XC Update - Sept 28

Titan XC Update - Sept 28, 2009

CONGRATS HOMECOMING ROYALTY
The halftime of the Homecoming Football game was really special for the Titan Cross Country TEAM. Sasha Russell was a finalist for Homecoming Queen, Steve Wilcox was 2nd attendant to King, and our very own Hannah Williams was selected by the senior class as their Homecoming Queen!!! What a great, well-deserved honor. Congratulations to all three.

OPEN REGION @ ROY
Even though we were using the race at Roy as a semi-workout, both squads finished 2nd out of the seven schools competing. The strategy was to run a good 1000 meters, “coast” for 3000, then finish strong over the last 1000. In the girls race, Hannah Williams made up a 15-second deficit over the last 1000 meters to win by 10 seconds. Austin Costley also ran a strong last 1000 to move up from 10th to 5th in the Boys race. For both teams to still finish 2nd was a good outcome for the meet.

OREM INVITATIONAL
The Titans ran very well at the last big invitational of the season. With 30 teams from Utah, Colorado and Wyoming competing, the Boys finished 4th overall and the Girls were 4th in 5A and 5th overall. The Boys JV also ran well to finish 6th.
Hannah Williams had a little trouble recovering from a bad start but still managed to finish 8th overall and 2nd among 5A runners. Her time was 19:49 over the wet, slow 5000 meter course. Taylee Hamblin (21st, 21:24), Mikelann Wilcox 25th, 21:39), Shelby Cadwell (31st, 22:00), Kiana Tebbs (33rd, 22:03) and Lindsey McFarland (36th, 22:10) completed the varsity scoring.
Austin Costley ran with the leaders the entire race to finish 6th overall and 5th among 5A runners. His time was 16:46. Jake Rossmango moved up consistently throughout the race to finish 8th in 17:04. Preston Williams (17th, 17:34), Tyrell Pearce (33rd, 18:13), Matt Clough (34th, 18:17), Kyle Kelly (48th, 18:32) and Jaxon Hansen (49th, 18:39) completed the varsity squad.
In the Girls JV race, Daylyn Johnston ran a very good race, just missing a medal as she placed 11th in 23:31. Sasha Russell (37th, 25:13), Haley Busby (40th, 25:19) and Jessica Tomlinson (53rd, 25:58) ran a great last mile in passing 15-20 runners each. McKenna Petersen ran a good race to place 80th in 28:45 to round out the JV scoring.
Brandon Yardley ran great to place 4th in the 5A JV race. His time was 18:20. Tom Hill (36th, 20:07), Julian Alavarez (37th, 20:08), Dylan Rossmango (50th, 20:23), and Parker Williams (60th, 20:38) also ran well to help us 6th in the JV race.
Complete results for all races can be found at: www.runnercard.com.
As is usually the case, not everyone felt great about their races. While in some cases, the outcome may not have been what was desired, the efforts by everyone cannot be faulted. This was a good week considering the tough workouts and lack of sleep and distractions associated with Homecoming Week.

ATHLETES OF THE WEEK
Selected as Athletes of the Week were: Daylyn Johnston, who ran great at Orem, Mikelann Wilcox, who had her best race of the year, Brandon Yardley because of his impressive performance in the Orem JV race, and Tyrell Pearce, who has been very consistent in recent weeks and will be a key to our success.

THIS WEEK
Only one meet this week. We will travel to Kaysville for an Open Region meet hosted by Davis High. The races will be run at Barnes park which is located at about 200 north, 900 west in Kaysville. I don’t know the race times yet.
We will work out over the UEA weekend. We will decide on times and sites Monday.

UPCOMING SCHEDULE
Wed, Sep 30 - Open Region Meet @ Davis
Wed, Oct 7 - Open Region Meet @ Syracuse
Wed, Oct 14 - Region Championships @ Layton Commons Park
Wed, Oct 21 - State Championships @ Sugarhouse Park

IMPORTANT!!!
There are only 2 ½ weeks until the Region One Championships. This is what many have been pointing towards for the last 11 months. It is critical that EVERYONE takes care of the “little” things: nutrition, sleep, icing, hydration, etc. If we are going to reach some TEAM goals, we need everyone to give 100%, not just in the workouts, but in all facets of the sport that determine success. DON’T LET YOUR TEAMMATES DOWN!!!