Hawks Crush It at Association Champs!

Well, I think I told y'all that we were ready for Championship Season, didn't I? And these Hawks proved it today!  What an incredible day for the Delta Hawks - not only did we qualify two teams for Regionals, but 21 of the 26 runners qualified and we all ran with determination and class! I know I say it all the time, but the coaches could not be more proud of our squad.

In total, we had seven medalists (top 15 finishes) including Mia (5th), Jai (11th), Josie (12th), David (9th), Adeleine (14th), Natalie (15th), and Elias (3rd)! That is super impressive, but the fact is that every Hawk ran an amazing race today, everyone improving on prior times and/or paces, peaking for the Championship race just the way we planned.

Yes, it is true, some runners start with more CAPACITY than others because they have a lot of talent, have been training for longer, or are generally more accustomed to pushing themselves in competition. But every Hawk's CONDITIONING has improved over the season, and every Hawk ran with incredible COURAGE today! By almost any measure, every Hawk performed incredibly today in Cottonwood. For those who ran this course earlier this season, everyone improved their times and some by a lot (Natalie by 2:04, Cal by 1:47, Maddi by 1:40, Luke by 1:20, Cam and Harper by 1:12, Max by 1:08, and Sonia by 1:02). Or we can look at race pace for Hawks, and how they've improved since the Josh Ruff Invite at the beginning of the season (which was less difficult and shorter for almost all our runners). The 13-14 girls' race today was 1 mile longer than Josh Ruff, and yet Adeleine and Natalie ran the same pace and Mackenna ran 15 seconds/mile faster! The most improved 3k runners today (whose races were 600m longer than Josh Ruff) improved their race paces by the following:

Sonia, Cameron, and Callan all by 30 seconds/mile
Isaac by 41 seconds/mile
Maddi by 65 seconds/mile
Tegan by 76 seconds/mile

These stats are remarkable, and show what hard, consistent work can do for our kids! I can go on and on, with various measures, but they all add up to the simple fact that the Hawks have conquered the season. We are rolling, so let's keep going!

Those of you who are continuing on this season, here is our schedule for this week:

Monday - Intervals at Marshall Hills
(Meet at the Boathouse)

• 10min Warm Up & Cool Down
• Ladder 200-400-600-600-400-200

Tuesday - Rest & Stretch

Wednesday - On your own

• Easy run - 3-4 miles

Thursday - Workout on our own

• 10 min WU/CD
• 15-20 minute tempo run (try to push the pace a little)

Friday - Rest & Stretch

Saturday - Easy run if you want

Sunday - Regional Association Championship Cross Country Meet

• Tesoro Viejo, 4150 Town Center Blvd, Madera CA
• Please arrive by 9am for course walk, races begin at 10am
• More information can be found here or on the team app under events.

We've done the work, now let's get out there and compete!

Coach Eric