A hearty "way to go!" for my old school! The girls turned in an incredible performance at the Nike Cross Nationals to capture 4th place! What makes the result even more impressive is how small the school is compared to most others that manage to qualify. For example, my lovely wife's old school also happened to qualify this year, by winning the Northeast regional, which was held in conjunction with the New York regional at Bowdoin Park (separate races of course). Pennsbury High School has almost 3400 students; East Aurora about 700.
OK, maybe this is old news now, but I've been busy, and I want to make sure I have a chance to congratulate them.
Coach Walt McLaughlin has consistently done an excellent job of having the kids ready to go for the right races at the end of the year, but this one takes the cake. The mud in Oregon consistently takes a toll on various teams that compete there, and while EA has never been in the NXN finals before this year (a couple of near-misses, and the whim of the at-large selection committee have prevented that), they have traveled out there repeatedly for the open race. So, they knew what they were preparing for.
Complete results are available here. The TullyRunners site also has the speed ratings, which make it look like EA did not run particularly well, but that really just shows the weakness of that system where 3 seconds = 1 point, always. When a course is tougher and the field spreads out more, the differential should be more than 3 seconds per point, and at a course like Seneca Park, it should be less than 3 seconds per point.
Wednesday, December 5, 2012
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