2016 Landon Scrimmage

On Wednesday, the cross country team was dismissed from school two hours early to participate in a scrimmage meet at the Landon School. Weekday competitions present a variety of challenges we thankfully will not have to worry about for the rest of our season.

It is important to remember that it is early in the season. If you see your time and are not happy with it, do not let that discourage you. We have eight and a half weeks until the WCAC Championships and another two weeks until the private school state championships. You will get stronger, you will get faster, and, more importantly, you will get smarter.

Varsity Race Results

We ran four athletes in the varsity race, which was intended to be a full 5 kilometers (3.1 miles), but was shortened due to a bee issue on the course. I do not have an exact, official measurement for the course, but have estimated it at 4.2 kilometers (2.6 miles).

Below are my hand timed results for our four athletes in the varsity race. In parentheses are their approximate time conversions to a full 5k.

1. Matthew Metz (Jr.) - 15:18 (18:24)

2. Jacob Keppler (Sr.) - 15:38 (18:48)

3. John Ahalt (Jr.) - 16:36 (19:58)

4. Andrew Byrd (Sr.) - 24:49 (29:51)

Novice Race Results

Our remaining athletes participated in the novice race, with the exception of three athletes I held out due to injury. The novice race was intended to be 2.25 miles and I chose to enter our newer athletes in this race as a stepping stone to their first 5k race this Saturday. Due to a course change, the novice race was shortened slightly to almost exactly 2 miles.

Below are my hand timed results for the seven DeMatha runners who ran in the novice race. In parentheses are their approximate time conversions to a 5k.

1. Devin Smith (Fr.) - 12:10 (19:24)

2. Anthony Perry (Fr.) - 13:20 (21:16)

3. Thomas Parsons (Fr.) - 13:26 (21:25)

4. Dominic Ximinies (Fr.) - 14:38 (23:20)

5. Ashby Ervin (So.) - 14:44 (23:30)

6. London Bailey (Fr.) - 19:46 (31:32)

7. Caleb Ghatt (Fr.) - 20:55 (33:22)

Takeaways

I am very pleased with some of these results. Some of our athletes were very serious about the season and spent their summers training to be at this point, and it showed. Others did no cross country training until the week of August 15th when we met for our first official practices of the season. That showed as well.

Ultimately, whether I am pleased with a result or not matters little. What matters is whether you as a competitor are pleased with your performance. We have two days to recover and turn around for our first official meet of the season. Today was a practice meet of sorts. If you don't like your result from the scrimmage, rest assured that I am throwing these results out after today. You start with a clean slate on Saturday. But from here on, every race matters. Make every race your best race.

"Most people run a race to see who is fastest. I run a race to see who has the most guts." - Steve Prefontaine