Braves,
It was great to have the full team back in action on Saturday, with tons of personal bests and improvements. Andrew Jensen started the day off with a win in the Sophomore/Freshman race, which came down to a sprint to the finish, in his first ever XC race, and then Rylee and Jane followed up his race with two massive personal bests, lowering their combined times from Wednesday by something like 11 minutes. The JV boys also saw huge improvements over Wednesday, with some excellent races. I love watching the JV races because that is where the biggest jumps come from. We're seeing kids now running low 6 minute paces who last year when in the mid 7s. It's amazing to see their transformation and watch them improve and battle for varsity spots. Our Varsity girls came away with a 3rd place finish, and every single one of them were faster than the pre-region race, some by as much as 20+ seconds per mile. Sami ran in her first race as the only senior on the varsity team, and she represented extremely well with an insane final mile, showcasing the power and speed she has developed over the years, and smashing her own personal best in the process. The boys ended the day with a tightly contested second place finish, missing out by just 1 point. The lone junior of the group, Cutler, who is running in his first XC season, finished, like many of you, with a strong sprint in the final 250m to edge out a WX runner by a half second, the same kid who happened to finish ahead of him last week by .3 seconds. I suppose in the head-to-head competition that puts Cutler up by .2 seconds.
The results from yesterday can be found at www.anteloperacing.com, and the results for next week will be there too.
I love these races. Knowing each of you and your journey through the sport makes watching you perform a very rewarding experience for me. Seeing Sami change the pace with 800 to go, watching Cutler (with his robotic arms) sprint by some people, witnessing Dalton just tear up the ground, hardly recognizing Rylee because she's running an incredible 8 minutes faster than three days prior, gets me pretty hyped. I love this sport and this team. I'm proud of this group, not because of what you've accomplished but because of what you're becoming - and I'm hungry for more. Lucky for us, we won't have to wait long to see some great competition and get back to working and racing. The boys were second yesterday by one point, let's work so that next time its us who is in front.
This week is another complicated week so please read through this carefully.
Monday and Tuesday - 2:40 at the high school (except Freshman who are in class, you will come down as quickly as you can, by 3:15 at the latest).
Wednesday - We are hosting a meet at MPJH against WX. This is a very small meet, and I anticipate many varsity runners from WX won't be racing. We will be participating but making it more of a workout. Most likely our varsity runners will be doing something different. Spectators are welcome and will need to wear masks.
This is also a class day, which is lucky because it will allow you all to help us set up. Because the races don't begin until 3:30, we won't need you to be there to help set up quite so early (1:30 instead of 1:10). Role will be taken at 1:30 PM.
The races schedule is Girls at 3:30, Boys at 4:15.
Thursday - Because this is also a class day, practice will begin at 1:10 for those in the class and for those who are remote that day. Those who have a different 8th period will come up immediately after school, and Freshmen who are in school will come down as quickly as possible after their school lets out. We will be at the track.
Friday - Davis is hosting a invitational. Unfortunately, they told us that spectators are not allowed. I will try to have some of our runners who are in different races live stream the races on our instagram @bravestrackandxc so you can kind of follow along if you're interested. The bus will leave from the high school at 2 PM, and return after the awards. Here is the schedule:
Nicholls Park
3:30 - Fr/So Boys4:00 - Fr/So Girls4:30 - JV Boys5:00 - JV Girls5:30 - Varsity Boys6:00 - Varsity Girls6:30 - Awards
The course map can be found at the end of this email.
A couple more things:
Fees - you may have noticed the athletic fees are now on mydsd (I think). Those fees are set by the district, and total $90 for the season. This is standard for all high school sports. Please go pay those at your earliest convenience.
Registermyathlete - if this hasn't been finished before the races, you won't be able to race. Most of you have it done but a few of you have yet to start... please do so asap. If you need a physical, there are places that allow walk-ins so you can get one promptly.
Please visit our website www.bravesxc.blogspot.com for the schedule, and please click the link "season pace breakdown" to see how your times evolve over the season. I spend a lot of time on that and is a great tool for me, and can be for you as well.
As always, if you have any questions please let me know.
Coach Jacobson