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11/28/2005
State Meet:
The state meet did not go very well. We took 6th place.
1) CC King
2) Flower Mound
3) South Lake Carrol
4) A&M Consolidated
5) Cinco Ranch
6) The Woodlands
Going into the race we knew that it could be one of 7
schools that could win it all. The above 6 and Del Rio high. We were
thinking that worst case senario we would be 6th.
The entire week we all took ice baths everyday, got 9 hours of sleep,
etc etc. We pretty much prepared for it like it was the Olympics. As
a result of that, instead of having our best race, we choked. We were
thinking about it the whole week and basically just made it into something
that it wasn't.
I ran to an 11th place finish. I went into the race wanting the win,
but looking for a top 3 finish. I knew that I would have to have a great
race to beat Duncan Phillips and Colby Lowe (who went 1-2). They both
ran really well that day, and the best runner's went 1-2. Our second
man was Dom Zucconi, who got 38th. He has consistently been our 4th man
this season. He ran as expected. The goal for him was to get 30th-40th.
Our usual #2 dropped out again. I think the big race and pressure got
to him, not to mention how difficult it is to run hard when you collapsed
in the race the week before.
Our #3 man, Alex Neff got 46th. He is one of the toughest runner's I
have ever seen, but did not run as expected. Coach Green wanted him to
be 15th-25th. The week after the State Meet, we had a 4k time trial on
the track. Neff went out from the gun with me, and hung on the whole
time. We went through in 4:38 and 9:34 (a 7 second PR), and then finished
in 11:59. At 2 miles he actually passed me, and I only took the lead
from him again with 500m to go. He ran an awesome race. Neff will be
running sub 9:20 for 3200m in track.
Our 4th man was Evan Blair, who conistently runs as 5th man. He ran
to 52nd (I think that's right...this is just off the top of my head.)
Coach also wanted him 30th-45th. And our 5th man was sophmore, Quinn
V. He got 60th place. Once again, Coach wanted him from 30th-45th. He
has got a crap load of talent, he just choked, like the rest of us.
It was a terrible state meet for everyone. The Woodlands is the #4 team
back on paper. I assure you, everyone here is a little ticked at the
results. I know that all 6 of the guys returning are going to run for
that state championship. They now know the feeling of getting their butts
kicked, and I know that they will not let it happen again.
Now, onto Footlocker
South.
I felt really down after the state meet.
The Monday workout was a killer, because I was still wondering what I
did wrong, or if I peaked too early, or whatever. I knew that my confidence
was down. I looked back on the 2 weeks leading up to the meet, and I
tried to learn from my mistakes. I took 2 ice-baths a day, 9 hours of
sleep a night, reading all the boards on Dyestat, telling coaches that
I was going for a win at state, etc etc. I realized that I just put way
too much pressure on myself. So I did not get on a running website once
in that entire 2 weeks (with the excpetion of the collage board, because
NCAA's were going on...lol), and I took 2 ice baths a week, like usual,
etc.
Anyway, I went into Footlocker South prepared, but relaxed. Obviously
everyone was counting me out of the mix, because of my bad race at state.
My goal was definitly to qualify, and Coach Green wanted me to be aiming
for top 5, but my main goal was to run relaxed and compete. I also decided
to change my tactics for FLS. Before state, I was intimidated by the
fast pace that I knew colby would take it out in. I decided to stay in
the chase pack, and try catch him in that last mile. Well, I locked up,
and ran like crap. For some reason, I wasn't scared at all of the pace
at FLS. I decided to go to the front and just run with the leaders the
whole way. I ended up coming in second
place, in 14:51. Michael Eaton won it in 14:46. He ran an awesome race,
running from the front the whole way.
The other varsity guys from our
school ran pretty well too. Brian Downey, our usual #2 guy, took second
place in the junior race with a time if 15:54. Alex Neff got 3rd in 15:59.
Dom Zucconi took 7th in 16:08ish...something like that. Then Evan Blair
got 10th a few seconds behind Dom. They all ran pretty well.
Alex Neff could have definitly run in the seeded race, and probably
taken a top 50 finish, but Coach Green wanted him to be able to run from
the front.
Well, season is over for the team now. Everyone is on a 2 week break.
I will be racing in San Diego on the 10th for FL Nats.
LOOK FOR THE SOUTH TO HAVE AN AWESOME RUN GUYS! GO SOUTH!!!
11/06/2005
Good news, Bad news, and Good news:
We had disrticts on last thrusday 28th of October). This was the race
where we realized how incredible our coaches training program was this
year. Our goal of the season was to have our best race at the state meet.
It was planned that we were going to start off
the season slower than usual because of our type of training, but it
was planned so that we will have a peak better than any other at the
state meet. It is coming to plan!
We won district with 25 points; going 1-2-3-7-12. We didn't run our
4th and 5th men, but they did join us at regionals the following week.
At regionals, we got 2nd place to A&M consolidated (ranked 5th in
texas), and we beat Cedar Park (3rd in Texas). We were only 7 points
behind A&M, and our #2 guy (Brian Downey) collapsed with about 600m
to go. There are always "ifs" and "buts"....but
we are confident that next week will be our best week.
We have had porblems this whole year with injury, maturity, etc. We
finally think that it is all coming together. The only problem is that
our #3 guy has had a back problem all year, and he got kinda bumped around
at regionals. But he is a tough ass kid, and we know that if at all possible,
he will run....and run his heart out.
If you check out the Texas Regional results, you will see that other
highly ranked schools seemed to have a lot more competition that expected.
That might've been
planned, but who knows. I might be totally wrong, but it looks like it
will be a huge dog fight for the state championship.
Best of luck to all the teams racing around the state and nation.
Next time i post, we will know who the best team is in TEXAS!
10/16/2005
Hey guys,
It was an interesting weekend in Fayetteville for the Chile
Pepper Festival.
We went into the meet ready for some great competition from our texas
opponents A&M cosolidated, among other teams like Lockhart and Potosi.
The Race:
We got up at 7 o clock and got out to the course by 8:45, in time to watch
the College race, which was crazy! Cragg took the race out in a crazy first
mile of 4:20! Arkansas won it with 57 points. At 9 o clock we were still
in sweats, keeping warm. At 9:15, it had gotten so warm that i was sweating
in shorts and a t-shirt. It kept getting warmer until it was around 85
ish.
We then warmed up, ready for to show what we are made of. Coming off
the great time trial last week, we were all ready to finally race well
in a big race. Just before the race, we were told that A&M consolidated
was not at the race. I guess they decided to go to another meet closer
to home. I was also told that kevin schwab could not make the race either.
so that was unfortunate.
The race then went off at 11:45. i took it out with Daniel Roberts in a
4:48 first mile. I pushed the pace at a mile and a half, and gapped the
field. I finished in 15:21. Unfortunatly our team did not pull together.
Alex Neff, thanks to the crazy amount of dust in the air, had an asthma
attack, and dropped way back. This is the second time this season, and
we are praying that it won't happen at state, because he is one of our
key runners. Apart from that, none of our runner showed what they are made
of. We wanted to have all 8 of our guys in the top 25. We only had 3. We
finished with 107 points.
We still have not been able to pull it together. I know that when we do,
it will be great. Our guys just do not have the experience yet. Hopefully
by the time state rolls around in less than a month, we will be ready.
Thanks for checking in...Gerber
10/11/2005
The Woodlands is finally coming together!!!
These past 2 weeks have been awesome! We won our first meet on the 1st
of October...freaking finally. we scored 24 points. It was a low-key meet
at 8:30 in the morning, but the guys ran great. We went 1-4-5-6-8. then
our 6th was 12. I ran a 15:24, then the rest of the guys were around 16:10.
this was the first time all season that the guys raced together, from the
start....and the results showed!
And this past friday (october 7th), we had our annual 2-mile time trial
on the track. It was a really nice night. Probably 75 degrees with just
a bit of wind. We had 5 guys under 9:50. Our top 8 are all sub-10 2 milers
now.
The results:
me- 9:07
Downey- 9:43
Neff- 9:44 (after 2 weeks of no running with a back injury....Heck Yea!!!)
dominik- 9:49
Bobby- 9:49
Quinn- 9:53
Evan's PR is 9:55, but he has been our 4th man all year round. He had an
off day. But rather in a time trail than state or sumthing like that, right?
We are PUMPED!!! our coaches plan is coming together PERFECTLY! Our workouts
have been getting better and better every week. On our monday workouts,
we have been tearing it up! Its been great!
This next week, we are going to the Chile Pepper Inv. It's gonna be awesome.
This will be our first test to see if we can pull together in the big races.
I'll keep you all updated.
Thanks, The Woodlands XC!
9/23/2005
Hey guys,
Sorry about not writing a blog in 2 weeks, but everything is kinda crazy.
I guess last week I had to write my senior thesis, which took forever,
combined with just a lot of other stressful stuff! lol.
Last week was an off week from racing for the top 7. Our other 3 seniors
raced in that race, along with 4 other guys on the team. I guess you
could call it our varsity B team. They got second place taking 8th, 10th,
16th, 18th, 22nd places, i think. The top 7 got a good week of miles
along with quality workouts. It was just what we needed. Everyone is
starting to get really consistent in the workouts. I COULDN'T WAIT FOR
THE NIKE SOUTH INV!
This week, we were having a lighter week with the mileage. Our number
2 guy has a back problem that has put him out of running for a week or
so, but he will be back pushing the pace in no time (knock on wood).
We were all really pumped for nike south, then thursday afternoon rolls
by, and we had some bad news. Rita's heading straight for us. So school
gets canceled, the MEET gets canceled, etc etc. Needless to say, no one
was too happy. And Coach Green, for all that don't already know him,
was.....upset. lol. I love my coach!
WOW, this is crazy! The sky has just gone from a normal overcast, no
rain sky, to a bright pink sky, and now a purple-ish sky in a period
of maybe 5 minutes! But, we just have to pray for the cities that will
be getting the worst of this hurricane. Please keep everyone in you prayers.
I know we would all appreciate it. It is friday evening at 7 o clock.
On thursday evening, the eye of Rita was on schedule to be 15 miles away
from The Woodlands. The news has been getting better and better for us,
but worse for the cities further to the east of us. All we can do is
hope for the best.
Thanks guys! I'll be sure to keep you all updated next week on the results
of Rita in our city and surrounding area's.
Gerber.
9/02/2005
What's up guys!
On my second post, I just wanted to introduce everyone to the team, so that if
I make a reference to anyone, ya'll will know who I'm talking about. Seeing as
you know about me, I will be starting with our second man.
Alex Neff- Junior. 4:33, 9:41. 8th/9th man on our team last year. Has
good talent and great leadership skills. "Neff" is always a "give it all you
got" kind of guy and we will be needing all his consistency throughout the
season to accomplish our goals. Neff is a really good friend of mine, and he
has really helped me lead this year’s team.
Brian Downey- Junior. 2:01, 4:35, 9:47. One of the top JV guys last year, and
also pretty consistent. He has a good attitude and has loads of talent that he
hasn't hit yet.
Evan Blair- Junior. 2:03, 4:33, 9:52. A big guy, with a lot of speed. He's pretty
tough and should do pretty well this season.
Bobby Van Horn- Junior. 4:36, 9:59. Bobby is one of the other guys
that has a really positive attitude, and starts off runs not thinking
about how "hard
it's gonna be later on". He will hit a 12 miler hard from the first mile.
He tends to be very consistent, and is one of our more disciplined and mature
guys.
Quinn Valentine- sophomore. 2:03, 4:38, 9:59. Another strong runner, Quinn has
loads of speed. He's really been working hard this summer, and is getting stronger
and more consistent day by day.
Will Fairhurst- Junior. 4:39, 9:58. Last track season he really made some moves
up, and finished his season by winning the JV district 3200m race. He gets better
and more confident after every race and workout.
Those are our current Varsity guys. These next few guys are the guys that are
right behind our top 7. Occasionally some of these guys will be as high up as
our 4th men.
Dominick Zucconi- Junior4:37, 9:58. Dom is one of my best friends, and really
has the talent to be up in the top 5. Once he gets used to racing big meets and
working really hard, he will be a dominant force on our team.
Josh Sutherland- Senior. 4:36, 9:59. Josh was on varsity last year
and could definitely be as high up as our 3rd man, but his confidence
is a bit low, and "senioritis" is
kicking in. Hopefully once the season gets rolling and the big meets start
coming he will realize what he is missing from last year.
Josh Marcus- Junior. 4:44, 10:08. Josh was not on my list of potential varsity
runners last year, but after some GREAT summer training and his positive attitude,
he has become one of our best workout runner's. Once he makes the transition
from great workouts to great races, he might be stealing one of the top 7's spots.
David Stalder- Junior. 4:48, 10:14. David's PR's are not reflective of his talent
or hard work. This summer he really buckled down and ran hard. He could also
make a move closer to the top 7 when he gets into the racing mode.
Well, those are our top guys.
This week, the top 7 are taking a week off from racing, and we are getting a
few extra miles under our belts. Our Varsity B will be racing in our place, and
I'm sure they will do a great job.
I will be sure to keep you guys updated as the season gets more exciting.
Thanks for reading,
Daniel Gerber.
8/27/2005
Hey,
Well, our season has just started. We had a practise Tri-meet against our Texan
rivals, Kingwood, last week. And last night, we had the annual Woodlands Invite;
an 8 school meet. The results were not what we were expecting, but we have faith
that when the time comes around, we will be ready.
Our summer training went pretty well. We had a couple of guys that were injured
during track, really come back and train hard. We all know that our team has
a lot of potential, and when the younger guys get used to running bigger Varsity
meets, we will be rolling well!
This is a very different kind of year, because we are used to having 7 big guys
all on one team like in 2003 (Brian Sullivan, Dane Hurtabise, Garret Jones, Daniel
Lanzalotti, Myself, Ben Shulz, Luke Hansen). This year we are a little less experianced,
but when the time comes....
Thanks!
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