MHS Cross Country The Griak!!! Girls Comment Sheet

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1 MHS Cross Country The Griak!!! Girls Comment Sheet Confidence comes from hours and days and weeks and years of constant hard work and dedication. That was pretty amazing. A 3rd place finish, out of 51 teams at the Roy Griak Invitational what a great day! We lost to two very solid Minnesota schools, but we beat everyone else. We beat Shorewood, and they are ranked 8th in DII. We beat Green Bay Notre Dame. They are ranked 5th in DII, and they just won the Green Bay City Meet by a very wide margin. They are an exceptional program. We beat Cedar Grove Belgium, and they are ranked 9th in DII. Against schools in our conference, we were very strong. Memorial is still ahead of us, but we would have beaten Hudson again, even though they were in a different race. And we put our #6 ahead of the #2 runner from River Falls. Our current record is 114 wins to 4 losses. A 97% win/loss percentage. Just slightly above average. Look at the picture on the left - that s just past the 3k. A bunch of the Griak course looked exactly like that. Add to that the 9 races run BEFORE you ladies raced, which made the course awful. And the very challenging course with rolling hills and no flat. Oh, and I measured the course. It was 5112, not extra meters is quite a bit that s an extra 30 seconds or so. The only thing we had going for us was the weather, which was good cloudy and 70 degrees. It was really humid, though. But the course conditions, course difficulty and course length were going to ensure that times were slow. Now, there is absolutely nothing we can do about a course. We can t control mud or rain or wind or heat, but we can control how we react to it. What s amazingly awesome about this team is that you ladies don t get rattled. Here s a little secret, though; terrible conditions hurt people that a) aren t fit, or b) aren t smart. If you are in great shape, you ll power up those hills and through that mud. Your fitness is a huge asset on difficult courses. Even the unfit can fake their way through a flat, fast, short 5k. They can t fake their way through the wind, or cold, or mud, or heat, or hills. Those things need to be conquered, and they can only be conquered through fitness. Also, racing stupidly by going out too fast can be a killer with terrible conditions. A flat, fast, short 5k can be managed if that first K is too fast. It gets much more difficult if the conditions are terrible. You ladies were not stupid - you ran some very smart races, and you ladies are very fit. That s why you won a trophy. And you shouldn t even begin to worry about your times. Remember a sentence ago when I said you shouldn t even begin to worry about times? Well, let s look at some times. Many of our girls, such as Kaylynn, Emma, Erin, were significantly faster this year. Others, like Tyra, Grace and Madee, were slightly slower. In the BRC, most of the Memorial girls were quite a bit slower. Most of the Hudson girls were quite a bit slower. The RF girls, except their #1, were quite a bit slower. The Rice Lake beastly sophomore was much faster. I d guess that the course ran 30 seconds slower this year than last year. So, if you were within 30 seconds of lastyears time, you had a pretty good day. If you were faster, you had an amazing day and you are getting fit. It s probably easier to look at places. Last year, Emma was 84th. This year she was 11th. Last year Tyra was 43rd. This year she was 25th. Last year Ellen was 94th, and was our number for runner. This year, Ellen was 60th, and she was our number six runner. Last year, Madee was 96th. This year

2 she was 79 th. Last year our number eight runner was Erin Schmidt, in 243 rd place. This year our number eight runners was Erin Schmidt, in 125 th place. That s some awfully nice improvement Bria (116) Tina (77) Grace (37) Emma (11) 2 Dye (143) Emma(83) Tyra (43) Tyra (25) 3 Ingrid (163) Grace (92) Emma (84) Kaylynn (41) 4 Emma (203) Tayia (107) Ellen (95) Emily (50) 5 Tina (231) Madee (124) Madee (96) Grace (55) 6 Bux (257) Tyra (161) Anna (170) Ellen (60) 7 Erin (271) Ingrid (179) Kaylynn (185) Madee (79) 8 Ellen (357) Ellen (200) Erin (243) Erin (125) 9 Miara (363) Bria (222) Tina (270) Flug (152) 10 Anna (380) Bischel (251) Reckin (292) Tayia (176) T 35 th place 856 points 17 th place 483 points 8 th place 355 points 3 rd place 180 points I put our Griak finishes over the past four years into this handy chart. Pick a junior or senior. Look at their improvement in places from year to year. I also included our team score and place, so you can see how our ladies have progressed. Madee, as our number seven, is 100 places ahead of our previous best number seven. We ve never had a year where our number eight has been better than 200 th place. I told Tayia and Mackenzie that I wanted them in the top 200 this year, which is unheardof for a #9 and #10 runner. Every year there are about 450 runners at Griak. This year 450 started and 435 finished. Mackenzie Flug finished 152 nd out of 435 runners. She was our #9 runner, and was 11 places ahead of Wausau East s #2 runner. Mackenzie was easily the best #9 runner in the field, ahead of Lakeville North s #9 by about 25 seconds (and 30 places). Tayia Wik finished in 176 th place. She was our #10 runner, and was about over a minute (and about 100 places) ahead of the next-best #10 runner. Tayia finished ahead of River Falls #5 runner. She was just behind LaCrosse Aquinas #2 runner. She was three seconds behind Lakeland s #5 runner, and Lakeland is ranked 12 th in Division 2 right now. That s some amazing depth for the MHS girls squad. Emma is in the above picture. If you don t know her, she s #3081. Emma was pretty excited about this race, but I gave her a relatively conservative race plan. The plan called for Emma to be behind Kaylynn and Tyra at the K, and run 3:55. That s 19:35 pace, and a 19:35 is an extremely fast time for this course. Emma did not like this plan. She wanted to go-out with the leaders and push. Well, maybe not to out with the leaders, but certainly with the chase pack. She wanted to be in it; to have a chance at an award. She wanted to get out hard. For our team to be amazing, we need our #3 and #4 to develop. We need them closer to Emma and Tyra. If a #3 and #4 emerge, and move-up, then they will bring the rest of the ladies up as well. So, Emma had to run with her teammates through the K. Then I wanted her to make a move, and take Tyra and our #3 and #4 along with her.

3 I wasn t quite sure who our #3 and #4 were going to be. I wasn t quite sure if Emma would even follow the plan. I was certain that she didn t like it. Making this even more interesting, the officials took the GPS watches from the ladies before the gun. You can t wear a GPS watch in a race, even if you turn-off the GPS function. No one had watches!!! At the last minute, Coach Anderson gave Kaylynn his watch, so she could try to hit pace for the first K. And Emma still didn t like the plan. The gun sounded and we immediately had three groups. The first group was Kaylynn and Tyra, with Emma just behind. The 2 nd group was Emily, Ellen, Grace, Erin and Madee. They were all supposed to be together, and they were within a couple of seconds, but it wasn t that awesome geese pack we usually see. It was pairs, oddly. Everyone paired-up. In retrospect, that was probably the best decision, as it was going to be very difficult to keep 5 girls together throughout the race. Anyway, Kaylynn led the first K and hit 3:56, with Emma and Tyra right behind. At that point, Emma made a move, Tyra and Kaylynn responded by going with. That above picture is a photo of the move. Emma is starting to roll, right around 1200m. As you can see, they are swinging wide to begin passing. They were in, about, 60 th place at the k. By the time they hit the mile, Emma was 33 rd, Tyra was 34 th and Kaylynn was 35 th. Kaylynn had done her job, and now she was trying to hangon. Tyra was holding her position. Emma was moving up brilliantly, rolling past girls on the downhill. At the 3k, Tyra was still in 34 th. Emma had moved-up to 15 th, and was pressing hard. Kaylynn had surrendered three places, and was in 38 th, which is still quite good. They came to the 4k and the race got difficult. Emma s chase pack was breaking-up and becoming a group of ants running single file. Tyra was starting to look fatigued and angry. Kaylynn s head was tilting and she was battling with everything. They came-up to the finish stretch and I started screaming. Emma, you have to separate. They re coming! Tyra, go get yellow shorts! You need to get yellow shorts! Kaylynn, you have a great race going. Go get light blue! Go get her! Emma was 11th. She had moved-up four spots, passing some extremely talented runners. Tyra was 26 th, just six spots out of an award. She had moved-up eight spots! Kaylynn had hung on really well and was 44 th. All three had done their jobs; Kaylynn had set the pace, Emma had made the move, and Tyra responded with her to help. As Emma rolled past 2k, Tyra held her spot, and Kaylynn hung on. It couldn t have been better. It was perfect racing and perfect teamwork. I didn t ask Emma if she liked her plan after the race, but I m guessing she did. 11 th place at Griak! And while she ran the race, and deserves the credit, she had some help along the way from 2 teammates.

4 Then there was our chase pack. The goal is to move the 3 and 4 closer to Tyra and Emma, and while this group is usually dialed in with pack running, it was a little harder for them to maintain their pack after the 2k. The picture above is just past 1k. Nice groups, don t you think? They were together at the 3k as well, but in pairs. Grace and Madee had pared-up and were 12:43 at the 3k. Ellen and Emily were 12:34. Erin was off the back. So it was pairs, not a pack. This was not planned, but NORA, so everyone was with someone through the 3k. Except Erin, but she had the Madee/Grace pairing in her sights and was only 30 meters off of them. Somewhere over the final 1k, Grace made a beastly move. So did Emily. Ellen tried to hang on to Emily, but she s a turbo frosh. Grace pulled up alongside Ellen and at the end pulled away a bit. Madee was close behind, with Erin off of the back. The pairs worked quite well. Maybe we ll try some pairing again in the future. Grace cried at the end. She was happy. She finished feeling strong and tough, and her time was solid considering the conditions. And you can t spell Grace without race. Erin wasn t happy. She wanted to be better than our #8. I really liked Ellen s race. She pulled Emily along and made a nice target for Grace, which allowed Grace to run a little faster at the end. As for Madee, she s been sick, but you wouldn t know it from her awesome race. Every one of you ladies is in a great position to break 20:00 in the very near future. You guys are looking amazingly strong, and you handled the Griak course very well. Last time, at MHS Relays, Ellen was the number eight, and she had to run JV at Rice Lake. This time Erin is our number eight, and she ll have to run JV at New Richmond. After this, though, we get our top eight together for Old Abe and BRC but only seven for Sectionals. The top seven at BRC will be our sectional team, with the eight and ninth being our alternates. That s the way it s been done in the past, and that s the only fair way to do it. We have eight really, really good runners. We could, possibly, have eight allconference runners, which would mean that an all-conference runner might not be able to compete at sectionals. Then there is Tayia and Mackenzie. If they get hot and get ahead of the big eight, then they can grab those spots, too. There will be some very, very talented MHS runners that don t get to race at sectionals, but that s the nature of the sport. Understand that your season isn t defined by one race. It s the culmination of races, practices and workouts. Those girls that don t get to compete at sectionals or that are in the JV race at conference are just as important as the other girls they helped everyone along the way, and the team s success is everyone s success. Anyway, Emily is a beast. As a freshmen, she wasn t intimidated at all. But we have another very solid freshmen. Mackenzie is quietly having a really, really good season. She s starting to get into position to earn a spot on the freshmen top 10 list. 21:18 is 10th on that list, a time run by a runner named Emma Welch waaaay back in Mackenzie might be able to get that when we start running on fast courses next week. And while Emily wasn t intimated at all, Mackenzie was as cool as the other side of the pillow. She didn t look nervous at all, either. She trusted her partner and ran a very solid race. Tayia was outstanding. Part of the reason Mackenzie is so great is that she can rely on Tayia to set pace. Still, if Tayia sets a pace it s up to Mackenzie to go along. That s easier said than done! It takes guts and trust. Still, it s great to be running buddies, isn t it? Now, what if, as an experiment, I have Mackenzie run with someone else. Would that throw off the entire plan? Well, we have Erin in the JV race at New Richmond. Are you ready for a challenge, Mackenzie? Are you ready to run with Erin? Or should we keep the McTayia going for another race? We ll see.

5 The table to the left shows the BRC runners at Griak. I went seven deep, because seven score at BRC, and for EC Memorial and Hudson I went as deep as I needed to go to get a score. Based on this, EC Memorial gets 47 points (1, 6, 7, 11, 22). We get 50 points (4, 9, 10, 13, 14). Hudson gets 75 points (2, 7, 17, 24, 25). Now, there is no Ferris and no Chippewa Falls. They didn t race. Ferris will, most likely, challenge for a top five spot. Also, Gilson from Hudson had a rough day at Griak. She ll also challenge for a top five spot. That s going to change the numbers quite a bit. But we re close. The EC Memorial coach said, the BRC meet is going to be a dog fight. He was right. But don t get lulled into a false sense of security. Memorial never runs very well at Griak. They train through it, and they always peak at the right time. Hudson could have girls come back from injury. Still, we re close. And we are definitely going to peak at the right time, too. As with any sport, it will come down to which team is healthy at the end. With our depth, I like our chances. As we start to get closer to BRC, we re going to look at those match-ups. The River Falls #1 runner for Tyra and Kaylynn, the River Falls #2 runner for Madee and Erin, the Rice Lake #1 runner for Emily, Grace and Ellen. Emma already has her targets. Every point is going to be crucial if we want to challenge for a BRC title. And we can do it, kids. THE BRC AT GRIAK Name Roske (ECM) 20: Ball (HUD) 20: Schmitt (ECN) 20: Welch (MEN) 21: Filipiak (HUD) 21: Hagstrom (ECM) 21: S. Smith (ECM) 21: Dexheimer (RF) 21: Boettcher (MEN) 21: Imsande (MEN) 21: Z. Smith (ECM) 22: Penzkover (RL) 22: Schwartz (MEN) 22: Bilse (MEN) 22: Peterson (MEN) 22: Putizer (RF) 22: Gilson (HUD) 22: Brodinski (RL) 22: Sorenson (MEN) 22: Gunderson (RF) 22: Rayne (RF) 22: Cole (ECM) 22: Priam (ECM) 23: Young (HUD) 23: Miller (HUD) 23: Lindaman (RF) 23:51 4 We have a great thing going right now. The team is running exceptionally well. Still, we are only just beginning. We have two meets until the BRC Championships. We have three meets until Sectionals. To place high in the BRC, to qualify for state these things are REALLY REALLY DIFFICULT. It s never easy. And it never, ever gets easier. If you want to take this team to the next level, The Griak was a great start. But it s only a start. The hard work is ahead of us. And while I m awfully proud of you ladies, know that this is just the beginning. Also, parents, polite reminder: Please try to stay out of the tent before the race. When the girls go off for the warm-up, let them have their time as a team. They ll come back from that warm-up with about a half-hour to go. They need to get spikes on, go to the bathroom, make sure they have their numbers on, uniforms ready and make last minute adjustments. They need a little space to get ready. If we have a crowd of parents, or even one or two, in the tent area this is more difficult. I know you all want to wish them luck and hang out with them, get them food or money. These are your children, and it s awesome that we have tremendous parent support. We are truly blessed. But I d like the parents to be away from the tent are when the girls get done with the warm-up prior to the race. So, as a reminder, and I know you think I m picking on you, Coach Flug and Jim (and I am, but you guys can take it), please give these girls a little pre-race space. As we get closer meets that really matter, I m going to be enforcing this. Don t take it personally. I know you want to give your daughter your love and luck and support. But, trust me, if they need to see you before the race, they ll find you. After the race, be at the finish. Hugs, support, awesomeness but pre-race, let the team start to gel for championship season. I sent this home with the girls six weeks ago, when the season started, so this shouldn t be too much of a surprise, but as we get closer to meets that matter, please keep this in mind: PARENTS AND RACE DAY Tent: Parents, please avoid hanging around the tent before a race. Pre-race is the time for athletes to be together, warming up and focusing on the race. Please allow our athletes to be a team before the race. After the race, feel free to be in the tent area.

6 Post Race: After a race, be supportive and encouraging. Ask: How do you feel? Did you have fun? Immediate postrace criticism is never, ever a good idea. There will be amazing races and there will be bad races. Stay positive with your daughter. And always remember; it s not about beating opponents or teammates; it s about running smart races and making improvements. Five Minute Rule: If you are angry or upset about your daughter s performance, take five minutes. Walk away. Go into the woods or away from the team. Come back calm. Well, that s it for this installment. New Richmond on Saturday, then THE KENYAN, Old Abe and championship season!! Oh, and there s a bouncy house slide in the background. That s pretty cool, too.