2017 Glory Days Grill Invitational

Coach Sam and I got the best of today's racing weather as the temperature just kept climbing throughout the day. It was a long day, but I'm glad we added this meet to the schedule. So far all of our meets have started with the varsity before moving to JV. While that's been nice for those JV athletes looking to move up to varsity, it was great to be able to sit down and watch our JV and freshman runners get some time to hang out after their races, playing tennis ball football and do some of the line dances to the music provided at the meet.

There were 66 teams entered in today's meet. Glory Days is one of the most popular meets on the calendar in the region. I don't believe DeMatha has competed at Glory Days since 2009, and that may have been our only appearance at the meet, so it was a stroke of coincidence, and of luck, that Coach Sam and I happened to include on this year's schedule long before we found out it was one of the potential landing spots of the WCAC Championship meet. Hopefully three weeks from today we will have more fall-like weather; certainly it will help that none of our guys will have to run at 3pm at the championship meet. Most importantly, they've now seen and raced on the course, so they will be able to visualize their races and how to attack the course over the next three weeks.

Open Race

Here are the results for our open race athletes (118 total entries in the race). The number in front of each name signifies their overall place in the open race. In brackets are their first mile, second mile, and last 1.1 mile splits:

9 Coach Cory - 17:25 [(1) 5:17, (2) 5:45, (3.1) 6:23]

35 Coach Sam - 22:16 [(1) 6:31, (2) 7:30, (3.1) 8:15]

Because I'm a huge stat nerd, I had to go back and look at my high school career for comparison. I ran eight 5k races during my freshman year. I ran faster than my time today in four of those races. In my very first race, I ran 17:36, not far off my time today. The only 5k I ran, after my freshman year, that was slower than my time today came during my junior year when we ran a meet at St. Mary's Ryken, the likely location of next year's WCAC championship meet; granted, the course we run next year may be very different than the course I ran in 2008.

While I don't have splits for him, I have to mention Thomas's younger brother, Ian, also ran in the open race and finished 31st in 21:30!

Freshmen

Here are the results for our freshman athletes (282 total entries in the race). The number in front of each name signifies their overall place in the freshman race. In brackets are their first mile, second mile, and last 1.1 mile splits:

23 Gavin Foran - 19:03 [(1) 5:45, (2) 6:22, (3.1) 6:56]

35 James Hudson - 19:39 [(1) 5:52, (2) 6:31, (3.1) 7:16]

115 Creedence Jackson - 21:37 [(1) 6:30, (2) 7:23, (3.1) 7:44]

127 Steven Camarano - 21:47 [(1) 6:36, (2) 7:16, (3.1) 7:55]

146 Robert Gordon - 22:15 [(1) 6:42, (2) 7:27, (3.1) 8:06]

148 Cameron Polk - 22:18 [(1) 6:51, (2) 7:27, (3.1) 8:00]

217 Nathaniel Ager - 24:34 [(1) 7:16, (2) 8:05, (3.1) 9:13]

249 James Carroll - 26:08 [(1) 7:40, (2) 8:33, (3.1) 9:55]

273 Glenn Smithson - 30:04 [(1) 8:20, (2) 9:46, (3.1) 11:58]

280 Ryan Kasner - 32:01 [(1) 9:12, (2) 10:37, (3.1) 12:12]

Coach Sam and I decided to run all 10 of our freshmen in this race today, even though Gavin is one of our top athletes. We wanted to give him a chance to see where he stacks up against some of the best freshmen in the region and to hide him a bit from some of our WCAC competitors. He had a terrific race and ran a massive PR.

In fact, of our ten freshmen, five set new personal bests this week. All ten had set new PRs last week at Wildcat, which I think was an easier course than today's, so I am very impressed with our young guns. Gavin's 27-second PR was huge considering he had made a leap of more than a minute between Landon and Wildcat. He probably has a good bit more time he can drop by the time championships rolls around.

James Hudson ran a 43-second PR and is now the seventh DeMatha runner to break 20 minutes this season. Our other freshman PRs were Robert (16 seconds), Cameron (11 seconds), and Steven (5 seconds).

Our freshman are the least experienced on the team. If our first time seeing this course had been at WCACs, I have little doubt that our veteran guys would have been ready to step up and would have been able to figure out their best strategies just from the course walk. The freshman (and our new athletes on JV) needed this opportunity to see the course in order to prepare for WCACs. The guys who didn't run PRs today will have a great chance to do so in three weeks. And for those who did run PRs today, I fully expect that they'll better today's times at WCACs, as long as they keep working as hard as they have been and as long as we can keep them healthy.

Team Results

1. Severna Park 73 points

2. Loudoun Valley 81 points

3. West Springfield 173 points

...

9. Good Counsel 367 points

...

14. Gonzaga 395 points

15. DeMatha 408 points

...

29. Paul VI 743 points

Point totals are going to add up fast in a meet of this magnitude. Based on these results, we're right with Gonzaga's freshmen and well within striking distance of Good Counsel's. We still have to see how these next two weeks shape up, but if Gavin and James end up running in the freshman race at championships rather than the varsity race, we will definitely have a shot as a team in that race.

Junior Varsity

Here are the results for our junior varsity athletes (257 total entries in the Division 1 race). The number in front of each name signifies their overall place in the JV Division 1 race. In brackets are their first mile, second mile, and last 1.1 mile splits:

175 Keme Gbemiye-Etta (Jr.) - 23:16 [(1) 7:15, (2) 7:44, (3.1) 8:17]

203 Bodior Elliott (So.) - 24:08 [(1) 7:13, (2) 7:56, (3.1) 8:59]

207 London Bailey (So.) - 24:27 [(1) 7:23, (2) 8:24, (3.1) 8:40]

213 Lucas Arzayas (So.) - 24:34 [(1) 7:37, (2) 8:02, (3.1) 8:55]

239 Drew Robertson (Jr.) - 26:29 [(1) 7:29, (2) 9:01, (3.1) 9:59]

With the exception of London, everyone in the JV race for us is a first-year runner, so experiencing this course was important for their preparation heading into the final weeks of the season. While it's unlikely any of these five will improve enough to make it to varsity, I definitely expect that any of them could be one of our scorers in the JV race. While the most attention goes to the varsity race at championships, I would very much like to see our freshman and JV teams do well, so this experience today was invaluable, regardless of their times.

Bodior did run a 1-second PR over his time from Wildcat last week. All five of these guys should now have an idea of how best to attack the course in three weeks, so no doubt we'll see even better times once they make those adjustments.

They do not score teams in the JV races at Glory Days.

Varsity

Here are the results for our varsity athletes (240 total entries in the race). 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 1.1 mile splits:

88 Matthew Metz (Sr.) - 17:58 [(1) 5:38, (2) 5:56, (3.1) 6:24]

122 John Ahalt (Sr.) - 18:30 [(1) 5:44, (2) 6:05, (3.1) 6:41]

178 Thomas Parsons (So.) - 19:15 [(1) 5:50, (2) 6:16, (3.1) 7:09]

219 Anthony Perry (So.) - 20:05 [(1) 5:44, (2) 6:30, (3.1) 7:51]

232 Ashby Ervin (Jr.) - 20:58 [(1) 6:10, (2) 6:58, (3.1) 7:50]

233 Manuel Legaspi (Jr.) - 21:02 [(1) 6:15, (2) 6:58, (3.1) 7:49]

237 Hayward Smith-Cassidy (So.) - 22:10 [(1) 6:15, (2) 7:22, (3.1) 8:33]

While this wasn't a particularly great race for everyone, Matthew and John both ran big PRs today. Matthew broke 18 minutes for the first time in his career, dropping 12 seconds from his PR set last week at Wildcat on, probably, an easier course. John had also set a PR last week and took another 10 seconds off today. Bull Run's course runs fast and we had pretty good conditions today, albeit a bit on the warm side, but there's no doubt in my mind that Wildcat is an easier course than this, so I am very impressed with our senior captains.

Anthony was in good position at the mile mark with John right behind him. I'm not sure when it happened since my focus after the race was making sure he and I were on the same page, but when he reached me at the second mile I knew something wasn't right based on where he was in the field and he indicated that his hip was bothering him. Most likely, the piriformis injury that kept him out of practice and the Landon Invitational flared back up. The good news is that we have three weeks for him to heal up. The better news is that, despite missing quite a bit of practice after the Woodward Relays, when he got back he hadn't missed a step and he dropped about a 2-minute PR last week. He shouldn't have to do much to maintain his physical fitness over the next few weeks, maybe a bit of stationary biking at the school once the trainers feel he's ready for that.

Last week I forgot to offer the varsity runners the Gatorade Prime chews. They were able to try them out today and it didn't seem to bother most of the guy, or if it did they didn't mention it. However, Ashby's stomach was acting up during the race and he suspects it was the chews. If anybody else felt a bit queazy and you think that may be the cause, don't use them going forward. Just like with the foods you eat, if you find that you run poorly the day after a certain meal, or at practice after a certain lunch, and it's not because of an injury, I would recommend staying away from it as a pre-race meal going forward. The chews tend to work for me and a lot of people but they are definitely not for everyone. Better that we learn it now and adjust than that we make the mistake of using them at championships.

Manuel's shin splints seem to be picking back up so he'll need to get in to see the trainers on Tuesday and we'll see what we can do. Typically you can run through shin splints, but it's not fun so we may try and get him on the bike or the elliptical when possible during these next few weeks to avoid aggravating it. Hayward was dealing with some breathing problems, likely from all the dust being kicked up on the course.

Team Results

1. Severna Park 70 points

2. Dulaney 97 points

3. Gonzaga 180 points

...

26. O'Connell 605 points

...

31. Good Counsel 745 points

32. DeMatha 798 points

Again, points add up fast when you have this many athletes competing. If Anthony had been healthy, and if Ashby had felt better during his race, likely would have moved up past Good Counsel easily. Our focus over the next two weeks is to get those guys who are hurt, which thankfully seems limited to Anthony as far as serious injuries go, healthy and to get one more week of hard training in for our healthy guys before our focus turns to maintenance and staying healthy for the last two weeks heading into championships.

Final Thoughts

First, I want to thank the parents for all of their support. You all have been terrific this season and it was nice to have a chance to talk to most of you for at least a few minutes during the quieter moments of the meet today. Your support of the team makes my job a lot easier and, whether they say so or not, your sons all seem to run their best when you are there to watch and support. Obviously not all of us have the most conducive schedules to be at every meet, but last year I believe every athlete's parents were at the WCAC championship meet and I'd love for all the parents to be able to make it out for that meet in particular.

Tomorrow I will send out a rather lengthy email, just a heads-up. The most important topics to look for will be:

1. Instructions for Monday (no team practice, but I will assign a long run to be completed on your own, so make sure you check how long you should run for).

2. Details about Wednesday's practice (early dismissal due to standardized testing).

3. The Foran's have kindly invited all the athletes to their home next Saturday for a social get-together so that the athletes can enjoy each other's company outside of practice and meet settings, so I will include details about that for everyone.

There may be a couple other small items I will include, but those are the big three that you should pay special attention to.

Thanks again to everyone for your help this season. Athletes: keep up the great work. I know not all of you were happy with your performances today, some took it particularly hard, but if you take nothing else away from your race, just remember that you've got me in your corner and I won't let one bad race define your season if you don't. I'll see you all on Tuesday.

The one who falls and gets up is so much stronger than the one who never fell. - Luna Adriana