All is not lost

Mt. Sac was not a wonderful experience for the Mustangs. Finishing seventh in the Team Sweepstakes race left all of the varsity runners with a bitter taste in their mouths and holes in their hearts. All is not lost though. There is still time ti fix the mistakes we made at Mt. Sac and we will have plenty of opportunity to prove our metal in the next few weeks.

Our performance was of the same sort that ended our season prematurely last year. We ran flat and our depth was non-existent. So how do we fix this? Practice! We need to practice running our race; practice running with confidence. I have taken a close enough look at the results to see that with some minor improvements, we could actually beat the entire field. Here is how: Jantzen needs to run like Jantzen (he ran 15:33 when I had projected at 14:50), Brent and Ryan need to drop 30 seconds each, which is well within their abilities, Brian needs to run and be close to Brent and Ryan as he has been all season, and we need a fifth man to step up and compete against the fifths from Dana, Royal, and Arcadia. If our front four average 15:00 and our fifth man runs anywhere between 15:45 and 16:05, we will win the CIF title. We can do that and it is time to show it.

How to get nationally ranked

The 2009 season is well underway now and we have been busy climbing the rankings with strong performances at major Invitationals. We started the season in relative obscurity both regionally and nationally, but we have quickly shown that we are a force to be reckoned with. Milesplit.com (http://usa.milesplit.us/articles/28219) has us ranked at 12th in the country and Dyestat.com (http://www.dyestat.com/?pg=us-2009-XC-National-Team-Rankings) has us at 15th. Although we do not run for rankings and I put very little emphasis on looking at them, it is nice to be recognized.

Rankings are also one of the only measurements used to select teams for the national championships in Portland after the state meet. If our team finishes as one of the top two teams at the state meet, we will receive an automatic entry into the nationals. However, if we finish outside of the top two, the selection comitee has four at-large entries that are awarded based on rankings and head to head race performance over the course of the season. That is why our win over Mt. View (once ranked as high as #2 nationally) and Ferris of WA (once ranked #1 nationally) was so key to our season.

In the end, it is the state meet that matters most and that has been and will remain our focus for the season. We are moving up on our competition and if practice is any indicator, we may have done better than that. I encourage everyone to check out running websites for videos, pictures, and in-depth articles about the sport we love. I have listed some of my favorites at the bottom of this post.

www.dyestatcal.com
www.flotrack.com
www.ca.milesplit.us
www.runnerspace.com