Frankly Speaking w/ Dave Frank

BARLOW at CENTRAL CATHOLIC

2008-04-10T17:28:00.001-07:00

CENTRAL CATHOLIC vs. SAM BARLOW
@ FERNHILL PARK
9 APRIL, 2008

On a day when the weather went from sunny to windy to rainy to really, really rainy – and ultimately to a very short-lived driving hailstorm – the Ram men turned in some fine performances against Sam Barlow High. Barlow is traditionally one of the top programs in the state, and this year’s Bruin squad certainly follows in that tradition. Given that the Rams were without a few top performers, Barlow’s 95-50 victory was not unexpected.

There were numerous PRs in the throws as Coach Reinke and Coach Mick have our young group improving at a rapid rate. JOE LOPEZ ’10 finished a strong second to Barlow’s super-frosh, Ryan Crouser, while PRing at 44’2 ½. (Ryan is the latest from the legendary Gresham throwing family.) SPENCER LAIS ’11, MATT PEREZ ’11, JUSTIN RANSOME ’11, and JASON EVANS ’10 also PRed in the shot. In the disc the Rams were led by soph WILSON HUYNH ’10 in third, PRing by almost four feet. Lais, Perez, Ransome, and Evans also notched lifetime best marks.

Given the weather, personal records were few and far between in the jumps, but LYLE KEATHLEY ’10 continued his steady improvement in the vault with a 10 inch PR. BLAKE RILEY '10 won the triple jump despite not being at his absolute best.

On the track JOE PARKER ‘09 turned in new best times in both the 400m and 200m (54.93 and 24.35). Matching Joe’s effort was outstanding freshman BRENNAN SCARLETT at 56.33 and 24.92. Classmate MARC ANDRE also had a very fine day with excellent efforts in the 100m (12.09), 200m (25.15) and legs on both relays (400m – 57.5). Highlighting the afternoon for the sprint crew was JOSH JANSSEN ’10 in the 100m. Josh gave Barlow’s football star, Malcolm Johnson, everything he could handle PRing at 11.37, just two-hundredths behind Johnson. Josh’s time is the #7 Sophomore mark in CC history; when (if?) the weather turns, he should move up even further on that list.

LUCAS NOLING ’10 hurdled his way onto the soph list in his first ever attempt over the 110m high hurdles. Lucas time of 16.64 is #8 on the list; maybe more impressive than his time is the fact that he was able to three step the entire race – again, in his first attempt at this event. In the 300mh Lucas narrowly missed his PR in fourth, while our newest hurdler, TAYLOR MORGAN ’08, finished a strong 2nd to Barlow’s All State hurdler, Eric Capelle. Morgan, a steeplechaser since the 8th grade, has been toying with the hurdles for a couple of years and finally got the ok from his overly conservative coach to give the 300s a try. His time today, 42.40, is an excellent start, particularly in light of the poor conditions. Senior HEW COMMEREE also PRed over the intermediates (45.16) and ran a fine leadoff leg (54.6) in the 4 x 400m.

In the distances, the Ram thinclads had some old and some new shine on this day. The “old” were seniors AUSTIN JONES and JOEL TURKHEIMER; Jones won both the 1500m (4:22.67) and 800m (2:05.53) in PR times while Turkheimer was 2nd in the 1500m before PRing to victory in the 3000m (9:21.42). Both have been handling very heavy training loads lately, amplifying these marks. PETER SLAUSON ’10, returning from injury, ran a solid 9:35.71 after two weeks of difficulty with his back.

The “new” distance stars were highlighted by SCOTT LEE ’10, who emulated Jones in taking the JV 1500m (4:40.51) and 800m (2:16.55). Classmate NATHAN COLLINS ran two huge PRs in those same events, while EVERETT STILLEY ’10 finally was able to compete on the track for the Rams after fighting injury a year ago. Everett’s 10:37.76 was a great beginning in the 3km. Freshmen RICK SULLIVAN and MIKE LASKOWSKI each knocked over ten seconds off their efforts from March’s Polar Bear meet effort, Sullivan in the 3000m and Laskowski in the 1500m.

Next week your Rams travel to Centennial HS on Wednesday to meet the host Eagles and the Raiders of Reynolds High. On Saturday, the varsity team will compete at Aloha HS in the 4th annual Aloha Relays. Hope to see you somewhere along the way. You can find our complete schedule and a vast assortment of statistics at www.athletic.net. Go to “Oregon” and the Mount Hood Conference, where you’ll find Central Catholic’s page.

POLAR BEAR PLUNGE

2008-03-13T09:57:00.000-07:00

CENTRAL CATHOLIC & SAINT HELENS @ WESTVIEW
POLAR BEAR PLUNGE
12 MARCH, 2008

Your Rams opened the 2008 season at Westview in what has now become a season-opening tradition – the Polar Bear Plunge. Despite the meet’s moniker, the weather on this day was quite reasonable – mid 50s with sporadic showers. With the always strong St. Helens squad also attending, the competition was solid; coupled with our boys’ obvious enthusiasm, this looked to be great fun for the Central Catholic squad. While there was not a plethora of personal best marks set on this day, there was no shortage of fine competitive efforts – from our veterans as well as many newcomers.

Our throwers – with new coaches Mark Reinke (shot/disc) and James Mick (javelin) – have a very large, young, and potentially dangerous crew. On this day JOE LOPEZ ‘10 eclipsed his frosh PR in the shot by 2 ½ feet with a 3rd place finish here at 43’4. Other notables in the shot were CONNOR CHILDERS ‘08 – returning from a two year hiatus to PR here by 4 ½ feet, MIKE VILLAFRANCA ‘10 with a fine 37’8 in his first ever shot competition, and youngster JASON EVANS ’10 and SPENCER LAIS ’11 at 35’0 and 34’1 respectively.

Many of the same young men had success in the discus, but KEVIN DIMMITT ’09 was the team leader at 105’2. As the disc is a much greater event to master, it is likely that this group of athletically talented young men will progress at a great rate in the discus during the final third of the season.

The Ram javelin throwers were lead by, GULP, a freshman – MARCUS BRANNON. Marcus had success a year ago at All Saints throwing the turbo jav – he was 2nd in the CYO Championships at 139’4 – but many youngsters have difficulty adapting to the full size implement. Apparently this isn’t going to be the case for young Mr. Brannon. His 122’1 is only 13 feet shy of the CC Top Ten List for Freshmen, a list that’s been cracked only once since 1985! Also performing well was JAMES GAISER '11, over the 100 foot mark in his first competition.

While our group was not sufficiently prepared for the pole vault nor the triple jump on this day, our high jumpers and long jumpers apparently were. In the long jump BRYSON KOCH ‘10 and BLAKE RILEY ‘10 led the way at 18’6 and 17’9 ½, both within a few inches of their PRs. The high jump was the highlight of the meet for many as it played out after the 4 x 400m relay was completed; most of the team migrated there to see LEVI GREGG ’11, GAISER, KOCH, and JON FARLEY ’10 battle with rivals from both Saint Helens and Westview. Our enthusiastic and supportive group clearly had a positive effect on this group, with Koch leading the way at 5’2. While this may not be a mark that will score at our District Meet, the excitement of this young group (three sophs and a freshman) has the coaching staff buzzing about their future.

In the sprints and hurdles it was, again, a large group of newcomers that had the crowd’s attention. First year tracksters BRANDO DELGADO ’09 and SETH DOWNES ’10 were each competitive in the 100m; Brando looked even better in the 200m, and both ran very aggressive legs in the 4 x 400m relay. For each of them it was first-ever effort over a full lap of the oval (58.4 for Brando, 56.2 for Seth). MARC ANDRE ’11 ran on both relays and put up solid frosh marks in the 100m and 200m. Classmates WES GUY and CHARLES TAYLOR-LOVE each won their heat of the JV 100m. One more freshman, BRENNAN SCARLETT, ran 56.6 for his 400m leg, eliciting one of the great crowd noises in all of sport – the elongated “WOOOOOOOHHHHHH” – as he made up almost 30m on the pair of runners in front of him. Brennan, the son of Saint Mary’s Academy sprint coach Paul Scarlett, had barely one week of practice under his belt; he appears to possess some great tools for this sport.

As for the veterans in the sprints and hurdles, HEW COMMEREE ’08 put in his regular long day in the short relay, long relay (a PR 55.4), and 300m hurdles (equaling his PR 45.2). JOE PARKER ‘09 led the team in both the 200m and 400m with a 3rd place and 2nd place finish in those events. LUCAS NOLING ’10, the freshman record holder in the 300m hurdles, picked up where he left off a year ago in lowering his PR in that event to 43.8, the #9 sophomore time in CC history. He returned a half hour later to PR in the long relay at 57.1.

Our typically strong distance crew was a shell of itself on this day with numerous athletes out due to illness and (minor) injury. Regardless, there were still some fine efforts, led by PETER SLAUSON’s ’10 victory in the 1500m (4:27.1). He was followed across the line by three first timers – SCOTT LEE ’10 (4:44), MIKE LASKOWSKI ’11 (4:57), and GEORGE MISTKAWI ’10 (5:03) – all of whom show great promise for the future.

Although NATHAN LIGHTNER ‘09 has spent his first two years as a sprinter/hurdler, it is no secret that he has designs on becoming part of the distance tradition here. This winter he ran 1:22.81a for 600m indoors in Seattle before dropping down to the 400m just last week (49.70a); today he moved up to the 800m and had an impressive debut at 2:04.4. Although he’ll focus on the 400m and 300mh this season, there is little doubt that Nathan will dip under the 2:00 barrier as he gains experience in this event. AUSTIN JONES ’08 was 3rd in the 800m, not far from his PR while ZACK TEENY ’11 looked very strong at 2:16.6 in his first effort as a Ram. Zack is a young man for whom we have high expectations this season and beyond.

The 3000m was left to a group of very inexperienced runners, and they performed very well today. NATHAN COLLINS ’10 got his first taste of the longer race in finishing 7th while RICK SULLIVAN ’11 and WARREN DEGENHARDT ’10 ran step for step in 5th and 6th (11:51 & 11:52). Further up the track LUKE MILLER ’11 was running a very aggressive race in 3rd (11:15), showing great improvement since the fall.

With spring break on the horizon the Rams won’t officially compete again until April 9th when we host the Barlow Bruins (and Saint Mary’s Academy on the girls’ side). We’re always in need of volunteers for our home meets; let us know if you’d like to help out.

Hope to see you soon!

OREGON STATE MEET

2007-11-06T16:59:00.000-08:00

OREGON STATE MEET
LANE COMMUNITY COLLEGE
3 NOVEMBER, 2007
a day in the life of a distance junkie

As an admitted running geek my State Meet Saturday began a little after 5am. The US Men’s Olympic Trials Marathon was available via webcast beginning at 4:35am, but I made no effort to catch the early action. Rarely does anything of note happen in the first 10 miles of a major marathon, but on this day I could not have been more wrong. I awoke without the aid of an alarm clock or wake up call as the prospect of watching this race was all I needed to rouse myself.

By the time I got my first glimpses of the race, a five man group had separated themselves from the pack: Meb, Abdi, Ritz, Hall, and West Linn’s hero, Dan Browne. Former WR holder Khannouchi was making an effort to bridge the gap, while others continued to bide their time well past the 10 mile mark. The lead quintet continued with each man taking their turn at the front. Khannouchi continued to move up; at about 16 miles Hall said he could see Khannouchi coming on one of the large screens on the course. KK was only 14 seconds back so Hall responded. In a very large way. His seemingly effortless move immediately severed the fivesome with Ritz pulling away from the others as well. A couple of miles later Browne had dropped Meb and Abdi, and it looked as though the team might be set.

On Friday evening I had received an e-mail from my high school coach, Wes Cook, with a link to a video of Hall as he completes a training session.
http://www.godtube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=e593f8eba239bada1a0c
His workout is certainly impressive, but the discussion of his journey and his faith made this piece excellent pre-race viewing for the team, and many in our group appreciated it. His running on that day, a tempo run at 7000’ elevation, looked very similar to his effort over the final ten miles of the Trials race – as he simply ran away from our nation’s absolute best distance runners. His 2:09:02 was worth, in most experts’ opinions, 2-3 minutes on a faster course such as London or Rotterdam or Chicago; he certainly has to be considered a serious medal threat for Beijing.

Ritzenheim was 2nd in 2:11, fulfilling some of the great promise he has shown for many years while Browne struggled with calf problems and faded to 6th place; while it was disheartening to see Dan falter, it was equally inspiring to see Brian Sell take his place on the podium. Sell has long been a favorite of the “blue collar” crowd, having not been a high school superstar (10:06 for two miles!) or Division 1 college All-American, yet competing now at a very high level.

As the coverage ended it was impossible not to be excited about the prospects for Beijing and the state of distance running in America, but, just before signing off, NBC’s Toni Reavis told us that Ryan Shay, a many time All-American out of Notre Dame and USA Road Racing champ, had collapsed on the course and been taken to the hospital. At the time I didn’t think much of it.

The Ram boys were up a bit after 8am for their morning jog; in previous years I would have already been out for a long run, but on this day my yearly hamstring injury would limit me to just the two mile run with the fellas. While they don’t really need to me on this run – and my sore leg made it fairly difficult to stay with them – I needed to go with them. During the race itself, I have absolutely no control over what happens; at least here I can tell them to slow down – as they inevitably try to run much too fast. We use this fifteen minutes to talk about the race (just a little), discuss the previous night’s football game, talk about the Olympic Trials, tell a few jokes, and hear – for the umpteenth time – Coach’s stories about any number of previous races. It’s pretty fun – for me.

Back at the hotel the boys go through a short set of drills and stretch while I go to the lobby to pick up a paper. It’s here that I run into the group from LaSalle HS and hear the news that will permeate our day – and many days to come I’m sure: Ryan Shay was dead. He had collapsed just after the five mile mark; bystanders had performed CPR and paramedics were quickly on the scene, but this unbelievably fit 28 year old man had had a heart attack – and was not able to be revived.

I met Ryan Shay in Palo Alto a number of years ago when he was just out of Notre Dame. He was the NCAA 10000m champ and had just competed at the USATF Championships at Stanford. He seemed, during my short time with him, to be a pretty good guy. But more than my chance meeting with him, Ryan Shay’s death shook me because he was one of us. A distance runner. Part of the brotherhood. I found out much later that evening that Ryan had been Kenny Klotz’ roommate last spring during the World Cross Country Meet in Kenya – which brought his death even closer to us, but, even without any connection whatsoever, this was incredibly sad news.

Our group at CC has been incredibly lucky over the years to understand that the distance running community is a pretty special “club”. Our membership goes a great deal farther than just training here and racing in our own little pond but extends to other high schools and colleges and beyond. We’ve been fortunate to be in Alberto’s world and to have traveled and met national and world class runners on many occasions. We’ve become friends with runners and coaches from many other schools. We’ve trained side by side with our rivals – and become better athletes and better people from the experience. Ryan Shay’s death made me think of all these things and appreciate how truly lucky we have been.

As we prepared to leave for the course, we discussed Ryan’s death, our place in the world of running, and what we might do to honor Ryan’s memory. The boys chose to write Ryan’s initials on their arms for a couple of reasons: 1) as a symbol of brotherhood and 2) as a way of recognizing the kind of runner they knew he was and the kind of man they knew he must have been to achieve at such a high level in this sport.

We arrived at Lane CC about 90 minutes before the start of our race, just in time to see the 5A boys compete. This race was of particular interest to us as Crater was the #1 ranked team in the Northwest and #5 nationally. We’d be seeing them the following weekend in Boise with a berth at the Nike Team Nationals on the line, and our boys were curious to see how they’d run today. In the early going the Comets appeared to be dominating the race, but by halfway it was clear that Hermiston was making a spirited run for the title. As they hit the track with 300m to go, Crater still appeared to have the edge, but it was impossible to know for sure given the fact that the individual qualifiers would have to be removed from the team scoring. Of great note to us – and to this distance addict in particular – was the performance of the two teams’ sixth men. Having witnessed more than a few ties broken by the sixth, I was in awe of Hermiston’s sixth man scorching stretch run, nipping the Crater runner just steps before the finish line; if this were the difference in the race, that boy would certainly be the hero. Alas, Crater was the winner by a scant two points… and it was time for our boys to head off for their warmup.

Throughout the week we had talked about our plans and expectations for the race. We knew that Jesuit – the only legitimate threat to our group – would run an inspired race; Coach Rothenberger never fails to get his boys ready for the most important meets. We also knew that we did not need to have seven (or even five) spectacular efforts, only the same kind of efforts which we had been producing over the past month. That type of solid run, coupled with the emotion of the day and the tapering in our training, should, we felt, be enough to hold off the Crusaders.

Despite this, I was as nervous as I’ve ever been before a meet. PETER SLAUSON ’10 had been sick following the District Meet ten days ago and still had a nasty cough; he continued to tell me – between hacks – that he felt fine when running: “I only cough when I’m not running.” I told him to keep running.

JOEL TURKHEIMER ’08 had gone home early on Thursday feeling a touch under the weather, but appeared to be completely over it on this day. Junior SAMOT TURINA’s Achilles tendon had been sore since District, but he assured me that it would be fine. Lastly, MUSA AHMED ’10 had a tight back, exacerbated by the muddy conditions at the District Meet; he, too, told me that he was fine and dandy.

After our prayer before the race, which had a great deal more emotion given the Ryan Shay situation, I left the group on the starting line with my traditional encouragement: “Fellas, have fun,” I said. And they did.

We had drawn an outside box, #5, for the start and got out reasonably well. In the first 600m Joel, TAYLOR MORGAN ’08, and Musa positioned themselves in the lead group, along with Jesuit’s top two, while Samot, Peter, and our no-longer-secret weapon AUSTIN JONES ’08 ran comfortably in the mid 30s, just behind Jesuit’s remaining five. Ever improving soph CURRAN CARLILE was 20-30 places back but in a reasonable spot.

By 1200m Samot and Austin had moved just past the Crusader bunch, and, although the race was far, far from being over, I felt awfully good about our chances. The race plan called for Samot and Austin to go out well within themselves and move up – and both appeared very relaxed still. Just after the mile both were into the top 20, moving further ahead of Jesuit’s group. Slauson was still right with the boys in green and white while Morgan, Turkheimer, and Ahmed were among the lead group. Carlile, shooting for a top 40 finish, was running strongly about 55th. Leading the race at that point was the eighth Ram in the race, Zach Marx, running for Clackamas after a mid year transfer a year ago.

Circling the ponds our MHC rival Leo Castillo moved to the front, effectively splintering the large lead pack. By the time they exited the ponds at two miles Leo had a clear gap of 10m on the chase group. Morgan followed Franklin’s Bryce Burgess with Ahmed, Turkheimer, and hard-charging Turina all in the top 10. Jones was about 13th at that point, with Slauson in the high 20s and Curran still moving up, about 45th now. Cresting the short hill with one mile to go the individual race was clearly on, but, barring a huge collapse from our boys, the team title was decided.

Over the last mile the runners disappeared from my view for about 2 ½ minutes; when they emerged from behind the baseball fence at 650m to go – the same place where Morgan and Turina were 1-2 a year ago – Burgess had forged a 20m gap on Morgan who was followed closely by a pair of Rams in 3rd & 4th, Turina and Jones! It was a breathtaking sight. As for Morgan, 20m was a distance we’d seen Taylor close many times before. Alas, it wasn’t to be on this day as our Southeast Portland rival and summer training partner, Burgess, moved smoothly to a five second win, 15:44 to 15:49. While Morgan could have shown great disappointment to have lost his individual title – and have CC’s streak of winners end at five – his face was one of joy and contentment given what his teammates had done: Turina held on for 5th (16:01), Jones – having given everything he had over the final mile – was 8th (16:07), passed in the last 250m by teammate Ahmed for 7th place (16:06). Turkheimer had run his best race of the season in 13th (16:15), outkicking former teammate Marx over the final 150m. Slauson, still hacking and wheezing, ran spectacularly to finish 21st (16:31) – ahead of Jesuit’s third runner – while his classmate and fellow All Saints grad Carlile had moved very well indeed over the final loop to finish 31st (16:40). Whew.

In our first meet of the season at Wilsonville, Lakeridge’s Dave Marks had won the race; on this day he ran well to finish 12th, just ahead of our fifth man. Last week at the MHC District Meet, Leo Castillo had run a very strong race, holding off all but Morgan in finishing 2nd. Today, four Rams took his measure with Leo just four seconds clear of our fifth. At Stanford in late September North Medford’s soph star Drew Jordan had beaten all of our boys; today he narrowly edged our #6. Just before the Stanford meet, Grant’s Nathan Knutson had beaten our #1, Morgan, by 38 seconds; today, just in front of our #6. What does this all mean? Simply that our boys understand that our goal is to be at our best at the State Meet – and they are convinced that they will, in fact, have their best race of the year the first Saturday in November.

Earlier in the week I had suggested to the boys that I envisioned a Fibonacci finish; a Fibonacci series is one in which each succeeding value in the series is the sum of the previous two values. Although I had certainly hoped for an individual win for one of our boys, my Fibonacci looked like this: 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34. We finished 2, 5, 7, 8, 13, 21, 31. In other words, my vision was way off.

Full results can be found here: http://osaa.org/crosscountry/2007/6abresults.asp, while some great photos can be found here: http://www.photoreflect.com/pr3/thumbpage.aspx?e=3250655, and a video here: http://www.runnerspace.com/video.php?do=tags&tab=main&tags=osaa-xc-07.

We scored 35 points raw score, 32 when the individuals were tossed out; two years ago, when we scored 23 adjusted (no individuals) our raw score was 49. South Eugene’s incredible 1975 team had a raw score of 41, adjusted to 32.

Jesuit finished 2nd with 67 – a score which would have won this meet many times – and there was no question that they had run well. Amazingly, we would have won the meet without our top two runners; on the drive home one of our boys noted how well Zach Marx had run in 14th after having a particularly difficult run a year ago (112th). Another of our boys noted that we had run so well that Zach would have been our sixth man on this day!

Our boys, parents, friends, and families lingered long after most teams had exited the grounds; there was a great feeling of satisfaction and appreciation for months of hard work and a race run almost to perfection. Smiles were abundant, particularly from Samot who had struggled virtually all season but ran like the champion he has always been here, recording his second consecutive First Team All State Award and his third Border Clash invitation. His illness last spring (mono) was far from anyone’s thoughts.

Austin Jones too had every reason to smile; a year ago he was 4th in the MHC – in the JV race. Today he was 4th at the State Meet with 450m to go. He has gone from a nice local runner to a young man that many colleges would be thrilled to add to their roster next fall.

Joel Turkheimer was a high finisher as a soph in the Washington State Meet but struggled with illness last year and was just ahead of Austin in our JV District race a year ago. Today he – and Austin – both finished as Second Team All State runners and Border Clash qualifiers. In fact, we had five Border Clash-ers, matching our 2005 effort. (In ’05 the top 23 runners qualified; today only the top 14.)

Musa Ahmed completed just one race as a Ram last fall; now he is the top soph in the state and a First Team All Stater, albeit a few places behind his brother’s fourth place effort in 2004. His talent has never been a question, but his diligent attention to his body this summer and fall have kept him healthy – and the results have been outstanding.

Musa’ soph classmates were thrilled as well. Peter Slauson had a fine season a year ago, but it’s unlikely that many would have predicted his Third Team All State effort here, particularly in light of his illness just a week ago. Curran Carlile’s rise has been nothing short of spectacular; he showed solid improvement in autumn 2006, but missed almost all of track season last spring. His diligent alternative training during that time – and since – has resulted in a young man whom we expect even greater things over the next two years.

And what of Taylor Morgan? All he did was lead – by example, on the course, and in the months, days, and hours leading up to the race – this group to a performance that we’ll remember for a long time to come. The night before the race, Taylor reminded the group to simply “have fun”. Despite losing his individual title, Taylor was a portrait of satisfaction after the race, and, again, led the group in “having fun”.

We drove to Salem for a celebratory dinner at the aptly named Ram Restaurant, where we watched the Ducks handle Arizona State and USC edge the Beavers. The boys, with their medals draped around their necks, ate well; a few enjoyed the hamburger they’d been coveting for a few days. Many family members – and even some alumni families – joined us, and it was a festive atmosphere indeed. Eventually talk turned to the next stop on this journey, next week’s Nike Team Regionals in Boise. We’re currently ranked third in the region behind Crater and North Central (WA) with Jesuit at #5.

Inevitably we looked at Crater’s effort in the 5A race to see how we stacked up; Joel, our #5, ran 16:15 while Crater’s #1 had run 16:16. Their 5th man was at 17:04. Of course we know that it’s not always a straight comparison between races, but these numbers certainly give us reason to believe that we can finish in the top two in Boise.

We finally arrived back at CC about 9pm. I was home fifteen minutes later, and, after seeing my family and discussing the day’s events (my son’s team lost their soccer game L), I needed another distance fix. I logged on and checked out the Washington State Meet results; North Central dominated their 3A race while traditional power Mead won in 4A. Our training buddy Shane Geiger was 3rd individually while his Camas team nabbed a trophy with their 4th place finish.

Eventually I made my way to Letsrun.com. Letsrun’s self proclaimed “world famous message board” seems to bring out the worst in many who post, but tonight was different. There were at least 20 threads discussing Ryan Shay. I was drawn to this one:

Official Ryan Shay Remembrance Thread: Joe Shay, Ryan's dad, wrote in to give his thanks for all the kind thoughts and prayers. With a dad like that you see why so many people liked Ryan.

For the next hour I read hundreds of posts from people who knew Ryan well, people who barely knew Ryan, and people who had never met him. I cried a lot, and, at the same time, I was reminded of wonderful people can be, how innately good people can be. I saw how caring and compassionate and thoughtful and touching people can be, particularly these people in the distance running community. I thought of our Central Catholic boys – this year’s team and teams from the past. And I thought of my Saint Francis boys. And my Stanford teammates. And my Aggie brethren. And the guys I ran with in high school at Gladstone. And I realized how lucky I’ve been to be a member of this far, far-reaching club of distance runners.

Ryan Shay, peace be with you.

MHC DISTRICT MEET

2007-11-06T16:45:00.000-08:00

MOUNT HOOD CONFERENCE DISTRICT MEET
24 OCTOBER, 2007
CENTENNIAL HIGH SCHOOL

After two absolutely glorious days of sunshine, hopes were very high as the Rams traveled to Centennial for the Mount Hood Conference District Meet. The District Meet serves as both the State Meet qualifier and, combined with the dual meet results from previous weeks, the League Championship. The Ram men entered the meet with a perfect 7-0 dual meet record this season and six consecutive District Meet victories dating back to 2001. Given the health and motivation of this group, a seventh straight win appeared likely.

Centennial’s on-campus layout has proven over the years to be a very fast course, but late afternoon rains today turned the normally solid footing to a muddy mess – and dashed most hopes for PRs. Regardless, the CC harriers were there to race; in some cases this would be the culmination of months of training, while others would use this day as a stepping stone to next week’s State Meet in Eugene.

The junior varsity race was the final race of the day and was an excellent team affair with Reynolds’ deep group of runners challenging the Rams’ half-decade stranglehold on the un-official JV championship (no team scores are kept for the JV race). Individually the race was expected to be a dual between CC’s #7 and #8 varsity runners, CONOR ROLAND-CHICVARA ’09 and CURRAN CARLILE ’10. Both have run 16:47 this season and traded victories at different venues along the way. Today’s race, in addition to anointing the JV League Champ, would have great impact on our choice for seventh man in Eugene next weekend.

In the first mile, two Reynolds runners lead with our duo content to run 10-15m in arrears. Soon, though, Conor and Curran moved to the front and their duel was on. Side by side they raced through two miles until Curran moved strongly away over the last 2km for a great win in 17:17. While it’s difficult to guess how slow the muddy track was, suffice to say that Curran’s time – on a course that became slower with each subsequent race – would have been good for 9th in the earlier varsity race. Conor’s 17:42 was 45 seconds up on the third place finisher and would have earned him 14th in the varsity race. It’s also worth noting that Curran would have been in individual qualifier to the State Meet had he been in the varsity race – and not a member of the CCHS squad. Conor’s effort was only three seconds out of that individual qualifying mark.

With the individual title decided, the JV team race was still to be won further back in the pack. Reynolds’ group had gotten out well with our boys moving up after the mile. Juniors MATT HOLMES and CONOR CAMPBELL followed the Raider’s third man while JIM McCOLLUM ’08, GABE LATHROP ’10, EVERETT STILLEY ’10, and GREG CRUZ ’11 mixed it up with another large group of green and black clad runners. As they passed two miles, Holmes and Campbell moved past Reynolds’ #3 while McCollum had surged ahead of his own teammates amid a quartet of Raiders. As they approached the track with 300m left, Holmes sat comfortably in 6th place with Campbell – in his best race of the fall – closing in 7th. Reynolds’ #3 was next, trailed by our fourth, McCollum. Jimmy Mac had made a great move over the last mile to overtake a passel of rivals, but he was unable to hold on. Regardless, he had run a great race to finish 13th and seal the win for his team, 29 – 34. Stilley, Lathrop, and Cruz all closed admirably in 16th, 17th, and 18th; for Stilley it was certainly his best race of the season while Cruz had the 6th best mark among all freshmen on the day. Lathrop has had a solid if unspectacular season, and the coaching staff feels strongly that he has the stuff to be a very big contributor over the next two seasons.

LUCAS WEISENSEE ’09 had no teammates to help him along, but his 25th place effort – of 96 finishers – was a 27 place improvement over his ’06 slot. A bit further back was hard-charging freshman MARC ANDRE in 28th. Marc got a late start to the season, but improved virtually every week – and his race here showed that he clearly could be a Ram to watch in the future. On this day he was content early on to run conservatively with a quartet of teammates – LUKE MILLER ’11, RICK SULLIVAN ’11, WARREN DEGENHARDT ’10, and NATHAN COLLINS ’10. Although none could match Marc’s late race surge, each ran very well in his own right. Miller moved up 10 places over the final ¾ mile to finish 40th, with Sullivan holding on for 48th. Degenhardt has made incredible improvement over the season, knocking 2 ½ minutes off his initial 5000m effort only five weeks ago in notching a 52nd place finish here. Collins did not have his best day of the season, but the competitive aspect of his running was apparent here as he came home 60th.

Many of these athletes will compete next Tuesday at Westmoreland in an all-comers meet and then continue on to the State Junior Olympics at Sandy HS on November 10th; on the other hand, our athletes in the varsity race secured a date with the state’s best next Saturday, November 3rd, at Lane Community College, by virtue of a dominating win here at Centennial.

At the gun today we planned to go straight to the front and see what we could do with a hard first mile. TAYLOR MORGAN ’08, MUSA AHMED ’10, JOEL TURKHEIMER ’08, and SAMOT TURINA ’09 got out well and were accompanied by only Hood River’s Leo Castillo after the first quarter mile. PETER SLAUSON ’10 and AUSTIN JONES ’08 were stuck in the pack during the narrow start, but moved up easily as the race course became less congested. At 700m Samot hit the deck negotiating one of the many treacherous turns and was quickly caught by his teammates and Reynolds’ Daniel Vo.

By the mile, there were two distinct quartets, both counting three Rams among their members. Up front Joel was doing most of the hard work, leading at a very honest pace, while Musa, Taylor, and HRV’s Castillo appeared content to bide their time. By two miles Castillo had made a strong move and broken up the party; Joel led the chase pack, but Musa and Taylor were never far away. With about 700m to go, it appeared that Leo’s advantage had shrunk with Joel and Taylor closing in. 200m later Taylor had a bead on Leo, and it seemed only a matter of time until he unleashed his powerful kick for the victory. As they descended to the track Morgan went into overdrive and passed Castillo with 200m left; the sheer speed that Morgan possesses is truly impressive, and it was on full display as he put six seconds on the Eagle senior over the final furlong.

Not far behind, Musa and Joel staged a great battle for 3rd and 4th place with the sophomore finding greater turnover down the straight to claim his first-ever MHC First Team Award; Joel, too, was earning his first award in the finest race of his season. A healthy and confident Joel Turkheimer will certainly go a long ways towards the team’s defense of the state title.

About fifteen seconds back Jones, Turina, and Slauson had long since dropped Vo and hit the track in 5th, 6th, and 7th, positions that they’d keep all the way to the finish. For Slauson, this was a very fine effort as he had struggled at adidas-Concordia ten days earlier and needed a strong race to boost his confidence going into the State Meet. Jones continued his somewhat surprising excellent season as very few could have predicted he’d improve from 4th in last year’s JV race to 5th this year as a varsity runner. For Turina, his early tumble seemed to take much out of him, but his workmanlike performance here is the stuff we’ve come to expect from him; he has always been a big meet performer, and the meets do not get much bigger than next week’s state championship affair.

Filling out the varsity squad on this day was senior AARON PECORA in 35th place. While Aaron has not had the type of senior season for which we had all hoped, his diligence and personal contributions to the make up of this team have been great positives; his leadership for many of the JV runners has been invaluable, and it was a pleasure to see him today take part in the victory celebration with his team and classmates.

Results from the meet can be found here:

Next up for your Rams is the Oregon State Meet at Lane Community College in Eugene on Saturday, November 3rd. We’ll be shooting for our third straight team title and fourth in the last five years. As usual, there are a number of teams hoping to stop us, notably our rivals from the west side, Jesuit.

It promises to be a great contest; the meet begins at 10am with 1A/2A/3A competition; our race – the final one of the day – commences at 3:10pm. Hope to see you there!

adidas - CONCORDIA INVITATIONAL

2007-10-18T17:02:00.000-07:00

adidas-CONCORDIA INVITATIONAL
13 OCTOBER, 2007
FERNHILL PARK

On a day seemingly designed for cross country running, the Ram men dominated one of the state’s strongest fields in cruising to victory at the 3rd Annual adidas-Concordia Invitational in NE Portland. While the course yielded fewer PRs than hoped, the squad’s competitive zeal was on full display in each of the day’s three races.

The JV non-scored race was first up for the Rams and featured a very inexperienced group of mostly underclassmen, some of whom were tackling the 5000m distance for the first time. LUCAS WEISENSEE ’09 led the way with his 71st place finish, followed by freshmen MARC ANDRE (114), LUKE MILLER (129), RICK SULLIVAN (168), and CASEY SMITH (174). WARREN DEGENHARDT ’10 narrowly missed his seasonal best in finishing 209th of 290 (wow!) finishers. Despite this group’s lack of racing experience, their enthusiasm and spirit bode well for future CC cross country teams.

Next up was the JV team-scored event with 27 full teams entered – and 208 total runners. As there were no assigned starting boxes, this group had some of their non-competing teammates camp out in box #17 to ensure an excellent starting position. At the gun, normally slow starting CURRAN CARLILE ’10 bolted to the front, only to hear the shouts of his coach – in a very un-relaxed manner – to “Relax!!!!” Not too far back, our pack was working together between 20th and 60th with JIM McCOLLUM ’08 leading the charge in about 20th place. A year ago Jim was a first year runner who did not have a great understanding of the dynamics of racing; now he is eager to compete – not just run – and his start here was a great example of how far he’s come.

Junior MATT HOLMES kept Jimmy Mac in sight at about 35th, with GABE LATHROP ’10, CONOR ‘SOUP’ CAMPBELL ’09, and EVERETT STILLEY ’10 running in the low 50s. Freshman GREG CRUZ, unfortunately coming to the meet after a funeral, was a bit further back but competing well. At about 1 ½ miles, Matt caught Jim and the two worked in tandem for the next mile, moving into the mid 20s. Gabe had dropped Conor and Everett and was moving very well indeed over the final two clicks (kilometers).

Up front the race separated quickly as Curran and two of Jesuit’s top JV athletes took control of the pace. Curran was content to run with the group through the mile – or, rather, he feared the wrath of his coach and, hence, ran behind the Jesuit duo. While these two had PRs 20-30 seconds faster than Curran, he ran respectful of their abilities, not in fear of their times. As they approached the lone hill on the backside of the course at about 1 ½ miles, Curran moved strongly and swiftly away. Approaching the 2 mile mark his lead had grown to about 20m, and he sensed that one more strong effort could put the race away for good. Over the final mile he added 15 seconds to his cushion, winning by 20 in a PR 16:47. It was a very fine effort and looks even better when compared to the Jesuit pairs’ 16:33 and 16:39 PRs.

Holmes continued his strong climb, finishing 24th in the very large field. McCollum held on gamely in 37th, one spot up on fast closing Lathrop. Gabe’s last mile was a particularly good sign, as it had not previously been his forte to close strongly.

Campbell, coming off a sore calf which caused him to DNF in Wednesday’s meet at Lents Park, was next for the Rams in 51st to complete the scoring for our 5th place squad. Stilley, in 65th, and Cruz, 128th, were the final two across the line on this day for Central.

As the varsity squad readied for their race, their demeanor was one of “appropriate quiet”. As I spoke to a few of them about 90 minutes prior, encouraging them to, “Relax and let your fitness show through,” a young lady walked by sporting a t-shirt from a bygone era emblazoned in very large letters: FRANKIE SAYS RELAX. At that point we had an idea that it might be our day.

We drew box #1 for this race; well, boxes were assigned alphabetically so we were right next to Clackamas, Crater, and most of the other top squads in the race. Interestingly, almost all of the top individuals and teams were loaded into the first 10 boxes – so it was reasonably important that we get a good start. And we did.

After 500m, MUSA AHMED ’10 was firmly planted in the front group with TAYLOR MORGAN ‘08, JOEL TURKHEIMER ‘08, AUSTIN JONES ‘08, and SAMOT TURINA ’09 all in the top 25. At one point early on the runners parallel the street, and many athletes chose to run on the pavement rather than the dirt path. Samot was one of these athletes, which surprised me as he was wearing 3/8 inch spikes! PETER SLAUSON ’10 was lurking further back with CONOR ROLAND-CHICVARA ’09 settling in nicely at his own pace.

At the mile our group still looked strong with Musa in the group of 8-10 frontrunners. Taylor was just off this group as Austin, Joel, and Samot continued to look strong between 15th and 25th. By now it was apparent that Peter and Conor were not having their best days, but both ran with great pride.

By the two mile mark, the lead pack had dwindled to three: Franklin’s Bryce Burgess, Jake Parisien of Alaska’s Palmer HS, and our own super sophomore Ahmed. Morgan looked somewhat fatigued in about 15th with Jones and Turina another five spots back. Turkheimer was still within shouting distance of those two – in front of Jesuit’s third man. Mindful of the way things changed over the final mile at Stanford, we still had reason for worry – particularly given the strength and character of the Jesuit runners. (Crater, alas, had not run their squad at full strength and were not a factor in the team race.)

In what is now becoming a habit, our runners were the ones who moved gallantly over the final loop, moving up steadily – or, in the case of Morgan, swiftly – to a convincing 35 point win over our Catholic rivals. Musa lost two places down the stretch to finish 5th (15:51) while Morgan passed six runners – including Jesuit’s top two – in the last 500m to nail down 6th (15:53). Turina and Jones also finished with great pride, getting up for 14th and 15th respectively (16:12 and 16:14). Turkheimer, despite not having his best day, was a solid 19th in 16:20, cementing the win for a team that clearly has come together – and has very big goals indeed down the road.

While this was certainly a good effort by the Ram harriers, there is little doubt in any of these boys’ minds that there is more in the tank: Ahmed finished Ramadan on this day and expects to be even stronger in the coming weeks; Morgan appears to have shaken a minor injury and is now back in a great training rhythm; Jones has found what it takes to be a top flight athlete and hungers for more; Turina continues to improve within our long-term plan, post mono; Turkheimer continues to train at a very high level and should, with the lighter volume weeks ahead, move up in his racing; Chicvara and Carlile both see incredible opportunities – this year and in the future – and are running as if they have something to gain!
With three weeks until the State Meet, this group certainly has a great collective confidence and belief in each other – but are not foolish enough to discount the abilities and character of our in-state rivals. They know that we’ll need to be at our absolute best on November 3rd, and, if previous years are any indication, they certainly expect that to be the case.

Results can be found here: ADIDAS%20CONCORDIA.xls

Photos from this meet and last week’s Brooks Harrier Classic can be found at http://www.reccentral.net/ .

Also, a very nice article – with some nice insight on our own Musa Ahmed - can be found here on Dyestat.com

Next Wednesday, October 24th, is the MHC District Meet at Centennial HS. The meet starts at 3pm with the JV Girls, followed by the Varsity Girls at 3:45, the Varsity Boys at 4:15, and the JV Boys at 4:45. Hope to see you there!

STANFORD INVITATIONAL

2007-10-02T23:18:00.000-07:00

STANFORD INVITATIONAL
29 SEPTEMBER, 2007
STANFORD UNIVERSITY GOLF COURSE

After numerous failed attempts and detours to other varied and sundry destinations, we finally made it to what many believe to be the holy grail of west coast cross country: the Stanford Invitational. For this Stanford alum – and former Bay Area cross country coach – this was a homecoming of sorts and a chance to show off the Central Catholic program and our fantastic group of young men on a grand scale.

After a somewhat hectic trip to the airport, where we met up with our traveling physical therapist Doug Dulak, the group settled in for the relatively short flight to San Jose on Friday afternoon, excited by the prospects for this trip. The flight yielded no difficulties, but the intended dinner rendezvous with my former team and their coach – Saint Francis of Mountain View – hit a few snags as rental car lines and construction in and around the airport put us about half an hour behind schedule. As we arrived at the restaurant the St. Francis boys had positioned themselves spaced at different tables, inviting our group to split up and join them. The two teams quickly meshed, with the SF boys quite impressed at our group’s self imposed dress code of shirts and ties. By the end of the meal it was clear that these young men had much in common – from running to college plans to musical interests and beyond. As we exited there was a great feeling of good will on both parts; a special thanks goes out to Coach Brian Curley for making this happen for our boys.

Leaving our San Carlos accommodations early on Saturday morning, we noticed that our van, unbeknownst to us in the evening light, was a beautiful shade of dark red, a fact many felt was a good omen for our day. We, we took a small detour to drive by my former residence – a scant half mile from our hotel. While Hull Drive doesn’t feel narrow in a Mazda Miata, the same cannot be said while traveling in a twelve passenger van. This would not be the last time on this trip that the size of our van became an issue. Despite having to maneuver around a large moving van in the road, we made it to the race course by 9am, intent on seeing the course. Among the first groups we saw were our Oregon brethren, the Crater Comets, fresh from their victory last week at the Bob Firman Invitational in Boise. That victory had vaulted them to the #1 ranking in the Nike Team Nationals NW Rankings, and they appeared here to be a very confident bunch.

Soon we were headed down the 2nd fairway – the same fairway where former Stanford teammate Mark Mastalir assuaged a golfer’s fear of hitting any runners, replying, “We’ll just run right down the middle of the fairway; no one ever hits it there.” Quickly we came upon former DeLaSalle (Concord, CA) Coach Kevin Selby, now working for Flotrack. Video camera in hand, Kevin eagerly interviewed our enthusiastic group; you can access that interview at:
http://www.flocasts.org/flotrack/coverage.php?c=100

As we walked the course we continued to see familiar faces. Steve Boaz of San Luis Obispo high school offered his team’s tent for our gear as we began our morning jog. As Coach Boaz was out on the course when we approached the tent, many in his group were skeptical of my proclamation that “Coach Boaz said we could leave our stuff here.” Asked for evidence of my relationship with Coach Boaz, I was forced to tell these young men and women stories of his youth, at which point we were happily welcomed into the circle.

Jogging the last two miles of the course, there was no doubting the group’s excitement for the afternoon’s competition. Many were appreciative of the beautifully manicured grass on which they’d be running – in stark contrast to many of the bumpy, ankle grabbing courses we commonly see. Interestingly, we had heard some of the California squads bemoaning the lack of paved areas on the course – as many courses in this great state incorporate a great deal of asphalt. Jogging down the final straight we were ushered off the course, directly into the path of Skipper Rick Mileham, a meet official whom I’ve known for many years. Skipper immediately informed us that we were not eligible to compete on this day as “your check bounced.” Given that I hadn’t written a check – and the fact that we’d already picked up our packet – I knew we were ok.

After a quick breakfast and some relaxation time at the hotel we were back at the course in plenty of time for our 3:21pm start. As the boys headed out to warm up two of last year’s stalwarts, Nick Turner and Luke Wiltshire, arrived on the scene bringing a very positive vibe to the proceedings; the two of them had shared in a total of five state team titles, and it seemed that good things often followed them. Nick, now competing at Cal Poly SLO, was there to support both his old teammates and new while Luke, at the University of San Francisco, would be competing later in the college 4km race.

Heading to the starting line the boys had a quiet confidence – even without their #1 man, Taylor Morgan. (Morgan had strained an abdominal muscle in Wednesday’s MHC/PIL meet and did not make the trip.) Before Morgan’s injury we felt confident of a top three team finish; without him a spot in the first eight appeared to be a very worthy goal. We had drawn box #4 on the starting grid, placing us far inside for the first left hand turn 300m down the fairway. At the gun we appeared somewhat unprepared for the sheer speed of a large and talented field and were well back in the early going. JOEL TURKHEIMER ’08 and MUSA AHMED ’10 were our group’s leaders in the first kilometer, followed by SAMOT TURINA ’09. Not far back PETER SLAUSON ’10 and AUSTIN JONES ’08 were in a reasonable position while CONNOR ROLAND-CHICVARA ’09 and CURRAN CARLILE ’10 were well back in their first experience at a meet of this caliber; Curran has built a reputation as an intelligent and savvy runner who starts a bit slowly, but even he was a bit concerned in the early going as he was in the very last group of about 10 runners.

Through the mile our positions had not improved; conservative estimates had Joel and Musa no better than 65th place; Samot was about fifteen spots behind with Austin and Peter no better than 90th in the field of 163. Both Conor and Curran had moved up and were running well. At this point it would have been very easy for our guys to throw in the towel, but we had traveled a long ways to be here and were not about to give up without a fight.

On Friday evening, during our pre-race chat, I told our boys that I’d have lots of old friends at the meet, many of whom knew our program through these post meet reports. I was sure that I’d have a chance to speak with many of these old friends after the race, and there would be only one thing I’d like to hear from them: “Your boys ran hard.”

Our boys did not disappoint.

Onto the backside of the course at 1 ½ miles, our group began to move through the field. Musa caught Joel and the two of them worked together; eventually Musa moved away, but Joel continued to pass people as well. Austin surged away from Peter, but, Peter, too, was running an inspired race.

Under the bridge with 700m to go, Musa was now in the first 35 runners with Joel only 7-8 seconds back; Samot and Austin were together just a few ticks behind, while Peter was still within striking distance of that duo. Over the final small hill and onto the finishing straight, the boys in black continued to pass. At the finish Musa was 31st, and Austin – in the finest effort of his career – was 45th as he caught Joel right at the line. Peter closed as well as anyone in 52nd, a second up on Samot. Conor and Curran had also mounted great charges over the final third of the course, finishing 94th and 113th, both with personal best times (16:52 and 17:05 respectively).

Immediately post race there was great enthusiasm from our group; Austin and Peter had both run incredibly well – solidifying our depth at 5th and 6th man. Austin’s 16:17 was a PR by 26 seconds while Peter knocked 18 seconds off his previous best at 16:20. Musa (16:05), Joel (16:17), and Samot (16:21) had competed fantastically well, despite not having their absolute best days. As we waited for the official results, we were confident that, regardless of the outcome of today’s meet, we certainly would be a team with which to be reckoned in November in Eugene and a week later in Boise.

The final tally had us 6th with 213 points; Crater, in their second huge win in as many weeks, won the race with 167, while our chief 6A rival, Jesuit, was 9th with 239 points. A quick comparison of times indicates that – with Taylor in our lineup – this would have been a very tight race between ourselves and Crater:

CRATER
15:51
16:04
16:09
16:17
16:19

CC
MORGAN
16:05
16:17
16:17
16:20

JESUIT
15:43
16:00
16:26
16:39
16:48

The Stanford meet has six varsity races. Our 6th place effort came in the seeded heat – the most competitive of all the races on the schedule. Comparing our efforts to those in all of the races, a few interesting facts emerge: 1) only one team’s (Crater) 5th man was faster than ours. 2) Conor’s time as 6th man was bettered by only five others. 3) Curran’s 7th man time was the seventh best of all 188 teams racing on this day. Oh, and remember that we were without our #1 man!

Following the race the boys were excited to watch the college races – and see Luke compete for the University of San Francisco. (Luke looked strong, particularly down the final straight as was his trademark at CC.) We were also treated to a post race feast by the parents of the Bellarmine Prep (San Jose) team. Their coach, Patrick McCrystle, is a former Stanford teammate and Jesuit HS (Sacramento) grad – whose science teacher at Jesuit was none other than our principal, Ron Edwards. After a great meal and good t-shirt swap with the Bellarmine boys, we finally made our way to the van with smiles and full bellies. It had been a great day to be a Ram.

Back to the hotel for a quick clean up, and we were off to San Francisco for a short evening in what many claim is the greatest city in America. Unfortunately, this is the point where we began to have issues with our van. Attempting to enter a parking garage near Fisherman’s Wharf, I made a beeline for the only empty lane; of course it was empty because it was the exit lane. After righting the ship we entered only to find that the top of the van was dangerously close to the lowest points of the garage. Luckily I had purchased the damage waiver at the rental counter so we cruised carefree to our parking spot.

We wandered for a couple of hours, with groups stopping at Fisherman’s Wharf, Ghirardelli Square, and, ahem, IN-N-OUT Burger for meals. We saw teams from Adams State College (Alamosa, CO) and Tesoro High (Orange County, CA) also enjoying the city; we saw a few spray paint artists and a juggler, but, alas, did not see the infamous Bush Man. He’s the guy who hangs out near the Cannery with a large, moveable bush. He hides behind it and then jumps out, intending to scare passers-by. Most of the time he is wildly successful – and the crowd loves it.

Sunday morning we – minus Austin Jones, who was taking his official recruiting visit to Santa Clara University – made our way to the top of Huddart Park along Skyline Boulevard to run what my group of running buddies years ago deemed the “Heaven Trail”. This great trail runs along Skyline all the way to Wunderlich Park; I had great memories of this trail and have, for many years, espoused it as one of the best places I’ve ever run. On this day I realized how incredibly spoiled we are here in Portland, as I could easily argue that the Wildwood Trail in Forest Park is every bit the equal of the Heaven Trail. Regardless, the boys had an excellent run.

We checked out of the hotel at noon and made our way to the Stanford Bookstore – armed with burritos from my favorite San Carlos taqueria, Mi Ranchito. Despite having little time to spend on the Stanford campus, it was a worthwhile visit.

Next up for the Ram harriers is Wednesday’s MHC/PIL Crossover Meet at Sandy HS. Freshman boys run at 4pm with the varsity boys at 5 o’clock and the JV boys at 5:30. Please note that many of our varsity boys will not be competing here.

Saturday we’ll be at full strength (with the exception of our seniors taking the SAT) at South Albany’s Brooks Harrier Classic at Bryant Park (Albany). JV boys will get us started at 10:20am with varsity boys at 12:15.

Hope to see you somewhere soon!

Our results linked here:

STANFORD%20%2707.xls

All results from Stanford can be found here:

http://www.sml1.com/recordtiming/stanford/xc_invite07/

NEW BALANCE INVITATIONAL

2007-09-16T19:40:00.000-07:00

NEW BALANCE FESTIVAL of CHAMPIONS
15 SEPTEMBER, 2007
WESTERN OREGON UNIVERSITY

There’s a new sheriff in town; well, at least until the old sheriff returns from taking his test.

On a warm sunny day in Monmouth, sophomore MUSA AHMED ran the finest race of his young career, taking home a somewhat surprising victory – over a very strong field – in the Sweepstakes Division of the New Balance Festival of Champions. With defending State Champ TAYLOR MORGAN '08 missing the meet while taking the ACT, Musa served notice that he will, indeed, be a major factor in both the team and individual races at the state level in November. Musa’s history as an age group wunderkind (National JO 3000m Champ as a 6th grader in 9:39) and his brother Zuber’s success at Benson HS have led to some very high expectations from many; a year ago, his over-exuberant coach ran him too fast, too often, and too hard, resulting in an injured Achilles tendon that kept him out virtually all fall. In the spring, with some great help from physical therapists David McHenry and Shawn Dailey, Musa had a very fine spring, clocking 9:10 for 3000m and, more importantly, stayed healthy.

Despite his strong training all summer, Musa’s seasonal debut at Wilsonville showed that he lacked the confidence of his workouts; a week ago he ran a fine 9:46 two mile time trial and appeared to, at last, believe in his fitness and talent. While none predicted his victory here, certainly no one could be surprised by his strong showing.

Despite Morgan’s absence the squad certainly expected to be competitive in the team chase with Hermiston, Marist, and a couple of Washington schools – Skyview & South Kitsap – most likely challenge the Rams. In the early going Ahmed and JOEL TURKHEIMER ’08 were conspicuous in the front group of ten while SAMOT TURINA ’09 ran comfortably in the top twenty. About ten places back AUSTIN JONES ’08 and PETER SLAUSON ’10 were running well as were CURRAN CARLILE ’10 and CONOR ROLAND-CHICVARA ’09, running a conservative race plan. Roland-Chicvara had been in fine shape early in the ’06 season, but, like Ahmed, spent most of the season on the injured list. Unlike Ahmed, he – and Carlile – missed most of the track season with injury; this was his first chance to make an impact at the varsity level, and there was no doubt about his excitement for this race.

As the front pack began to separate with Hermiston’s Jordan Ringe (8:51/3km last spring) leading, Musa and Joel still looked strong. Musa, sensing Ringe’s fatigue, moved to the front at about 2800m to test his foe. Surprisingly, Ringe could not match the slight increase in pace, and Musa steadily pulled away over the final mile; South Kitsap’s Jon Phillips (1:56/800m and 4:23/1600m last spring) closed strongly but was still two seconds back at the finish line. Marist’s Matt Hollander (1:54/800m and 4:01/1500m) ran a fine race in third while Ringe faded to fourth.

Turkheimer, getting over a cold earlier in the week, ran a gutsy race to PR by 26 seconds in eighth place (16:10), just in front of teammate Turina in ninth (16:14). Turina has recovered from his spring bout with mononucleosis and is rapidly returning to the form that garnered him a fourth place finish at last year’s state meet. His fitness is not in question – as evidenced by a fantastic workout performed after today’s meet – and he’ll certainly garner the confidence of his past in time for our most important competitions.

Both Slauson and Jones have struggled over the last couple of weeks; Slauson with the same cold as Turkheimer, Jones simply fighting a rough spot in his training. Despite this, both ran with great courage and conviction here, finishing 22nd and 25th. Slauson’s 16:38 was a PR while Jones’ 16:46 narrowly missed his. They, too, looked good in the post-race work and appear back on track (pun intended) to be very solid as our #5 and #6 runners.

Carlile and Roland-Chicvara began moving with a vengeance just after halfway and stayed together until about 700m to go; Carlile, too, has been fatigued since school started – a malady not uncommon amongst high schoolers as their bodies adjust to the rigors of the school time schedule and the demand of academics – but still ran a PR 17:16 in 48th place of the 130 finishers. Carlile had run phenomenally well last fall but fought injuries all winter and spring. He has had a very productive, yet conservative, summer and put himself in great position to be a varsity athlete on this team. As he gets some needed rest, his fitness will come through, and there is no doubting that he’ll have a fine, fine season.

Roland-Chicvara, having been instructed to stick with the intelligent racing Carlile, did just that for just over 4000m. Over the last click (that’s what my Canadian pals call a kilometer), he moved on his own to finish in 40th, knocking a whopping 90 seconds off last season’s PR at 17:04. Conor is a young man of rare ability who has seldom been healthy enough to enjoy his talent, but he clearly sees now the possibilities ahead of him and is making great decisions in terms of his health.

As for the team competition, we had certainly run well enough to win with an average of 16:18 for our top five and a spread of just 58 seconds. Going into the race we had expected Hermiston to be our most formidable competitors, and were able to get by them on this day, 65-99. We hadn’t expected that Eugene’s Catholic school, Marist, would average 16:13 with a group of very proud and tough senior boys to beat us by a dozen points. Marist’ coach Cathy Twomey has done a fantastic job with this group, and there can be no doubting the importance of senior leadership.

With Morgan projected for a top five finish here, the victory margin would have been reversed, with an average of about 16:05 for our squad; that is certainly a fine effort at any time of the year, but bodes particularly well for a squad known to be at their best in November. With seven weeks to go, this is a confident group that is certainly looking forward to the most important meets of the year.

In the sub-varsity events on this day, the Ram men also performed very well. In the JV 5000m Sweepstakes six CC harriers ran both intelligently and with great heart over the second half of the course to pull out a six point victory over the host Sunset Apollos. Leading the way were MATT HOLMES ’09 and JIM McCOLLUM ’08 in 4th and 7th place. Holmes moved smoothly up from just outside the top 10 over the final mile and narrowly eclipsed his PR a year ago at 18:13 here. McCollum was step for step with Holmes through 4400m in running – by far – the best race of his two year xc career. His 18:20 was a PR by 95 seconds!

AARON PECORA ’08 has been battling breathing problems for months now but continues to compete at a high level, hanging on for 15th here, two seconds and two places up on teammate GABE LATHROP ’10. In turn, Gabe was two places in front of returning EVERETT STILLEY ’10. Everett’s 2006-2007 was very difficult as he looked great in our first couple of meets but suffered an injury that kept him out for the remainder of the fall through our early summer training. His dedication to the sport has been fantastic, and, with intelligent training, we hope to see great things from Everett.

Finishing in 23rd in the field of 102 runners was LUCAS WEISENSEE ’09. Lucas 18:52 eclipsed his ’06 best by 2:40, and there is no doubt that there is more in his tank.

This meet also offered an advertised 3000m race for some of our less experienced athletes, and four Rams took advantage of this opportunity. At first glance their times appeared to be slower than expected but meet management confirmed that the course was a shade longer than two miles rather than 3000m (a difference of about 250m). JASON WHISLER ’11 improved greatly over his first race at Wilsonville two weeks ago, while WARREN DEGENHARDT ‘10 also competed at a much higher level in his second race. Degenhardt finished 38th of 99 in the field, just two places behind RICK SULLIVAN ’11; Sullivan had missed the Wilsonville meet two weeks ago and performed very well here in his first open race.

Leading the way Rams in the 2+ mile race was GREG CRUZ ’11. As reported in the Wilsonville race, Greg had not shown in training the ability to race at a high level, but his competitive zeal on that day carried him to a fantastic 2nd place finish in the freshman race. In the two weeks since Wilsonville his training has certainly improved, and again his ability rise to a new level in a race was on full display here. As far back as 15th place in the first mile, he moved all the way up to 4th with about 800m to go. As the leaders ventured out of sight behind the baseball stadium, Greg moved to the fore and ran away for his first ever victory by six seconds. Note that the winner of the Wilsonville meet, West Linn’s Zach Boyd-Helm, ran 17:31 for 5000m yesterday at South Salem. With this in mind, Greg certainly has a bright future in this sport.

Next up for the Ram harriers is Wednesday’s MHC/PIL event at Mount Tabor. Freshman boys run at 4pm with the varsity boys at 5 o’clock and the JV boys at 5:30. We’re off next weekend before hosting a MHC/PIL meet at Fernhill Park the following Wednesday, the 26th. (We’re always looking for volunteers for our home meets, so please e-mail if you’re interested in working.)

After that we’ll split up and take eight boys to the prestigious Stanford Invitational on September 29th; the remainder of our group will run the inaugural Willamette University Invitational.

Hope to see you somewhere soon!

Results linked below:

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WILSONVILLE XC SUMMIT

2007-09-05T14:09:00.001-07:00

WILSONVILLE XC SUMMIT
31 AUGUST, 2007
WILSONVILLE HIGH SCHOOL

In our first ever meet prior to the official commencement of the school year, the 2007 Ram harriers got off to a flying start at the inaugural Wilsonville XC Summit. The Summit, the brainchild of Wilsonville coach David Barkley, involved running related seminars during the day (training, nutrition, college plans, etc…) and rock and roll blasting through the course as the athletes competed under the lights on the Wilsonville campus. The final races of the evening would be the 5000m varsity events while others were to run in class level races at 3000m. Fifteen schools were entered with traditional power Hermiston posing the greatest threat to the Rams’ victory. All tolled, it was a pretty fun deal.

Despite an early departure the Labor Day Weekend traffic spelled all kinds of trouble for the small group in the team van, causing a significantly later-than-hoped-for arrival on site. Although the frosh and soph athletes had ample time to walk the course and warm up, your intrepid author was a bit rushed in preparation for the open race. Regardless, the Rams got off well with the coach’s third place effort of 9:43 over 3km.

Next up was the frosh race with three very inexperienced Central Catholic runners: JASON WHISLER, LUKE MILLER, and GREG CRUZ. At the gun, Jason and Luke followed the conservative plan prepared by the coaching staff and put themselves in position to pass runners during the latter half. Both did just that – and clearly have the potential to improve greatly over the course of the season. Meanwhile, Greg, too, appeared relaxed but found himself early on in the top 10. While his summer training had not necessarily indicated this ability, his relaxed demeanor indicated that he certainly was not over his head. Just before the mile mark he moved into fifth, well within striking distance of the lead and continued to move up. With 600m left he moved into 2nd with the leader firmly in his sights. By the time they reached the track with just 500m to go, the two were running in unison. With 250m to go Greg made a fantastic effort and took the lead – only to be passed down the final straightaway. Regardless, he had run an intelligent and gutsy race in finishing 2nd in his cross country debut, with a fine time of 10:45. He did make one serious mistake: he ran so well that his coaches have considerably higher expectations for him now!

The soph level race also featured a group of neophyte runners: NOLAN JONES, WARREN DEGENHARDT, and NATHAN COLLINS joined “veteran” BOB KNODELL in the field of 32, and all performed admirably. Nolan, coming off a difficult week of soccer, was 5th with Bob not far behind in 15th. Both Warren and Nathan finished strongly in out-kicking runners over the final 200m.

CONOR CAMPBELL and MATT HOLMES carried the banner for the Ram juniors, and the fine running continued for the group. Conor was 10th with Matt just a couple of ticks behind in 12th. The winner of the race, a Hermiston athlete, appeared to be very strong, completing the course in 9:24. I thought, “If they’ve got seven guys better than this one, we’re in for a pretty tough evening.” Alas, the boys from Hermiston had elected to run only the class level races – skipping the varsity race – and make an early exit for the long drive back. The junior winner? Jordan Ringe, one of the state’s top runners, who had run a fine 8:51 last spring on the track.

The senior race had AARON PECORA and JIM McCOLLUM along with junior LUCAS WEISENSEE. Lucas had been caught in traffic and missed the junior race but competed very well here in 16th place. Aaron and Jim ran neck and neck the whole way, with Jim edging Aaron down the homestretch as the duo finished 13th and 14th in the field of 41.

As the sun went down the varsity boys began their preparation; they were both focused on the task at hand but also very relaxed. They knew that this was not their most important competition of the season, but also that it was a chance to show off the hard work many of them had invested over the summer months – despite the lack of race-sharpening efforts.

Instructed to stay out of the top 10 for the first mile the group carried out the plan to perfection. Seniors TAYLOR MORGAN, JOEL TURKHEIMER, and AUSTIN JONES were joined by sophomores MUSA AHMED and PETER SLAUSON in the top 15, while junior SAMOT TURINA and soph CURRAN CARLILE followed nearby. After the mile, TURKHEIMER towed MORGAN, AHMED, and SLAUSON to the front of the race joined only by West Linn’s Ben Morrow and Lakeridge’s Dave Marks. With 800m left Slauson and Morrow had been dropped while Marks battled the trio of Stark Street harriers. As they hit the track with 500m left, Ahmed had fallen back with Turkheimer pushing the pace. Most in attendance expected Morgan to unleash his powerful kick to seal the win, but on this night Marks was the big kicker as he moved away for a three second victory in 16:27. Morgan and Turkheimer claimed 2nd & 3rd with Ahmed holding on for 4th in 16:49. Despite losing ground over the final half mile, Musa’s effort confirmed that he will clearly be a big-time performer for the Rams this season.

Two West Linn runners occupied the fifth and sixth positions and were followed across the line by three more Rams – Slauson (16:55), Jones (16:58), and Turina (16:59). Slauson’s effort was a PR by 15 seconds, and Jones’ performance proved that his summer running has been profitable indeed. Turina, while not having his best day, ran an excellent team race – and later took out his frustration by destroying our post-race workout.

Finishing in 16th place in the field of 44 was Carlile with a huge PR of 17:24. Curran had a fine fall a year ago but struggled mightily with injury throughout the winter and spring. He has put in a fantastic summer of work – including countless hours on the bike and in the pool – to reach his current position. His tale of hard work and success are a great story for all of our kids.

The team outcome was never in doubt – with six runners in the top nine – as the Rams rolled to a 56 point win over a West Linn squad with state meet aspirations of their own. Although our group was slightly disappointed not to have competed against the Hermiston team, we’ll have our chances later in the season as we expect to see them at both the New Balance Invite on September 15th (Western Oregon Univ) and the Adidas-Concordia Invite on October 13th (Fernhill Park, NE Portland).

Next up for the Rams is today’s MHC Relays at Sandy HS (5:30 Varsity Boys, 6:00 JV Boys). See you soon!

wilsonville.xls

PRE-SEASON TRAINING CAMP

2007-08-22T09:21:00.000-07:00

CENTRAL CATHOLIC XC CAMP
AUGUST 13-19, 2007
RIVER MEADOWS, SUNRIVER, OREGON

After a one year hiatus to Pacific City the Central Catholic Cross Country Team returned to Central Oregon for our annual pre-season training camp. In previous years we’d been smack-dab in Sunriver; this year we’ve moved south to an area called River Meadows, although we used many of the same training areas at about 4500 feet of altitude.

The 2007 group consisted of 20 current runners and ’05 grad Ricky Chapman, along as a psuedo-assistant coach before he returns to Notre Dame for his junior year. With new assistant coach Jon Miller and I each driving a van-full and Taylor Morgan’s (class of 2008) mother taking the remainder, we made very good time until we needed a bathroom break in the aptly named town of Warm Springs. While using the facilities and grabbing some snacks we met a local who had competed for Florida State in the early 1980s and had been a high school teammate of Basil McGee in Largo, Florida – a program that won numerous state cross country titles in the ‘70s and ‘80s.

We rented two houses in River Meadows with Dan and Lynne Slauson’s home being used as the “nerve center” for the week’s activities. The Slausons are the parents of one of our top sophomore runners, Peter (’10), and have made the loss of Assistant Coach Mike Bergmann a bit more palatable. Mike did an incredible job for us in many areas, with the organization of this camp over the last few years one of his legacies. He has since moved over to St. Mary’s as his freshman daughter, Erin, will be running for the Blues this fall. His graciousness in passing along much of his experience to Lynne Slauson has made for an almost seamless transition for this year’s camp.

Arriving in the late afternoon on Monday, the group went for an easy 40 minute run on the area’s clay/gravel roads, an alphabetical series of roads named for (mostly) Southern California towns – Upland, Torrance, Sacramento (I said “mostly” Southern California), Rosemead, Quartz Hill, Pasadena, Oxnard, Norwalk, etc… Joining the group for the run – and subsequent runs – was a former Bainbridge teammate of Joel Turkheimer’s (’08), Nolan. Coincidentally, Joel didn’t participate in the run due to some painful inflammation on the top of his foot, but as of Wednesday he appears ready to resume training at the same level he’s shown much of the summer.

Following the run we adjourned to a small grassy area near the pool for an introduction to our auxiliary training (often referred to as “general strength”) – consisting of core work, plyometrics, balance work, dynamic and static flexibility, mobility, and more. This training has been a key component in the team’s successes over the last few years, and, although the returning runners have been doing this work all year long, a review for them never seems to hurt – while the new runners need all the help they can get in learning these drills.

After a great dinner Monday evening, the group was treated to the remnants of the weekend’s meteor showers, a show which was one of the highlights of the week.

Tuesday morning consisted of a light morning run and more auxiliary work, much of which was done on the small road in front of the Slauson house. We had planned to use the area near the pool, but, as we approached, the sprinklers miraculously came on. Some of the boys thought it was an amusing coincidence while others jumped on the conspiracy bandwagon. The boys were regarded with curious looks from passersby, particularly when performing their mini-band routine. Cars passing through were treated to a round of applause from the group, while a group of young bike riders responded with, “Central Catholic? Yeah!”

Tuesday afternoon we ventured to an area near Benham Falls for a reasonably short hill session. We had done a similar session in previous years and found the workout to be somewhat challenging but also enjoyable for the boys. As in previous years we underestimated the very abundant mosquito population near the river, and many of the boys emerged from the workout quite bumpy. Regardless, the workout was successful, culminating in a group “river ice-bath” before returning to base camp for dinner – a delicious paella prepared by sophomore Everett Stilley’s (’10) dad, Tom.

Wednesday morning we made the short 20 minute drive to LaPine State Park for a moderate 45-60 minute run. Despite the trails being very dusty, most felt good about the run.

Unfortunately two of our newest runners missed a turn on the return trip and were missing for a few minutes. Ultimately they returned in good shape and, again, the group convened in the river for a post-workout soak. Samot Turina (’09) appeared ready to make a bid for the US Synchronized Swimming Team with his moves in the water.

Following the afternoon’s general strength session we made our way to LaPine’s Ponderosa Pizza for a tasty and filling meal. From there we walked to the LaPine Bowling Center where none of our group was mistaken for Earl Anthony, but there certainly was a great amount of levity on the lanes. Highlights included Musa Ahmed’s (’10) “super spinner” technique, Gabe Lathrop’s (’10) no fingers style, and Greg Cruz’ (’11) sixty pin improvement from game one to game two. For the record, Taylor Morgan was high scorer in game one (147) while I rolled 170 in the second game.

Thursday morning dawned a bit cooler than previous days as the group went for a very short run in preparation for the afternoon’s workout – scheduled to be the toughest workout of the week. As usual there was general strength work and then free time for much of the early afternoon. As many of the group napped before the workout, grads David Laney (’07) and Nick Turner (’07) arrived with Nolan Jones (’10) in tow. Nolan had been participating in Central’s soccer conditioning program for the week but plans to compete this fall in both endeavors. Upon their arrival, Nolan produced a fish he claimed he’d caught when the trio stopped at a rest area along the way; when asked about his lack of fishing gear, he claimed – quite convincingly – that he had waded into the water and simply grabbed the fish with his hands. We were all quite impressed until his co-conspirators could no longer keep a straight face; they had stopped at a local supermarket as they left Portland, purchased a frozen fish, and let it thaw on the drive to Sunriver. We had been duped.

The afternoon had us returning to the Benham Falls area for our traditional 1000m repeat workout. A bit more prepared than on Tuesday, the houses and vans reeked of Deep Woods Off in preparation for the onslaught of mosquitoes.

Given that many of the group wasn’t quite prepared for the full workout, the plan was to put markers every 200m so that individuals could adapt the workout to their current fitness level. Of course we forgot to bring our cones; as we searched Nick Turner’s car for appropriate markers – water bottles, towels, etc… - he pulled out a stack of cones and asked, “Will these work?”

As the group warmed up the coaches set out marking each 200m interval. Alas, the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry; a fairly large tree had fallen across the path since our Tuesday visit, and it was immoveable. Nick didn’t have a chainsaw in his car so Coach Miller and Mr. Slauson set out to “de-branch” the tree in order to make it passable. Of course, Taylor Morgan – the steepler – would be at a decided advantage with this large obstacle in our path.

The workout called for 8-10 x 1000m, beginning at a pace a touch faster than tempo, graduating to a very brisk race-pace effort towards the end. Typically there is a rationale behind every workout and a desired outcome; despite our best efforts, rarely does the finished product mirror the plan precisely. On this day, we came very, very close. With six strong and proven runners from earlier in the summer and another three or four not far behind, the goal was to get as many as possible through eight reps at or near the front group, with many of the top six aiming for ten repeats.

Two athletes, Curran Carlile (’10) and Conor Chicvara (’09) – two of the “three or four not far behind” – ran eight (with their 7th effort an 800m), with the front group almost the entire way. Carlile had a great fall a year ago but had struggled throughout the winter and spring with injury. His summer has been steady if unspectacular, but this effort was a clear indication that he will be battling for a spot in the top seven.

Chicvara had a solid camp a year ago, but spent most all of his sophomore year (both xc and track) battling injury and illness; with a work schedule this summer that conflicted greatly with our summer training, we hadn’t seen much of him and honestly didn’t know how fit he was. He showed on this day that he, too, will be a force – and there was absolute satisfaction on his face as he finished this workout.

The other six runners in that group had the workout we envisioned. Six confident athletes working together, helping each other, pushing each other to an effort that few might have accomplished running solo. The early pace was relaxed and helped all of the athletes find their rhythm and become confident in navigating the entire workout. After the fourth rep, the pace quickened and none appeared worse for wear. On #7 Taylor Morgan ran significantly faster than expected – none of the half dozen were dropped. On numbers 9 and 10, Joel Turkheimer – who has shown a mature patience he lacked a year ago – forged to the front, and the group – as one – tore down the path fifteen seconds faster than the previous rep. After a slightly longer recovery (3:15), they made the return trip just as fast – an indication that the previous run had, despite the significantly faster pace, not been too much for them.

While Turkheimer, Morgan, and Turina were expected to handle the entire workout, the efforts of Ahmed, Slauson, and Austin Jones (’08) were nothing short of spectacular. Morgan and Turina return as the champ and 4th place finisher from last fall’s state xc meet while Turkheimer has looked fantastic all summer. Ahmed has been virtually injury free since late last fall and had a fine spring, as did Slauson. Jones ran well a year ago but had a rough winter and spring; all three have high hopes for the fall, both individually and teamwise, but today was a very clear notice that they will be factors on this team – and on the state level! It was a great day to be a Ram.

As usual the workout ended with a river bath, and the mosquitoes finally were able to penetrate the boys’ chemical armor – hastening our departure for home and a great spaghetti dinner prepared by the family of Lucas Weisensee (’09). The evening ended with a camp tradition – a very large game of “Stupid”, a card game which requires great patience and skill.

Given the great effort on Thursday – by more than just the aforementioned eight athletes – Friday was a true recovery day. Most ran lightly in the morning with a few putting in an easy afternoon run as well. Many swam for their pm workout while others simply had the afternoon off. Of course, the day wouldn’t have been complete without some general strength work so we did a long set after the morning run and another set before dinner.

Between those sets of strength work, the group was treated to the arrival of the NIKE truck, driven this year by Grant Alum Alec Wall. The previous day he had been in Pacific City visiting the Saint Mary’s and Central Catholic girls. Alec graduated from Grant in 2003 where he was 3rd at the State XC Meet in ’02 and 2nd in the 3000m in ’03 at the State Track Meet. His indoor 8:14/3000m is one of the top times in Oregon history. While he competed for Grant, he spent a great deal of time during the off seasons training with Alberto Salazar’s cadre of elite high schoolers in the Portland area, including his brother Scott, Galen Rupp, Joaquin Chapa, Mike McGrath, Stuart Eagon, and Ryan Vail. Alec ran for Oregon for two years before transferring to Dartmouth for his final two years.

After lunch, the group – en masse – made a pilgrimage to a small bridge on S. Century drive to continue a camp tradition: jumping off the bridge into the somewhat chilly Deschutes River. Virtually every member of the group made at least one jump – and all came away unscathed. I did come dangerously close to losing my wedding ring, but mastered the one arm crawl and safely reached shore.

Taylor Morgan’s dad put out a fine barbecued chicken dinner while Mrs. Slauson made a batch of brownies that disappeared within minutes as the boys continued to eat very well. After dinner Alec Wall gave a great presentation on the Nike Team Nationals which concluded with some trivia for Nike gear: 1) Who was Nike’s first employee? 2) What was Alan Webb’s official time in his recent American Record mile run? 3) Which Nike athlete broke the American record for the two mile this summer? 4) Who was the first Nike athlete to win an Olympic gold medal?

Answers: 1) Jeff Johnson, 2) 3:46.91, 3) Matt Tegenkamp, 4) Steve Ovett, 1980 Moscow Games, 800m.

Originally we had planned our long run for Saturday morning, but given that many were still feeling the effects of Thursday’s hard effort, we opted instead for a single moderate run of 35-50 minutes, with a few strides afterwards to remind us of our turnover. The group appeared quite happy when it was announced that there would be no organized general strength session; some, of course, opted for their own session, but most of the day would be free.

In the late afternoon the fellas put on their Sunday best, and we headed to Holy Trinity Catholic Church in Sunriver for 5:30 mass. The group behaved impeccably with Samot, Nolan Jones, and my boy Jackson asked to present the gifts. Disappointingly we learned that we had just missed former Central Catholic math teacher David Guasco, as he was scheduled to be the lecter for Sunday morning’s mass. He has been a strong supporter of our program it certainly would have been nice to have seen him. Another CC connection came to light as the husband of the older couple sitting behind us was a member of the CC class of ’54 – and played on both the ’52 and ’53 State Football Champs.

Returning from mass, we were treated to another barbecue, this time courtesy of Mr. and Mrs. Jones, parents of Austin and Nolan. The parental support on this trip has been incredible, but, truth be told, it’s simply a continuation of the support we’ve enjoyed for a number of years. The level of success we’ve enjoyed has clearly been a result of the dedication and hard work of our athletes, but without the support of our parents over the years it would have been nearly impossible.

Sunday morning came a little early as we planned to be on the road by 9am, stopping just past Sisters for our long run on one of the myriad logging roads in the area. Of course we didn’t quite make the 9am departure, and the logging road (Green Ridge Road) turned out to be recently paved. Regardless, we left the houses in pretty good shape, and intrepid Dan Slauson scouted out an alternate logging road at the Cold Springs Cutoff. While this long run wasn’t quite as successful as Thursday’s workout, many of our young men felt pretty good about their effort with Ahmed, Chicvara, and Carlile particularly pleased. Joel Turkheimer put in a very solid 18 ½ miles; the extra half mile was directly attributable to my poor sense of direction as we lost our way on some of the side trails less than a mile from the finish.

As we piled in the vans for the final three hour journey of our trip, most of the boys were reasonably tired. Many slept – after devouring the bags of trail mix and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches they’d prepared the previous night – until we stopped near Salem to stretch and use the facilities. As we arrived at Central Catholic all were happy to see their parents and head home to sleep in their own beds.

Despite their weariness – many had run more miles this week than anytime previously in their lives – there could be no doubt about the excitement they had for the upcoming season. Many boys had key breakthroughs this week and have developed great belief in themselves; while we’ll certainly miss last year’s crew, there is a genuine excitement emanating from this group about what they might accomplish – and the legacy which they’ll leave behind.

Looking forward to a great season…