2016 Don Stoner Invitational

Only five athletes competed this morning for us. Our seniors had the SAT this morning, we still have a few injured athletes, another athlete was ill, and Caleb had his confirmation this afternoon. Before we talk about our five competitors, I'd like to thank Mr. Legaspi for coming to the school this morning to deliver some bagels, bananas, and water even though his son Manuel was sick and unable to come to the meet. I really appreciate your generosity and commitment to the team. I'd also like to thank London and Anthony, who are both injured, but made the long drive with us to support their teammates.

The Don Stoner course is 3.04 miles, or 100 meters short of a full 5k. It is a moderately hilly course and the conditions were wet today. The overall elevation from start to finish is downhill. I expected our athletes to run faster on this course than they had on our two 5k courses this season, though I worried the weather might throw a wrench in that.

I am very proud of our five athletes who represented DeMatha today. They all ran very well through some less than ideal race conditions. We were blessed not to have a torrential downpour during the race, but we had some heavy rain before the race that made the course very muddy. That said, this was cross country as it is supposed to be run!

Varsity

Here are the results for our varsity athletes. The number in front of each name signifies their overall place in the varsity race. In brackets are their first mile, second mile, and last 1.04 mile splits:

4 Devin Smith (Fr.) - 17:35 [(1) 5:26, (2) 6:00, (3.04) 6:09]

10 Matthew Metz (Jr.) - 18:07 [(1) 5:37, (2) 6:02, (3.04) 6:28]

23 John Ahalt (Jr.) - 18:37 [(1) 5:42, (2) 6:24, (3.04) 6:31]

46 Ashby Ervin (So.) - 19:27 [(1) 5:54, (2) 6:44, (3.04) 6:49]

54 Thomas Parsons (Fr.) - 19:57 [(1) 6:14, (2) 6:48, (3.04) 6:55]

I am beyond pleased with our results today. I don't think you can overstate how motivating it is to have a large group of teammates around to cheer you on during a race. We had only two team members who were not racing, so for these guys to run so well today, pushing themselves with so much distance between supporters, makes me very proud.

I used the CES Race Time Predictor to determine each athlete's approximate time for a full 5k on this course. Because this course is shorter than a 5k and longer than the 3-mile course at Brunswick, it's difficult to determine how much progress our athletes made from last week or from the start of the season, so this tool is helpful. Here are some key notes:

• Devin's predicted 5k time would have tied his PR (personal record).

  • I think Devin's ideal first mile time at this point in the season is around 5:35.

• Matthew would have set a SB (season best). His only faster 5k than his predicted time for today was at the Adidas XC Challenge, which is on a very fast course.

  • Matthew ran faster in both of his first two miles than he did last week.

  • I think Matthew's ideal first mile time at this point in the season is around 5:45.

• John would have set a SB, with a predicted time of only a second slower than his PR, set at Georgetown Prep last season.

  • I think John's ideal first mile time at this point in the season is around 5:50.

• Ashby would have set a PR by about 23 seconds, nearly the same time by which he set his PR last week at Landon.

  • I think Ashby's ideal first mile at this point in the season is between 5:55 and 6:00.

  • The middle of his race is where Ashby will continue to cut time from going forward.

• Thomas would have set a PR by about 12 seconds.

  • His predicted 3-mile time would have been about 4 seconds faster than his time at Brunswick.

  • I think Thomas's ideal first mile at this point in the season is between 6:15 and 6:20.

Team Results

1. Boonsboro 58 points

2. Clarkstown South 114 points

3. Smithsburg 119 points

4. DeMatha 137 points

5. Francis Scott Key 143 points

6. South Hagerstown 149 points

7. Greencastle Antrim 161 points

8. Middletown 166 points

9. Williamsport 221 points

10. Governor Thomas Johnson 223 points

11. Fort Hill 281 points

12. Brunswick 303 points

13. Western Tech 341 points

I'm thrilled with our result today. With Jacob Keppler out today for the SAT, I wasn't sure what to expect from a team standpoint. I was primarily looking for strong individual races. Each athlete delivered one of those and it all came together to give us a pretty terrific team result. Jacob will be back next week, we'll be a week stronger, and we will face most (if not all) of these teams again at the Wildcat Invitational at Williamsport High School, so we will have a great opportunity to finish in the top three.

The good news is that, even with Hurricane Matthew looming, the forecast predicts a very nice week of weather for us coming up. Hopefully that will remain the case as weather experts are warning the East Coast to remain on the lookout. I'll be looking for our guys to have another great performance next Saturday before we head into our last "bye week" of the regular season.

For our injured athletes - if you haven't been religious about seeing our trainers EVERY DAY and doing the thing they prescribe to you at home, now is the time to get serious. If things aren't starting to progress by the end of this week, there's not going to be much we can do with less than three weeks of training before our conference championship meet. We'll continue to rehab and get you healthy and, if possible, you'll run at the championship meet, but we'll have to temper our expectations. If you need or want me to go with you to see our trainers, I'm happy to do so, but you need to come to me with that request.

"Discipline is choosing between what you want NOW and what you want MOST." - Augusta F. Kantra