Titan Invite Data

The CHS XC team went down to the Springs yesterday to run in the Titan Thunder Invite. On the right is the latest chart of the finishing times, places and percent backs. Of course, you can get all the primary source information from Coach Versaw's wonderful and detailed Milesplit.com page, as well as a short little article, and a great picture gallery.

I want to say right now, I would love to have Mr. Anderson & Mr. Harris come run for the CHS track team in the spring. Consider this a formal invitation gentlemen, I know you love baseball, but both of you guys are very talented runners and you would help out the track team immensely with your running skill. To paraphrase Lebron, bring your talents to the CHS track!

Even though it takes a little bit more time than I always figure, I really enjoy crunching the number for the JV kids who run. If you look at the successful programs in track and XC, (Ft. Collins, TCA, Battle Mtn.) they all have very deep and talented JV squads. Look at the JV girls race, I think Ft. Collins took the top three spots, that is amazing. I think the key to long term success in track/XC is to always work on developing your JV runners, making sure they are valued, and to avoid a break in the pipeline from the middle school to the varsity level . I know that is one thing I plan on becoming better at as a track coach, as we need to build for the long haul, not just one year at a time.

Having just said that about the JV runners, I want to now focus a few varsity kids. I figure they have run three races so far, at the highest levels. Now we can start seeing if they are getting better compared to the leaders as the year progresses. That is what %-back measures, how close you are to winning the race (which is always the ultimate goal). The three races I am looking at are New Mexico, Liberty Bell and Titan Invite. Here is the data.

Vargo: 1.16 / -3.2 / -0.53

Purdue: 5.5 / 4.2 / 5.21

Kadolph: 9.4 / 8.7 / 7.7

Ingram: 10 / 13.1 /9.2

Ferguson: 12.1 /11.6 /10.66

Rich: 12.2 / NA / 11.66

Anderson: NA / 10 /7.97

Foster: 7.2 / 12.4 / 6.02

Heard: 8.2 / 9.6 / 9.12

Ferguson: 12.4 / 14.6 / 10.60

Mansfield: 12.5 / 15 / 12.51

Nyiro: 14 / 15.3 / 15.59

I am very psyched to see kids consistently improving over the course of the season so far. Runners like Kadolph, Ferguson, Rich, Anderson, all those guys have been getting better and better compared to top flight competition. That is excellent. And to see Foster, Ferguson and Mansfield come back and get those %-backs low again, that is a job well done. It's hard to be consistent from race to race, week in and week out. And when you are already a top-flight runner, it is hard to keep improving, to keep dropping that %-back. It can be done however, it just takes a lot of discipline and dedication, which I know you all have tons of.

So, have a great week of training everyone, I am eager to see what the coming weeks bring in terms of fast racing.

SEP

P.S. And best wishes to Bills, I heard he fell victim to a stress fracture. I know he will bounce back stronger than ever for track season though, he is a tough, tough runner.