Hale XC Week 3

The One Two Punch

The Hale boys came away with a 3 point victory on Saturday behind a first and second place finish from Joshua and Joseph.  Jack Hutter and Parker Szura set the tone early in the day with their 1-3 finish in the first race, setting the table for the guys in the second race to take the team title.  

What you do in the dark will shine in the light, and is nothing is truer than what we see with our team thus far.  In our first real competition in many months, we see our four seniors lead the way to victory. 

Joseph has been a joy to coach and he is a guy continually looking for ways to improve.  Pulling double duty swimming and running in the winter, and then turning that fitness into a professional level training regimen during the spring has helped build him to being a stellar competitor and athlete.  He essentially took home the victory in the race occurring behind Joshua.  

Brennan Kompas and Matthew Kees have come out the gates strong and are learning they can be front runners too.  Both of these young men have been great examples of consistency and intensity over their four years.  Brennan finished as our 3rd man for the second consecutive week and Keesy as our 4th, but moving up closer to our front guys to help close the gap on our scoring.  Him and Joseph both held off Slinger guys in the final stretch to secure the victory!

Collin Raschka had his best week of training and got shot out of a cannon in excitement of his first race back.  Continued intensity in practice and a bit smarter start will have him back near the top of races where we know he will be.  Carson Shane, Alex White and Dylen Eiler had great workouts this week too and they will see the impact of those in the coming weeks as they aren't instantaneous.  Dylen as a freshman earned his sport with this group and I'm glad we put him there.  We don't settle for average and sometimes that means putting athletes in challenging spots and even spots where they can fail.  He will bounce back and be a huge influence on the team's success.

Jack Hutter took home the win in the first race and was followed in 3rd place by Parker Szura.  Jack has had a very nice couple of weeks and we hope he builds off of that and keeps improving.  Parker has seen his training increase in both volume and intensity.  When he accumulates this training over the coming months and years you'll see him doing some really big things at Hale! 

The rest of our young crew continues to show promise and when you compare their debuts to some of the debuts of our scorers this week you see just where they can go with running!  But that comparison is just that, a comparison.  One may settle and become comfortable, but our coaches won't accept that route.  There are no limits.  Use the opportunity as an example, but don't settle for being as good as someone else, focus on being the best you can be.

Lastly never to take for granted Joshua put on a great display of running solo up front, running incredibly fast on not the fastest of courses.  This young man's training over his career has been special and the jumps he made over the spring and summer have been very large.  He takes advantage of his gift and loves what he does and the team he does it with.  When talking race strategy before the race he told me he would do whatever was best to help his teammates run fast.  He will get some opportunities in some good races this fall and we are loving being a part of his journey.

This week's practice

We will continue to practice from Greenfield Park all season.  Monday will be at 6:00 p.m.! 

Then starting Tuesday, practices will be at 3:30 p.m. rain or shine.  Please reach out ahead of time if an athlete needs a ride.  Coach Mach will be coming from work but other guys now have licenses and could help out.

This week's meet - Mitchell Park

The meet information is linked here - 

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1_SPJW6Y5CV_oJBCw9fapL1XvbXtllSikbwve1adhYqA/edit

Fans are allowed!  They want to limit to 1-2 fans per athlete so please be mindful of this and not have more than that.  The most important thing is to keep this season going for the kids.

Our bus will depart at 9:00 a.m. from Hale.  Some parents may want to drive and there's a form to fill out.
​   Transportation Waiver

Lineups to be posted Tuesday.

Have a great day!
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