Hale XC Week 3

Men's Team Second At Palmyra Invitational

On a typical humid and overcast early fall season day, the men lined up for their first test of the season.  After a summer of miles together, this completely new team of seven finally heard the sound of the gun which forced adrenaline through their veins.  Out on the quiet course at Palmyra, the men began a journey toward selflessness and running for the team.  A journey, because it will take time for them to truly feel the emotion of running for the team when things get hard during races.  The opportunity is significant, there are no limits.  But, it will be up to each of them to decide what type of team they want to be.

Eli and Bronko set a good tempo early with Ethan dabbling with them up front as well.  Ultimately Eli maintained the pace and finished 3rd overall to lead the team in the early season race.  Bronko let himself fall back to finish 9th and surely has the fitness to run up front with Eli in his next chance.  Ethan in his first race learned to not limit himself and will really get a great chance to be up front in a race on Friday in the frosh race.  

Kai battled through a slight wardrobe malfunction to secure 12th place while Nate in his first XC race rounded out the scoring five.  Eric and Preston Plier were the 6 and 7 men also running in their first race.  We truly believe that the top 5-7 can run together by the mid to late part of the season and we have been focusing on having compression in workouts and being accountable for running with the pack.  The team had a nice debut race, learning a ton and shaking some rust after some solid summer miles!  Eli, our only returner to the course, ran SEVEN minutes faster than last year here due to consistent training which include double runs some days over the summer!  He set a good example of how you can turn hard work into talent.

The team scored one point better than the more experienced team at this meet did last year.  That team last year had a strong finish to the season, but this young team has potential for much more if they are willing to pay the price tag to be truly great.  The focus on this journey is on getting the team back to state and competing for the ultimate prize there.

The second race was very fun to watch.  A sea of green and white up front from the start, led by Willy Wheels and Damien up front.  Our coaches LOVE when youngsters get OUT in races.  Many coaches look for athletes to 'pace themselves' but we know that is very limiting especially early in one's career.  If you don't get out and give yourself a chance, you are destined not to have breakthroughs or success.  We were pumped to see some of our new frosh runners get out aggressive and this will definitely pay off as their strength from training and racing comes.

Will ran a great race before encountering a scary situation at the finish which didn't allow him to cross the line in first.  He had over a minute lead, but his body warned him he was dehydrated.  Amazing to see all of our athletes, parents and families over supporting Will and we are happy that he is 100% back to health.  This is extremely rare, especially in distances under 10k and Will has the tools to make sure it doesn't happen again.  But, I did tell him the story of Cooper Teare, an Oregon athlete and now pro who faced a similar scenario at the NCAA XC Championships last fall which caused him to finish last.  A couple of months later, he won USA's in the 1500 and qualified for World's.  

With Will not crossing the line, the rest of the men held their ground to win the team competition.  Damien finished 2nd in his first XC race while another first timer, Brody, came in 3rd place.  Brody had a nice summer of healthy running and it was great to see him find success early on.  The frosh trio of Mikel, Lincoln and Sam rounded out the top 5 scoring.  Everyone in this race is still "clueless", which is a famous phrase we coaches use showing that they have no idea where they can take themselves and the team once they fall in love with the sport and buy in to the idea of what it takes to become great!  But knowing what it takes does nothing without actually doing it.  We have some great examples of athletes improving significantly through annual consistent and purposeful training.

Be patient with progress, but not with your belief.

Full Team Results
2022 XC Photo Album - Feel free to add

Runathon 2022

Thanks to all the families for making the Runathon a success in it's new location this year.  We found a way to get it done and had a great run for many.  A lot of building ahead for this young team.  Please see the laps below if you got donations based off of laps.  Use the soccer field laps and have all donations turned into coach by Thursday practice!

​Runathon Laps

This Week - Betz Invitational!

Monday - Practice 7:45 a.m. - will start in room 108  (All Band members will practice at Hale at 3:15 p.m.)
Tuesday - ALL Practice at 3:15 p.m. at Hale!  Freshman orientation today!
Wednesday - Practice 7:45 a.m. 
Thursday - First day of school!  Practice after school at 3:15 p.m. in Room 108
Friday - Betz Invitational!
Weekend - The current top 7 group will talk to about longer run on Saturday or Sunday we will plan best time for them to get together.  Rest of the team will have off/assigned shorter run on own.
Monday - Labor Day Practice at 6:00 p.m.!  Come dressed to run, school will not be available!


Home Meet Information
A lot of work has already been put into hosting this meet and a lot more work will be done this week.  And I love it, we are about to host the best meet in the entire state this weekend with our 20 team home invitational.  We added a freshman race a few years ago, and all of our freshmen will be in that race.  A great chance to go compete and for a couple to learn how to race up front.  Cross country is 100% about competing and times are mostly irrelevant.  Learn how to compete and overcome any limits.

The men will do a great job being accountable on warmups and helping each other out as I will be out on the course a lot with hosting.  Parents thanks for helping as well when your son isn't racing.

I have the following who said they can help, just find one of the coaches when you arrive and we will let you know where you can help.  

Pasta party this Thursday will be provided by the West Allis Cheese and Sausage Shoppe!
Athletes can join us at Coaches house - 827 S. 97th St. starting at 5:00 p.m.

See below for warmup times and meet lineups.

Betz Invite Team Info