Successful Association Championship leads to Regional Qualifiers!

What a great job by the Delta Hawks today at the Pacific Association Championships!  Everyone ran their best, and that’s all we can ever ask.  We finished the day with two team championships and an individual championship, as well as qualified 19 runners for next week’s Regional Championship Meet! 

First, our 9-10 girls team battled their way to a championship in a two-way team race, then Elias cruised to victory in the 11-12 boys race, maintaining his unbeaten season.  Finally, to close out the competition for the day, our 13-14 boys finished victorious over seven other teams, eking out the win by 2 points over the Diablo Valley club.  Like the coaches always say, “every point counts!”

Our regional qualifiers include:
Hadley (7-8 girls)
Jai and Xol (7-8 boys)
9-10 girl's team (Harper, Sonia, Josie, Hanah, Maddi, Charlotte, and Sophie)
David (9-10 boys) 
Elias (11-12 boys)
Annie (13-14 girls)
13-14 boy's team (Matthew, Ryko, Oliver, Charlie, Lou, and Carlos)

As a side note, I want to give Reagan Wagner a huge shout out as she had a monster race but fell just short of qualifying, finishing 32nd in her race (top 30 get to move on). Despite the course being twice as long as the last time she ran at Willow Hill (was 2k and today was 4k) Reagan still ran the same mile pace!  That is amazing effort, great job Reagan!

Those Hawks who didn’t qualify, you still had a great season and we are so proud of you all.  Your competitive season ends today, but you are welcome to still train with us over the next couple of weeks as we prepare for Nationals. If you do not continue to join us for practice, then you should take some time off to get your body healthy, and then start up with the easy runs again through the off season. We don’t want to lose everything we’ve gained this fall – instead we want to leverage our strength into a successful track season next year!  The (running) fun never ends!

For those who are running next weekend, be prepared for another race just like today.  It is in the same location, will likely be the same schedule, and most of the same runners in each race. It looks like the Central California Association did not have a lot of kids at their championship meet, so there will likely not be a lot of additional kids or teams.  I will share more details when I know them.

This week’s practice schedule is a little thrown off because of Thanksgiving on Thursday.  I want all the advancing Hawks at practice on Monday, but then the rest of the runs this week will be on your own.  MAKE SURE YOU DO YOUR RUNS.  We want to peak for Nationals, that means we can’t let it slip now.

This week's schedule is as follows:

Monday:  5:30pm at the Boathouse
10 min warm up, drills
200/400/600/800/600/400/200
Marshall Hills
10 min cool down, strength

Tuesday: rest and stretch

Wednesday: Gray and Black Group
3-4 mile easy run on your own

Thursday: On Your Own
10 min warm up, drills
20 min tempo
4-5 Hill Repeats
10 min cool down, strength

Friday: Long run
4-6 miles easy

Saturday: rest and stretch

Sunday: USATF Region 14 Championship Meet
Willow Hill Reservoir, Folsom
Kids 10 and Under arrive by 9:30 am
​All other kids arrive by 11:00 am

As always, if you have any questions, please let us know!

Coach Eric