9/29 News and Notes

The Week in Review

I think at this point our team has come to accept that there is no such thing as a normal week.  The latest one proved no exception.  Monday and Tuesday were fairly typical as we prepared for Wednesday's race, though we did have to dodge some thunderstorms on Monday during our practice and pasta party.  Our team was still able to fit in plenty of fun that evening, including some games of Rocks and Ghosts in the Graveyard at Blechle Park, as well as some more Secret Hitler and an oversized game of Go Fish.

After Wednesday's races (discussed in detail below), we got in some fun recovery on Thursday with team towel races.  Runners were in groups of 4 or 5 and had to travel 30 yards across the football field while staying on two beach towels.  Some teams took very innovative approaches, but the team of Reese, Kennedy, Jocelyn, and Sybina won both rounds.

On Friday the remnants of Hurricane Helene arrived in town.  After a day of rain and wind, the city park was quite soggy.  But our runners made the most of our preview of the Perryville course.  That even included a team plunge. 

Van Buren Meet Recap

As mentioned in last week's newsletter, many of our original motives for traveling down to Van Buren fell through.  However, there was still plenty of opportunity for competition and curiosity, and so we made the trip southwest.  We left immediately following lunch,  but given the long drive and the early race times, we arrived closer to race time than preferred, especially for a meet we had never attended.

That situation was made more challenging by the fact that we didn't have the most detailed course map to work from, and the actual course on the ground wasn't marked very clearly.  This required additional time while previewing the course, which left our warmups a bit rushed.  This definitely took our runners out of their element of preparedness. 

One step removed from an essentially out-and-back race, the course wasn't the most spectator friendly.  In the middle portion of the race, our runners didn't have much support.  Poorly indicated and very poorly measured mile markers made pacing challenging for our runners, as did the frequent change of surface from grass to pavement to gravel and back.  Temperatures turned out much hotter than forecast, which on the open roads also posed a challenge.  The Scenic River Run did live up to it's name with a beautiful finish line.  But outside of this, the race wasn't a favorite of mine, and many of our runners shared that sentiment.  

But much like race strategies or training structures, we tried something new.  We took a risk with a new meet, and this time it didn't really work out.  But we learned quite a few things, and so that's the most important factor.

And many of our runners did race well, even if we had to throw out the split times for the first and second miles.  I do think the roads lulled a few of our runners into an easier starting pace, but they were still able to finish strong.

In the boys race, Carter's greatest competition after the first mile was the gator leading the race.  As someone who does most of his runs alone these days, I can tell you how incredibly hard it is to push the pace without many people to cheer you on or race with you.  For Carter to win the race by more than 20 seconds with a time of 17:15 is quite impressive.  

Without Ethan or Luke racing, it was a bit of a gap to our next runners.  The pack of Noah H, Noah W, Bo, and Cain remained together through the first two miles.  Over the last mile as they pushed the pace, they separated a bit, with Bo first across the finish line, followed closely behind in order by Bo, Cain, Noah H, and Noah W. 

Tristin rounded up the last of our boy runners by claiming the only PR of the day.  He passed more than 10 runners in the last two miles and shaved 21 seconds off his Arcadia Valley time in the process.

Even at limited capacity, our boys finished seventh of ten teams.  ​

In the girls race, Shalana Whittenburg of Alton got out to a fast lead.  But over the last two miles, Reagan was able to chase her down and overtake her.  Reagan had some difficulty in the final stretch that allowed Whittenburg to retake the lead and claim victory.  Even still, Reagan's second place time of 21:24 is still on of the fastest regular season 5Ks in the history of our girls program.

Like the boys, our girls didn't have their next two runners in Abby and Anna in the race.  Audrey and Kennedy ran together for most of the race.  Audrey's time was a little bit slower than at Arcadia Valley, but her progress from last year still ranks 63rd among all girls in the state across all five classes.  And even with a knee injury, Kennedy is running nearly a minute faster than at this point last year.  

​Like Carter in the boys race, Sybina found herself without much competition but still worked toward a strong finish.  Her times are also nearly two minutes faster than at this point last year.  And perhaps the most impressive races of the day came from the last two runners from our team to cross the finish line.  Reese and Jocelyn pushed each other over the first two miles as they navigated around less consistent runners from other teams.  Reese pulled ahead down the stretch, finishing just over a second away from breaking 32 minutes.  That's more than 4 minutes faster than at our home meet!  Jocelyn's tweaked her knee during our pasta party, and it caught up to her on the long field in the last half mile.  But she pushed through to the finish line with a new season best and a time nearly a minute faster than this point last season.  

With a partial squad the girls still managed to finish fifth of six teams.  While that was behind district foes Van Buren and Summesrville, with a full team I think we would have been fairly competitive with them.  

The Week Ahead

This week we'll stay busy, with meets at both ends.  In between we'll get to bring back a fun day favorite of last year in spikeball.  The good news is that for now the forecast calls for mild temperatures and clear skies.  

Perryville Meet Preview

Our team races twice this week.  The first is the closest we come to a second home meet, as we head across town to the city park for Perryville High School's Cutlass Invitational.  As this is our second of three meets in a ten-day stretch, our team will once again be at partial capacity.  For high school runners, there is just a single race for each gender, so our rosters will break down as follows.

As far as I know, the course will be essentially the same as last year.  The races begin and end in the soccer field at the south end of the park.  The adjacent gravel lot is typically reserved for busses only, so spectators will need to park elsewhere. 

From there the course traverses the rolling hills of the park, with the biggest one coming near the one-mile mark as the race climbs up toward the Park Center.  The course essentially has two loops, a bigger one that covers roughly the first two miles of the race, and a second one that is essentially just half of the first one.

Coming after a few blind turns, the finish often sneaks up on runners, but it does often provide some dashes to the finish.  

Between the hills, the many twists and turns, and the unstable footing in places, the course doesn't have many straight stretches outside of the soccer field where runners can find a rhythm.  Add on what might still include some soggy ground, I expect the times to generally be a bit slow relative to the faster courses we've seen lately.

At present there are 13 high schools registered.  For our boys, that includes last year's district foe St. Pius.  But the real team on our radar for the boys is Kelly.  While we're not worried about the team scores with a partial squad, we can still see how some of our runners match up with theirs individually.

​On the girls side, we won't be seeing any scoring teams from our district for a while.  In fact, every other scoring team at the meet is in Class 4 or higher. That doesn't mean our ladies can't still be competitive with runners from Perryville and other schools we'll see again at conference like Windsor and Hillsboro.  

For the boys, the course record belongs to Windsor High School's Bradley Ahrens, who ran 16:55 in the first year of the meet back in 2021.  He remains the only runner to break 17 at the meet, and in fact only one other runner--also Windsor's Nicholas Daugherty--has ever run sub 18.  The third fastest time and team record for the meet does belong to our own Gabriel Anders, who finished second in the inaugural meet with a time of 18:06.  

That same year Carter Hennemann won the junior high race as a seventh grader.  He is also the defending champion of the high school race, but since he won't be racing Monday, the fastest returning time belongs to Bair Hopkins at 18:23.  He also owns the fastest seed time at 16:33.

On the girls side, the meet record belongs to Perryville's Tegan Bishop, who ran a 20:26 back in 2022.  The fastest time from our team came from Anna Schwartz and her 24:07 back in 2021.  

The fastest returning runner is defending champion Allison Miller, who won last year's race with a time of 22:24.  The fastest seed time belongs to Seckman's Jessica Lane at 20:32.  

Notre Dame Meet Preview

For our second meet, the team will be traveling down to Notre Dame on Saturday.  While that won't be the site of districts this year, our boys in particular will see a number of district competitors there. This will also be our last split-squad races of this stretch, but this time we will have most of our top runners together.  The meet does include JV races, but all of our runners will compete in the varsity races.

The Notre Dame course is much different than my days on it back in high school, but it's the same course we've seen the last few years.  It starts and ends in front of the school.  The opening stretch ends with a sharp downhill.  After a stretch along the highway and a more progressive climb, the rest of the first mile is relatively flat. 

The second mile begins by going down the steepest hill of the race.  After crossing behind the soccer fields and tennis courts, the second mile shows why it is the toughest.  A long uphill to the parking lot turns into a similar downhill to the highway before some rising switchbacks bring the race to its highest elevation and the two-mile marker. 

That means the third mile is actually more downhill than up.  That starts with a pretty quick descent back behind the school as the course essentially doubles back on itself.  A return trip behind the school brings the race back up the monster hill.  After that it's a push to the front of the school and the finish line.  The course doubles back on itself into the final stretch.  I've seen a lot of races won or lost in that last 400m over the years.  

This meet will likely be our biggest of the season.  Registration hasn't closed yet, but at present there are more than 50 teams with the meet on their schedule.  Now that districts have moved to Arcadia Valley, I'm not sure that all of them will actually show up.  But either way it's going to be a jam-packed field without much starting line to go around.  

For the boys, the majority of the teams on our district radar will be present.  That includes Woodland, East Carter, Puxico, Kelly, Saxony Lutheran, Kingston, Campbell, and Bloomfield.  On the girls side, we will see a few schools from our district like Advance, Bernie, Bismarck, Crystal City, Leopold, and Oak Ridge.  But unfortunately neither Dora, Van Buren, nor Summersville--the teams from our district with enough runners to score--will be there.  But with more than 130 girls registered across the JV and Varsity races, I'm sure we can find some competition.

The meet record on the current course for the boys belongs to James Wortham of St. Charles West, who ran a 15:48 there back in 2022.  Though we've had quicker times on the course at districts, the fastest time from our team at this meet came in 2018 when Jack Baer ran a 17:34.

The fastest returning runner from a warm race last year is Woodland's Calvin Layton, who took 4th with a time of 17:12.  The fastest seed time belongs to Notre Dame freshman Aidan Morris's 16:07.  

For the girls, the meet record on the new course also belongs to St. Charles West, with Lilian Jackson running a 19:20 in 2021.  While it should be noted that our school record was set on the old Notre Dame course by Laura Steele back in 2011, the meet record for our team on the new course belongs to Genevieve Lipe, who ran a 22:47 during the Covid-interrupted 2020 season.  

Of the runners currently registered, the fastest returning girl from last year is Notre Dame's Lily Coy, who took 3rd in 2023 with a time of 21:01.  The fastest seed time currently belongs to a fellow Notre Dame runner, freshman Martina Ressel's 19:12.

Ultimately if the weather stays on the cool side and the ground firms up, I would expect some fairly fast times.