2017 Wildcat Invitational

We really couldn't have asked for much better racing weather than we got today. It was a bit windier than we would have liked, but the temperature, while cool, was really perfect for distance running. Just about all of our returning athletes dropped their time from last year and, in doing so, set new personal bests. I believe all of our first-year runners also ran their fastest races of the season today, so congrats to all.

*There is an issue with the JV boys results. The places are all correct but it appears that the times on the website are roughly 15 seconds slower than they should be. In the results on this webpage, I have included the unofficial time (taking their "official" time and subtracting 15 seconds). The meet director says the timers believe they have pinpointed the issue and are working on correcting the results. If/when those updates are made, I will update this and send out another alert.

Junior Varsity

Here are the results for our junior varsity athletes (64 total entries in the race). The number in front of each name signifies their overall place in the JV race. In brackets are their first mile, second mile, and last 1.1 mile splits:

9 James Hudson (Fr.) - 20:22* [(1) 6:31, (2) 6:56, (3.1) 6:55]

12 Manuel Legaspi (Jr.) - 20:37* [(1) 6:42, (2) 6:45, (3.1) 7:10]

15 Creedence Jackson (Fr.) - 21:01* [(1) 6:41, (2) 6:50, (3.1) 7:30]

22 Steven Camarano (Fr.) - 21:52* [(1) 6:40, (2) 7:15, (3.1) 7:57]

25 Mathias Roy (So.) - 22:00* [(1) 7:02, (2) 7:13, (3.1) 7:45]

27 Keme Gbemiye-Etta (Jr.) - 22:14* [(1) 7:10, (2) 7:10, (3.1) 7:54]

33 Cameron Polk (Fr.) - 22:29* [(1) 7:15, (2) 7:27, (3.1) 7:47]

35 Robert Gordon (Fr.) - 22:31* [(1) 7:11, (2) 7:31, (3.1) 7:49]

36 London Bailey (So.) - 22:37* [(1) 7:09, (2) 7:31, (3.1) 7:57]

42 Nathaniel Ager (Fr.) - 23:07* [(1) 7:24, (2) 7:39, (3.1) 8:04]

49 Lucas Arzayus (So.) - 23:54* [(1) 7:49, (2) 7:56, (3.1) 8:09]

50 Bodior Elliott (So.) - 24:09* [(1) 7:41, (2) 8:04, (3.1) 8:24]

51 James Carroll (Fr.) - 24:18* [(1) 7:30, (2) 7:54, (3.1) 8:54]

56 Drew Robertson (Jr.) - 25:34* [(1) 7:40, (2) 9:05, (3.1) 8:49]

61 Glenn Smithson (Fr.) - 28:49* [(1) 8:37, (2) 9:44, (3.1) 10:28]

62 Ryan Kasner (Fr.) - 30:25* [(1) 9:38, (2) 10:20, (3.1) 10:27]

Firstly, I was thrilled that we had all 23 athletes competing today. While not everyone was at 100% health, nobody at this point in time appears to be nursing any injuries that could be made worse by running. The few minor injuries we are dealing with, primarily shin splints, are injuries that you can safely run through; it's just a matter of pain tolerance. I'm glad to see that our guys are able to run through these minor issues.

Manuel mentioned to me before his race that he wasn't sure he'd be able to maintain his pace because of his shins. Not only did he maintain a solid pace through the first two miles, he got even faster at the end, running at a 7:31/mi pace from the two mile mark to the finish. Two weeks ago at Landon, Manuel took nearly a minute off his previous PR. He dropped another minute today!

James Hudson wasn't able to maintain his opening mile pace through the second mile, but he seemed to recover well because he averaged a 6:17/mi pace from the two mile mark to the finish. Unless the results are updated by the timers, I'm going off this time which says that James and Hayward ran the same time today. Next week at Glory Days there is a freshman race, and Coach Sam and I still have to decide what our plan is going to be (i.e., will all of our freshmen run in that race or will we have our varsity freshman/freshmen run in the varsity race. If we decide on the latter, we'll have a difficult decision ahead of us.

Keme's splits really stood out to me. Not only were his first and second miles both run at 7:10 pace, his last 1.1 mile was a 7:11 pace. It's not common to see such even splits, especially considering this was his first race of the season.

Keme, James Carroll, and Glenn all ran their first races of the season today. Every single JV runner set their season best. Only London did not set a PR today, but he ran in the 22s for just the second time at DeMatha and, after a rough finish last season and a bit of a slow start this season, is within striking distance of his PR of 22:08. Our biggest PR was Cameron, who took about three and a half minutes off his Landon time; he's been practicing noticeably better over the past couple weeks now that his early season foot injury is behind him.

Team Results

1. Boonsboro 16 points

2. Archbishop Spalding 53 points

3. DeMatha 70 points

4. Smithsburg 90 points

5. Saint James 155 points

We had six runners in the top half of the JV field, and I was thrilled to see our next three runners (Cameron, Robert and London) running so close to each other. Our guys still have a lot of room to improve, both this year and looking forward to the next two and three years. I'm excited for what we're going to do this year but I am especially excited for the team's future with such a talented group of young runners.

Varsity

Here are the results for our varsity athletes (61 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:

9 Matthew Metz (Sr.) - 18:10 [(1) 5:35, (2) 6:06, (3.1) 6:29]

10 Anthony Perry (So.) - 18:19 [(1) 5:42, (2) 6:07, (3.1) 6:30]

16 John Ahalt (Sr.) - 18:40 [(1) 5:51, (2) 6:15, (3.1) 6:34]

19 Thomas Parsons (So.) - 18:49 [(1) 5:49, (2) 6:21, (3.1) 6:39]

27 Gavin Foran (Fr.) - 19:30 [(1) 6:11, (2) 6:37, (3.1) 6:42]

34 Ashby Ervin (Jr.) - 19:52 [(1) 6:29, (2) 6:40, (3.1) 6:43]

42 Hayward Smith-Cassidy (So.) - 20:22 [(1) 6:17, (2) 6:51, (3.1) 7:14]

Ashby is in the same boat as London, being the only DeMatha runner in his race who didn't PR, but he's making some quick strides here in the middle of the season and I think he's going to be just fine by the time we get to the championship meet in four weeks. He took about a minute and a half off his time at Landon. Gavin and Hayward both took a minute or more off their Landon, times, as well.

Thomas had run a 5k in less than 19 minutes, but now he's finally done it in a DeMatha jersey. John ran a PR, running four seconds faster than he did on this course last year where he last set a PR. Matthew's PR had been 18:10.8 set in North Carolina as a sophomore and now, with an 18:09.8, he has a new PR (he ran 17 seconds faster than he did on this course last year).

Anthony ran a terrific race, only losing one second to Matthew in the second mile and another second in the closing 1.1 miles. I think if he relaxes a bit and lets Matthew set his tempo off the line, he'll be able to avoid losing those seven seconds in the first mile. I had to hustle to the mile mark right after the start, but I saw him shoot off the line and my gut tells me he probably died just a little mid somewhere around that field and Matthew was able to open up that small gap while Anthony was recovering from his start. Obviously he did recover, and pretty quickly, but I think a more controlled start will put him right with Matthew throughout the race and allow them to worth together and feed off each other.

Team Results

1. Boonsboro 30 points

2. Smithsburg 75 points

3. DeMatha 81 points

4. Archbishop Spalding 88 points

5. Williamsport 128 points

6. Spring Mills 134 points

7. Saint James 208 points

8. Grace Academy 244 points

9. South Hagerstown 248 points

This was a fairly small meet, just as Landon was smaller this year than last. That said, the big thing that stood out to me, and to Coach Sam when I spoke to him about our results, was our 1-5 spread. At Landon, that spread (the time from when our first runner finished to when our fifth runner finished) was 3 minutes and 2 seconds. We more than halved that today by cutting our spread just just 1 minute and 20 seconds. Obviously having Anthony made a big difference, but even if we just take our 1-4 spread from Landon (Matthew to Gavin, the same two runners we look at for today's 1-5 spread), a spread of 2 minutes and 14 seconds, this was a huge improvement. And most importantly, we didn't make that improvement by our top runner slowing down; the rest of our guys are moving up closer to him.

Final Thoughts

Coach Sam and I will discuss what our plan is going to be for Glory Days next week, specifically regarding the Freshman race. I will have meet information for Glory Days posted on the website by the end of the day on Monday, if not sooner.

Great work over the past two weeks, guys. I think we've done a pretty good job of finding a balance between being serious about our drills and strength work while also being able to joke around and have fun, so hopefully we can continue this status quo. We have just four more weeks now until championships, so just be aware and responsive if and when I have to snap you guys back into focus. Otherwise, keep up the great work!

"Hustle beats talent when talent doesn't hustle."