FTT...For The Team

For those of you who have been waiting for the latest post I apologize for the tardiness...especially after such a great performance.  However, I had to return to Iowa to be with my family as we remembered by 92 year old grandmother who passed away last week.  She lived a great life and was at the top of the list when it came to supporting our entire family and all of our different endeavors.  She came to everyone of my high school track and xc meets.  Her imprint on all of us will continue to be alive and well.

Before returning home my team had business to attend to in the form of the PAC-12 Conference Championships.  A year ago we were 8th, but several girls were tentative and unsure of what to expect.  This year we had a great race plan and everyone worked extremely hard to execute it.  UCLA hosted the meet on a course full of turns and little rhythm buster ups and downs.  It was also slightly warmer than expected and the area was under a wind advisory...so not ideal running conditions.  However, our group was determined to deliver their best race of the year and that is exactly what they did.  We scratched and clawed for every position.  Going into the final 1K I would guess we were in ninth place trailing Cal and ASU by a few points each.  However, our plan was to be more conservative in the first half of the race due to the course layout and conditions.  That plan payed off as we gained 12-15 positions in that final K (including at least six by my count in the final 300m) that secured a 7th place finish.

~The teams that place ahead of us were ranked 3-4-5-6-21-24 in the country.
~We were only 28 points behind #24 UCLA.
~We return six of our top seven and 10 of our top 12 runners next year.

Senior Amanda Mergaert continues to close the gap on some of the top women in the country as she was with the lead group at about 2K to go.  She finished 6th and became our first ever First Team All PAC-12 runner. Soph Susannah Hurst moved up 17 places from a year ago to finish 28th. Newcomer Giselle Slotboom ran one of the gutsiest races any of us have ever witnessed.  She was clipped from behind early in the race causing the back of her shoe to become lodged under her heel.  With the shoe ready to fall off she grabbed it mid stride and ran with one shoe for the remaining 5K of the race.  She placed 38th, including out sprinting two competitors in the final 300m.  There were several spots on the course between fairways where the ground was covered with dirt, rocks, tree roots, and branches.  Needless to say....that was a terrific, gutsy effort from a determined young gal.  Frosh Andrea Chavez and Soph Nikki Rietz closed out the scoring for us and secured the final points we needed to place seventh.  Kate Stringfellow and Lauren Mills were right behind as our 6-7 runners.  Senior Megan Combe ran the final xc race of her career as our eighth runner.  

I'm really proud of the way our team approached this meet.  They answered the bell and were all accountable to each other and our tradition of meeting or exceeding expectations when it counted the most.  We will continue to work hard and fine tune our efforts as we prepare for the NCAA Regional Championships in 11 days at Colorado State.

It's Conference Week....baby!!!

"The best week of the year."  
    ~Alyssa Abbott, 2006-2012 
         (8x NCAA Track/XC qualifier)

Click HERE for some inspiration and a preview of where we get to train everyday. 

Enjoy!

Post Pre Nats

Some Pre Nats race video combined with a portion of my press conference.  Enjoy!

...and Down the Stretch We Come

I guess it's fitting that we end the regular season at the home of the world's most famous horse race.  We were in Louisville, KY this past weekend for the Pre Nationals race.  Since this is the first time in a decade that the NCAA Championships will be hosted at a new venue there were many teams from all over the country there to check out the course.  I think it will be a great change as the course runs fast and fair.

Overall, I thought we ran pretty well.  Our top three women ran terrific races placing 15th, 45th, and 64th...all of them gained several positions in the last 400 meters.  Some of our younger runners also ran their best races of the year which allowed us to finish 15th out of 39 teams in the seeded race.  We still need to see improvement from everyone if we are going to be able to reach our seasonal goals.  So the next few weeks will be critical in regards to having sharp practices and maintaining our health.

Beyond the race we had some time to take in a few sites including Churchill Downs.  I think we saw a little more of it that security would have liked, but what they don't know and didn't see doesn't really matter.  They were filming a movie about former Derby winner Mine That Bird which was fun to watch.  Beyond that it was fairly quiet since the fall racing season has yet to begin.  Yes, that is the girls on the track in that last picture.  Thank goodness for lax security.

Stanford Race Clips

We had a solid day at the Stanford Invite placing fourth out of nearly 30 teams.  Individually we had three top 20 performances.  Senior Amanda Mergaert opened her season with a third place finish and four second course PR.  She ran with the leaders until about 4K of the 6K course.  Sophomore Susannah Hurst had the best race of her young Utah career with a 10th place finish and a PR as well.  Newcomer Giselle Slotboom ran to 18th place (including passing six runners in the last 450 meters).  Andrea Chavez, running her first ever race at the 6K distance, was 50th overall with a strong kick.  Sophomore Kate Stringfellow rounded out our scoring with a 107th place finish.  True freshman Charlotte Kuzminsky, sophomores Lauren Mills and Nikki Rietz, and upperclassmen Megan Combe and Hillary Troutner also competed.

I thought we had some great races and some others who just didn't run the middle of the race as well as I know they can.  For our freshmen this was their first ever race at 6K so I know they will only improve as they learn how to push themselves better in the middle of the race.  Many of our kids had great kicks and improved several positions in the last kilometer which tells me they are fit.  Now they just need to develop enough confidence to open up more mid race and go for it.

We now have a great two week training cycle to help build that confidence and continue to improve our fitness level before we go to Louisville, KY to run at the Pre National race.  Many of the best teams in the country will compete at this meet so we will get an idea of where we are with a month before the NCAA Regional and National meets.

In Came the Fog...

After a solid performance at the Stanford Invite this past weekend (video and results coming tomorrow in next post) we went to San Francisco for some sight seeing and dinner.  As we rolled into town, the fog was rolling in off of the Pacific making for unique and ominous weather.  However, the rain held off and we were able to drive through a very busy Golden Gate Park and then make our way around the west side through the Presidio and over to the Golden Gate Bridge.  We finally ended up in North Beach for dinner at Cafe de Maria's which was very good.  

As you can see from the pictures the seeing part of sight seeing was a little difficult.  Amidst the fog and base of the GG Bridge is a huge cargo ship passing under the bridge out to sea.  It was constantly blasting it's fog horn to alert other ships in the area.