Richard Spring Invite (9/16) It is clear how important our annual trip to Peoria is to our Hornets when there were tears getting off the bus back in Darien. While there is still well over a month left in the season, the girls knew this was the last trip some of them will make to the famous Detweiller Park in Peoria. We are hoping a few will be making another trip in November, though.
Coach Johnson and Coach Miller made the decision to only run girls in the Open and Varsity races so we could get back with plenty of time for girls to get ready for Homecoming. With all the excitement of Homecoming week, it wouldn't have been surprising for some girls to struggle at Detweiller Park. However, every single runner ran at least a season personal record, and most also ran lifetime P.R.'s.
In the Open race, Tree, Noelle, Alyssa, and Bella ran in a pretty strong pack for the first mile and stuck close to each other for most of the race. Tree ended up leading the pack and running a season P.R. of 25:00 and finishing in 260th place. Noelle ran a tough final mile to run a lifetime P.R. of 25:30 in 274th place. Alyssa also ran a lifetime P.R. of 26:07 in 307th place while Bella crushed her old lifetime P.R. of 29:20 with a time of 26:19 to finish in 316th place.
At the Varsity level, Andy led the way in 276th place with a lifetime P.R. of 20:37. Annabella set a season P.R. of 20:48 while finishing in 297th. Anna Wilcox wasn't far behind finishing at 21:01 in 316th place. Tian led the way for our second pack and set a lifetime P.R. of 21:59 and finishing 398th. Charlotte was 437th with a season P.R. of 22:45, Emma was 442nd with a lifetime P.R. of 22:49, and Samantha also set a lifetime P.R. of 23:53 while finishing in 474th place.
Week of September 4th
Marist Invite (9/07) What a great day for a race! Usually Coach Miller and I (and most cross country coaches honestly) don't have high expectations for weekday meets because of the nature of athletes being mentally drained from the day. But last night was an exception like I've never seen before.
We've never raced at Marist before and only had this opportunity because our typical weekend invite (Reavis) was unable to host due to construction. But the girls seemed to really enjoy the course and so did we as coaches.
There were 9 overall season PR's and 4 lifetime PR's listed below! Lifetime PR's are *** for reference :)
Anna Wilcox (1:35) - happy to see her racing like her normal self again! ***Anna Frankel (0:30) - this is her best season yet, keep up the great work! ***Emma Koehler (1:51) - WOW - after running a huge PR last weekend, she comes back and crushes that time again! ***Alyssa Pendon (1:56) - woohoo!!!! breaking the 9 minute mile pace for the first time, VERY nicely done! Bella Ortiz - 29:20 race time - this was her first three mile race this season due to starting off with some injuries. It's so nice to have her racing again! ***Annabella Ramirez (0:48) - Lifetime PR's for females are EXTREMELY hard to come by this early in the season.... I am SOOO incredibly proud of her and how she is racing! Tian Schulte (0:58) - a great race here taking the 5th Varsity spot on our team time wise! Charlotte Old- 23:34 - starting race for the season and is a respectable time under the 8 minute mile mark. It's nice to have her back in races as well at the Varsity level! Noelle Waterman (1:09) - An incredible come back and finish taking over a minute off her time last week. This week she was having some struggles with cramps during workouts but she pushed herself through it and I think that really made the difference for her mentally in this race...nicely done! Audrey Koepfle (3:16) - this was SUCH a great comeback for Tree who started the season having a hard time transitioning into speedwork. This week she took the track workout we did and decided she was going to pace herself MUCH faster than her previous race time and it worked in her favor as her legs responded so well to the change in pace. Happy to see her having races close to where she left off last season :) Tree earns the MVP of the week award with this PR!!!!
Overall - ALL of our athletes did a really nice job racing, supporting each other and competing in general.
Coach Miller and I are continue to be impressed with what these girls are accomplishing!
Coach Johnson and Coach Miller
Week of August 28th
Morton (8/28) At our first home meet vs. Morton we had two returning athletes with lifetime PR's - Andy Esposito and Anna Frankel! That meet was a combination of a warm day, a hilly course, and a lot of learning about racing in tough conditions. Coach Miller and I were very proud of how well our athletes sustained the elements and raced as a whole. We also always enjoy seeing how the girls take initiative to do warm-ups, dynamics, cool downs etc. while we are otherwise busy hosting a meet. THANK YOU athletes for paying attention to the details and preparing/cooling down properly! While we did not beat Morton, we showed good competition. With a few more of our athletes able to race, we have a strong shot of beating them at Conference!
St. Ignatius Invite (9/2) Last weekend's invite hosted by St. Ignatius was even MORE exciting with 6 overall PR's for the season. FIVE of which were lifetime! Again, the racing conditions were hot - but we did a nice job as a team controlling our first miles and racing the second half of the race. On the Varsity level, we asked a few younger athletes to race up and they did a fantastic job of holding their own - cheers to Emma Koehler and Samantha Johnston who raced the Varsity 3 miles and both ran Lifetime PR's (38 seconds for Emma and 1:25 for Samantha).
Our list of PR's include:
Alyssa Pendon (0:18) *2 mile race Annabella Ramirez (0:28) Emma Koehler (0:38) Anna Frankel (1:02) Samantha Johnston (1:25) Andy Esposito (1:29)
Coach Miller and I are so proud and so excited to see continued improvement over the course of the season. What we really like about this meet is that we compete against mostly 2A schools, many of which we will see in our post season (Regionals, Sectionals). We have our work cut out for us based on where we placed, however, we are optimistic that we will see much growth over the course of the season to close those gaps!