AOW!!!

Check this link out....Pretty awesome for a sophomore!

Click HERE for details

Build it....

Progress at the track. The base mat is almost finished. The polyurethane top coat (the red layer) should start later this week.

"I love it when a plan comes together"
~Lieutenant -Colonel/Colonel John "Hannibal" Smith

Stanford 2010

Overall, I thought we ran pretty well considering it was all of our runners first time on the Stanford course. It's not an overly challenging course, but it has a lot of turns and they were competing against 23 other teams for running space. It was a very warm day (mid 80's), and the course was very hard which led to some very fast times.

I like where we are right now as a group. We still have a lot of work to do including getting out harder and in better position at the start. However, with a young group that takes experience which is why I thought 10th out of 24 teams was a solid performance. To have Amanda finish in the top 20 in her season debut against a very good field was a great sign of her overall fitness and recovery from a tonsilectomy this summer. Our 2-5 runners had :40 between them which is solid for a 6K. If we can get that group a little closer to Amanda we'll be able to score a bit better as a team.

French Toast

The annual trip to Bozeman, MT for the Montana State Invite has always been fun for a variety of reasons. The meet serves as a great opportunity to improve against teams we know (many of whom we ran against two weeks ago) from our region and state. The weather is usually cooler and more Fall like (45 degrees/ptly cloudy/breezy at race time)...true cross country weather so to speak. The trip up and back includes some of the most beautiful scenery in the country as we drive through Yellowstone Park and along the Gallatin River. It's our own live version of "Field and Stream" magazine. Another one of my personal favorite pieces of this trip is stopping at Ernie's, a local eatery in West Yellowstone, MT. Donna serves up some of the best french toast anywhere. However, they only serve it until 11am each day. So if your going to arrive later in the day call ahead and have them make you an order to eat upon your afternoon arrival.

Once again we ran all freshmen and sophomores against a field including teams with a great deal more experience than us. However, I thought our top four runners (three freshmen and a sophomore) ran extremely well. They had only a 20 second spread between them. We ran into a bit of bad luck as another one our freshmen suffered a calf strain and could not finish. She was running with our 3-4 runners (Rebekah Winterton and Alexis Laws) who were 18th and 23rd, respectively. Our top two (Nikki Dotter and Jenny McCune) were just outside the top ten in 13th and 15th. Our fifth (Chantel Hunt) and sixth (Brooke Casagranda) runners did everything they could to fill that final scoring position as best they could after AuraLea went down.

We're off to our first real big (30+ teams) invitational next weekend at Stanford. We will add sophomores Amanda Mergaert and Megan Combe back into the lineup. Our fifth year senior and top runner, Alyssa Abbott, also hopes to see action. She was nursing an IT Band this week so her status is still a little iffy. Hopefully, AuraLea's calf will cooperate and we can be at full strength.

Off to Montana

The annual voyage to Bozeman, MT for the Montana State Bobcat Invitational occurs this weekend. Our three mile women's race is on Saturday morning at Bridger Creek Golf Course. Race time is 9am. Check back here and on our main athletic website for results. We are again primarily running a young group as a few of our more experienced runners continue to train themselves into shape. The trip will take us through eastern Idaho and then into western Wyoming and Yellowstone Park. That is some of the most beautiful land in the country. Check out some of the pictures from years past to on the right side of this page. We'll have a few more after this weekend as well.

A solid week of workouts. We do have a few nicks and dings that we need to be careful with. Our athletic training staff is excellent and will keep them on the course. More after the meet.

...and they're off!!

The season has officially begun. We ran this morning at our "usual" season opening meet hosted by Utah State. The race distance was just short of 5K. Holding out four of our top runners (due to long track seasons) I gave some of our younger runners an opportunity to "prove" themselves and carry the banner for our team against some very good local competition. Fully loaded teams from Weber State and BYU joined Utah State as our competition. As a team we were third in the standings, which I thought was very good performance from our young group. Sophomore Jenny McCune ran 20 seconds faster than she ran a year ago to capture 9th place overall. Then it was four true freshmen who finished out our scoring runners. Nikki Dotter (19th) running her first ever cross country race was only 13 seconds behind McCune. Then it was AuraLea Fain (18:09), Alexis Laws (18:13), and Rebekah Winterton (18:13) finishing 33rd, 34th, and 35th respectively. Chantel Hunt (66th, 20:11) and Brooke Casagranda (69th, 21:22) rounded out our seven runners. Alexis Davis (60th, 19:40) and Hilary Troutner (65th, 20:09) also ran unattached.

I really liked the way we competed. Our freshmen hung tough and ran hard for every position. Jenny continues her steady improvement in her second year. Nikki's performance was excellent considering it was her first race ever. Once she figures out what she's doing she could really be dynamite.

We run again in two weeks at Montana State. We will continue to work on improving in our weak areas and build on the strengths we have developed thus far.

Long Run

Tomorrow is our opening race of the season at Utah State. We will be running primarily freshmen and sophomores so that I can find out where they are in their development. Four of our top runners will not race due to having extended track seasons that went into late June and July. They will open their xc season in a few weeks.

Today I went on a long run with two of our returning NCAA qualifiers and Conference Champions. Senior Alyssa Abbott, sophomore Amanda Mergaert, and I went to a popular local trail located in Millcreek Canyon. Pipeline Trail is a nine mile out and back single track trail at just over 6,000 ft. Come along with us and experience our run courtesy of the amateur video I took on the run this morning.