SPC Meet Recap

The SPC Conference Championship Meet is one of the best conference meets in the state. 10 very strong teams who bring great competition at all levels. It is a great chance for our guys to really test themselves. The day we got to race was perfect: chilly with little wind, some spitting rain and the course was in great shape.

The fresh/soph crew kicked off our day with a strong team performance. The race of the day for this group came from Tommy Adelmann. Tommy took a chance and put himself in position upfront early and hung tough throughout the race to finish 7^th place overall. Paul De Avila continued his aggressive racing as he followed Tommy to the front and it paid off for him as well turning in a PR of 17:32. Pauly D was followed closely by Aaron and Mike who both ran just off their season best times. Cam Mulyk battled tough to round out our top 5 scorers. Colin Graefen has dealt with injuries this season and is just now getting back to full health and he finished as our 6^th man. Alex Rojo finished out the race for our fresh/soph crew running a PR of 18:44 cracking the 19 barrier for the 1^st time. The team finished 5^th overall in the conference. They were beaten by 4 teams that were very sophomore heavy, this group of guys has a very bright future.

The varsity guys were looking fresh in the post season uniforms. The big story line coming in was Jonathan Goetsch and his first race coming back off of injury for the season. Jon took a little while to get moving, but as the race progressed so did he. He ran a negative split to finish the race strong and healthy. A big boost for our team as we head into the post-season. Javy Garcia led the varsity group with a season best time, and he was followed closely by Austin Emrath and Ryan Bonomo. Dean Eubanks also ran a negative split race to finish as our 4^th man. Ryan Robinson and Christian Reun rounded out the varsity race for us. The result as a team was not what we were looking for, but the big take away is running our full team for the first time this season and we also had our closest 1-5 split of the year. Add a few fresh/soph guys in the mix for next week and I think we are ready to do something special.

The open race saw 15 of 20 guys run PRs. A great end to the season for those who will not be racing anymore. Vince France and Jacob Obman led the way running stride for stride through 2.5 miles and then both finishing with lifetime bests. JJJ ran splits of 6:05, 6:29, 5:53! to crack 19 for the first time running 18:27. Vince’s splits were very similar 6:05, 6:30, 5:58! I loved the visual of a freshman and a senior pushing each other to success in the race. Afterward Vince gave JJJ his nomination for Runner of the Week because of the effort JJJ put in to push Vince to a PR, #TEAM. Kyle Schick “Hydro” was our next man in, following up last week’s 1 minute PR with a near 30 second PR (19:05). Jayson Matula closed hard to run just off his PR. Chris Cockrell has been smart and patient with his training this year, using the bike regularly to stay healthy and it has paid off in a big way at the end of the year. Chris ran yet another PR (his 5^th of the year) to finish just over 20 minutes (20:19). I am really proud of the way Chris has run this year! Not to be outdone by some of his other teammate’s steady improve Patrick Kacena continued his PR setting ways, coming off a 2 minute PR last week, Patrick took another minute off this week to crank out a 20:29. Connor Kou Kou ran just his 2^nd XC race ever and he was next man in running 20:42 (a 1:10 improvement from last week). Henry Matson capped his season with a PR of a few seconds as well, running 20:50, and looking strong the entire way through, this was the race where “Hank Mat” looked his best throughout the entirety of the race. EJ Brotarlo finished within 2 seconds of his PR from a few weeks ago, a strong run from the senior who will see some big time benefits from this effort in the 800 this spring. Johnny Gould ran a PR of a few seconds and looked tough doing it. Luke Edmondson has been battling injuries for the season and fought hard today to finish strong. Alix Awalt has been one of our most improved runners of the season going from a 24 minute runner last year to a 20 minute guy this year. SPC was not Alix’s day but I could not be prouder of Alix and his improvement this season. The Ruiz brothers ran their closest race of the season Nick in his final race finished just off his season best. Alex finished with a PR. Hunter Porn rocked a 1 minute PR to break the 24 minute barrier for the first time (23:54) and did it the entire way with a huge smile on his face. No one on the team brightens everyone’s day like HP, really proud of Hunter’s effort this year. We had a great pack run from our final group through the chute and it resulted in 5 PRs! Frank Tribble took a risk at the halfway point and made a strong move that resulted in a PR. Noah Franceschini ran a tough race and battled back from a slow start to catch and pass many runners. Justin Irizarry still continues to find his stride in running as he ran another PR to end his year, Justin’s first race of the year was 29:53 today he ran 24:41. Diego Herrera equaled his PR hanging tough with his teammates as they battled to the line. Nathan Weyer rounded out the open race for us with a season best as well 24:45.

I am really proud of the way all of the guys competed in our Conference Meet. I love the direction that these guys have the team pointed and can’t wait to see what the future brings.