Saturday, October 28, 2006

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.

Thursday, October 26, 2006

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

Tuesday, October 24, 2006

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.

Saturday, October 21, 2006

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

Wednesday, October 18, 2006

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.

Tuesday, October 17, 2006

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

Monday, October 16, 2006

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.

Sunday, October 15, 2006

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.

Saturday, October 14, 2006

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 !

Friday, October 13, 2006

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.

Thursday, October 12, 2006

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.

Wednesday, October 04, 2006

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.