Week 6 Hale XC

Frosh Meet Recap

We had a blast heading out to Arrowhead to support our freshmen crew!  We did only have three guys competing which meant no team score, but still a chance to shine for the team and get a glimpse into the future!  The coaches have noticed these three developing a love for the sport and believe that love will translate into hard work into developing at the craft and becoming top tier athletes.  As a heads up to the freshmen, that means running in the off seasons on a daily basis and taking advantage of the abilities you have!  The way to become great is quite simple, but rather hard in that a smaller percentage of athletes actually take advantage of this.  Commitment takes time, but it is time well spent!

Elijah got out great, putting himself up front where he should be and running nearly a minute faster in his first mile compared to last week's opening mile.  This type of racing shows how raw the freshmen are to racing and that simply racing more and gaining experience will see drastic improvements.  Kai Bruner was our athlete of the meet for putting himself with John and crushing his old personal best.  It has been fun to watch him gain confidence and we have seen that confidence carry over in the two days since as he has started running with faster athletes to push himself further.  Kudos to all three of these freshmen, we are proud of your work thus far and excited to see what you guys decide to commit to.  There are a few frosh we hope to add to the mix as we move into the coming weeks!

Marquette Invite Recap

A true cross country course and great weather meant for a great Saturday of cross country!  It was a smaller meet setting but still a meet that packed a lot of firepower as we lined up against Marquette and Tosa East, both running well this season and giving us an opportunity to raise ourselves to new levels.

We are focusing on building to be our best at the end of the season and with that are planning training around a steady progression.  With that, we take different approaches with guys at different races in order to learn and grow as racers.  With our younger guys, it's always about just going out and racing as they will learn and grow rapidly their first season.  As runners age, it is important to change the mental approach and try new things to be prepared for championship racing later on.

In the JV race we had some solid races, finishing third as a team.  David Bevsek continues to move up and get near to where he finished last fall, finishing as our number 3 man behind his brother Frank as our top scorer and Sam as our 2 man.  On the results page I put some comparisons to when we ran on this same course last year and it shows many guys improved quite a bit.  Along with that, the guys ran well at the end of the season so it should be a motivator to a bigger finish yet.  Chase and Mikey rounded out our scoring this week.

Something to note is for guys to not look for times, especially in cross country where we run on different courses.  Times are limits, and no time should be seen as 'too fast'.  High school athletes are at a great spot in running because whether you are in your first year or 4th year, there's just one big breakthrough awaiting you.  If you're on the border of breaking a minute barrier, don't think about it.  Go surprise yourself and realize you're actually on the border of breaking a barrier much faster!

On the varsity race we had Alex and Collin go out controlled this week and were scheduled to run a tempo effort and go hard the last mile.  This allowed our 3-6 men to pack up with them or even run ahead in an effort to move our scorers up.  This year, our top 5 guys have been the same every meet and the best way to improve our five scorers is by everyone on the team improving themselves and raising our team standards.  Our top 5 will also have to keep improving in order to make some noise later in the season, so continue to take chances in practice and practice with purpose.  How you do anything is how you do everything.  And on the item of scorers - the 5 make the team, but it is the team that forms the 5.  Every man contributes to how fast we race.  Just as Roger Bannister allowed for the possibility of breaking 4 minutes in the mile, an athlete who has a big race can inspire the whole team to go do the same.

Parker shot out and looked strong before falling back a bit.  With faster courses ahead we should see him sticking longer and longer.  Jack continued to improve as our 3rd man, while Carson went out and raced like we wanted him today.  Although his last mile came up a bit short, that is the Carson we know we can see more and hope to see that momentum carry into the next weeks as he will make the whole team better if he brings that same intensity.

​2021 Hale XC Results.

Extra Notes to athletes this week

We will ask guys to improve on being together before and after races for warmup and cooldowns.  Parents, if you can please wait until after the team has finished their cool down before you come over by the team area that will help.  We have taken a bit too long on that and it's an important part of the process for the team.  Thanks for your support out on the course week in and week out.  And at home as well, sleep and nutrition are a good thing to remind ourselves about as we enter October.  I will tell athletes to start putting long sleeves and hats in their lockers as well since the weather can rapidly change this time of year.

The Week Ahead

The team travels to Muskego this week to compete on a cool course at Lake Denoon Middle School's campus.  I am very excited for this meet and believe the team will do really well.  Meet information can be found below,

​Muskego Invite Information

Our Friday pasta party will be a men's and women's team party at the Hertel's house!  I know she is looking for one other parent to help make some food, please reach out to me if interested!  Athletes are asked to bring an chair as well as she won't have enough for that many.

Here is the address - 9814 W Montana Ave.


I did get the parent shirts for those that ordered and I will hand these out Monday.  Please pay if you haven't yet for those.