Indoors at U of R

I was extremely bummed to miss yesterday's indoor track meet at the University of Rochester. Especially since a little 7th grader was making his track debut, pulling off the 3200 / 600 double. But someone had to get Nate over to Oswego and back for hockey (and help him sneak in some Nordic skiing between games).

Anyway, I was pleasantly surprised to see the results in the D&C this morning. Dustin got the win in the 300m - no, that was not the surprise. The 4 x 800m victory went to Schroeder! I hear it was Vanzo, AJ, Whitty and Nico. I also heard Kenny did a nice job leading off the "B" team, after teaming up with Chris for a 2-3 Schroeder finish in the 3200 (when was the last time that happened?). Apparently the low point of the meet was Nico taking a spill in the 1000m. I haven't heard details, so I don't know if something happened in the infamous U of R tunnel; a lot of nasty stuff happens back there.

Some Webster results:
3200
2 Miller, Kenny 12 Webster Schr 10:40.78
3 Mauro, Chris 11 Webster Schr 11:21.35
JV - 8 Lyons, Zachary 7 Webster Schr 12:40.05

1000
2 Vanzo, Ryan 12 Webster Schr 2:49.48
9 Whittemore, Steve 11 Webster Schr 2:59.31
10 Nasello, AJ 10 Webster Schr 3:00.32
12 Piacentini, Anthony 11 Webster Schr 3:01.41
JV - 4 Fitzgerald, Ethan 9 Webster Schr 3:16.13
JV - 6 Burgin, Will 8 Webster Schr 3:21.89
JV - 7 Hamouda, Adrian 10 Webster Schr 3:22.17
JV - 9 Meritt, Alex 9 Webster Schr 3:28.83
JV - 10 Makowski, Joe 10 Webster Schr 3:29.42
JV - 13 Doherty, Patrick 9 Webster Schr 3:44.53
JV - 17 Rekers, Arik 11 Webster Schr 3:51.72

600
JV - 5 Alexander, Elliot 11 Webster Schr 1:45.31
JV - 8 Burgin, Will 8 Webster Schr 1:50.94
JV - 13 Wiseman, John 10 Webster Schr 1:58.30
JV - 16 Meritt, Alex 9 Webster Schr 2:01.27
JV - 17 Lyons, Zachary 7 Webster Schr 2:08.61

300
1 Kneut, Dustin 12 Webster Schr 38.99 1
5 Stewart, Dan 12 Webster Schr 39.94 1
8 Uppal, Pardeep 12 Webster Schr 40.60 2
9 White, Derrick 10 Newark 40.65 3
10 Anglin, Oshani 10 Wilson Magne 40.67 2
11 May, Maurice 11 Greece Olymp 40.94 4
12 Hendler, Joe 12 Lyons 41.32 4
13 Luce, Matt 12 Fairport 41.56 2
14 Locke, Jon 12 LeRoy 41.61 7
15 Brett, Alex 12 Webster Schr 41.65 6
JV - 7 Siviy, Chris 11 Webster Schr 44.19 1
JV - 28 Doherty, Patrick 9 Webster Schr 50.21 4
JV - 37 Rekers, Arik 11 Webster Schr 56.58 5

Elsewhere, Chelsea ran about 1:48 for the 600m in an intrasquad meet at MIT.

In other sports last week, I see that Eric picked up a pin in Schroeder's latest wrestling win. And Wade led off a 1:48 medley relay for the Webster swim team, making the D&C results list, as Webster won easily.

First Indoor Meet

But first, it looks like "The Eel" slipped his way to another victory, as Schroeder managed to edge the farm boys from Churchville, 34-29:
140: Eric Krawiec (WS) dec. Adam Ludwicki 7-6.

It looks like I found a very quick way to get all of the Schroeder results from the track meet, so here they are (OK, I do still have to figure out how to do tables here):

Boys
55 Meter Dash Varsity 12 Ludgood, Sam 6.98
55 Meter Dash Varsity 17 Kneut, Dustin 7.05
55 Meter Dash Varsity 34 Kirchner, David 7.25
55 Meter Dash Varsity 37 Brett, Alex 7.28
55 Meter Dash Varsity 44 Brooks, Jamie-Lee 7.34
55 Meter Dash Varsity 52 Linder, Matthew 7.41
55 Meter Dash Varsity 75 Webb, Grant 7.65
55 Meter Dash Varsity 93 Walik, Andrew 7.88
55 Meter Dash Varsity 98 Zutshi, Karan 7.94
55 Meter Dash Varsity 103 Henlein, Bernard 8.15
55 Meter Dash Varsity 114 Best, Patrick 8.86
600 Meter Run Varsity 7 Vanzo, Ryan 1:31.64
600 Meter Run Varsity 13 Uppal, Pardeep 1:34.34
600 Meter Run Varsity 17 Piacentini, Anthony 1:35.52
600 Meter Run Varsity 20 Stewart, Dan 1:36.11
600 Meter Run Varsity 51 Prahler, Josh 1:48.53
600 Meter Run Varsity 54 Linder, Matthew 1:49.49
600 Meter Run Varsity 62 Zutshi, Karan 1:55.94
600 Meter Run Varsity 63 Henlein, Bernard 1:57.51
1000 Meter Run Varsity 4 Piacentini, Anthony 2:53.76
1000 Meter Run Varsity 7 Miller, Kenny 3:00.06
1000 Meter Run Varsity 8 Whittemore, Steve 3:00.42
1000 Meter Run Varsity 22 Prahler, Josh 3:24.53
1600 Meter Run Varsity 5 Miller, Kenny 4:54.82

55 Meter Hurdles Varsity 8 Enck, Kevin 8.69
55 Meter Hurdles Varsity 13 Bayer, Mark 8.98
High Jump Varsity 1 Enck, Kevin 5-10.00
High Jump Varsity 3 Whittemore, Steve 5-06.00
High Jump Varsity 14 Bayer, Mark 4-08.00
Triple Jump Varsity 2 Ludgood, Sam 45-03.50
Triple Jump Varsity 5 Kirchner, David 40-07.50
Triple Jump Varsity 16 Brooks, Jamie-Lee 35-04.00
Triple Jump Varsity -- Stewart, Dan FOUL
Shot Put Varsity 3 Christian, Joey 42-09.00
Shot Put Varsity 9 Webb, Grant 37-01.25
Shot Put Varsity 21 Stewart, Ryan 33-00.50
Shot Put Varsity 25 Best, Patrick 31-07.50
55 Meter Dash JV 13 Ziemendorf, Kolby 7.60
55 Meter Dash JV 21 Benitez, Juan 7.80
55 Meter Dash JV 30 Dailey, Nathan 8.01
55 Meter Dash JV 40 Koshak, Zach 8.11
55 Meter Dash JV 48 Kinsella, Michael 8.21
55 Meter Dash JV 49 Wehlre, Joseph 8.22
55 Meter Dash JV 49 Circelli, Kenny 8.22
55 Meter Dash JV 58 Yeomans, Cory 8.33
55 Meter Dash JV 59 Durfee, Mike 8.36
55 Meter Dash JV 63 Way, David 8.46
55 Meter Dash JV 64 Salmon, Andrew 8.50
55 Meter Dash JV 68 Toner, Ryan 8.59
55 Meter Dash JV 75 Ford, Michael 8.88
600 Meter Run JV 11 Mathew, Justin 1:42.94
600 Meter Run JV 24 Wehlre, Joseph 1:47.81
600 Meter Run JV 26 Benitez, Juan 1:49.58
600 Meter Run JV 30 Circelli, Kenny 1:54.39
600 Meter Run JV 37 Rekers, Arik 2:12.12
1000 Meter Run JV 14 Burgin, Will 3:23.52
1000 Meter Run JV 16 Wiseman, John 3:24.32
1000 Meter Run JV 20 Makowski, Joe 3:35.45
1000 Meter Run JV 21 Mathew, Justin 3:35.46
1000 Meter Run JV 25 Rekers, Arik 3:58.40
1000 Meter Run JV 26 Semmler, Robert 4:26.96
1600 Meter Run JV 3 Fitzgerald, Ethan 5:42.77
1600 Meter Run JV 8 Wiseman, John 5:49.92
1600 Meter Run JV 21 Cannan, Tristan 6:15.52
1600 Meter Run JV 22 Doherty, Patrick 6:19.19
High Jump JV 3 Ziemendorf, Kolby 4-08.00
High Jump JV 7 Prahler, Cody 4-00.00
High Jump JV -- Koshak, Zach NH
Triple Jump JV 1 Toner, Ryan 35-10.00
Triple Jump JV 2 Debole, Mike 34-01.50
Triple Jump JV 3 Way, David 30-09.00
Triple Jump JV 6 Maddaleno, Philip 27-03.50
Triple Jump JV -- Ford, Michael FOUL
Shot Put JV 2 Debole, Mike 32-04.75
Shot Put JV 7 Durfee, Mike 29-06.75
Shot Put JV 12 Yeomans, Cory 26-04.75

Girls
55 Meter Hurdles JV 1 D'Alessandro, Elissa 11.64
600 Meter Run Varsity 1 Palermo, Valarie 1:51.56
600 Meter Run Varsity 2 Blaakman, Kelly 2:05.59
1500 Meter Run Varsity 6 Doherty, Alaina 6:03.41
1500 Meter Run JV 8 Bowen, Alana 6:47.32
55 Meter Dash Varsity 5 Hake, Emily 8.22
55 Meter Dash Varsity 6 Blaakman, Kelly 8.44
55 Meter Dash Varsity 4 Weidman, Andrea 8.42
55 Meter Dash Varsity 6 Vassiliou, Joanna 9.50
55 Meter Dash JV 4 Frate, Domonique 8.52
55 Meter Dash JV 2 Josselyn, Lauren 8.93
55 Meter Dash JV 3 D'Alessandro, Elissa 9.12
55 Meter Dash JV 4 Hight, Ann 9.52
55 Meter Dash JV 5 Gilday, Caitlyn 10.11
55 Meter Dash JV 1 Uppal, Aneeta 8.83
55 Meter Dash JV 5 Priniz, Alison 9.10
55 Meter Dash JV 2 Szalay, Alexis 8.85
55 Meter Dash JV 4 Cliff, Victoria 9.55
1000 Meter Run JV 5 Edwards, Katie 4:06.45
Pole Vault Varsity 8 Arday, Rachel 7-00.00
Pole Vault JV 2 Frate, Domonique 6-00.00
Pole Vault JV 2 Glaser, Megan 6-00.00
Pole Vault JV -- Searchfield, Rebecca NH
Triple Jump Varsity 9 Weidman, Andrea 28-11.25
Triple Jump JV 4 Josselyn, Lauren 26-01.00
Triple Jump JV -- Gilday, Caitlyn FOUL
Triple Jump JV -- Priniz, Alison FOUL
Shot Put Varsity 5 Kohler, Leah 30-03.00
Shot Put Varsity 10 Gurak, Ashley 27-07.75
Shot Put Varsity 1 Vassiliou, Joanna 27-06.00
Shot Put JV 3 Ferruzza, Gina 21-11.75
Shot Put JV 3 Szalay, Alexis 21-11.25

More Winter Results

It looks like the Schroeder Girls Basketball team was manhandled by Bridget Ryan and an 8th-grader from Sutherland (they combined for 43 points, against Schroeder's total of 44), as can be seen in the D&C article.

Sad line of the game: 0 points; 5 fouls for Alisha.

But there are no longer any Cross Country girls on the basketball team, for the first time in many years, so the GAS factor is a bit low. It looks like I can't make their first home game (Lindsay Kendall should light them up), but they are home against Thomas, who has a familiar new coach on 12/23!

The Webster Boys (combined) Swim team opened their season with an easy 96-76 win over Rush-Henrietta. Individual results are available here, but the Webster names are not included, so we can't tell how Wade did (I hope he didn't swim the back, since the fastest Webster swimmer was 1:07).

I'm looking forward to seeing the Webster Distance runners' performances at tonight's opening track meet at RIT. I can't make it there; since my son is banned from attending, I'll probably have to drive him to hockey training.

If results are available online tonight, I may have to post again tomorrow.

Turkey Weekend Results

So, a number of Webster Distance Runners were spotted in a variety of races over the holiday weekend.

The big travelers were the three team members that finished their Cross Country season down at storied Van Cortlandt Park. The Sophomore race included Geoff Kelly, 141st place in 20:41 and Eric Krawiec, 166th in 22:05. And our lone Junior race participant was Trevor McKeown, 177th place in 21:39.

Others made their way to the oldest annual footrace in America, the 113th annual Buffalo Turkey Trot. Coach Lyons finished the race for the 18th straight year, while Zach Lyons made his first appearance. Some results of interest included:
25. Dan Field 27:02 (Nate's uncle)
101. Nate Lyons 30:19
246. Tim Lyons 32:35 (Nate's uncle)
348. Mike Lyons 33:54
699. Patricia Lyons 37:08 (Nate's grandma)
1049. Chelsea Lyons 39:15
1387. Brigid Maloney 41:10 (Nate's aunt)
1456. Zach Lyons 41:27
1990. Brenna Lyons 43:25 (Nate's cousin)
2044. Walt Lyons 43:37 (Nate's grandpa)
2113. Morgan Clapp 43:54 (Nate's cousin)

The Lyons family managed to win the family competition, with the top 4 runners averaging 31:01 to 32:17 for the second place team and 32:42 for the arch-rival O'Connor family. The Lyons B team managed 12th place among the 69 family teams.

Of course, the highlight of the day was another one of Nate's aunts and cousins that set out to walk the course. They started a little bit early, and began to wonder why the runners didn't catch them. But they were so focused on beating the walker that was up ahead of them that they didn't wonder too hard. The first 4.5 miles of the course are down Delaware Ave; unfortunately, they were headed up Delaware. Eventually they came to their senses and returned to the start, which is 4.5 miles from the finish, so they had to be retrieved.

The largest Webster Distance Runner participation came at the local Webster Turkey Trot, which is run from our home training grounds at Webster Park. The results list was very long, so I probably missed some participants, but here is who I did find:

4.4 Mile Race
32. Chris Mauro 25:12
40. Kenny Miller 26:02
76. Mark Streb 27:27 (friend of Claire)
77. Robert McMahon 27:27
166. Trevor McKeown 30:34
168. Alex Brett 30:35
172. Josh Prahler 30:37
173. Elliot Alexander 30:38
196. Cathy Brust 31:23 (First in F45-49!)
199. Patrick Doherty 31:30
557. Erin Albert 36:50
582. Sarah Miller 37:04
740. Mike Wiegand 39:29
930. Bruce Alexander 43:40
1043. Kim Sbarra 49:39

Some of Chelsea's former basketball teammates also ran:
725. Haley Lindahl 39:10
755. Chelsea Lindahl 39:44
885. Allison Ewing 42:22

And the 2.5 mile results included the following:
12. Donovan Glavin 17:10 (age 9!)
26. John Wiseman 18:17
43. Kate Brett 19:25
46. Casey Neels 19:28
176. Larry Simpson 23:36 (Nate's hockey manager)
206. Zach Simpson 24:11
462. Sue Brett 33:54

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope you all enjoy your Thanksgiving holiday and the long weekend. Don't forget to train - multiple days off is not a good idea at this point in the indoor season.

Today's D&C had the first winter sports results involving a Webster Distance Runner, and they came in... wrestling. Schroeder picked up wins over McQuaid and East Rochester, with our own Eric "the Eel" Kraweic recording two pins in less time that it takes most of the team to run an 800 at interval pace:

140: Eric Kraweic (W) p. Joe Rausch (M) 1:35
140: Eric Kraweic (W) p. Carl Allen (ER) 1:18

Congratulations Eric!

I'm looking forward to seeing Indoor Track results, as well as Swimming, XC Skiing and perhaps even Alpine (even though those three teams appeared at Thomas for WABO night).

Webster Turkey Trot

Sorry I missed the weekend posting, but I was a bit busy and mostly without an internet connection. I drove up to Boston to visit a former Webster XC runner! And that meant I also got to do the Blue Hills Traverse, a rugged 13.2km orienteering race, which ended up taking over 2 hours and 45 minutes.

Anyway, I wanted to provide information about the Webster Turkey Trot, a wonderful Webster tradition. It's listed as a 4.4 mile race, but may be just a little short ;-). It was started by former Webster XC coach, Jim May, and is now conducted by a former Webster star runner, Dave Boutillier.

I highly recommend that all Webster runners participate in this race! It's a great way to start your Thanksgiving Day!

Banquet

Well, we had our year-end banquet last night, and went well past the two hours scheduled (we did get started a bit late), so my remarks were brief (probably not brief enough for some). I hope I made it clear that we will really miss each and every Senior that is leaving. At the same time, there is great reason for optimism about our team's future. I think next year will be an exciting time for Webster Schroeder Cross Country.

Coach Klehr did a nice job with the Varsity and JV awards. There was a unique message for each team member, and I hope everyone was able to look back at their accomplishments with pride. Those of you that stayed healthy all year showed dramatic improvement from last year, and most of the injuries were the result of "trying too hard", which is a great change from the types of injuries we've seen the last two years.

Congratulations to all of you, including: the Rookies of the Year, Ethan and Anneleise; the Most Improved Runners, Johnny (Afro Thunder) and Khristyna; and the MVPs, Kenny and Alaina.

Thank you all for your commitment to the program and each other. I hope that most of you have learned from me at least of fraction of what I have learned from you. It will make us all better athletes, and people, in the future.

Federation Meet Results

The New York State Federation meet was held yesterday, in the traditional location of Bowdoin Park in Wappinger Falls, NY. The location used to move around each year. I think that ended about the time that it had to be shortened or canceled when it was scheduled to be run in the Syracuse area.

Results from this year's meet are available at Leone timing.

The East Aurora girls ran quite well, to finish 5th (first non-Section 2 team!). The East Aurora boys also out-performed expectations and finished 8th.

Section V was well-represented in the Boys race, by HF-L (4th, led by two juniors), Mendon (11th) and Brockport (14th). As individuals, Redfield was only 23rd (4th among Section V), Brimstein was 52nd and Dunham was 85th.

On the Girls side, Canadaigua 9th and 8th-graders finished 17th and 42nd to lead them to 10th, with just one senior in their top seven. They were the only local team. A junior from Class D, Amanda Moreland of Bloomfield, was the top local finisher, placing 9th. Elizabeth Schinski, another junior from a small school (Geneseo) was 20th, and Brianna Deming (51st) split two Mendon girls (Atkins, 45th and Tuite, 58th).

Soon, our season could last this long.

States and Banquet

I neglected to link to the full state meet results in the last post, so let me take care of that first. Here are links to tullyrunners for the Boys and Girls results.

I also forgot to send out some congratulations to our Thomas friends. Alex managed a respectable 32nd place in the AA Boys race. Brianna had a nicer race, finishing 26th, improving from 37th a year ago, but was just a few seconds slower than the second Mendon girl (and 35 seconds behind Tuite). It'll be interesting to hear what happened to young Jared, as he DNF'd. At least he has a couple more tries available.

Our banquet is scheduled for next Tuesday, November 18th. I'm a little behind on preparing a booklet. I hope the captains are working on their responsibilities!

New Update Schedule

Now that our XC season is over, I am not attempting daily updates. I'm going to try to move to a regular schedule of two postings a week: one on Wednesday and one on the weekend.

I'll make an effort to cover the exploits of our team, whether they've moved on to indoor track, xc skiing, swimming, or wrestling (does that cover everyone?).

Today, I just want to say congratulations to the East Aurora Girls Cross Country team, as they picked up their 4th straight state championship. And to the EA boys, who grabbed 3rd behind a couple of very strong teams. Also, to Addison's Carey Crooker, who must have had a very fine race, as she finished 15th in the Girls D race. Finally, to the Brockport boys, who finished 4th in the AA race, and the Mendon boys and girls, who finished 2nd and 3rd, respectively, in Class A.

Sunken Meadows State Park

So, the state meet is back at Sunken Meadows State Park. I was at an XC State Meet there for the first time back in 1968, when a coach I know led his Lowville team to the state title. I did not return in 1974 or 1992, but I did go back in 2002 when my alma mater, East Aurora, led by Dan Field's (my step-brother), 4th place finish, competed at the state meet after a 7-year hiatus (although individuals went every year). In addition, my brother's team from Addison grabbed 2nd place, led by future Olympian(?) Bryan Morseman.

Some state meet history is available from the NYS Sportswriters' Web site. There I learned two interesting (to me) facts about the 1968 state meet:
1) the late, great Charlie McMullen won the Class B title that year, 8 seconds ahead of Lowville's top runner, Leon Brown, who finished 5th.
2) Donny Sauer, host of the awesome Mud Run in Boston, NY, finished 5th in the Class C race.

I wish I could head down there this weekend. The East Aurora girls have a shot at winning. I could cheer for the EA boys to knock off HF-L. Addison's Carey Crooker will be in the girls D race. And I'd also be interested in watching the Thomas kids that made it (Brimmer, Jared and Brianna), the Brockport boys (good luck, Audra), and Mendon.

And, speaking of the state meet, don't forget to swing by tullyrunners.com to see his state meet predictions.

Sectional Results

The complete results are available from the Section V XC web site, here. I assume this link will eventually break, since it does not have a well-chosen name.

Our girls wound up 10th in Class AA, unable to catch up to Churchville-Chili. In the merged results, of the 90 schools with girls in Section V, 55 fielded complete teams at Sectionals, and we placed 44th. Since our six fastest girls from Saturday are returning, things should certainly improve next year.

Our boys placed as well as they possibly could have, both in Class AA, where we finished 5th, behind the big 4, and in the merged results, where we finished an outstanding 12th place - a huge improvement over 24th last year (and much, much lower than in 2006). Looking ahead to next year, Rush-Henrietta appears to be a lock for the state meet: they have the 2nd, 4th, 6th and 8th fastest returning runners, but there is no telling what a real summer of running can do for our team next year.

How were the actual results, compared to the predictions? The computer did a nice job overall - only missing 100% accurate placement by Fairport boys' underperformance.

Boys (school, prediction, actual):
Brockport 54 57 (Coon rebounded from Counties to secure the win)
Thomas 57 60 (Mattiucci was injured at Counties and unable to compete)
Rush Henrietta 67 69 (unable to match County performance)
Penfield 72 91 (4th runner was out, costing at least 15 points)
Schroeder 166 146 (Wade and Chris stepped up)
Fairport 167 180 (missing #2 and several others outside of top 5)
Hilton 175 149 (these young guys ran great)
Spencerport 207 161 (Cyril made states, and had a little support, for a change)
Gates Chili 267 249
Wilson 280 337 (#s 2 & 3 were no-shows, and they only had 3 sub-20 runners)
Churchville Chili 319 301
Edison inc inc

Girls (school, prediction, actual):
Rush Henrietta 51 42 (incredible run by 4th girl made it an easy win)
Hilton 63 59 (Ritchie saved a few points to get by Fairport)
Fairport 63 65 (2 teammates outkicked a third for the final state meet spot)
Penfield 110 93 (big run by #5 girl)
Thomas 114 110 (missing 4 and 5, but a frosh stepped up)
Spencerport 133 119 (had a reasonable 5th runner)
Gates Chili 160 204 (Farmer had a poor run, as did #s 2 & 3)
Brockport 232 228
Churchville Chili 263 252 (outperformed expectations to fend off Schroeder)
Schroeder 286 277 (2 runners recovering from illness partially offset excellent team run)

Sectionals - Boys AA

Well, tomorrow's large boys race should be huge - for us, and for the other top teams. Thomas has been the clear favorite to win, but at Counties, something must have been wrong with Mike Mattiucci, as he barely broke 20 minutes, after seemed to have come back to 100% in the last league meet. That certainly opens the door for Brockport, who could put 4 runners ahead of Thomas's third, if Mattiucci is not up there; however, their 5th man is back a ways, so Rush-Henrietta is not out of it either, as they could put 7 ahead of Brockport's 5th.

The individual race should be quite exciting. Jordan Roose of Brockport hasn't seemed to have enough to hang with the top 2, but could make it interesting. Penfield's Greg Redfield ran a terrific tactical race at Counties to come from behind and beat Alex Brimstein again. Alex doesn't seem to have the patience to let the race unfold. The battle for the state meet positions will be dependent on which team wins, but the race order could go like this:
Redfield (Pen)
Brimstein (Tho)
Roose (Bro)
Roussell (Tho)
Cauwels (Pen)
Hotchkiss (RH)
Wilbur (Bro)
Coon (Bro)

And the state-bound individuals would be among that group.

The team scores could shape up like this (with the assumption that Mattiucci has a mediocre race - if he has a decent race, Thomas will win):
Brockport 54
Thomas 57
Rush Henrietta 67
Penfield 72
Schroeder 166
Fairport 167
Hilton 175
Spencerport 207
Gates Chili 267
Wilson 280
Churchville Chili 319
Edison inc

RH is the unknown here. They really stepped it up at Counties, and if they do so again, they could get the win, especially if Coon has another poor outing.

Sectionals - Girls AA

We should be treated to a very exciting battle for the team title and state meet berth during the Section V Class AA Girls race. The early favorite was certainly Fairport; they were returning their top 5 girls from their 2007 second place team, all 5 of whom beat Hilton's third-best returnee. Hilton was a safe bet for second, with Penfield, Thomas and Rush poised to battle for the next spots.

For most of the year, that seemed to hold, especially with Sarah Ritchie, who won Sectionals by 15 seconds as a junior, out of action for Hilton. Ritchie returned for McQuaid, and Hilton actually outperformed Fairport, who was without the services of their top returning runner, Jenn Spitzer.

Then Hilton seemed to hand the dual meet victory and division title to Fairport in the last week of the season, by allowing Fairport to go 1-2-3. And Hilton went on to sit out the County meet, but if their Varsity B provides an indication of their preparedness, it is excellent. The big surprise at Counties, though, was Rush-Henrietta. Although they had been a solid team all year, they had not looked like a Sectional title contender, but that changed on Saturday, when they finished 2nd to Mendon 47-65, while Fairport was in 3rd with 109. Fairport was without Rosie Roessel, but she would not have been enough to catch R-H.

The computer, which is sometimes a slow learner, still has the results like this (excluding Wilson and Edison, for now):
Fairport 54
Rush Henrietta 59
Hilton 65
Thomas 104
Penfield 118
Spencerport 133
Gates Chili 160
Brockport 232
Churchville Chili 263
Schroeder 286

I think the top 5 teams will look more like this (assuming the Thomas girls have missed races due to injury, not due to resting):
Rush Henrietta 51
Hilton 63
Fairport 63
Penfield 110
Thomas 114

The individual race should be the Brianna Deming show. I don't expect her to lose for a second week in a row, since she's run much better than the rest of the field all year. The battle for the other 4 state meet individual spots should come down to 2-3 girls from the second and third place teams, plus a suddenly in-shape Katie Sanders from Spencerport. Christina Colon from Thomas also has a shot.

Wait 'til Next Week

No time for a complete analysis of last weekend or next weekend, yet. The team places were better than the computer predicted (10th vs 11th for the Boys and 17th vs 19th for the Girls), but were not satisfying, as the boys let Athena slip by. The boys teams from Irondequoit and Sutherland both ran well, and I don't think we could have quite gotten them, with AB and AJ both injured, but we could have been in the ballpark.

Next Saturday is the bigger race, as evidenced by the Fairport boys resting about half of their team, and Hilton not even entering a girls team (not sure why they couldn't field anyone in the Varsity race, but on a sloppier, "more dangerous" course, they were able to field 20 runners in the Varsity B race, including 8 in the top 10). So, let's get ready for that, and make sure we beat the Fairport boys again, and finish in the top 5 in the hugely competitive AA race. Our girls get to take another shot at Churchville-Chili. I assume Wilson and Edison won't have complete or competitive teams, but perhaps some research is warranted.

MC Boys (& Girls) - Part II

OK, I can toss out my individual predictions now. The times are based on reasonable, but not ideal, conditions. There could be rain or wind or cold. If all three show up, the times will certainly be slower. If the rain holds off during the races, and the course holds up, they could be faster. And remember, these are mostly computer-generated predictions, based on the better performances by these runners this year. I did make a few small adjustments, as outlined in the team scoring discussion.

First, the girls - top 28 (it will be very competitive near the end of the first team all-county spots):
Deming, Brianna Thomas 19:10
Hallock, Allison Mendon 19:33
Jarvela, Angela Batavia 19:45
Tuite, Shaylyn Mendon 19:45
Crocetti, Lindsay Hilton 19:52
Sawnor, Melinda Athena 20:03
Cymerman, Amy Sutherland 20:11
Roessel, Rosie Fairport 20:14
Robinson, Jodi Rush Henrietta 20:15
Atkins, Morgan Mendon 20:18
Zoyhofski, Rachel Rush Henrietta 20:22
Cackett, Rachel Mendon 20:29
Kahen, Rachel Athena 20:30
Farmer, Katy Gates Chili 20:30
Naylon, Jordyn Fairport 20:31
Aldridge, Mary Brighton 20:34
Greiner, Lizzie Rush Henrietta 20:34
Cocchiara, Amanda Hilton 20:36
Coon, Colleen Penfield 20:38
Spitzer, Jenn Fairport 20:39
List, Rebecca Hilton 20:40
Colon, Christina Thomas 20:43
Saxton, Katie Spencerport 20:44
Hughes, Ashton Fairport 20:46
Swertfeger, Sarah Olympia 20:46
Ritchie, Sarah Hilton 20:47
Hawes, Katherine Mendon 20:48
Jones, Lauren Victor 20:48

And the boys (top 45, to include top 3 Schroeder kids):
Redfield, Greg Penfield 16:16
Vanvleck, Adam Mendon 16:22
Brimstein, Alex Thomas 16:24
Roose, Jordan Brockport 16:28
Schwab, Tyler Brighton 16:40
Skipper, Jason Mendon 16:44
Geary, David Brighton 16:45
Wallenhorst, Nate Athena 16:49
Mattiucci, Mike Thomas 16:54
Lipani, Lou Arcadia 16:54
Cauwels, Mike Penfield 16:56
Likly, Tucker Mendon 16:56
Wilbur, Chris Brockport 17:01
Looby, Ricky Irondequoit 17:01
Coon, Josh Brockport 17:01
Rousell, Jared Thomas 17:04
Hotchkiss, Brian Rush Henrietta 17:05
Dunham, Cyril Spencerport 17:05
Phelan, Conor Sutherland 17:10
Eustance, Tyler Hilton 17:11
Gumina, Tyler Penfield 17:13
Krenzer, Mike Rush Henrietta 17:13
Smolensky, Scotty Brighton 17:14
Greenfield-Tuttle, Josh Irondequoit 17:15
Rice, Andrew Fairport 17:15
Stappenbeck, Corey Rush Henrietta 17:20
Charland, Brian Thomas 17:21
Wendel, Daniel Mendon 17:22
DeClerck, Cole Thomas 17:22
Zuckerman, David Brighton 17:23
Miller, Kenny Schroeder 17:23
Hill, Jordan Brockport 17:23
Burke, Colby Rush Henrietta 17:24
Talpey, Greg Brighton 17:26
Coons, Joe Brighton 17:29
Mozingo, Joe Penfield 17:29
Borden, Zak Olympia 17:30
Newton, Trevor Rush Henrietta 17:31
Printy, Greg East Irondequoit 17:31
McCullough, Ryan Brighton 17:38
Day, Sean Rush Henrietta 17:38
Sauln, Brad Rush Henrietta 17:39
Jones, Jesse Brockport 17:39
Piacentini, Anthony Schroeder 17:47
Lyons, Nate Schroeder 17:47

MC Boys - Part I

The battle of the unbeaten, at Webster Park 10 days ago, was expected to be an outstanding meet, and it did not disappoint. The County meet appears to be poised to be even better. Have the top 4 teams really left Penfield and R-H behind? Or, can they also be in the mix (R-H with their depth, but have lacked front-runners; Penfield with their front runners, but no 5th man, so far)?

The top 4 teams will be locked in a very tight battle. I have run the computer ratings of all participants, and the top 4 stack up like this:

Brighton 87
Thomas 102
Brockport 108
Mendon 113


The computer is a little slow to pick up on trends, so I've helped it a little bit. For example, Mendon's 4th and 5th runners put in very good runs at Webster Park, well beyond what they had done in competition prior to that. Also, Matiucci of Thomas seems to be back to almost 100% from his long injury. So, I've moved them up in the rankings. Some other small changes were made, based on the meet at Webster Park. The end result is my predicted team scores which follow.

There can be wide variation in the scores at the County meet. With the peak finish density exceeding 1 place per second, just a 10 second change in relative performance can mean +/- 12 points to the team score. That being said, I'm picking Thomas to win. That is predicated on solid performances by their youngsters, Rousell and DeClerck (who came within 1-second of Mendon's 4th man, who sealed the win for Mendon at Webster Park). Brighton's pack doesn't seem to be quite quick enough to catch the top 2 teams, but they have 7 contenders for top 30 finishes, whereas Thomas has 5 and Mendon, probably only 4.

In the battle for 7-12, Irondequoit, Fairport and Sutherland have the edge, because they have consistently had decent performances from their 4th and 5th runners, which has not been true for Athena, Schroeder and Arcadia.

Thomas 84
Mendon 96
Brighton 99
Brockport 107
Penfield 130
Rush Henrietta 136
Irondequoit 242
Fairport 256
Sutherland 268
Athena 289
Schroeder 309
Arcadia 310
Hilton 357
Spencerport 361
Victor 381
Odyssey 403
Gates Chili 448
Olympia 496
Churchville Chili 604
Batavia 612
East Rochester 689
East Irondequoit inc

MC Girls

Since our girls will finish down quite a bit, I have no bias in analyzing the top of the girls race. On the team side, Mendon is certainly the favorite. Although the top girl for them early in the year, Allison Hallock has not run in a few weeks, and is assumed injured and out of Counties, they still have enough depth to hang on.

The battle for second should be a good one. List and Ritchie seem to be back near the front at this point; if they both make the top 10, that should be enough to edge Fairport, who has the tale of two Jenns going: Jenn Spitzer seems to be rounding back into form, but Jennie Springer must have picked up an injury. I should say Hilton's experience will win out in the end, but I'm going with Fairport. R-H should be very close, especially if they have 5 girls put in the performance that their top 4 did in their league meet at Mendon West, where they went 1-2-3 on Brighton.

The next 5 teams should be fairly close together. Thomas looked to have a shot at 5th place, but seems to have run into injury troubles with their 5th runner and now their 4th and 6th runners. That opens things up for Brighton, who seems to have been dissed in the latest coaches' poll, getting bumped out of the top 10, in favor of Spencerport, who they beat soundly in their dual meet (by more than Katie Sanders could have made up). I'm guessing that Thomas will have some of the girls back and will hold off Penfield, followed by Spencerport and Sutherland.

Predicted scores:
Mendon 82
Fairport 93
Hilton 96
R-H 117
Brighton 178
Thomas 186
Penfield 192
Spencerport 227
Sutherland 251
Athena 276
Gates Chili 277
Victor 307
Odyssey 389
Olympia 404
Brockport 423
Irondequoit 425
East Irondequoit 493
Churchville Chili 494
Schroeder 538
East Rochester 666
Arcadia 667
Batavia inc

Note: I do expect Schroeder to trash these computer-generated numbers, as they have all year. The question is: will it be enough to move up two places?

Feel free to comment on these predictions!

Monroe County XC Championships

Over the next few days we'll look ahead to Counties. This will culminate on Friday with the computer predictions of the final results.

Today, I just want to cover some of the basics. First, here is a link to the County Meet information. Interestingly, "odd year" information is also included on the 2008 information page - just in case? - so make sure you skip past those times and focus on the starting times for an even year.

We will be running boys in all three races (Varsity, Varsity B and JV). The Varsity race will include the 7 boys that have run fastest in the last few races. This is not finalized, but the Varsity B race will probably include the next 7-8 boys that have a chance to make the Sectional team, either in the top 7, or as the 8-10 alternates. The JV race will include all of the boys that will likely have Counties be their final race of the season. Because of the rule that seniors cannot run JV, we may run girls in all 3 races as well. It may result in one girl running one race, which is not the ideal solution, but may be the best way to go.

Our girls will not be able to match our 11th place finish last year, but we'll discuss who we can beat. The boys are virtually guaranteed to improve upon last year's disappointing 13th place finish. Without going into details, yet, there are six teams that are head and shoulders above the rest (in alphabetical order): Brighton, Brockport, Mendon, Penfield, Rush-Henrietta, and Thomas. There is really no way that some permutation of those teams won't finish 1-6. There is also a clear next batch of teams: Arcadia, Athena, Fairport, Irondequoit, Schroeder, Sutherland. It is highly likely that those teams will take the 7-12 spots.

More tomorrow!

Taper

So, half of the team is down to 8 days left in the season. We've done some pretty hard training in the last few weeks before this one, and our fitness levels have improved dramatically, as evidenced by the performance at Mendon West on Tuesday. Running 45 seconds faster, just 4 weeks after our previous visit, is quite an accomplishment.

Next, we will be revisiting Mendon East for Counties, 18 days after our previous visit. I have no doubt that many of our runners will knock 45 seconds of that time. Although it's a shorter time period, it will be coming as we step up our taper. We were in the middle of some pretty tough training when we were there before, and we should come in to Counties quite rested. Our first meet there was a dual meet, with dual meet-sized fields and crowds. Our next race will be Counties, with large fields and a great audience.

As we taper, it is critical that everyone gets enough sleep each night; not doing so will offset some of the benefit we are trying to capture by resting up a little bit.

A Video Star

I'm not sure if anyone saw the "Kids At Play" article in Sunday's D&C, but one of our runners was quoted. The article is here.

Even better than the article, is the accompanying video. Check it out!

While you're at the D&C, you can see the four Schroeder runners that made the paper on Wednesday. That article is here.

Boys Sweep Again!

So, the boys completed the season turnaround yesterday, sweeping for the second time in 3 meets, despite missing 3 "5th men" (Alex, Wade and AJ), and moving the overall record from 1-10 at the midpoint to 10-11 at season end (with the only additional loss coming at the hands of 21-0 Mendon).

It was a great team effort by the boys to pick up the wins. The 24-31 win over Arcadia was due to the excellent performance by the top 4 runners. The Odyssey (18-40) and Olympia (20-39) margins were much larger than expected thanks to the efforts of the next 4 runners. But the real story was the 5 freshman boys, who ALL ran in the 21s, thanks to improvements over last month that ranged from 1:15-2:36!

Across the pond, Fairport, Irondequoit and Sutherland were running on the Mendon East course. Last week, when we ran there, it took 17:36 to make the paper; yesterday, it took just 18:01. We may have been able to put 4 runners under 18, based on yesterday's effort.

And back at home, Mendon got incredible runs out of their 4th and 5th runners (not to mention out of VanVleck, who won the race, to pull off the upset over Thomas, and took care of Brighton and Brockport as well. That race sets up a big rematch at Counties, where Brighton is more likely to benefit from invitational scoring, and Mendon is likely to lose the most versus dual meet scoring.

Finally, we can't forget the girls performance yesterday. Despite falling one point shy of knocking off Olympia, the effort was noteworthy. All of the girls in the top 7 figured in the scoring, as we expected, and the results were so fine. The median improvement from last month's trip to Mendon West was 48 seconds. Other than McQuaid, it was the first time this year that we put 5 girls under 25 minutes, and we had the fastest time of the year for our 7th girl. The improvement by the younger runners has been startling and bodes well for the future.

Enjoy the pizza today, you earned it!

Today's Other Meet

Well, the D&C has a nice Cross Country article, previewing today's matchup among Thomas, Mendon, Brockport and Brighton, all of whose boys teams are 18-0 this morning. You can see the article here. Mendon is not quite as deep as the other teams, so don't expect them to come out with an unblemished record. And the other teams are so closely matched, that it is entirely possible that they knock each other off, and no one comes out 21-0.

Expect the winning time to be well below Brimmer's course record of 16:25, set just last week. Six boys in today's race went under 16 minutes at McQuaid (and Mattiucci was 16-even). Brimstein and Roose should provide an entertaining dual up front, with Roose pushing Brimstein under 16 minutes.

Brighton's impressive depth could be the deciding factor in their meets against Thomas and Mendon, defeating Thomas, 28-29 (unless Cole has an incredible race to avoid displacement) and Mendon, 28-31 (with Mendon unable to get their 4th and 5th runners in). Thomas will have great difficulty with Brockport; if Roose upsets Brimmer, or Jared can't hold off Brockport's 3rd man, Brockport could pull it off, but put me down for Thomas, 27-28. Thomas should also win over Mendon, 26-30. Mendon's lack of depth will hurt them, as they lose to Brockport, 26-29 and Brockport will lose to Brighton, 26-31, in the "blowout" of the day.

It's too bad the meet is at the same time as ours, it would be fun to head to Webster Park and see how this plays out.

Top 22 Prediction:
1 Brimstein, Alex Thomas 15:54
2 Roose, Jordan Brockport 15:59
3 Vanvleck, Adam Mendon 16:02
4 Skipper, Jason Mendon 16:10
5 Geary, David Brighton 16:13
6 Schwab, Tyler Brighton 16:15
7 Coon, Josh Brockport 16:20
8 Mattiucci, Mike Thomas 16:25
9 Likly, Tucker Mendon 16:28
10 Rousell, Jared Thomas 16:34
11 Wilbur, Chris Brockport 16:35
12 Smolensky, Scotty Brighton 16:36
13 Charland, Brian Thomas 16:50
14 Talpey, Greg Brighton 16:51
15 Zuckerman, David Brighton 16:51
16 Jones, Jesse Brockport 16:57
17 Mullen, Jake Brighton 17:02
18 Stahl, Will Brighton 17:02
19 Hill, Jordan Brockport 17:03
20 McCullough, Ryan Brighton 17:03
21 Coons, Joe Brighton 17:03
22 DeClerck, Cole Thomas 17:07

Scouting Report for Tuesday

Here's the potential finish order for the girls race - be ready for a small race. If it happens this way, we lose to Olympia, 28-29. Perhaps someone in our pack can catch their 3rd girl to reverse that score, she only ran 24:30 at Mendon East two weeks ago, but the better chance is for our 6th girl (Janelle? Hannah? Sarah? Someone else?) to finish ahead of their 4th girl, which would give us the win, 29-29 on the tiebreaker. And of course this all counts on our 7th girl beating their 5th girl. The other meets will probably not be too close - Arcadia should not have a complete team, and Odyssey could have 4 girls ahead of our second.

Place Name School Best
1 Swertfeger, Sarah Olympia 20:22
2 Kenny, Brianna Olympia 20:46
3 Westrich, Taylor Odyssey 21:31
4 Maggio, Carly Odyssey 21:41
5 Doherty, Alaina Schroeder 22:13
6 Blackburn, Kaity Odyssey 22:28
7 Kulzer, Kayla Olympia 22:42
8 Milici, Stephanie Odyssey 22:47
9 Bubie, Nicole Odyssey 24:05
10 Dilai, Khristyna Schroeder 24:11
11 Kuitems, Karen Schroeder 24:13
12 Mills, Sarah Schroeder 24:22
13 DiPonzio, Stephanie Odyssey 24:28
14 Bay, Anneliese Schroeder 24:54
15 Bunting, Molly Olympia 25:14
16 Toot, Shannon Arcadia 25:15
17 Jewell, Janelle Schroeder 25:23
18 Miller, Crystal Arcadia 25:29
19 Schwabe, Hannah Schroeder 25:40
20 Pafka, Stephanie Olympia 25:54
21 Lacure, Leah Olympia 26:01
22 Gioia, Maureen Olympia 26:01
23 Purdy, Caitlin Odyssey 26:26
24 Trudeau, Shannon Arcadia 26:35
25 Pusateri, Stephanie Odyssey 26:39
26 Weigand, Sarah Schroeder 27:02
27 Braley, Amy Olympia 27:02
28 Schneider, Carly Odyssey 27:13
29 Mills, Rachel Schroeder 27:31
30 Eckert, Julie Odyssey 27:59
31 Meagher, Amanda Schroeder 28:06
32 Laing, Mary Olympia 28:08
33 Zimmer, Meredith Odyssey 28:30
34 Frelier, Kristen Schroeder 28:48


OK, Here's the top 20 boys prediction, plus the rest of Schroeder. It shows Arcadia beating us 27-28, so we have some work to do. Our 4th and/or 5th men need to step up. Arcadia only has 5 runners that are likely to go under 19:30, but they could all be under 18.

Place Name School Best
1 Lipani, Lou Arcadia 16:37
2 Borden, Zak Olympia 16:54
3 Miller, Kenny Schroeder 17:10
4 Piacentini, Anthony Schroeder 17:30
5 Lyons, Nate Schroeder 17:32
6 Lynch, Cameron Arcadia 17:32
7 Heckman, Aaron Odyssey 17:37
8 Ward, Ian Arcadia 17:44
9 Zimmerman, Tyler Odyssey 17:47
10 Reichert, John Arcadia 17:53
11 Knapp, JonMichael Arcadia 18:08
12 Brett, Alex Schroeder 18:18
13 Mauro, Chris Schroeder 18:19
14 Bigg, Justin Odyssey 18:19
15 Hensel, Ryan Odyssey 18:23
16 Carroll, Frank Odyssey 18:25
17 Erbelding, John Olympia 18:34
18 Piotrowski, Wade Schroeder 18:35
19 Rizzo, Rick Odyssey 18:36
20 Nasello, AJ Schroeder 18:39
24 Whittemore, Steve Schroeder 19:05
25 Fitzgerald, Ethan Schroeder 19:07
28 Kelly, Geoffery Schroeder 19:20
30 Krawiec, Eric Schroeder 19:30
33 McKeown, Trevor Schroeder 19:40
36 Makowski, Joe Schroeder 19:49
37 Alexander, Elliot Schroeder 19:59
41 Prohler, Josh Schroeder 20:24
47 Wiseman, John Schroeder 20:45
50 Farrell, Tom Schroeder 20:57
63 Merrit, Alex Schroeder 21:40
66 DiBenedetto, Ryan Schroeder 21:46
70 Cannon, Tristan Schroeder 22:05
73 Mathew, Justin Schroeder 22:11
74 Doherty, Patrick Schroeder 22:20
76 Circelli, Kenneth Schroeder 22:22
79 Hamouda, Adrian Schroeder 22:32
87 Schusler, Alan Schroeder 23:41
89 Rekers, Arik Schroeder 23:42
99 Patel, Arjun Schroeder 25:09
101 Semmler, Robert Schroeder 29:33

Weekend Update

OK, so these last few days have been wicked hectic, as they say in that state to our east that has provided us with a wonderful visitor and fan this weekend. This means that I have neglected the blog (and I still haven't posted anything on Attackpoint about my wonderful adventures in Harriman State Park last weekend), and the preview of the Bulldog Stampede was done by word of mouth, and with less detail than usual.

Before I discuss our performance against expectations, let me point out that these past 15 days amounted to the most difficult training period of our season. We did not ease up at all for this invitational, so I didn't expect a whole lot of improvement over last year.

Starting with the JV girls, which, since we were short-handed, consisted of just Amanda and Kristen, we saw a very good performance. They worked together to post PRs, Kristen by 2:26 and Amanda by 23 seconds per mile over McQuaid.

The Varsity girls were running against an outstanding field, and missing two of their top 3 runners; however, hidden in the pack was a race within the race, among Schroeder, Niagara-Wheatfield and Hutch Tech. With the other teams each putting two runners in the top half of the field, we were at quite a deficit, but the girls managed their best 1-5 gap of the season, just 1:36, and edged NW by 1 point and HT by 5. How many heroes were there in this effort? Well, technically none, but there were six heroines. Sarah displaced two HT runners in the effort, and gamely closed the gap on the 5th NW girl. Hannah was locked in a head-to-head dual with a girl from Willy South and won the point. Janelle, after pushing the pace for our rookies early, held on just enough. Khristyna knocked 1:36 off last year's time to secure her solid spot. And our rookies were huge: Karen led the team thru most of the race, running her fastest race of the year; Anneleise, despite showing some early doubt of her coach's prediction that she could be our top runner in the race, came flying thru the last 500m, catching at least 7 girls, the last by just 1/2 second, to contribute to the cause.

The JV boys could not have placed better. Finishing 5th behind just Mendon, Canisius, Sutherland and East Aurora is terrific. Overall, the boys improved a median of 52 seconds over last year. The JV race saw 3 runners under 19 minutes, 5 under 20 and 10 under 21. Six JV runners set outright PRs: Ethan, Trevor, John, Ryan, Justin and Bobby. Six others ran their fastest pace of the year: Geoff, Eric, JP, Tom, Kenny and Arik. All of the others were hampered by illness or injury and still came very close. I am looking forward to seeing what the JV squad can do at Counties, after a little time to R&R.

Finally, the Varsity boys 5th place finish was a little disappointing, losing again to Williamsville North and finishing behind Sutherland kept us out of trophy position. Our top 3 ran about where expected, but we needed some help from the rest of the team. AJ's injury certainly slowed him, and Chris probably ran his hardest workout of the year on Thursday, so Steve's slowed recovery from being ill was unfortunate, as was AB's scratch. I am confident that we will catch Sutherland at Counties. They ran a very good race, compared to where they had been, so I'm certain they were a bit rested for this meet.

Looking forward, we have our league meet finale on Tuesday at Mendon West. It should be a very competitive meet, with Arcadia and Odyssey both fielding boys teams with about the same record as us. On the girls side, Odyssey is probably not catchable and Arcadia is usually incomplete, but the Olympia race should be a thriller. I'll have a scouting report available tomorrow.

Yesterday

Another superior race was turned in by the team. The boys ran well, beating the computer-generated predictions of best time by a median of 24 seconds. That, combined with Spencerport being short-handed, led to an impressive 23-33 victory. Coupled with the solid win over Gates-Chili, it gives us a final record of 4-3 in Division I. The Monroe County XC web site goes back to 2003 and shows the following records: 1-5 in '07, 2-4 in '06, 3-3 in '05, 3-3 in '04, and 0-6 in '03. So, this is the first winning record in a while. Outstanding!

The girls ran even better. Although the final scores do not show the awesomeness of the run, the numbers do. The girls beat the computer predictions by a median of 53 seconds! The median girl on the other teams exactly matched the computer prediction, so it wasn't that the predictions were off (BTW, on the Boys side, the median for Spencerport and Mendon was 2 seconds slower than the prediction - Gates is not yet listed).

I am very pleased with the performance. As a group, you were asked to step it up a notch (especially on the boys side, with Nico missing), and you did just that. It was terrific that you were able to do that after the toughest 10 day stretch of our season, from McQuaid thru yesterday.

In the past, the team has seemed intimidated by Mendon East. Yesterday, that was clearly not the case. I think we can really look forward to the County meet now!

Scouting Report for Tuesday (Now Including Girls)

OK, I've included the girls listing now. The summary is that Mendon is #1 in Monroe County (#2 behind Canandaigua in Section V), Spencerport is "honorable mention" in the Section V poll and Gates-Chili is pretty solid, led by Katy Farmer. Here are the expected top runners and the whole Schroeder team:

1 Hallock, Allison Mendon 20:35 19:46
2 Tuite, Shaylyn Mendon 20:46 20:08
3 Atkins, Morgan Mendon 21:03 20:52
4 Cackett, Rachel Mendon 21:17 21:00
5 Farmer, Katy Gates Chili 21:22 20:58
6 Hawes, Katherine Mendon 21:35 21:19
7 Saxton, Katie Spencerport 21:47 21:08
8 Maffett, Megan Spencerport 21:58 21:28
9 Young, Lauren Mendon 22:01 21:43
10 Cannon, Rachel Gates Chili 22:04 21:51
11 Tauriello, Angeleen Gates Chili 22:07 21:52
12 Bower, Anna Mendon 22:12 21:59
13 McCarthy, Casey Mendon 22:54 22:14
14 Koniski, Sarah Spencerport 22:57 22:42
15 Ryan, Kylie Mendon 22:58 22:28
16 Truby, Lauren Spencerport 23:16 22:29
17 Doherty, Alaina Schroeder 23:38 23:18
18 Sanders, Katie Spencerport 23:42 23:07
19 Wimer, Marissa Spencerport 24:02 23:35
20 Lowe, Katie Spencerport 24:04 23:26
28 Dilai, Khristyna Schroeder 25:39 25:34
29 Mills, Sarah Schroeder 25:55 25:34
31 Jewell, Janelle Schroeder 27:09 26:29
32 Schwabe, Hannah Schroeder 27:22 26:45
34 Kuitems, Karen Schroeder 27:27 25:47
37 Weigand, Sarah Schroeder 28:24 28:10
38 Mills, Rachel Schroeder 29:28 28:46
40 Frelier, Kristen Schroeder 31:00 30:27



On the boys side, Mendon is ranked 5th in Section V and is one of the four remaining unbeaten teams in Monroe County, so we probably can't get them. In fact, there's a chance they could put as many as 11 in the top 20 of our race. Here's the computer prediction of the top 33 plus the rest of our boys team. Again there are two numbers, an average performance and a very good performance:
Vanvleck, Adam Mendon 17:00 16:46
Skipper, Jason Mendon 17:14 16:59
Likly, Tucker Mendon 17:36 17:23
Dunham, Cyril Spencerport 17:46 17:21
Miller, Kenny Schroeder 17:53 17:41
Wendel, Daniel Mendon 18:21 18:07
Schwalm, Steve Gates Chili 18:24 18:09
Lyons, Nate Schroeder 18:26 18:11
DeTraglia, Patrick Mendon 18:33 18:24
Hallock, Billy Mendon 18:35 18:30
Plummer, Chris Spencerport 18:35 18:24
Moulton, Tim Mendon 18:49 18:35
Zeccola, Andrew Mendon 18:51 18:27
VanVleck, Matt Mendon 18:52 18:38
Spinosa, Phil Spencerport 18:56 18:48
Coleman, John Spencerport 19:04 18:54
Bowers, Stephen Gates Chili 19:06 18:58
Young, Robert Mendon 19:08 18:47
Miller, Evan Mendon 19:14 19:14
Piechotta, Steffan Gates Chili 19:16 19:06
Mauro, Chris Schroeder 19:18 19:07
McDonald, Brandon Gates Chili 19:19 19:10
Brett, Alex Schroeder 19:19 18:51
To, Justin Spencerport 19:27 19:08
Binko, Collin Spencerport 19:29 19:12
Mazzola, Mike Gates Chili 19:31 19:29
Barlow, Torrey Spencerport 19:34 19:25
Moore, Weston Gates Chili 19:35 19:12
Nasello, AJ Schroeder 19:42 19:26
Buss, Hayden Gates Chili 19:49 19:38
Whittemore, Steve Schroeder 19:54 19:40
Piotrowski, Wade Schroeder 19:57 19:39
Fitzgerald, Ethan Schroeder 20:11 19:54
Krawiec, Eric Schroeder 20:19 20:06
Kelly, Geoffery Schroeder 20:45 20:29
McKeown, Trevor Schroeder 20:54 20:44
Alexander, Elliot Schroeder 20:56 20:36
Makowski, Joe Schroeder 20:57 20:26
Prohler, Josh Schroeder 21:10 21:03
Wiseman, John Schroeder 21:43 21:25
Farrell, Tom Schroeder 22:03 21:37
Mathew, Justin Schroeder 23:12 22:53
Merrit, Alex Schroeder 23:23 22:22
Cannon, Tristan Schroeder 23:25 22:45
Hamouda, Adrian Schroeder 23:39 23:12
Circelli, Kenneth Schroeder 23:55 23:02
Doherty, Patrick Schroeder 23:60 23:00
Rekers, Arik Schroeder 25:16 24:24
Patel, Arjun Schroeder 27:26 25:55
Semmler, Robert 11 Schroeder 32:09 30:30

Without Nico, we have our work cut out, but if we focus on Spencerport, we'll get Gates as well.

Sleep

Get some.

It's particularly important right now that you get adequate sleep. We have just gone through the toughest training week of the season, the weather is turning, and school has just passed the five week mark, with an increasing workload. All of these factors can play into an increased chance of illness. The number one way to help your body fight off anything is to make sure it's sufficiently rested.

Speaking of sleep, it seems we slept through the awards ceremony last night. Our varsity boys captured 5th place (edging out Victor by 2 points, Odyssey by 8, and Athena by 13), which was good for a trophy, had we shown up for the awards, instead of watching the Varsity C race. Congratulations! Two weekends in a row with hardware!

We beat Spencerport handily, but they were missing their #2 runner (and #6) and their top guy had an off day, so they will be much tougher on Tuesday.

More Computer Predictions

First, the exciting news: someone recognized our McQuaid performance. The latest Section V Coaches' Poll was in the D&C this AM, and our boys "also received votes", along with Irondequoit. Perhaps by the end of the year we can crack the top 10! The poll is online here.

The top JV Boys could make the top 20 in today's race. As a team, top 5 would be a solid performance. Rush Henrietta should win, possibly with a sweep. Here is what the computer says for our times:
Krawiec, Eric Schroeder 20:18 20:08
Fitzgerald, Ethan Schroeder 20:21 19:57
McKeown, Trevor Schroeder 20:57 20:48
Alexander, Elliot Schroeder 20:59 20:39
Makowski, Joe Schroeder 21:00 20:29
Wiseman, John Schroeder 21:46 21:27
Farrell, Tom Schroeder 22:06 21:39
Cannon, Tristan Schroeder 23:26 22:48
Hamouda, Adrian Schroeder 23:43 23:17
Circelli, Kenneth Schroeder 23:58 23:05
Doherty, Patrick Schroeder 24:01 23:03
Schusler, Alan Schroeder 24:28 24:28
DiBenedetto, Ryan Schroeder 25:15 25:00
Patel, Arjun Schroeder 27:28 25:59
Semmler, Robert Schroeder 32:13 30:32

The girls predictions are still waiting for the computer output...

Irondequoit / Penfield Boys Varsity Preview

OK, the formatting of this will be ugly. I need to figure out how to make pretty tables on this site. Anyway, the computer says the varsity race could look something like the following (only Monroe County teams included - Corning will also be there with 3 boys that went under 17 at McQuaid). There are two times after each name, the first is an average time for the runner, adjusted for Harris-Whalen; the second time is based on their best race of the year, so far.

I'll try to post some JV and girls predictions a bit later.

Redfield, Greg Penfield 16:42 16:38
Wallenhorst, Nate Athena 17:21 17:17
Cauwels, Mike Penfield 17:29 17:19
Looby, Ricky Irondequoit 17:35 17:24
Dunham, Cyril Spencerport 17:38 17:21
Greenfield-Tuttle, Josh Irondequoit 17:46 17:27
Krenzer, Mike Rush Henrietta 17:51 17:30
Hotchkiss, Brian Rush Henrietta 17:52 17:23
Stappenbeck, Corey Rush Henrietta 17:53 17:42
Gumina, Tyler Penfield 17:53 17:36
Miller, Kenny Schroeder 17:54 17:44
Burke, Colby Rush Henrietta 17:57 17:35
Printy, Greg East Irondequoit 18:02 17:39
Mozingo, Joe Penfield 18:06 17:53
Jones, Jesse Brockport 18:10 17:45
Day, Sean Rush Henrietta 18:16 17:60
Reid, Kyle Victor 18:19 18:06
Lyons, Nate Schroeder 18:27 18:14
Heckman, Aaron Odyssey 18:27 18:12
Kozyra, Nate Rush Henrietta 18:28 18:23
Brady, Terry Rush Henrietta 18:29 18:07
Houle, Bryan Athena 18:31 18:20
Zimmerman, Tyler Odyssey 18:33 18:21
Hospers, Jamie Penfield 18:37 18:18
Plummer, Chris Spencerport 18:37 18:25
Frachioni, Anthony Irondequoit 18:46 18:33
Hayward, Connor Victor 18:47 18:43
Mclaughlin, Ian Irondequoit 18:50 18:39
Johnson, Tyler Athena 18:51 18:36
Spinosa, Phil Spencerport 18:55 18:48
Perry, Luke Irondequoit 18:58 18:36
Coleman, John Spencerport 19:03 18:56
Ballard, David Victor 19:09 18:48
Mauro, Chris Schroeder 19:15 19:08
Erbelding, John Olympia 19:15 19:07
Bigg, Justin Odyssey 19:17 19:10
Wind, Nate Athena 19:17 18:54
Duguay, Ben Irondequoit 19:18 18:52
Richard, Kevin Athena 19:19 19:09
Carroll, Frank Odyssey 19:20 19:02
Sprague, Brady Penfield 19:20 19:02
Schuman, Ben Churchville Chili 19:22 19:17
Brett, Alex Schroeder 19:22 18:55
Binko, Collin Spencerport 19:25 19:12
Rizzo, Rick Odyssey 19:28 19:13
To, Justin Spencerport 19:29 19:10
Hensel, Ryan Odyssey 19:33 18:58
Iovoli, Austin Victor 19:36 19:25
Barlow, Torrey Spencerport 19:36 19:27
DeBona, Jon Churchville Chili 19:38 19:22
Nasello, AJ Schroeder 19:44 19:29
Bubie, Adrian Odyssey 19:46 19:23
Gerlach, Patrick Penfield 19:46 19:17
Rodriguez, Ben Irondequoit 19:51 19:41
Spawton, Jeff Victor 19:53 19:35
Holbrook, Austin Olympia 19:56 19:45
Whittemore, Steve Schroeder 19:57 19:43
Smathers, Mike Victor 20:10 19:26
Mondy, Dean Brockport 20:11 19:39
Flynn, Patrick Churchville Chili 20:15 20:02
Piotrowski, Wade Schroeder 20:18 19:41
Baxter, Kevin Churchville Chili 20:21 20:08
Carbone, Charles Athena 20:21 20:05
Palomaki, Joe Victor 20:27 19:17
Pietruszewski, Allyn Churchville Chili 20:29 20:24
Colby, Jeff Olympia 20:30 20:13
Liess, Chris Olympia 20:32 20:15
Fox, Bryan Churchville Chili 20:45 20:27
Knoess, Kurt Olympia 20:47 20:22
Ward, Chris Athena 20:51 20:25
Klemmer, Phil Churchville Chili 20:57 20:16
Mesolella, Kevin Olympia 21:18 20:54
Francia, Patrick Olympia 21:23 20:57
SENTIFF, ETHAN Brockport 21:43 21:30
Modzelewski, Mike Brockport 22:05 21:40
Costello, Zack Brockport 23:31 23:26

Friday's Invitational

Here are the teams that are entered in the Penfield/Irondequoit Invitational on Friday:
Penfield, Irondequoit, Churchville, Athena, Victor, RH, Mercy, Corning, Kearney, Thomas, Schroeder, Odyssey, Arcadia, Olympia, Sienna, East, ER, Fairport, Spencerport, Williamson, Brockport, Red Jacket, SOTA, Eastridge, Finney. I'm not sure if they are all entering Varsity teams (so far, several have not), but it looks like a top 5 boys finish is quite possible (and five team awards are available). Individually, they give out 5 trophies and medals go through 30th place in the varsity races.

A link to the course map is here. The top 25 (league meet) times since 2005 are here.

Results from last year:
Boys Varsity
Girls Varsity
JV Boys and Girls

Perhaps tomorrow we will have some predictions...

More Wow!

How well did the boys run on Saturday? Well, we finished 28 points ahead of Lancaster, and just 18 points behind Williamsville North. According to the latest Section VI XC poll, published in the Buffalo News (here), Willy North is tied for 3rd among large schools in Section VI and Lancaster is 5th.

We lost to Athena 23-34 in the first meet of the season. We scored 144 points at McQuaid, to their 225 (despite having the overall winner), and beat them 25-32 in dual meet scoring.

We also had a chance to run against two of our next dual meet opponents: Gates and Spencerport, and outscored them handily.

Wow!

The team turned in an excellent performance at McQuaid yesterday. The varsity boys exceeded all expectations to bring home some hardware, finishing 3rd in our race. They were led by an awesome 9th place finish by Kenny. Nico and Nate both placed in the 20s, and Chris just missed, in 31st. Alex in 55th place just about equaled our top runner's place last year. I am not concerned about the times, that may have seemed a little slower than expected, because the humidity and stealthy heat that showed up for our race certainly had an effect. In fact, I saw a couple of girls that were down on the last 1/2 mile of the course in the following race.

The girls showed some incredible improvement, and managed to beat Vestal. Alaina appears to be rounding into form, and went under 21 minutes. Khristyna was 1:47 faster than last year, but even that wasn't quite enough to keep up with Karen in the homestretch. Anneleise realized, during the race, that she can run, and turned in a 7:43 last mile. Hannah improved over last year, despite the tougher conditions, and Sarah was 40 seconds faster in the first mile, which is all we have to compare.

The JV Boys then stepped up for a great run. Placing 11th in that field is terrific. And beating Thomas's JV is an accomplishment (even if they did have a couple 18:30-something runners in the Sophomore race. Other notable teams behind us include Corning, Penfield and St. Joe's.

As individuals, there is a lot worth mentioning: Wade under 18 and ahead of 2 Varsity runners, and Goeff snuck in ahead of one. Ethan's 18:43 is an excellent freshman time (not far behind AJ from last year and Nate from 2006), and Eric was sub-19. JP put in a solid 3rd mile to go under 19:30. Elliot, Trevor, Joe, Tom and John were all between 19:44 and 20:12. The next batch of freshmen: Alex, Tristan (with a big third mile), Patrick and Kenny, were all 21:05 and better, and Justin was right behind them.

With no dual meet this week, it's time to go back to work. There are only 27 days until Counties. These next two weeks of training are a great opportunity to get ready for that meet.

McQuaid Invitational

On Saturday we travel to Genesee Valley Park for the McQuaid Invitational. There are over 7000 runners entered, from 235 schools, for the 24 races that will be run. The course is flat and usually very fast; however, there are some showers in the forecast for Friday and Saturday and, since we run races 21, 22 and 24, the course could be sloppy by the time we run. Be sure to have your spikes ready to go! And make sure you have proper clothing to stay warm and dry.

How fast is the course? Since it is only 3 miles, last year 20 of the 24 boys and 9 of the 13 girls that ran, had their fastest time of the year. 8 runners had their fastest pace of the year. For example, AJ ran 18:16, Geoff ran 19:08, and John Pilato ran 20:18. JP was 16th on the team and ran 20:01. For the girls, Alaina ran 21:33, Megan Rieger ran 19:41 and Sarah M ran 23:05.

The meet web site is located here. It has past results and information about this year's meet.

Last year, our boys were 15th out of 27 schools. Of the 22 teams that I have seen entered in that race, it seems that the best teams are McQuaid, Williamsville North, Lancaster, Union-Endicott, Athena, Spencerport, Hilton. We should be able to knock off some of those teams. Our JV team was 18th out of 27 in 2007; we are capable of placing in the top half of that race, even though it includes "seeded" teams.

4 and Oh, Baby!

Well, we picked up a big win last night. The team effort was outstanding!

First, the girls. We lost to Churchville, 24-33 and Eastridge, 24-31, but gave them nice battles. If we keep improving at our current rate, we should be able to run with those teams at the end of the year. Alaina ran faster than at Mendon West, on a course that is 0.1 mile longer. Khristyna, Sarah M, and Hannah all ran over 30 seconds faster than expected. Janelle seems to be getting fit, and Anneleise and Amanda made nice dual meet debuts, giving Kristen someone to accompany.

The boys bounced back from the Wildcat Invitational very well, with most running their races as planned. It was great to see the solid teamwork throughout our line-up, from Kenny and Nico working together to go after Hilton's top guy, to the loud cheering section bringing Bobby home in under 30.

Schroeder had not been 4-0 in a dual meet since 10/5/2004 against much weaker opponents (we were 3-0 on 10/10/2006, also against a weak schedule). That day was the last time we had 3 runners in the D&C for a single race - and they were 18:26-18:35 at English Road, which is about 30 seconds faster than Parma.

We finally had our top 5 runners in attendance and performing well, for the first time this season, so we had 5 under 19 minutes. Our 1-5 gap, which had been in the 1:50s all year, dropped to 1:15, and it was our 1-7 that was 1:53.

Beyond the top 7, we had some great performances, such as Ethan's sub-20 to be 8th, John pulling Tommy to a course-adjusted PR and Alex running 22:00, about 1.5 minutes faster than expected.

I would write more, but I think my boss is coming, so don't feel slighted if you weren't mentioned!

Girls Preview

OK, so there is not much chance that our girls will knock off Hilton today; however, East Rochester has not fielded a full team this year, and last week at the same Parma course their two girls ran 24:30 and 28:01, so we should be able to get a win there.

The other meets could be interesting. Eastridge has one fast girl (ran in the 22s at Mendon East the last two weeks), but the next two should be in the 24s, then one in the 25s and one around 27. That amounts to a very nice challenge for our girls. Churchville's top girls isn't as fast, but they have two girls that should be in the 23s - nice targets for Alaina. They come in a little quicker than Eastridge after that: 2 could be in the 24s and 1 in the 25s.

Warning Shot to Hilton

So, we had a chance to avenge some losses last weekend, and to send a message to Hilton. We sort of did the latter - we beat Hilton by 22 points in the invitational, but they beat us 28-28 in dual meet scoring, so we have some work to do on Tuesday. We did not manage to get Irondequoit, losing by 24 points (and 27-28 in dual meet scoring).

Sutherland and Victor were in the Division II race. Plugging our times in that race shows that we would have beaten both teams, and finished 2nd to Wayne. So, our improvement was certainly demonstrated; however, to be successful as the season continues, we need to close our 1-5 (and 1-7) gap. It was still at 1:52 (and 2:24) on Saturday. Since our top guy was 21 seconds behind the "average" top guy, we need to get it done with a tighter pack, a closer team.

Tuesday's meet is likely to be decided by the performance of the 4-5-6 runners on each team. I have confidence that our 4-5-6 (and 7-8-9, et al) runners are ready to tough it out in a mano-a-mano meet like this. This meet will be very different than most dual meets we run, and we should get excited by this during the race. I expect 17 of the top 20 places in the race on Tuesday will be Hilton or Schroeder runners; the majority of those should be ours!

Wildcat and Workout

Tomorrow's Wildcat Invite includes Irondequoit, Spencerport, Hilton, Sutherland, Athena and Victor. It should give us a decent idea of where we stand against the middle tier of Monroe County teams, in invitational scoring (some top teams will also be there: Brighton, Mendon, Thomas, Rush-Henrietta). It also gives us a chance to avenge a couple of our dual meet losses.

Yesterday's workout went pretty well. I've compared the times to the similar workout last year, and the results are encouraging. With a few exceptions, the improvements were notable. Leading the way was Adrian, who improved his average time by 50 seconds per interval. Other big improvements came from Afro Thunder (30 seconds), Arik (17), Wade (11) and Trevor (10). 10 seconds per interval is better than a minute in a 5K, so we should continue to see great race improvements from these guys. Khristyna showed the big improvement on the girls side - 12 seconds per interval.

A few more workouts like that, with even better participation, and we will be ready to shine at Counties!

Saturday (this, not last!)

We're off for a preview of the Sectional course on Saturday. We should be looking to improve both the quantity and quality of our finishers this year.

In 2006, we had just 5 boys and 3 girls finish. The meet official messed up the timing of the boys race, so we don't have times. At sectionals, only one runner was under 19:59, but 6th was 20:17. For the girls, Ashley ran well (21:55), but the others were 25:41 and 26:38. At sectionals, Brianna was first for the team in 21:54, 5th was 24:39 and 7th was 25:34.

In 2007, we had 14 boys and 11 girls finish. Chris ran 19:42, no one else was under 20 minutes. Our 5th man was 21:09 and 7th was 21:39. Sectionals was much better, with our 7th man at 19:40 and Nico led the way in 18:17. For the girls, only 5 girls were under 28 minutes, with Megan first in 23:07. They were also much better at sectionals, with the 5th girl at 23:40, and Megan running 21:18.

This year we have 40 runners on our roster. I think a few injured runners will miss this meet, but we should have a much better turnout than last year. We should be able to put 5 runners under 19:42 (perhaps 3 under 19:00?), and 7 under 20 minutes. We should also be able to put 5 girls under 26 minutes, perhaps 7 under 28 minutes.

Looking back at the splits from last year's invitational and sectionals, one thing is clear: the first mile was run far too fast at the invitational. The top 7 boys slowed by an average of 1:08 from the first mile to the second. A couple of boys that did not break 20 minutes, were through the mile in 5:35-5:36. The top 7 girls slowed by 1:33. At Sectionals, the boys slowed by just 43 seconds, the girls by 58 seconds. The smart runner will learn from this, and run very conservatively for the first mile - it's downhill and has to be completed without much effort, so that you are in position to pass the dying multitudes over the next 1.5 miles.

Close, But No Cigar

Well, we made a very good run at Fairport yesterday, but fell just short, 27-30. The downside was our huge 1-5 and 1-7 gaps, which were 1:58 and 2:21, respectively. We can't make the jump to the next level of competition without closing those gaps, and we have the capability to do it - there are still 10-15 boys with a chance to make the top 7 this year. Someone will certainly have a breakthrough.

Just about everything else was great. From Kenny leading the way to a 2-3-4 finish against Fairport, to AB catching a Fairport runner from way back with 800 to go, to Geoff putting up his best race, with his pack in pursuit and almost breaking 20, to the continued improvements of JP and Afro Thunder, to nice runs by a host of rookies, and to Bobby completing his first 5K race. There is much to look forward to, as the season (and your high school careers) progress.

For the girls, Alaina was the heroine. We were in danger of being shut out, 15-50, by all three teams, but Alaina beat the 7th runner on all of the teams (plus the 6th runner for Penfield). Khristyna and Sarah W. continued their huge improvement over last year, beating their times on this course by over two minutes. Karen made a very nice debut, finishing 4th for the team.

Monroe County Rankings

Based purely on performances in the first two dual meets of the year, here is how the boys' teams stack up in Monroe County:
Brighton 76
Brockport 102
Mendon 121
Thomas 128
Penfield 135
Rush Henrietta 160
Irondequoit 241
Arcadia 263
Fairport 265
Spencerport 291
Hilton 306
Sutherland 311
Athena 352
Odyssey 370
Victor 384
Schroeder 420
Gates Chili 450
Olympia 469
Batavia 591
Churchville 602
East Iron. 631
East Rochester 705

Interestingly, including results from the second half of last year causes R-H to leapfrog everyone. I'm not sure whether they have been holding back during non-divisional losses to Thomas and Mendon, or whether their top runners have entered the season in poor fitness. They have another chance to answer that today at Mendon East, where they have a very nice non-divisional match-up with Brockport.

Black Creek should be interesting today. Can the Thomas duo go 1-2 again? Or will it be Lipani (Arcadia) or Dunham (Spencerport). Arcadia only seems to have 4 runners, can they hold off Spencerport and Hilton in dual meets?

Seneca Park features the team ahead of Schroeder and the three teams after Schroeder, so that should generate some very close scores.

The Monroe County girls stack up like this, after two weeks:
Mendon 43
Fairport 95
Rush Henrietta 117
Thomas 145
Brighton 161
Hilton 171
Sutherland 176
Spencerport 241
Gates Chili 247
Athena 250
Penfield 301
Victor 305
Odyssey 352
Brockport 400
Irondequoit 437
Olympia 452
Churchville Chili 476
East Irondequoit 479
Schroeder 544
Batavia 556
Arcadia 685
East Rochester Inc

I'm not sure if/when Sarah Ritchie will return for Hilton, so they may drop another meet today, this time to Thomas. Not many other dual meets seem interesting this week.

Tomorrow's Meet

On the girls side, Brighton is 9-0 and Fairport is 8-0, but neither are as good as 7-0 Mendon, who we face later. Penfield is 5-2, so I don't think our record will improve this week. Fairport's top returning girl, Jenn Spitzer has not run this year, but they may still go 1-2-3 tomorrow - last week their 3rd girl was 21:11 at Harris Whalen and their 6th girl was 22:02. The first week their 5th girl was 22:10 at Parma. Brighton runs a pretty tight pack - their 5th girl was under 23 minutes at Mendon East the first week. Penfield isn't quite as strong, but Alaina would do well to finish ahead of their 4th and 5th runners.

Last year our girls ran the following times at Mendon West:
Alaina - 22:51 (computer predicts 23:22 this year)
Janelle - 23:08 (25:05)
Sarah M - 24:44 (25:14)
Hannah - 26:24 (26:29)
Khristyna - 26:45 (25:55)
Sarah W - 29:35 (27:21)

The computer does not know that we are in better shape than we were for the first two meets, so we should expect some faster times.

The other boys teams also have outstanding records: Brighton, 9-0; Penfield, 6-1; Fairport, 6-2. At this point in the season, Brighton appears to be the best team in Section V. Penfield is the defending Class AA champs. So, we'll keep our focus on Fairport. Based on the times run so far this year, Fairport would trounce us 21-40. We can do significantly better than that. Adding Nico and having solid runs from the first five runners across the line can put us in upset territory.

Some times from last year:
Nate - 18:03
Nico - 18:03
Chris - 18:16
Kenny - 18:19
AJ - 19:06
Wade - 19:08

The computer expects Fairport to run the following:
A. Rice - 17:24
Rowe & Korts around 18:10
E. Rice - 18:22
Mitchell - 18:32
6-8 pack - 18:52

If all falls in place for us, we could go 1-2-4-9-10, for a 26-29 win, so we need a close-to-perfect team race, with a solid run by Nate, Chris and whoever steps up to be our 5th man.

The individual race could be interesting between Penfield's Greg Redfield and Brighton's David Geary. Both are capable of running down around 16:30 on this course. Brighton has another runner that could challenge the 17 minute barrier.

Saturday Practices

They are NOT optional. Need I say more?

Head Games

Many runners race below their capabilities, and there are many reasons for this - not all are physical. Much of running performance is mental, so we should think about some things that may help our mental strength as well as our physical conditioning.

One of the first things to realize is that racing fast is hard. You will have times in the race where you will want to back off. How does one get through those times?

One way is through physical workouts. Many of our training sessions are intended to replicate feelings that you'll encounter during the later part of a race: fatigue, pain, doubts. Running strong through those feelings in workouts can help you get through the same feelings in a race.

Another way is by mental training. Practice addressing, in your mind, the feelings you will encounter in a race. Most of the best runners do this frequently. There are different strategies for dealing with pain, and some will be better than others for a given person, so you need to try them out and learn what works for you.

Two major categories of strategies for dealing with pain are association and disassociation. Disassociation strategies focus on finding a distraction for your mind, so that you are not thinking about the discomfort. That can include thinking "happy thoughts", completely unrelated to the race, or thinking about the upcoming downhill or reeling in the next runner. Associative strategies can include focusing on the fatigue or pain as a sign of strength, or focusing on your breathing rate or stride rate.

There are many ways to get over the mental hurdles that get in your way during a race. The important thing is to practice a variety of techniques and see what works best for you. On any given day, this can turn a good race into a great race, or even a poor race (due to physical factors) into a decent race.

Dude, Where's My Bus?

Well, thanks to the wonderful transportation department, we started our next phase of training a week early. I noticed that Sutherland and Rush Henrietta each had no trouble getting two buses to Mendon West.

Anyway, we'll have to see what we can do to make up for the lost hills, and we'll talk about the course, since I got to run it, at least (and we have run it each of the past two years).

Our next phase is the most intense phase of the season, and will quickly get us ready to run strong for the full 5K. I'm looking forward to the improvement we should see in the third mile over the next few weeks.

We remember.

Optimism

OK, so the Boys and Girls have both started 1-7. And next week is Penfield, Brighton and Fairport (Girls: combined 22-2; Boys: 21-3). But we have reason for optimism.

We've had some disappointing performances as a team. At Seneca Park, we were missing three of our top boys; at Black Creek, we were still missing Nico, and lost time and places in most positions. Those races are behind us. The size of our girls team may increase substantially over the six runners that competed in each of the first two meets. Our boys are poised for a turnaround.

I won't discuss next Tuesday's meet right here, right now, but we will talk about it soon. After next Tuesday, the dual meet schedule gets substantially easier: 9/23 is Churchville, East Irondequoit, ER, Hilton (Girls: combined 8-22; Boys: 4-28); 10/14 is Arcadia, Odyssey, Olympia (Girls: combined 2-22; Boys: 10-14). I think we can make a very good showing at both of those meets.

Our hard work now may cost us a few seconds in current races, but it will really pay off at the end of the year, which is coming soon: only 45 days until Counties! I'm looking forward to the rest of the season; I hope you are, too.

Nicely Done!

Well, our win-loss record does not show it, but we turned in a very nice performance on Saturday. All 11 boys who ran on Saturday, and also ran at Seneca Park in late September 2007, improved their times. Not only that, but the average improvement was an outstanding 1 minute and 30 seconds, and the median was 1:39 (last year's first meet only showed a median improvement of 1:02, and 7 of the 16 boys improved less than 41 seconds)! The minimum improvement was 41 seconds. Excluding the injured Janelle, the girls improved by an average of 1:32. Outstanding!

Our boys record is 0-3 and was hurt badly by the absence of Nico, Alex and Chris. If Nico or AB had run under 17:56 (so, within 10 seconds of Nate) and Alex or Chris had run under 18:25 (within 39 seconds of Nate), we would be 2-1 right now. That bodes well for the future of our season, but also demonstrates the importance of team commitment.

Now, on to tomorrow. We face some pretty tough competition against established teams: Rush-Henrietta, Thomas, Irondequoit, Victor and Batavia. The girls should be able to notch a win against Batavia.

Rush-Henrietta should be able to win the boys race. Without Nico, we cannot compete with Thomas, as a team, but we should be able to make some individual statements against our cross-town rivals. Irondequoit is pretty decent, they put 9 guys under 19 minutes at Center Park on Saturday, but only 2 under 18 (I think Kenny, Nate and AB could all be under 18 at Center Park), so the race should come down to the 4-5 (and 6?) runners:
Looby, Ricky 17:34
Greenfield-Tuttle, Josh 17:46
Perry, Luke 18:32
Frachioni, Anthony 18:54
Mclaughlin, Ian 18:56
Duguay, Ben 19:03
Bigenwald, Eric 19:31
Densieski, Ben 19:42
Koss, Nick 19:51

Victor ran at Mendon East. We have a very good chance of beating them. Here are their top runners:
Reid, Kyle (10) 18:40
Hayward, Connor (9) 19:19
Erb, M.J. (9) 19:41
Ballard, David (12) 19:43
Palomaki, Joe (11) 19:48
Iovoli, Austin (10) 19:56
Smathers, Mike (9) 19:57
Rieck, Matt (10) 20:04
Spawton, Jeff (11) 20:06

So, the boys should aim for 3-2 tomorrow.

For Tomorrow We Try!

Yes, tomorrow we finally get to show our stuff. After a summer of training, and 17 days of practice, we are set for our first real competition.

As a reminder, we lost a very close race (1 second) to Athena at Seneca Park last year:

Name                    School    Place Time    Pace
Wallenhorst, Nate (11)  Athena      3 17:55 05:46.8
Johnson, Tyler (11)  Athena      7 18:23 05:55.8
Piacentini, Anthony (10)Schroeder   8 18:31 05:58.4
Lyons, Nate (10)  Schroeder   9 18:36 06:00.0
Richard, Kevin (11)  Athena     10 18:38 06:00.6
Grzebien, Patryk (12)  Schroeder  11 18:42 06:01.9
Brett, Alex (11)  Schroeder  14 18:56 06:06.5
Maiola, Lucas (12)  Athena     15 18:58 06:07.1
Mauro, Chris (10)  Schroeder  16 18:59 06:07.4
Miller, Kenny (11)  Schroeder  21 19:28 06:16.8
Houle, Bryan (11)  Athena     29 20:07 06:29.4
Owczarczyk, Marcin (12) Schroeder  30 20:10 06:30.3
Coirzazza, Nick (11)  Athena     31 20:13 06:31.3
Whittemore, Steve (10)  Schroeder  32 20:29 06:36.5
Piotrowski, Wade (11)   Schroeder  36 20:54 06:44.5

We ran much faster when we returned to Seneca Park, but Sutherland spanked us 15-47; however, they have lost 6 of their top 7 runners from last year. Note that their 5th returning man from that day finished behind our 8th returning man. Our depth will be key to beating them on Saturday. Here are last year's results:

Name               School        Place     Time
Phelan, Paul (12)  Sutherland  2 16:23
Boucher, Mitchell (12)  Sutherland  3 16:26
Longwell, Scott (12)  Sutherland  4 16:29
Phelan, Conor (11)  Sutherland  8 16:44
Jacobson, Max (12)  Sutherland  10 17:01
Piacentini, Anthony (10)Schroeder  15 17:41
Jaenike, Peter (12)  Sutherland  17 17:50
Lyons, Nate (10)  Schroeder  18 17:53
LaDelfa, Steve (12)  Sutherland  19 17:54
Miller, Kenny (11)  Schroeder  21 17:58
Mauro, Chris (10)  Schroeder  22 18:00
Lee, Cameron (11)  Sutherland  23 18:05
Nasello, AJ (9)  Schroeder  24 18:18
Hayden, Rob (10)  Sutherland  28 18:29
Owczarczyk, Marcin (12) Schroeder  29 18:29
Tyler, Terrence (10)  Sutherland  30 18:33
Grzebien, Patryk (12)  Schroeder  32 18:49
Brett, Alex (11)  Schroeder  34 18:54
Piotrowski, Wade (11)  Schroeder  35 18:55
Whittemore, Steve (10)  Schroeder  36 18:56

Our girls have a shot at Brockport. Here are the only girls returning from last year's dual meet at Mendon East:

Name School Place Time
Haag , Chelsea (11)  Brockport  14 24:39:00
Jewell, Janelle (10)  Schroeder  16 24:51:00
Meyers, Julia (10)  Brockport  21 25:36:00
Mills, Sarah (10)  Schroeder  28 27:08:00
Schwabe, Hannah (11)  Schroeder  32 27:17:00
Dilai, Khristyna (9)  Schroeder  42 28:38:00
Weigand, Sarah (11)  Schroeder  45 29:59:00
Jensen , Kayleigh (9)  Brockport  47 30:59:00

As a reminder, here is how the returning girls ran at Seneca Park last October:

Jewell, Janelle (10)   Schroeder   23   22:39   7:18.4  Race
Mills, Sarah (10)  Schroeder  31  23:21  7:31.9  Race
Schwabe, Hannah (11)  Schroeder  42  25:06  8:05.8  Race
Dilai, Khristyna (9)  Schroeder  43  25:07  8:06.1  Race
Weigand, Sarah (11)  Schroeder  62  28:07  9:04.2  Race

And Be Merry

Have fun!

When all is said and done, that's one of the most important goals for our team. We absolutely want each of you to perform your best, but if you don't have fun while doing it, the season is only a partial success. We all want the team to be successful and camaraderie and cheering for each other, with a genuine concern for each other's performance, comes much easier when we have fun together.

This isn't to say there won't be hard work, especially over the next few weeks, but the hope is that one of the ways to have fun is to see your times drop, and that, between bouts of hard work, we will have the chance to have some fun. Or, we can combine hard work and fun, like we did with yesterday's hill relays.

Drink

Today, I'd like to remind you to stay hydrated. The best article that I've found so far on the importance of hydration is here. If you don't have time to read the entire article, please pay attention to some of the key points:
- Drink early and often (hit the drinking fountain between every block or carry a water bottle)
- Don't wait until you are thirsty (your brain is slow to catch on)
- Dehydrated runners fatigue more quickly (it can make the difference between the team winning and losing some meets)

You should also be sure to include minerals in your diet. Many of them, such as potassium, help your body retain fluids. Some good sources of potassium are bananas, orange juice, tomato products, baked potatoes and yogurt.

Sleep

OK, school starts tomorrow. That means that habits for many of you must change. Gone are the days of sleeping until noon (OK, no one actually sleeps that late, right?); however, as young student-athletes, your sleep needs are not decreasing, but actually increasing as we ratchet up the intensity of our training and you start back on heavy schoolwork. So, make sure that you continue to get plenty of sleep.

Tomorrow we will be at Black Creek Park. You'll all get to see the whole course during the warm-up and warm-down. You'll also get to experience the hill that we climb twice during the race, so that we will be ready for it next Tuesday. So, you will likely have no problem falling asleep tomorrow night.

Nice Workout

Well, if Friday's Blue / Gold times were a little disappointing overall, today's workout more than made up for it. Almost everyone ran their 2nd tempo mile faster than they ran the second mile in the race, even after having run a faster first mile in the workout.

There was certainly a lesson learned during the last of the 400s - and that was that you each have much more left in you than you realize. Remember that during our first meet on Saturday. When you start to feel uncomfortable, push through it. Don't save your kick for the last 100-200m, instead pick up the pace with 800m to go, or a little more. Going moderately faster for a longer time is 1) easier and B) certain to lead to a faster overall time, than a late all-out sprint (not that you won't do that, it just won't be at quite as quick a pace).

Blue Wins!

After losing in ultimate, Blue won the XC race and also took the kickball game, to win the 2008 Blue / Gold Championship!

Don't forget to run long (and easy) today, and I'll see you at practice tomorrow.

Blue / Gold Results

I need to figure out how to fix the formatting in these posts, so I can add splits in a legible fashion, but for now, here are the final times for the Blue / Gold Meet.

Kenny Miller 18:18
Nate Lyons 18:51
Alex Brett 19:22
Chris Mauro 20:57
AJ Nasello 21:00
Geoff Kelly 21:14
Eric Krawiec 21:18
Joe Makowski 21:20
Elliot Alexander 21:45
Trevor McKeown 21:46
John Wiseman 21:46
Steve Whittemore 22:58
Arik Rekers 24:02
Adrian Hamouda 24:35
Alex Meritt 24:36
Justin Mathew 24:56
Tristan Cannon 27:25
Arjun Patel 28:56

Khristyna Dilai 27:32
Hannah Schwabe 27:32

In the team battle, Blue took advantage of a missing Chris Mauro to add Joe to their team, and when Chris showed up to start just over 40 seconds late, they were able to cruise to a 26-31 victory. Following Gold's victory in ultimate on Thursday, that sets up today's showdown in kickball as the determining factor in this year's Blue / Gold competition.

Some big improvements over last year were turned in by:
John Wiseman 3:23
Arik Rekers 1:30
Kenny Miller 1:12
Geoff Kelly 1:11
Trevor McKeown 0:32

We need to improve our 1-5 and 1-7 gaps, which were 2:42 and 3:00, respectively, without Nico in attendance. We'll need those gaps to be about 1:00 and 1:30 at the end of the year.

Final Weekend

OK, one last weekend to get ready for XC practice on Monday. Some of the team will be participating in the 5K race at the Rochester Christian School (on Embury Road, right near the corner of Creek) on Saturday AM. The 5K starts at 9am and a 10K race follows at 9:30, and things wrap up with a chicken barbecue that is included in the entry fee.

Another way to get motivated for the start of the season, is to check out the Olympic Track & Field events. The full schedule and results listing is available here. All 3 American men seem to have advanced out of the first round of the 1500m this morning (Friday night, Chinese time).

15 Days To Go

It's just 15 days to the first practice of the season - make them count. I'm impressed by the core group of boys that has been making the captain's practices, the Tue/Thur workouts and the running camp. I think it gives the team great cause for optimism this fall. I hope that the girls have been doing some running on their own, since their turnout has been a little light at the scheduled events.

Here is an initial look at Monroe County this fall. I have taken results from all meets that results available last year, used the results to rank all of the runners, and removed all of the seniors that graduated. The remaining runners were scored, invitational style, like the Monroe County Championships, and here is what I found:

For the boys, Rush-Henrietta edges out Brighton, with Mendon 3rd. Our boys are 9th. I believe our off-season work has been better than the average team's, and I expect our boys to improve on that forecast. Here are the scores that this model predicts:

Rush Henrietta 78
Brighton 87
Mendon 108
Brockport 123
Thomas 151
Penfield 152
Irondequoit 194
Fairport 223
Schroeder 276
Arcadia 297
Athena 306
Odyssey 340
Spencerport 344
Sutherland 371
Hilton 379
Gates Chili 440
Olympia 497
East Irondequoit 552
Churchville Chili 570
Batavia inc
East Rochester inc

On the girls' side, Mendon should have no trouble repeating their County Championship, with Fairport looking good for 2nd ahead of Hilton. Our girls are predicted to be 18th, due to the large number of departing seniors. I feel confident that the returning girls will show significant improvement and our numerous newcomers will really help the team. Here are the predicted girls scores:

Mendon 64
Fairport 85
Hilton 122
Penfield 147
Rush Henrietta 151
Brighton 153
Thomas 175
Sutherland 213
Spencerport 228
Athena 275
Gates Chili 293
Odyssey 382
Irondequoit 396
Churchville Chili 427
Brockport 444
Batavia 450
East Irondequoit 484
Schroeder 491
Arcadia 517
Olympia 599
East Rochester inc

Also, Victor is joining the Monroe County league this year, and should field strong teams.

Nate is Back!

Nate will be at Captain's practice this week. Will you? We are down to three weeks of summer training before practice starts. It's time to get serious.

If you are not attending the Tuesday / Thursday AM practices, you should be doing some sort of quicker running twice a week (in addition to continuing to lengthen your long run each week). The quicker running does not have to be at repetition pace (mile race pace) or interval pace (5K race pace), but there are many ways to add some faster running:
- tempo runs: start with 10-12 minutes (or less for younger runners) and work up to as much as 3 miles at tempo pace, which is 25-30 seconds per mile slower than 5K race pace.
- enter a race: it's not wise to race too often during the summer, but you should not enter the season without knowing your current 5K race pace, either. There are still many fun races to choose from this summer.
- fartlek runs: the options here are innumerable. You can run hard / easy for a set period of time, a set distance, or some other trigger (4 mailboxes or 3 telephone poles). The times and distances can be the same, or they can vary with each iteration. If you are running with others, you can take turn leading for a few minutes of mixing up the pace.
- cruise intervals: these are traditional intervals (can be as short as 400m, or as long as a mile), but you run them slower (i.e. tempo pace), with much less recovery (perhaps 60-90 seconds after a mile, down to 15-30 seconds after a 400).

Those of you that are attending the running camp are getting samples of many of these items.

Many runners on the team are putting the work in now, that will pay big dividends during the season. If you have not started, that's not ideal, but it's not too late. Getting out the door is the hardest part - don't let that be what stops you!