MHS Cross Country 8.27.2016 Husky Invite Girls Comment Sheet Changing of the Guard Hey, everybody. It s the first comment sheet of the season!!! Here s how this works; I ll write comments on every single runner on the girls team. Some girls will be featured more prominently than others occasionally, but everyone will be recognized. We ll have awesome photos, courtesy of Tracey and Jim. We ll have colorful commentary and witty observations, which are my own. Well, we had an amazingly awesome day. It couldn t have been much better. Individually, our girls earned 7 medals and a trophy (20% of the medals individual awards) and we finished in 2 nd place, not too far off of the state champions. Everyone raced well, our packs held, for the most part, and it was easy to see that you ladies were prepared to race. Our varsity ladies were terrific, with all eight girls in the top 25, and our JV hit pace and ran as a pack unbelievably well. It was a great day. But there is a changing of the guard. Memorial has three extremely talented seniors but, for the first time, they don t look unbeatable. For the first time in four years a BRC invitational race was won by someone other than Aubry Roberts. Meanwhile, Hudson brings two beastly freshmen to the table, to go along with their seniors. Chippewa is looking strong this year. Memorial s JV didn t win the JV race, which is something I haven t seen since 2009. The BRC is changing. The leadership is changing. And we are poised to take advantage of it. Anyway, let s look at the individual races, then we ll worry about the team stuff. Starting with the varsity, it was pretty clear from the start that Emma was going to go after the Smiths. She had a race plan, but wanted a shot at some all-state runners. So she went after them. Her first K was in the low 3:40s or high 3:30s, and she was still behind the Smiths and Ferris. Here she is past the 3200m mark, closing on them, about three seconds back. Emma finished with a 19:34, in 5 th place overall. There are a few runners ahead of Ferris and Smith and Emma at this point as well (another Smith and Ichel from Hudson). Emma caught almost all of them. These are girls that have been at the state meet multiple times in track and cross country. They are tough, strong and they don t get run-down over the last 1k of a race very often. Emma did it. She ran 19:34, tied for the 3 rd fastest time in school history. She had a lifetime PR by 16 seconds in her first race of the season. I remember watching Emma run at the glow race or color race or light the way or whatever race they have at the Dunn County Fair. She looked supremely relaxed and strong. She ran 18:40 for 2.96 miles at that race (the course was short) and she asked what that would be for a 5k. I said it would be about a 19:40 or so. I told her that she could probably break 19:40 in her first race. Well, she did. Emma ran with the best of the BRC, she hung right behind them until 4k, then she passed them. That s smart racing. And a school record is well within reach. In other news, Tyra now understands why we do mileage. The light bulb is on. Why do we go on 10-mile runs up crazy steep hills on 80 degree summer days? Well, physically, you get this massive benefit aerobically because you build more extensive capillary beds in your lungs and muscles. I have absolutely no idea what that means, other than it makes you stronger. But I remember that brutal 10 miler in the heat, running on the country roads three weeks ago. Remember running up that huge hill with a naughty name? I remember getting to the top of that hill and looking at the ladies and saying, nothing you ever do in your life, short of giving birth, will ever be tough after this. You will be able to accomplish anything!
How daunting is a 5k race after a summer of10 mile hilly runs? It isn t daunting at all. It s easy. That s why we do the 10 milers. That s why we run over the summer. That s why we bank the miles. Last year, Tyra ran 99 miles over the summer going into the season. This summer, she ran about 250. She even started to enjoy the long runs. She got to the point where a six miler was a pretty easy day. She became extremely, extremely strong. Somehow she was able to do this all while balancing basketball, which wasn t easy. Tyra did it, though, and she s starting the season faster than ever. At Husky, she ran 20:14 to start her season, finishing in the top 10 of a large invitational against some of the better runners in the state. Last year, she ran faster than 20:14 only one time. This year, she did it her first race. For some perspective, in 2011 Nicole Schmidt ran 20:16 as a junior for her 5k PR. That was Nicole s junior season PR. Tyra beat that in her first race of the season. That s why we do the summer mileage!!! Let s look at times from last year to this year, and some progression: Old Abe Progression 2015 2016 Diff. We had 12 girls run this race last year who also Emma W. 20:43 19:34-1:09 ran it this year. Nine improved. Five improved Tyra B. 20:38 20:14 -:24 by over a minute! The biggest improvement came Ellen P. 21:50 20:46-1:04 from Madee. She improved by nearly two Erin S. 21:31 21:08 -:23 minutes, putting-up a great race and running with Madee S. 22:53 21:11-1:42 her teammates. It s probably best to say that Grace B. 20:25 21:14 +:49 Madee didn t have a very good race last year, and Tayia W. 23:13 22:09-1:04 she ran well this year. Katelyn R. 22:13 23:17 +1:04 It s easy to see Madee as a dominant, tough Clara K. 24:41 23:19-1:22 runner, which she is. She s a year-round runner, Brianna B. 23:03 23:33 +:30 she s great at workouts, she is a great leader it Annie B. 23:55 23:37 -:18 Jessica S. 27:35 27:16 -:19 seems as though she s been on the team for 10 years. Still, take a minute to look at Madee s times in cross-country last year. It was a bunch of 22s during the season until her break-out race at Old Abe, when she went sub 21:00 for the first time ever. The year before was similar. Well, I think it s safe to say that she s going to break 21:00 quite a bit faster this season, and be well on her way to a sub 20:00. A few weeks ago, Madee was looking rough. Now, she s right back where she should be, running fast times with her teammates. The next biggest improvement for the varsity was Ellen, who improved by over a minute. What a tremendous progression she s had!! As a frosh, she had some serious stomach issues. As a sophomore, she ran every race trying to get that letter standard. Last year she was all-brc. This year, she began the season by being 22 seconds away from her lifetime PR at her first race. That s pretty amazing. In the picture to the left, she s running with Morgan Barhnardt. Morgan is Memorial s number five runner. Last year at this meet, Morgan beat Ellen by 51 seconds. This year, Ellen got ahead of Morgan by five seconds. Ellen has never finished ahead of Morgan ever, and now we see the beginning of a great series of battles between the two. Imsande won the trophy for the sophomore race. That was pretty unexpected. She also PRd by 30 seconds, which wasn t unexpected at all. Last year, she ran in the 22 s, then got into the 21 s at the BRC meet. That was after the broken ankle and an inactive summer. This past year, she had a great winter, an awesome track season and a 320 mile summer. Now she s at 20:40 right away, during her first meet, and she s ready for a sub 20:00. Way to go, Kaylynn!!! Erin is a beast as well. 21:08 to star the season, with an awesome workout on Tuesday and a terrific attitude she s never looked better. She s never been more positive or more coachable. She s going to break
20:00 as well. Erin s progress has been interesting. She s needed to get better with her mileage, which she s done, and she s needed to learn how to race with a group, which she s done, and this year she needs to learn how to work-out. Her workout on Tuesday was wonderful easily the best workout she s ever had. As she continues to progress with her workouts, her races are going to improve drastically. Grace didn t feel very good at the start of her race, then she felt fine at the end. Her time wasn t bad at all, considering she didn t feel well and she isn t in great shape yet. Grace will get better and better, and she will be more consistent with her workouts and races, as the season progresses. She s a 19:30 runner. That s still in there. It just needs to come out, and to do that Grace needs a few weeks of really solid training. Then there is Emily. In her first ever 5k, she ran 21:01. This is AMAZING! She was right up with Madee, Grace and Erin. She ran a very smart race, too. I think Emily is realizing that she can run with her varsity teammates. She doesn t need to sit-back and wait. She can roll right with them. That was her challenge for this race; go with your teammates, help them out, hit pace. And she did it brilliantly! Grace, Erin and Emily will race again on Thursday at St. HUSKY INVITE WITH BRC SCHOOLS Croix Central high school in Hammond. I don t know if the 1. Roske ECM 19:00 (1) course is fast or slow, hilly or flat, but if all three of you work 2. Shmitt ECN 19:05 (1) 3. Ferris CHI 19:32 (1) together you have a great chance or running a fast time. 4. Welch MEN 19:34 (1) DATA TIME 5. Ichel HUD 19:38 (1) Two years ago our team qualified for state by placing 2 nd at 6. Smith ECM 19:43 (2) sectionals behind EC Memorial (who went on to win a state 7. Ball HUD 20:02 (2) title). Last year we were third at sectionals, behind EC 8. Smith ECM 20:07 (3) Memorial and LaCrosse Central. We ve been 2 nd in the BRC 9. Boettcher MEN 20:14 (2) the last two years. Can we hold our spot? Can we improve? 10. Frosh HUD 20:15 (3) 11. Farrago HUD 20:15 (4) Here is some data. 12. Hagstorm ECM 20:34 (4) I took the Husky Invite, removed the non-conference 13. Wingert CHI 20:37 (2) competitors that we saw and I added in the Hudson girls from 14. Imsande MEN 20:40 (3) the JV race. Taking all of this into account, you can see we 15. Peterson MEN 20:46 (4) are 19 points behind Memorial and 12 points behind Hudson. 16. Barnhardt ECM 20:46 (5) Chippewa Falls isn t all that far behind us. Last year, we were 17. Faust HUD 20:59 (5) 18. Sillman CHI 21:00 (3) in a similar situation Hudson started very strong. We were 19. Bilek CHI 21:01 (4) able to catch them, though, and we held on to our BRC place. 20. Schwartz MEN 21:01 (5) What about this year? Well, it s early, but Hudson does have a 21. Scmidt MEN 21:08 (6) new girls coach, and they have some very talented freshmen. 22. Sorenson MEN 21:11 (7) Still, we re not that far back. And what about EC Memorial? 23. Bilse MEN 21:14 (8) They are the team to beat yet again, but they don t quite have 24. Sillman CHI 21:19 (5) the depth they ve had over the past few years. In fact, our JV 25. Gillson HUD 21:22 (6) runners beat their JV runners, which we haven t done since ECM 1, 6, 8, 12, 16 = 43 2009. The big difference is that Memorial was out of reach HUD 5, 7, 10, 11, 17 = 50 last year. This year, they aren t. MEN 4, 9, 14, 15, 20 = 62 To beat Hudson and close on EC Memorial, each runner CHI 3, 13, 18, 19, 24 = 77 needs to pick-up a couple of points. That s it. Our pack of four (Grace, Madee, Erin and Emily) need to move ahead of a few key people, and then we re right there. When you move four girls up, it doesn t take much to shift the point totals. So we are very, very close right now! Still, we have to assume RF will have some great runners again, so we have our work cut out for us. No team was nearly as deep as we were, though. Check out the times of the number 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10 runners and comparing them to the rest of the BRC based on Husky performances. RUNNER ECM HUD MEN CHI Number 6 runners 21:36 21:22 21:08 22:10 Number 7 runners 22:25 21:45 21:11 22:39 Number 8 runners 22:27 21:49 21:14 22:55 Number 9 Runner 22:32 21:52 22:09 23:22 Number 10 Runner 22:38 22:23 22:15 23:48
As you can see, we are a very deep team. Our eight runner is faster than everyone else s number six. Are there many teams in the state that are as deep as us? Maybe one or two, but I don t think there are very many teams with a number eight running 21:14. That s outstanding. Now, what happens when our eight is running 20:20? By the way, last year at this meet our number eight runner ran 22:13. We re a full minute ahead. Last year at this meet our top five averaged 20:58. This year, they averaged 20:27; 31 seconds ahead of where we were during our best season ever. Last year, our top five JV averaged 22:40 (with two seniors, Anna and Faustina). This year, our top five JV averaged 22:47, not quite as fast, but our two amazing seniors were replaced with two awesome freshmen, Izzy and Mackenzie. So with the varsity, we are waaaaay ahead of schedule. With the JV, we are right back where we were last year! Speaking of the JV, I saw some of the best racing I ve ever witnessed with our pack of Vampires! Jessica Schwartz is a pace animal. She led the way, everyone hung on. Pace was perfect through the first 2k, a little slow at 3k (which happens). You ladies are extremely lucky to have Jess leading the way. Joscie, Jess, Amber and Alyssa all finished within 35 seconds of each other. I thought this group would be running in the 28s, and they were all in the 27s, with Joscie very close to running in the 26s! Larson, who is a week behind (she started practice a week later) ran an awesome 27:47 for her first race. A JV runner gets a nine-week cross-country season, and if you miss a week, you miss some fitness. It s OK. You have to live life, but understand that you will make some massive fitness gains very quickly as the season progresses. The 27:47 was a great start. Alyssa is in a very similar situation. She missed the first week as well, but look at how well Alyssa and Larson raced! They followed their plan, ran with their groups, did their jobs and had a great start to the season. Your times are going to drop significantly as you get fit. Look at Joscie. She couldn t finish a single K a week ago during our first workout, and she managed to lead the group at the end. She ran a 27:05 and she looked like a runner, sprinting down the homestretch. This is the Joscie I remember from sophomore track! Tough, strong, confident and fearless. There is a great runner in there, and we re starting to see it. But imagine if Joscie had missed her first week. The fitness gains she s made with that extra week are amazing. Amber was half-smiling, half-in shock after her race. I thought I was going to die. She didn t die. I thought I was going to throw-up. She didn t. That was really hard, I wasn t ready for that. She will be more ready next time, but it s always going to be hard. She will get used to the discomfort. The times are going to drop and drop and drop, and Amber is going to bring her entire group along with some awesome races. Holly, Bria and Jordan were partners. Due to the nature of the race, I wasn t able to see if these ladies were together at the K, or the 2k. I ll say this, though. Boecker had a wonderful race. Her puzzle continues, but she ran waaaaay better going out slowly. Next time, we move her up with the next group and she can get out a little faster. We ll see if that translates to a faster time, but Bria led her group and made a HUGE move, catching up to the Pixies. She drug Jordan along for a while. Remember, Bria ran in the low 21 s last year in cross, and she ran sub 13:10 in the 3200m in track. She s a great runner. It s in there. I loved her workout on Tuesday and I loved this race as a start to her season! As for Jordan and Holly, they are young, and every race is a lesson. Did Holly go out too fast? Should she be in a different group? I don t know, but I think Holly is going to get much faster as she continues to race. This is going to be a process for Holly; figuring out her breathing, being able to relax a bit mid-race, understanding pace. Holly is a tough kid she never backs away from anything and is willing to do the work. But there is something there allergies, maybe? Or perhaps she needs to
become a little more comfortable being uncomfortable, and that takes time. Still, this was a nice start to the season for Holly. Jordan s 24:25 was a great start, and it puts her in a nice position to get a varsity letter this year. She races with confidence and isn t afraid to roll at all. Tayia spent the entire 2015 season chasing her varsity letter. She got it on her last race. This summer she put in some amazing mileage. Her workouts are outstanding. She s running with the top eight with ease. She s fit, focused, tough, determined and she wants to finish her MHS career with a PR. She ran 22:09 at Husky this year (23:13 at this meet last season), crushing the letter standard and running faster than she ran all of last year, with the exception of her BRC race. In fact, at the BRC meet she ran 21:58. This season, she started only 11 seconds off of that amazing time. To say I am proud of Tayia s perseverance would be an understatement. She s battled through some tough times, and some difficult races, but she never gave up, she stayed committed and she s poised for an amazing season. Mackenzie Flug is going to be a great runner. She got a medal in the frosh race, finishing 9 th. She beat the letter standard, running 22:15. After the race, Tayia said, Mackenzie is a great race partner. She doesn t sit behind me she s right on my shoulder the entire time. Last Tuesday, she let Tayia go a bit on the workout. She was still a little nervous. Then on Thursday she rolled with our varsity on a 5 mile run, and the last three miles were all 7:55. There is some greatness there. Mackenzie is figuring out her pain threshold - you can see it when she does her workouts and you can see it when she is running mileage. She took a huge step forward with her 22:15. And she got her varsity letter in her first race. Caufman ran about a minute and a half faster at Husky than she did last year. And last year she was only a few seconds away from a letter. Her fitness is great. Her workouts have been outstanding. Her mileage has been exceptional. The times are going to come down significantly, and that varsity letter is right there. The races are going to get easier and easier. As for Reckin, she s figuring things out too. She has a puzzle to work-out, but this was a very solid start to her season. 23:19, looking quite comfortable, is a wonderful beginning to the year. Her workouts are looking better and better, her mileage is improving. She s on the right track. Izzy sure has a puzzle! The 22:55 was amazing. Still, after her workout on Tuesday I wondered what she d be able to do in her race. Then she had a solid run on Thursday. Occasionally consistency is difficult for freshmen. Consistently with training is hard. Consistency with workouts is hard. Your body sometimes goes through these weird rebellions when you ramp-up the training digestion, sleep, diet, fatigue your body sometimes changes these things, and it takes a while to figure it all out. One thing is for sure, though; Izzy is a kid that knows how to race. The training and the mileage might sometimes be difficult, but the races are outstanding. She s 25 seconds away from the letter standard already. Annie Behrend ran a great race. She was six seconds off of her lifetime PR in her first race of the season. She s had a pretty solid summer, running quite a few miles with the varsity ladies. She s certainly more fit than she s ever been. She s stronger and smarter, too. Last year she had a solid Husky, then ran into some tough times for a month. I don t think that s going to happen this season. She s too fit and too experienced. Sub 23:00, then sub 22:30 and that varsity letter!!! That s the goal, and this was a great start. Well, that s all for this installment. We had an outstanding meet, certainly the best start to a season we ve ever had, but we still have a ways to go. We have to keep progressing, getting better and moving forward. And we can never, ever forget to have fun!!!