Runners excel at the Edge
Peaking at just the right time – that’s the whole purpose of the 10-week cross country season. It’s where the science of training meets the art of experience. As a coach, you put together a mix of quality and quantity; work and recovery; motivation and support; and, above all, hope. Hope that the plan included enough mileage – but, not too much; hope that you pushed them hard enough – but, not so hard that they crossed the fine line into injury or illness; hope that you gave them the direction needed to be successful; and, hope that you did the right thing for each of the 10 wonderfully unique individual athletes that were part of the 2010 Plains High School Cross Country team.
In a few short days, we’ll know if this season’s training plan was a recipe for success. On Saturday, the Horsemen and Trotters will compete in the State Championship Cross Country Meet at the Bill Roberts Golf Course in Helena. But, before we get the final answers to the 2010 season, there was one last preliminary test for the Plains harriers. Last Thursday, the high school and junior high athletes competed in the Runner’s Edge – Loyola Invitational in Missoula. And, I have to tell you, I’m excited about our potential as we head to the “final exam” in Helena.
For the junior high runner’s, this meet represented their last competition of the season. For Ryan Ovitt, his final meet was last weekend in Whitefish as he headed to Eastern Montana prior to the meet for a long weekend of early season hunting with his family. Carley VonHeeder and Sera Boggess both made the trip; and, both had excellent days. Although their training has cut back significantly due to the start of the junior high basketball season, they both ran almost identical times to the Mountain West meet that was held on this same course 3 weeks ago. Carley’s time of 10:34 and Sera’s 13:59 were just off their personal records for the 1.5 mile distance. But, the big performance of the day had to have been by Sheridan Martin. Running a strong pace right out of the gate, Sheridan dropped her personal record over the 1.5 miles by well over a minute. Her 10:54 time was not just the first time that she had run under 11 minutes; it was also her first time under 12 minutes.
Next up were the high school girls. Due to a conflict with a home volleyball game, Felicia Earhart didn’t make the trip; and, Zoe Banovich sat out the race to rest up some minor knee pain. That left Andrea Wood and Teija Gill to represent the orange and black. Running 24:24 and 30:29 respectively, Andrea and Teija had similar performances – both ran close to the same times that they had at the Mountain West meet; and, both were within sight of their personal records. These were outstanding performances in a meet that was dominated by the Class AA schools from Missoula.
For the boys, Carter Montgomery again led the way for the Horsemen. His 16:57 time placed him 13th in a highly competitive field - in spite of continuing to fight the lingering effects of a cold and a sinus infection. Robert Montgomery was oh-so-close to once again getting under the 18:00 barrier – at 18:01 he was just outside that mark; but, was still over 30 seconds faster than what he ran on this course just 3 weeks ago. The Damschen brother (David and Daniel) both improved significantly over their times at Mountain West. At 21:43, David was over 1 minute faster; and, at 24:54, Daniel saw improvement by over 1 1/2 minutes. All in just 3 short weeks! As good as these performances were, the runs of the day belonged to Kenneth Beech and Garrett Horton as both scored new personal bests by 6 seconds. Kenneth’s 17:33 time allowed him to place in the top 20 overall and 6th among Class B boys. Garret was on PR pace the entire way and his 20:16 time has him within sight of a sub-20:00 at state.
I came away from the meet cautiously optimistic about what this means for the state meet. For the most part, the kids were a big “flat”. Several of them commented about “dead” legs and feeling “heavy”. In spite of that, we had 2 PR’s for the boys, 2 boys in the top 20, and all of the athletes at or very near their performances on this same course from several weeks ago. Best of all - to a person - all of the kids ran faster over their last 2 kilometers (1 1/4 miles) than they did at the Mountain West meet. This shows that they have developed the strength necessary to propel them to some fast times in Helena. With a week of fine tuning, sharpening and rest ahead of the team, I continue to be filled by hope. Hope for some breakout performances by this exceptional group of student athletes; hope that they’ll create some personal memories to last a lifetime; and, hope that they dare to do something great on Saturday.