MHS Track and Field 5.10.2016 – Mondovi Invite Boys Comment Sheet

“Picture me rollin…”

It’s good to hit your stride at the end of the season, and it’s important to know that you can either start the season fast or end it fast. Sometimes, from our opponents, we see athletes that are extremely strong or fast or tough at the beginning of the season, only to fade at the end. With the distance kids, we put them through a very difficult set of workouts last week. Now they taper, and their times are dropping. Next week their times will be amazing. Our jumpers and hurdlers have worked endlessly on technique, and now they are improving significantly. This is what we want to see. We have two athletes on the team that are starting to peak at just the right time; Brian and Parker. Parker won the 100m with a time of 11.71. He ran 11.69 into the wind, and defeated two very good sprinters for the win. Brian long-jumped 21’4 (actually it was a 21’5 but the high jump official wrote down the wrong mark). He defeated an amazing athlete from Fall Creek and won. In fact, he had two jumps that were in the 21s, and another in the high 20s. Just two months ago, Brian couldn’t break 20’. Both Parker and Brian are peaking at just the right time. Oh, and both won three events; Brian won the high jump, long jump and 4x100m relay. Parker won the 100m, 4x100m and 4x400m relay. Three gold medals each – well done, boys! Speaking of the 4x100m relay, Evans looked a bit tired off the start. Everyone nailed their hand-offs, though, and the team ran 43.9. This isn’t a school record for the group, but it’s still faster than the previous school record time of 44.17. Healthy, fresh Evans will make a huge difference moving forward. Everyone seems to think this group will break 43.4, and maybe break 43 if they qualify for state. We’ll see. Speaking of Evans, he came off of a wonderful New Richmond Relays, where he had 4 PRs. Mondovi was a bit different. The shins were a problem again. It should be ice baths and rest building into BRC – no serious work. Taper off of the weights, no 7 on 7 in the morning – just rest, track practice, technique work and hand-offs. Same with Husby (and Rhett). Take it easy, guys. Rest. Accept your taper. Get healthy and stay sharp. I know you are committed football, and I respect that, but you have a chance to do something very special. So relax. You don’t need to be in school at 6:00 in the morning. Get some sleep. Rest. The fresher your legs, the faster you are going to be heading into BRC, Regionals and Sectionals. Go win a BRC title. Get through to Regionals, and Sectionals. Try to get to state. But you can’t do it if you are over-working through your taper. Evan, by the way, was 2nd in the 100m and also won the 4x400m relay. That’s two golds and a silver. And don’t worry – your times will come down at BRC!!!! Moving to the distance events, Grant and Matt had a great battle in the 1600m. Matt didn’t play sit and kick. Instead he made a pretty big move at 1000m, and Grant couldn’t quite hang-on. But we’re certainly seeing the old Grant again. First and second in the mile, though, is a pretty solid performance. As for Noah, he did have a season PR, but he hasn’t run a mile in quite some time and he looked a bit out of his element. I think he can break 5:00, but that might have to wait until regionals. He came back with an amazing 55.1 in the 4x400m relay, though, and that’s a very solid performance. In the 3200m, Jerry ran a near-perfect race for the 2nd place finish. The splits were a 1:17, then a bunch of 1:22s or 1:23s, then a 1:17 to finish. He raced (and races) intelligently. He moved up very well. It’s funny to watch a whole pack of guys go through the first 400m in 1:10 (that’s 9:20 pace, by the way). Our guys don’t take the bait at all – he was smart, relaxed and intelligent. He didn’t pass the runner from Durand until the turn on the final lap, which was perfect. As for Dane and Evan, they looked a little off. Dane, apparently, had double secret pink eye, or some other infliction. He looked tired. Evan looked tired as well. These guys have raced quite a bit, often going to varsity and JV meets the same week. That’s going to take a toll, but now that we are tapering they will see some huge drops in their times. Holy cow, there were some AMAZING hurdlers at this meet. St. Croix Central and Fall Creek have great guys. They are fast! The 110m hurdles at the BRC might not be so fast! Strand ran very well in prelims and finals. His lifetime PR is 16.42, and he’ll get back there very quickly. He ran 17.15 in the prelims, and on a cool day with a headwind. And headwinds affect hurdlers more than any other event. Sam Zbornik did three events, and it was difficult. I put him in that position intentionally. At one point, he was high-jumping and hurdling at the same time. He had to check out, run over to the hurdles, race, check back in. That’s part of the deal for kids that do the HJ and the hurdles. Still, 18.07 in the prelims was outstanding. And in the finals, Sam ran 18.19, despite some major contact with the foot on his trail leg on the 7th hurdle. He stumbled but finished very well! The 46.98 in the 300 hurdles was also outstanding. By the way, here is the 300m hurdle progression for Zbornik and Labs. I didn’t include Owen because he hasn’t run the 300m hurdles as much, mostly because we’ve been using him in other events. Anyway, here it is.

300m Hurdle Progression SAM ZBORNIK JASON LABS MHS (4.15) 48.77 49.62 NR (4.21) 48.10 48.81 RL (4.28) 47.52 48.12 MON (5.10) 46.98 47.81

That’s called “riding the wave”. They are putting up PR times at every meet, riding a wave of PRs. Watching Sam now, and Jason as well, it’s amazing how far they’ve come with their 300m hurdle times. 45.5 usually scores at the BRC Meet. This year might be more difficult, or it might be less difficult. It’s too hard to tell right now, but we’ll see. Anyway, it’s been fun watching Sam get stronger and more confident. As for Jason, he’s come so far this season. It’s amazing what he’s accomplished. The boys 400m was interesting. Kevyn pulled out due to an illness, so Grant ran in his place. Ryan Westphal forgot to come to the meet, so Matt Kieffer ran in his place. So we had two guys who just ran the 1600m jump right into the 400m. And it was hilarious. Neither guy is a sprinter. Both have miles and miles and miles in their legs and they haven’t spent much time sprinting; they have those short, choppy strides that we see when otherwise smooth distance runners try to run fast. Anyway, Grant ran 57.5, good enough for 5th place. Matt ran a 58.0. I didn’t think I’d live to see the day when Matt broke sixty in a 400m (although it was bound to happen eventually, right?). Matt skipped the 59s and almost skipped the 58s. And he was 7th. As for Emmett Suckow, he raced brilliantly. 58.6 was a MASSIVE PR! I know Emmett wants to vault, and run, and maybe even jump, but the 400m is the best race ever for new, young sprinters. It makes you stronger, it makes you appreciate a 100m and 200m and it allows you to move-up and run a 800m. If you are good a the 400m you can sometimes hurdle and jump, too. The 800m was quite a treat. Al went out hard – or so he thought. 1:00 / 1:04. That’s not too bad, but Al is ready for so much more. We have beaten the absolute crap out of him this season. His workouts have been insane. As of Tuesday, he hadn’t yet started to taper. Now he’s starting, and he’s going to be feeling amazing by the time BRC rolls around. As of Tuesday, his legs were still bothering him a little bit. He was still a little sore. He was still a little tired. Well, the beast is about to come out. And it’s going to be awesome. As for Joe and Jack, the both seem a little stuck. This is common. They both have had amazing workouts as well, and they both will take a taper extremely well. Joe did have a PR, though. I think the 1:06 for the first lap was a little slow. By the time BRC rolls around, both should be able to run 1:04 for the first lap and come back in 1:06 for a 2:10. The boys 200m was amazing. Rhett ran brilliantly, putting up a 2nd place finish with a 24.5. It was awfully cold by the time finals came around, so times weren’t all that fast (for anyone). Still, a 2nd place medal at a pretty big meet is pretty special. After the race, Rhett said, “I wanted to win that”. Well, you were close, Rhett. Matt Jones ran very well, too. He was about .9 seconds away from making finals, but the 200m seems to be his race. Then there is Devin. He triple jumped 39’8, which is unbelievable. That’s nearly a two-foot PR! The only thing he did differently is that he didn’t look down; he kept his head up. That makes a huge difference in the jumps, apparently. He kept his head up and his speed was excellent and he was able to have a great day. He went over to the 200m for the start and qualified for finals. In the finals he ran 25.3, a wonderful time for a freshmen! So he was 2nd in the triple jump and 5th in the high jump, which was good for 12 individual points. Check this out:

POINT WINNERS – INDIVIDUAL EVENTS (not counting relays) 1. Brian Wheeler 20 Two of these guys are seniors. One is a junior. 2. Justin Link 13 One is a sophomore who was an all-conference 3T Devin Williams 12 cross country runner. One is a freshmen, involved 3T Grant Bilse 12 in a varsity sport for the first time ever. That’s a 3T Matt Kieffer 12 pretty good day for Devin!!!

Also in the triple jump was Alex Langer, who qualified for finals and had a great 36’7. He also had a PR in the discus, and jumped into the long jump for Kevyn Perkins. He missed a PR in the long jump, but had a solid day otherwise. In the pole vault, new poles abound. Jack is trying to go 12’ and he has a new pole. It takes a bit of time to adjust, but he’ll be OK for the BRC meet. Jake hit 9’6, but he wants 11’. It was a pretty cold day for vaulting, certainly, and they both did quite well considering. Good, warm weather, with a nice tail wind… We can only hope to get that weather next week at the BRC. Over to the throws, where Justin had a nice PR in the discus. His shot put needs to get better, so he needs to warm-up a little more. He is FAR more consistent this year, but he’ll need a 42’ to make finals at the BRC. Maybe a 43. As for DJ, he didn’t quite PR. I really like his work ethic, attention to detail and how positive he is. He’s going to get bigger, and stronger, and all of the work he’s put in is going to pay off. Harmston just missed finals in the discus. He was about two feet away. Still, it was a nice series of throws for the young man. He’s getting bigger, too, and he will be a very good thrower over the next couple of years. A freshmen breaking 100’ is pretty rare, so keep working hard, Harmston! Well, that’s it. We’ll move on to the BRC Meet and see if we can put up some points against our beastly conference. Time to taper, time to relax.