Cross Country - 10/3/2009 Don Baese Invitational

Cool and Cloudy conditions

A great day for the boy’s to run resulted in many personal best performances. Things started off with the JV race – with Josh Kreslins (I decided to move him down to JV in the hopes of getting a personal record), Caleb Arends, Chris Hall and Kenny Hoverkamp. All 4 boys got a solid start. Josh probably had his best start of the year and put himself right in the medal hunt (top 30), by running in 22nd at the mile mark. At the 2k Josh had dropped to 24th but was still looking good. Caleb looked solid and it was clear that Chris Hall was focused and having a good day. Kenny faded a little after the mile and was kind of in no man’s land (no contact with other athletes to race). With just over 1k to go Josh was hanging on to 26th place in a pack of about 15 athletes and his work cut out for him to hold onto that medal. Caleb was starting to struggle and Chris Hall was still flying. My last contact with the athletes was at 500 to go. Josh was in 28th and still in a big pack. He made his bid at this point with a surge to try and get to the front or out of the pack. He didn’t make it and got out kicked in the homestretch to end up 33rd, but his was rewarded with a huge PR of 19:47 for his first time under 20:00. Caleb finished with a solid time of 20:36, while Chris Hall PRed by over a minute and a half to record 21:33. Kenny was unable to climb out of no-mans land but still ran a solid 22:52.

The varsity was pumped by the big PRs set by the JV guys and hoped to repeat that. The race went out pretty fast with Nick Butcher going straight to the front a pushing the pace and a large pack to a 4:52 mile. Jake Featherstone was slightly off the back of this lead pack in 4:58. Tommy Jewett had his best start of the year as he was in contact with the front with Sam Schuiteman just a little behind him. Freshman Tyler Green still learning how to run with the big boys had a good start at 5:28, with Charlie Fias tapped up in his first race back. At the 2k Nick had broken the pack and it was a 2 man race with him and an athlete from Chesaning. Jake was trying to get to the lead pack, while Sam Schuiteman had moved up to Tommy. Tyler was looking strong and Charlie was staying controlled. CC as a contact sport? Sometime rubbing is racing. Nick was inadvertently pushed down to one hand while Sam was laid flat out (he managed to take the other guy down with him). These things are part of CC as things can get pretty physical sometimes. At the 4k Nick was still locked in battle with the Chesaning athlete. Tommy had faded, Sam was looking great. In the last 400 Nick threw in 2 different surges to finally pull away. Jake recorded a PR of 16:58 for his first time under 17:00. Sam had a huge PR or 17:09, as did Tyler Green at 18:25.

It was a great day.

The team finished 5th. We were 1st through 3 so if we can close up a little we can be in the hunt.

Results can be found at www.playmakers.com the HS results section and I should have them up on fremontxc.com in a day or 2.

Coach

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