Good Things Must End

The 2011 cross country season came to an end yesterday...and a very good ending at that. Amanda ran the race she had to run to give herself a chance to be an All American for the first time. She ran the first half of the race just off of the wicked pace set by the front pack. Only three runners who went through 3K (halfway) slower than her were able to crack the top 40 (AA standard). In fact, Amanda ran seven seconds faster than a year ago on a much more challenging course. She also battled a leg injury over the last four weeks that I know affected her ability to train and race the way she needed to in order to be at her best for the NCAA meet. So 84th place was a terrific effort. It caps one of the best seasons by a Utah cross country runner in school history. She finished fourth in both of her regular season races (Stanford and Chile Pepper). Then she rallied from 18th place with a thousand meters to go at the Pac-12 championships to finish tenth and become the U's first ever all-Pac 12 athlete. Finally, she duplicated her ninth place finish at the NCAA regional meet from a year ago and landed one of the four individual qualifier spots at the NCAA meet. Very steady and very good at every big meet.

Overall, I feel good about the move forward our program made this year. We undoubtedly must continue to improve and do a better job of racing together. I know that will occur as the younger runners mature and are able to use this years worth of experience next Fall. We will return all but one of our top seven runners, however, that one just happens to be Alyssa who has been here for six years thanks to a few injuries along the way. Her personal growth has been instrumental in how much the program as a whole has been able to grow. Her perseverance, toughness, and always expect more attitude has helped put this program back on solid footing. I know our younger runners have all learned so much from her and her trials of success and dealing with setbacks. Hopefully, those lessons can continue to be passed on each year so that future teams can learn and grow as this one has. We will have high expectations next year, but for now it's time to set the focus on the upcoming track season. Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!