Hawks Start the Season on Fire!

What a first XC Meet of the Season!  The Hawks competed today at the Lagoon Valley Classic, and it was a great baseline to build from for all our athletes.  Also, we brought home some serious hardware – including our FIRST TEAM WIN! 

The boy’s team placed first overall in the Middle School race, upsetting returning champion Sutter Middle School with a score of 53 to 56 (lowest score wins in XC team scoring).  Even more impressive, the Sutter scoring runners were all in 8th grade, while our team was comprised of three boys in 7th grade and two 6th graders!  Elias led the way with a 3rd place finish, followed closely by Matthew in 5th place.  Luke finished 14th, Charlie finished 23rd and newcomer Lou Knowles rounded out the scoring runners in 24th place (top 5 runners score for a team).  We also had strong showings by Ryko (34th), John (47th), Nate (70th), Jack (81st), and Taylor (92nd).

On the girl’s side, the Hawks finished 4th as a team, led by Adeleine’s 4th place finish, followed by Natalie and Tahlia Allen at 13th and 14th respectively.  Josie was the team’s fourth runner, placing 37th, while Abigail contributed to our scoring runners in 44th place.  With only five girls competing in this meet, we were super happy they all made it to the starting line and competed as hard as they did – what a team effort!

We are very proud of all our kids today, and incredibly excited for our potential moving into the season.  The fact that these kids woke up early on a Saturday and came out and gave 110 percent for their team is all we can hope for as coaches, and every single athlete today were heroes to us.  Also, it will be great to see what the new additions to the team can accomplish in the months ahead. 

Finally, I want to specifically highlight a couple of phenomenal performances in our first meet:

First, two runners really demonstrated what off-season training and growth can accomplish in today’s race.  Charlie’s fastest mile pace last spring was 6:24, and he averaged 6:30 pace over today’s hilly 1.5 mile course, meaning his pace was only 6 seconds slower today than his best pace on the track! Similarly, Adeleine’s pace today was only 9 seconds slower than her best track pace from the spring.  This is an amazing effort, and bodes well for their growth this season!

Second, in a striking promise for future Hawks teams, we had a couple of impressive 2nd grade performances in a “middle school” race.  Josie shocked the crowd with a medal-winning 37th place finish, the only girls ahead of her (other than our very own Natalie) were 6th grade and older.  Meanwhile, Jack Mittleman, in his racing debut, out-sprinted a couple of 7th graders to finish 81st overall.  With youth like this it seems like the Hawks will be able to carry success forward for years to come.
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The season really begins to roll next week, as our athletes fight off all challengers in another Middle School race at the Josh Ruff Memorial Invite on Saturday.  Go Hawks!