Heritage ranked #9 in the state

Boys AAAA

1. Alexander
2. Chapel Hill
3. Dacula
4. Marist
5. Greenbrier
6. Mays
7. Lakeside-DeKalb
8. Starr’s Mill
9. Heritage
10. Northgate

We match up well against them ... can we deliver at region?

Paul Kasay clocks in Elite Performance

Running in this year's Bulldog Stampede, Paul Kasay finished the course in 17:09 - a PR - and earned his first Elite Performance (sub 17:15 for GA).

Congrats Paul!

Uploaded Race Results

Here are all the individual times run by the boys' team this season. They are in the form of an Excel spreadsheet.

Note: You have to wait 25 seconds before you can download them due to the site where I hosted them. Then click on the "Download Now" button about halfway down the page.

Boys take 3rd out of 17, girls 5th out of 14

Paul Kasay and Claire Rosemond both finished 2nd overall in the races. The boys' JV team finished 2nd with 3 runners (John Yebra, Ben Andrews, Dillion Bawayan) finishing in the top ten.

The boys' varsity ran their last 1.1 miles really strong. Thomas Yoder went from 11th to 6th, Jay Rains went from 47th to 33rd, and everyone else moved up.

Here are the varsity times:

Boys.
Girls.

Top Ten in AAAA

AAAA Boys:
1) Alexander
2) Chapel Hill
3) Dacula
4) Marist
5) Greenbrier
6) Mays
7) Lakeside-Dekalb
8) Starr's Mill
9) Northgate
10) Woodward

Potential Team t-shirt for 2007?

Kudos to Stephanie and Andy Zenere for working on this one.

Team Meeting - Wednesday @ 8:00 a.m. in 310

We'll announce it today at practice, but be here tomorrow morning.

Oh snap! Challenge ...

Me and two sophomores (Nick and Dillion B if they agree) vs. Andrew, Thomas, and Jay in b-ball.

Rules: First to 20 by 1'st and 2's. Fouls on the honor system.

When: Whenever we're not tired and all of us are around. Saturday afternoon after a race might be ok to loosen up :)

Where: Old Gym.

It's onnnnnnnnnnnn?!?!?!

Next Week's Workout

Boys' Team:

Monday: Go down to IM fields. Varsity does 8x800 Cruise Intervals (below race pace) with 2 minutes of rest in between. JV does 5x800 CI's with ~2 minutes of rest.

Tuesday: Varsity - 5 miles comfortable with a fast finish. JV - 4.5 miles comfortable with a fast finish.

Varsity Run can be found here.
JV Run can be found here.

Wednesday: Hill Runs in 5-points neighborhood.

Thursday: Birchmore Trail (down to Gran Ellen) and back - run comfortably. Run 4 x 400 @ race pace (no faster!) when you get back.

Friday: 200, 400, 800, 400, 200 @ Race Pace on the track.

Saturday: Athens Academy - come back with a trophy.

Sunday: Varsity: Meet at 9:00 a.m. for 3-5 miles @ Clarke.

Top Ten in AAAA

AAAA Boys

1) Alexander

2) Chapel Hill

3) Dacula

2) Marist

5) Greenbrier

6) Mays

7) Lakeside-Dekalb

8) Northgate

9) Woodward

10) East Paulding

Out of these, East Paulding (#10) ran a 18:27 at Carrollton. Northgate ran a 18:20 and Woodward an 18:16 in the AAAA race. Northgate's 5th man came through in 19:04. Woodward's came through in 19:15. Still no word on how Heritage - our competition for the #2 spot at region - has done. Looks like we'll have to get down to 18:20 to be in the top then though.

CCHS vs. CSHS

I talked with some of the runners yesterday after the Cedar Shoals - Clarke Central game and we joked that coach Ryals should be quoted in today's paper as saying "We suck."

Well ... we weren't too far off from the truth as he was quoted in the ABH:

"I'm just embarrassed at the level of intensity that we played at and how we played," Ryals said. "I apologized to Coach Wilkins. We didn't give them a fight. That's just pathetic.

"We had that deer in the headlights look like we had never been here before. We've got to fix that. That's terrible. I got outcoached and we got outplayed."

I gotta give Ryals props for telling it like it is. I respect him more as a coach now. Thomas Yoder told me we haven't won at home since 2005 - I just don't understand why people are all excited about going to these football games.

Oh well - Carrollton is today and a lot of good teams will run there. We'll have a much better idea of where we stand region wise after those results come in.

1999 Footlocker National Championship

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1K-66kjabU4

15 people beat the old course record. Winner crosses in 14:29.

LOL at Sophomores

... and stupid sophomoric humor.

Team Attending the Spartan Invitational

Washington Wilkes - VB, JVG, MS
North Oconee - VB, VG, JVB, JVG
Clarke Central - VB, VG, JVB, JVG
Oconee - VB, VG, JVB, JVG
Spalding County - VB, VG, JVB, JVG
Oglethorpe County - VB, VG, JVB, JVG, MS
Salem High School - VB, VG, JVB, JVG
Hebron Christian - VB, JVG
Buford - VB, VG, JVB, JVG
Mount Paran - VB, VG, MS
Winder Barrow Middle School - MS
Haymon Morris Middle School - MS
Bethlehem Christian Academy - MS
Oconee Middle School - MS
Clarke Middle School - MS

It seems like a very small meet - I'm really surprised. I think Oconee will be the only serious challenger for the boys' team. Lots of middle schools - I'm curious to see how our standouts from CMS do. Joyce Lu, Katie Rosemond, Carver Goodhue and Carlo Nasisse were dominant vs. Hilsman.

Here are the Oconee results from Berry:

8. 403 Oconee County High School ( 18:20 1:31:39)
===============================================
1 2 Jarryd Wallace 17:04
2 20 Joel Padgett 17:43
3 67 Austin Jones 18:25
4 136 Andrew Ely 19:02
5 178 Robert Mcgee 19:25
6 (184) Daniel Washington 19:28
7 (244) Sean Carroll 19:59

Boys put up 28 points at AA, get no love from paper

Paul, Thomas Yoder, Will, Jay, Thomas Minor, Matt Nichols, Wyatt, and Ivan all finished in the top 13 to net the boys 28 points and rock the 5 school meet. Clarke had an awesome presence with around 30 boys running in the race.

Claire finished first overall in the girl's race.

But this was all that was in the paper. How lame.

Freshmen Seniors

Jay Rains and Thomas Minor are both seniors, both running XC for the first time, and both varsity runners right off the bat. Jay has established himself as the team's #3 runner and broke 19:00 in only his 2nd race. He ran with the team all summer and put in more miles than everyone other than Paul Kasay and freshman Jing Han.

Thomas has run track the last two years and hopes to use this cross country season to help him break the 5-minute mark in the mile. Today they both race at Athens Academy and will take one more steps towards earning their varsity letter.

Berry 2007

This was the most fun I've had at Berry in my 4 years there. Everything went smoothly, except for dinner on Friday. We ate at Piccadilly and most runners agreed that it was too expensive and not very good. Friday evening we spent at pool which included Russell repeatedly asking Alex Gifford to tackle him into the pool and Alex complying. The boys also gorged on the boxes of sweets which they brought and everyone was in their rooms by 11:10.

The next day started out with the girls' varsity race. Claire Rosemond paced the Gladiators like she has since her freshman year in a time of 21:41. Blanca Soto was second in 23:30.

Here are the complete girl results.

The girls were no doubt inspired by the boys' display of spirit as they shook their milk jugs with rocks:

The boys' race followed. Paul Kasay finished 17th overall which was the best overall finish by a Clarke runner at Berry in the last 4 years. He was rewarded with a t-shirt.
The boys finished 20th overall in a time of 18:54 - the best average time in the last four years. The team is running well and practicing hard.

Here are the complete boys' varsity results.

Russell, Thomas, and Jay ran in the open race in full gladiator outfits continuing the tradition started last year by Zach Miller and Rob Packer. They ended up running half the course and drew lots of cheers and laughs from the crowd.

The boys' JV race was good as well. Matt Nichols and Ben Andrews earned a Top-10 spot for next week's race at Athens Academy with their times. Overall, 6 runners ran in their first HS 5K race ever and 4 others set their PR.

Berry 2007: We Leave Tomorrow

The field is at Berry is huge.

Ah ... the controversial race.

AAAA Top 10

From gatfxc.com:

1. Alexander - 1st Early Bird, 16:37
2. Marist
3. Chapel Hill
4. Dacula
5. Greenbrier
6. Mays
7. Stockbridge
8. Northgate - 9th Early Bird, 17:39
9. Woodward - 11th Early Bird, 17:47
10. Lakeside-DeKalb 12th Early Bird, 17:48

Chimney Hill

"A lot of people run a race to see who is fastest. I run to see who has the most guts, who can punish himself into exhausting pace, and then at the end, punish himself even more. Nobody is going to win a 5,000 meter race after running an easy 2 miles. Not with me. If I lose forcing the pace all the way, well, at least I can live with myself."

-- Steve Prefontaine

Perfect Form

Maggie shows off perfect running form as she kicks in the final 20 yards at the NEGA Invitational. She is looking straight ahead, her shoulders and hands are relaxed, and her arms are in sync with her legs.

Good form adds up in the course of a race - by practicing and being cognizant of proper form we will not get tired as easily and will be able to race more effortlessly. Good form = faster runners.

This is not to say that people with bad form are slow. That is to say some runners are fast IN SPITE of their form. If they were to work on their form they would be even faster.

The difference between winning and losing ...

The varsity team ended up missing out on trophies by 2 points. Where could we have made a difference?

• Paul finished 5 seconds behind Andrew Rogan.
• Thomas finished 6 seconds behind Ian Wraga from North Oconee. If he wins that, we get a point, they lose a point and it's our trophy.
• Jay finished 2 seconds behind a guy from Flowery Branch. If he beats him, we get a point and they lose a point.
• Will finished 1 second behind his guy.
• Ian finished 4 seconds behind 3 people.

The race is a race of seconds. In practice, every time you hit a lap hard, every time you hit a hill hard, and every time you decide to beat the person next to you, each of those brings you that much closer to being able to beat that guy in front of you next race.

Schedule for the week of Aug 27-31

(For the Boys Team)

Monday: 8:00 a.m. meeting in room 310. After school, 3 x 400 on the track, then drive to Botanical Gardens and run some distance on the trails.
Tuesday: 2 x 400 on the track, drive to the IM fields and run the Chimney Hill. Varsity does it 7 times, JV does it 5 times.
Wednesday: 4 x 400 on the track, longer tempo run TBD.
Thursday: Drive down to IM fields - run the outer loop for speed.
Friday: Leave for Rome, GA at 4:00 p.m.

2007 NEGA Championship

Thomas Yoder runs the course in 18:07 - his 2nd fastest time in his career. He's a good 50 yards ahead of ACS's Colin Bishoff.

Paul Kasay leads ACS's Taylor Kellogg. Paul would finish the course in 17:37 and comfortably in 4th.

Lauren Wooten runs in her first varsity race for the gladiator girls.

Freshman Jing Han (in the white shirt), ran 21:06 in his first race.

Top Twelve Boys Times:

1. Paul Kasay - 17:37
2. Thomas Yoder - 18:07
3. Jay Rains - 19:39
4. Will Spencer - 19:35
5. Thomas Minor - 19:59
6. Ivan Santillian - 20:30
7. John Yebra - 20:44

8. Matt Nichols - 20:49
9. Ben Andrews - 21:05
10. Jing Han - 21:06
11. Wyatt Pless - 21:08
12. Tyler Rice - 21.51

2007 Schedule

August:
August 25th - NEGA Invitational @ Athens Christian
August 31st - Sept 1st - Clara Bowl @ Berry College

September:
September 6th @ Athens Academy
September 8th - Parking Fundraiser (UGA vs. USC)
September 15th - Spartan Invitational @Athens Academy
September 29th - Aubrey Gunderson Invitational @ Conyers

October:
October 2nd - @ Madison County
October 13th - @ Oglethorpe County
October 23rd - City Meet @ Athens Academy
October 27th - Last Chance Invitational @ Carrollton

November:
November 3rd - Region Championship @ Conyers
November 10th - State Championship @ Carrollton

Maggie Friedline: Impact Runner

Maggie Friedline, a junior, is all set to compete for one of the top varsity spots on the team. Maggie followed up a strong freshman year with a solid sophomore effort. She will look to break her PR of 22:48 which she set at the Horsepark course in Conyers.

She hopes to break 22 this season and wants the team to return to state. One of her traditions during races is to wear her bright pink socks.

2 Mile Time Trial

As expected, Paul Kasay paced the Gladiators in their first time trial of the season - a two mile run through the 5-points neighborhoods. The heat was intense and the times were slow, but plenty of runners showed their guts during the run.

Above, Paul Kasay leads the boys on their run.

Top 10 Times:

1. Paul Kasay - 11:45
2. Thomas Yoder - 12:32
3. Jay Rains - 12:37
4. Ivan Santillian - 12:41
5. John Yebra - 13:30
6. Will Spencer - 13:33
7. Matt Nichols - 14:06
8. Jeffery Rogers - 14:35
9. Matthew Range - 14:45
10. Ben Andrews - 14:55

Jeffery Rogers leads Tom Lingard, Nic Colon, and Matthew Range right before the 1 mile mark.

Tom Lingard, Ethan Davis, and John Yebra sit in the shade and try to cool off after the run.