girls continue to get better every week despite injuries and yesterday was no exception. Becca moved back up to the front after struggling most of the year and was our top finisher. She was followed closely by Morgan and sarah. They finished 4th in the standings and took a little unfair ribbing from Pewaukee but they are in a great position to surprise some teams at sectionals next week.

The JV girls also ran very well with a number of notable pr's. There are several girl's towards the back of the pack who have made some huge gains this year. Heidi in particular knocked a minute off of her pr and just missed breaking 20 minutes.

Pictures are up in the slide shows as well as a late set from the Shorewood Invite last week.
All of the images can be downloaded and sent to wallgreens right from your chair so feel free to print anything you want.

Next week is sectionals. The grouping and course are new this year and it will be very tough to move on so please come and cheer. It really makes a difference to the runners.

Great race everyone !

Competition at conference

First year in the woodland, people are asking who the competition will be.

Individuals ( based on best times this season):

Phil Thomas 15:59
Dennis 16:04
Nick Szczech 16:05
Limoni 16:09
Kevin 16:22
Labbs 16:38
Bigsby 16:40
Andrew 16:44
David 16:54
Bron 16:58

Teams :

Thomas Moore
Shorewood
Greendale
Whitnall
Pewaukee

If Andrew and Brian can recover from their injuries we have a very good chance to win this.

Conference tomorrow !

Woodland Conference CC Meet

Friday, October 13, 2006 at Sheridan Park in Cudahy
Bus leaves SHS 12:30pm!!!
Time Schedule:

2:30pm Boys’ J.V.
3:05pm Girls’ J.V.
3:40pm Boys’ Varsity
4:15pm Girls’ Varsity
5:00 Awards

ALL ATHLETES WILL DRESS IN TEAM APPAREL…no exceptions.
(warm-up pants & jackets)

Woodland Conference orange, long-sleeve t-shirts $15

Directions
Take Lake Drive/Lincoln Memorial Drive downtown.
Enter I-794 E/Lake Parkway
Exit E. Oklahoma ramp
East on Oklahoma .7 miles
Bear right onto S. Lake Drive
2.5 miles south on S. Lake Drive


We are of course in a brand new conference this year so this will be our first race ever on this course. The scuttlebutt is that this is a very flat and very fast course ala Arrowhead. That should work in our favor. On the downside it could be very cold and very windy tomorrow so having enough time to warm up could be key.

I have no idea why this is scheduled in the middle of the afternoon on a school day, but at least it is close to home and traffic shouldn’t be an issue.

The future

Despite our small size, the Shorewood CC teams have been very successful over the last decade. This is not an accident but the result of a lot of hard work. I think that it is important to note in particular just how much Mr. Haury has done to recruit and encourage runners in the middle school, who then go on to run at a very high level in high school. Our ability to consistently field some of the fastest freshman in the state year after year is only possible because of the way he nurtures the middle school program.

Thanks Bill !!

With that intro, there are a number of really exciting eighth graders this year who could be a real help next year. On the boys side, Joe and Adan have been running at the front of most races and they have been well under 12 minutes for two miles. That's outstanding.

Even more impressive on the girl's side is Emily who is running almost as fast as Joe. In the last race at Greenfield park she was 30 seconds behind him, giving up 20 seconds in the first mile, and 10 seconds in the second mile finishing around 11:45.

The future looks great.

Eagle Invite results

eagle invite 06

Sep 4, 2006 - 57 Photos

Last saturday was picture perfect. The weather was cool, the grass was short, and the times were fast. Almost everyone ran a PR and several people PR'd by more than a minute. The full results are up at Wisconsin Runner, the direct link is here:

http://wisconsinrunner.com/results/2006eagle/

I'm sorry I don't have time to put up a real post but I will get to it before the end of the week. In the meantime I am trying out a new way to post pictures. If you click on the picture at the top of this post it should take you to an album of images from the meet. Let me know what you think.

This weekend is the Shorewood Invite. Volunteers are appreciated. The weather is supposed to be sunny and 70's.

Update: I fixed the link so it includes all of the races. Sorry 'bout that.

Where's Jake?

Jake now has a pair of college races behind him. He appears to be running fourth on his team and has been covering the five mile distance in about 28:00. Nice work Jake.

Strategy ?

In reading through a recap of the Griak meet on Dyestat I thought the following detail was interesting:
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This race went out a bit quicker than Mead was used to, given the deceptively slow course. “I thought the guys would eventually slow down and that I could make it to the front,” he said.
He did that at the mile, passed in 4:59, with a group of about 10 with him. Then between 1.5 and 1.75 Mead started pulling away. “I didn’t really pick it up,” he said. “I just opened up my stride on the down hills.”

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Learning how to run downhill can help you run faster. Too many people shorten up their stride on the downhills because they are afraid to go too fast. If you are going to surge in a race, why not do it on the downhill ?

Honor roll

For what it is worth if you check out the state honor roll over in the links ...

Kevin is the fastest freshman in the state by about a minute and
Ben is in ninth place.

Two in the top ten is really impressive considering the size of our team.

Kevin was also the top freshman at Griak by about 60 places.

Congratulations guys!

Back from Griak

I am having computer problems ( my hard drive is shot) so posting will be light for a while.

The races were a lot of fun. It didn't rain during the day saturday but the course was pretty saturated already, The college races in the morning churned up the mud and several places looked like cattle crossings. Running through six inches of mud will take a bit off of anyone's time and the consensus is that the course ran about 30 seconds slow by the end of the afternoon. The results are up here :

http://www.gophersports.com/ViewArticle.dbml?SPSID=45840&SPID=3297&DB_OEM_ID=8400&ATCLID=612384

I won't go through all of the numbers here, just a few highlights. Dennis and kevin raced each other the last quarter mile w/ Dennis out leaning the frosh at the line. They were both in front of marquette's first runner and a few steps behind Sean Olson. David had another stellar performance as this is turning out to be his best season ever. Andrew and Brian struggled again. If they had run the same times that they did here last year we would have been third instead of 20th. Both should be able to recover by Conference. Sammy D. ran a PR and finally looked like he did last year. Christian gets a mention for throwing up in his sleeping bag.

Distinguished Alumni Alec Maduzza ran for Nebraska and finished five miles in 27:00.

The girls had another inspiring race. They ran very much together and it was fun to see them yelling encouragement to each other and exchanging high fives during the race. Becky suffered from bad shin splints and did well to finish; hopefully she will be back in form soon. Morgan led the team to ninth place; but the real story was Sarah who had a huge race. She looked like her old self for the first time this year. At this rate she could well be our number one runner by Conference. If the girl's times look slow it's because they rana 5K instead of the usual 4K.

There are some pictures up under the slide show link. Somehow the order of the slides got mixed up. I don't have time to sort them so they are in a somewhat random order. It's not a lame attempt at being artistic.

The next race is the Eagle invite at Parkside. This is the only course that we run twice, so this is where we measure how everyone is doing.

Once again the competition will be huge for this meet. I know I sound like a broken record with that line but keep in mind that just about every meet we run is an open or an invite which means that teams can choose whether or not to come right up until about the week before. For some reason this year a group of better teams have been running at the same events that we are at. This is not normal, but it will help us in the long run. Also keep in mind that we have been running against mostly top tier D1 schools. These guys are not in our section at State. The opposite of this will be the field at our own invite in two weeks which attracts mostly smaller programs and basketball teams.

Griak

This weekend the varsity teams will be at the Roy Griak memorial cross country meet. The meet is hosted by the University of Minnesota and is run on the Les Bolstad golf course.

The morning features the top ranked college teams in the country. This is a chance to see some of the best racing outside of the national meet. It is really amazing to see just how fast these guys are.

The afternoon features the high schoolers. Teams fly in from as far away as California and Florida but the best runners tend to be from the mid west. At the moment the minnesota teams are particularily dominate.

The course itself is very hilly. Times here can be a little slow.

If you are planning to come, come early and pack a lunch. They do sell food on the grounds but the lines can be huge.

Dennis and the boys on TV

Dennis was featured on preps plus TV yesterday the link is here:

http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=498805

I'm not sure how long the link will be good for. The useless intro and commercials take up the first minute and a half of the video so you have to be patient, but the footage when it comes is worth it. There are some nice shots of the whole team running together as well as a lot of nice things said about Dennis.

congratulations Dennis!

Marquette results

As most of you know by now the race on saturday didn't turn out quite as well as we were hoping. The course itself was in great shape and the competition was as advertised. The races however left more than a few runners with a few questions.

On the girl's side the team ran well together and placed 6th over all. They are excited about Griak this week end and seem to be on track for the season.

On the boy's side, Dennis had a great race. He placed just ahead of a number of top runners who had been pre race picks to win the whole thing. Kevin and David also posted solid performances placing 13th and 25th. Brian, back from a recent illness, was still working out some of the cobwebs. Andrew struggled with a sore hip that has been a concern. The result was that we got thrashed in the team scores, which may not be a bad thing if it takes some of the spotlight and stress off of the guys. We are a talented but thin team and we need all seven varsity runners to come through if we are to achieve our goals for the season.

I had a crazy week end so pictures etc. will go up some time if I can get caught up.

In the meantime, Dr Mahn has some pictures up under the slideshow tab "Mahn Files".

Griak is on saturday.

Race time

4:00 Boys Freshman 4000 M
4:30 Girls JV 4000 M
5:00 Boys JV 5000M
5:30 Girls Varsity 4000M
6:00 Boys Varsity 5000M

Marquette Invite Friday at 4:00

This week's race is the Marquette Invite. Please note that it is being held on a new course this year. It will be held at Washington Park (40th and Vliet). It is also on a Friday rather than the usual Saturday. The races will start at 4:00.

The course is a new variation of Marquette's alumni route. It has been described as two loops around the north end and then one loop around the south end with the finish at the ball fields. The pictures make it look flat but I am told that there are a number of short but steep uphills.

Based on last year, the top teams there could be: Marquette, Catholic Memorial, Craig, Mad West, Shorewood, Neenah, Tremper, WB West, South Milwaukee, and Madison Lafollette.

According to the latest coach's poll the meet will feature the #1, and #2 D2 teams and the #2, 4, 6, 10, 11, 15 D1 teams in the state. The top individual guys are Werve, Christianson, Lund, Lepkowski, and Walsh. It should be one of the best team invites of the season.

I lifted the folowing directions from Marquette's web site :
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The park is bounded by Vliet Street on the south, Lloyd Street on the north, 40th Street on the east and Highway 41on the west. The race starts at the east end of the lagoon. The northern most parking lot off of 40th Street, about a quarter mile south of Lloyd, is the best access. Look for the Training Academy sign.
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Mark your calanders and plan to be there !

Competition?

A quick scan of recent results shows that on Friday night there will be at least twenty guys who have already run under 17:00 this year and there will be at least two who have broken 16:00. There should be 11 guys under 16:30 if conditions are right. That is a very good group of runners.

If Brian comes back and runs close to his average, we have a better than average chance to win the whole thing; which would be nice.

Also, this race will determine who goes to Griak next week so there will be a little more incentive for some of the guys.

Friday, 4:00 Washington Park

New uniforms ...

Ultimate Frisbee ?

I'm not really sure why I find this amusing; but it seems to tie in with all of the Halo and Frisbee that the guys have been playing lately.

http://www.defensetech.org/archives/002723.html

Solid start

It's hard to overstate just how nice the weather has been so far this year. Hopefully it will stay this way.

Both teams showed huge progress last night with just about everyone posting a meaningful PR. While Arrowhead is an unusually fast course we haven't always run our best there in the past so it was nice to see everyone where they wanted to be.

The boys ran without Brian who is recovering from an injury; that left Jon and Ben to hold down the fifth spot and hold it they did. Ben pr'd by over a minute and Jon held him off for his best ever as well. they were 50 and 51 overall which was just enough for the team to claim second. We were 5 points behind Arrowhead but we beat Whitefish bay and catholic memorial. The later was something of a surprise because they put all 8 of their runners ahead of Jon and Ben. The difference was that we put our top four ahead of their number two.

We had four guys under 17:00 and Dennis and Kevin both look like they could break 16 by the end of the year. If everyone can stay healthy and keep improving this could be a very special season.

The JV boys looked solid but not as solid as they were told. For some reason they were presented the second place trophy and actually took it home despite finishing dead last in the JV section. The irony is that CM is the school that should have won it. I don't think that I have ever seen that before.

The ladies had another stand out performance. I can't stress enough how amazing their pack running is. because of the way meets are scored it is almost as important to minimize the gaps between your own runners as it is to finish at the front. The girl's have been working really well together and they have been getting faster every week. They are certainly on track to surprise a lot of people at the end of the season. Kudos in particular to Morgan who finished second on the team. She is getting over her freshman nerves and running with a lot of courage.

All of the results are up at PT Timing the link is on the right as "PT results" I won't put everyone's time here because PT does it so much better.

Pictures will go up this afternoon.

Great Job everyone!

Arrowhead is this Thursday!

The Arrowhead invitational attracts some of the best competition every year because it is a very flat, fast course. This year will be no exception, with most of the top D1 runners committed to being there. The leaders in the boy's race will go out sub 5:00 and will probably still be under 10 at the 2 mile mark. The winners will definitely be under 16. The girl's race will go in the mid 14's. Runners circle this date because it is a rare combination of a fast course with a stacked field.

Don't let the fact that it is on a Thursday afternoon keep you from coming, this is a premiere event and we have a chance to place very well. This is also a fan friendly venue in that you can see most of the race without too much effort.

The races start at 4:00 and they are pretty punctual. Directions and details are on the schedule page.
see you there.

Missing your Claire fix?

Claire, as most of you know is attending the University of Colorado on a full athletic scholarship this year. What you may not know is that she has already been putting up some very respectable numbers. The women's team had their annual pre-season time trial last week. The course is an odd 5.8K or 3.6 miles and Claire finished 3rd in 23.12 which is just under 7 minutes a mile on a very hilly course. She was part of a five person pack that stayed together the whole way. She ran next to another freshman ( alisson). Together they are being touted as the core of what looks like a very dominate team in the next few years. I'll keep you posted on her times as they come up.

Tegenkamp on time ...

Tegenkamp has been posting some very interesting comments in his on line training journal. In this latest he talks about why he dropped out of a recent race :
CONTINUED

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Truth about Rieti: So I have a confession to make--the DNF at Rieti was not due to tired legs. I went into Rieti with one thing on my mind: .the 3K American record. When the gun went off until the time I dropped out, I never settled into the race. I was forcing the pace and not letting the race come to me. I got a good start, and was sitting in third until the second alley came in on us, and then I got shuffled back to about tenth. For some reason, I got very flustered by this, and sprinted around the group to get myself back into fifth. I don’t know what I was thinking, because it was so early in the race, and no one was going anywhere. That really hurt me, because it never allowed me to settle into a pace. I was pressing so much in the race that I kept running into the guy in front of me and getting spiked. I still have some huge marks on my shin.
Even before the mile, I was already looking at the lap counter, and I was very tight. My mind was everywhere, trying to figure out if I was on pace for the record, instead of competing and letting the time come to me. It is true that my legs were not feeling good, but it was not because they were tired from training--I went through 2K in 4:59! Once I knew I was not going to be able to hold onto the pace anymore, I lost it mentally and just stepped off the track. I do think I can handle that pace, but I need to let it happen, not force it.
It was smart to put another 3K on the schedule this season, but I got greedy after Monaco. Everything has been going so well this season, and I knew I could run faster after the 7:34. I thought I could just step out onto the track and grab the American record. Moral of the story is that no one should ever chase a time. If you get into the race and compete well, the times always follow!
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This is really a key point, especially for young runners. If you spend the whole race thinking about your splits and how you feel you will never improve. Races are for racing; save the analysis for the bus ride home.

Rebel Results

Both teams put in a solid performance Saturday. The weather was perfect and the competition was very very fast.

The boys took second overall thanks to a pair of well timed finishing kicks, however the results were skewed because catholic memorial pulled a runner in the last hundred meters because he was having an asthma attack. With him in, CM would have smoked us. On the plus side we did beat Tremper again along with a long list of other good D1 schools. Dennis finished first for the squad and 6th overall but just barely. He had to work to catch Kevin. Kevin posted what I think is the fastest time for a freshman in the state so far this year. His 16:49 would have put him 8th on the final list for all freshman last year. The bonus is that he did it on a real course too.
Andrew was third in 17:12, followed by david ( 17:22), Brian (18:07), Jon (18:42), Ben (19:16), and Sam ( 19:31). very solid.

Full results are up at http://www.wisconsinrunner.com/results/2006_rebel/index.htm .

The ladies were paced by Becky (16:27) who is looking very strong this year; Becca (17:20); and then a six deep pack of Erica, Morgan, colleen, Devon, and Devin between 17:26 and 17:29. If they can all stay together and move up that kind of pack running will win a lot of races.

I'm sorry that I didn't get a watch on the open race. Participants included Bill H, Chris S, Coach K, and mad dogg. If you watch the slide show they look like they had a lot of fun.

Speaking of which my pics are up now at Photo show. The Weir pictures will be up later.

Congratulations to everyone!

The Bus

The bus will leave at 7:30 AM saturday.

They have and will leave people who come late.

The schedule looks like this:

9:45 JV girls
10:15 Freshman Boys 4K
10:45 Varsity Girls
11:15 Varsity Boys
11:45 JV boys
12:45 Open 4K



Anyone can jump in and run in the open race.

Pasta Dinner

This week's dinner for the boys is at Dennis' house. It's too far to walk, so guys should plan to car pool or bring a bike to practice.

The ladies will be at Erica's house I believe (someone correct me if I am wrong). They are also on the near east side just past reasonable walking range.

Badger Miles

Tegenkamp explained the concept of "badger miles" in a recent interview :
---CONTINUED ----

Badger Miles Explained
Everyone seems to have a hard time with this issue; why, I don’t know. Everyone has their own way of counting miles, and at Wisconsin, we count everything at 7:00 per mile pace. There is a funny twist to it, in that we round to the nearest 5 minutes (e.g., 8 miles is 56 minutes at 7:00 pace, but gets rounded to 60 minutes, no rounding down). Even though we count everything at 7:00 pace, that does not mean that I go out and run that pace. Very rarely will I run 7:00 pace--I would not get very good doing that. Usually my runs are done somewhere between 5:40 and 6:20 per mile. That includes easy runs, which are more toward 6:20 pace. The only time I might go slower is after a hard race or on my way back after a break. I usually build into runs, starting out slow and ending faster, gives my legs time to warm-up. I almost always run on some sort of trail and make loops, and there is only one place for us to check out splits in the city, so it is easier to just have a fixed system for counting miles. Here is a Badger miles chart. I hope this chart is the answer that everyone as been looking for-- the secret to our training!

Miles Minutes
0-----------below 25
3-----------25
4-----------30
5-----------35
6-----------45
7-----------50
8-----------60
9-----------65
10----------70
11----------80
12----------85
13----------90 (this is our only break--should be 95)
14----------100 (1:40)
15----------105 (1:45)
16----------115 (1:55)
17----------120 (2:00)

A little extra: we figure for about every 60 miles during base training, you can add 10 miles to your total. That changes during the seasons because workouts are a more accurate account of mileage

-------------------

Notice that they don't even start counting miles until after 25 minutes of running and they don't consider anything slower than 7:00/mile. I know that this is a top ranked D1 college program, but it is interesting to see what their definition of "running" is.

Next race: Rebel Invite

This Saturday 9/2 is the rebel Invite at UW Parkside. This is the premiere course in the midwest, it is also the only course that we run twice every year. This will be a much bigger meet than last week and the competition will be much better. On the boy's side teams to watch will be Catholic Memorial, Tremper, and Marquette. Memorial has finished second behind us at State for the last two years. They are returning almost their whole varsity intact. They are convinced that this is their year to finally put us in our place. They have no idea how good our incoming freshman class is. Kenosha Tremper considers this to be their home course and they are not happy that we seem to find a way to beat them every now and then. Marquette splits their team in half because of it's size. I don't know if they will bring their A or B team.

The 5K course for the guys is very challenging. The first mile is essentially uphill and the grass can be long at this time of the year. The second mile has a lot of fast downhill back in the woods. The third mile consists of a series of rolling hills that separate the runners from the wannabees. The finish is slightly uphill for the last quarter mile.

The ladies run a shorter version that skips the rolling hills.

The schedule looks like this:

9:45 JV girls
10:15 Freshman Boys ( 4K)
10:45 Varsity Girls
11:15 Varsity Boys
11:45 JV boys
12:45 Open 4K

Anyone can jump in and run in the open race. In the past Bill H. and Dom have run and placed.

UW Parkside is a good hour away. There is a map over on the schedule page but mapquest seems to have an odd route. I prefer these directiions:

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.

The course is across the street from Petrified springs state park. Parents will want to get there around 9:00 especially if this is your first time. This is a course that requires a fair bit of moving around if you want to see more than just the start and finish.

See you there !

West Bend results

The weather was remarkably tame compared to past years. It was really only muggy for one or two races. The course was slightly different than last year which should have made it faster but the grass was much longer and the over all times were actually slower than last year.

The ladies put in a very solid day, led by Becky in 16:31; Becca 17:34; Morgan ( a freshman no less) 17:52; Colleen 17:53; and Katja 18:08. Everybody looked good coming in off of summer training and it was very nice to see a freshman break into the top five.

The boys also debuted a pair of fast freshman. Competeing in the sophmore race Kevin won the race outright with a time of 17:09 but was probably under 17:00 ( he had a little trouble staying on the course and finding the finish line). Ben ( not Flanders) ran 19:39 to make the varsity squad for saturday. The vets all seemed to struggle a bit finding fifth gear. Hopefully it was just tired legs from a long week of practice. Dennis 16:56; Andrew 18:03; David 18:07; Brian 18:29; and John 19:34. With the addition of Kevin, the top five looks good enough to go up against anybody at the end of the season.

Congratulations everyone.

Pictures are up in the slide shows, click the "2006 season" tab.