report from Steven:
Newton South @ Division I State 2/16/2013 (this is a true Division "State" championship as it includes West, Central and Ea. Ma.)
We have had so many kids sick during the past month that it was hard to cobble together line ups and that was most true in trying to fill our relays.
This is the most adversity in terms of illness that I can remember our girls having to face in a season. Not only has illness altered lines a great deal it has also taken away technical event practice and conditioning. It has been a very trying season in that regard.
The remarkable thing is that this team kept believing and kept striving. Our rough times were made better by the courage and great attitude that our girls showed all season long. I could not be more proud of this team. In many ways this has been an outstanding and remarkable season.
At Disivion I States we got a bit more healthy and we had a day to be proud of.
Jonee Harrison 12 (team captain) started putting the shot over 30 feet for the first time about mid season. She has never looked back and has thrown over 31 feet meet after meet since. She has been very steady for us at a state level. She put 31'2" and that is a solid day. Her leadership has also helped our girls get to the state meet looking forward.
Our 4 x 200 came within .05 or 5/100th of a second of our season best that we ran in the DCL. The DCL race was a break through race for them and it was nice to see them do it again at Division I State. That team was Ashley Nhek 10, Katherine Cullen 10, Esther Cho 11 and Jina An 11 and they ran 1:56.25. This group has worked hard during every workout and really worked to get their hand offs down. I was so happy to get these girls to states and have them compete so well.
Our 4 x 400 has been an event of constant line up changes, but the group of girls that ran this have come through for us all season long, many times as alternates.
Sonya Nair 10, ran a PR 65.1 leg followed by Caroline Delheim 10 with a PR of 65.0. Caroline did a great job of getting out fast and chasing and her strength allowed her to finish strong. Sophia Cen 11 has really come on at the end of the season and she gave a great effort on the 3rd leg. Our anchor was slated to run anchor on our 4 x 800 at the start of the week, but Anna Rhatigan has been ill for over a week. She really wanted to race and we felt she deserved to have a place on our Division team so I put her on anchor on the 4 x 400 and she looked great finishing for us with a 64.2 split. That is our 2nd fastest time of the season with a different line up. This group raced really well to run 4:22.39.
It was not long ago that Rebecca Grusby was sick and she had to work to get back to form. Placing 3rd in the Division I championship with a 5:11.05 mile is a huge accomplishment for a 9th grader. The thing I liked best about her race is that she showed a great deal of poise in doing it. Catarina Rocha won the race by blasting to a 4:52.34 mile and Rebecca showed patience and ran a very smart early pace. Mid race she took over the pace of the pack running for 2nd and worked to lose most of the field. In the last 600 she had lost all but Sydney Clary of LS and the two of them battled back and forth to pull away to secure 2nd and 3rd. They really helped each other clear the field and keep the pace fast. With 300 to go Rebecca picked up the pace and got a slight gap on Clary. Sydney stayed close enought to kick into 2nd place over Rebecca with 100 meters to go, but Rebecca generated her kick earlier than normal and put a lot of pressure on. I felt this was the best and most compete race that Rebecca has run this season and she did it all from pacing to kicking well.
Rebecca is seeded 11th in All State and her season best of 5:09.41 would rank her 6th in the field. She has a chance to place at All State as a frosh and that is tremendous.
Our 4 x 800 placed 4th with a 21 second PR in 9:41.29 and was in the lead late in the race. We went into Division I ranked 7th in the meet and 21st among teams entered in all four division. We are now going into All States ranked 6th and only 2 seconds out of the top 3.
That is one of the most amazing efforts that I have been part of because of what these kids have had to fight through and also missing one of our strongest legs. This group went in confident and made me feel good about our chances by sheer force of will. These kids were so happy and I have to say that I was super excited watching them. This is a group with a real spark deep inside.
Alekhya stayed with lead pack the entire first leg. At times she was boxed and bumped, but she kept focus and handed off only about a second back from the lead with a split of 2:24.7, Rebecca ran a great 2nd leg keeping pace the entire way and kept us within a about a second of the lead as well in a PR split of 2:25.8. Lucrecia had asked me to yell a lot of instructions from the sidelines because she had missed so much time and wasn't sure how she would feel. It turns out that she did not need my help at all because of the great job Alekhya and Rebecca had done in setting up her position. Lucrecia was up with the leaders by 300 meters into her race and she looked strong. By the 400 mark of her leg the pace had slowed and Lucrecia took the lead and picked up the pace. She kept the lead until about 150 meter to go in her leg and never faltered as she kept us close and handed off in 3rd less than two seconds from the lead with a 2:27.9 split. Lizzie went from being our alternate to our anchor in one short week and she went out to win the event. She came through her first 600 right at her 600 race PR and then kicked the last 200 to a huge PR split in 2:22.9. She ran like an anchor who has been at the state level in this role before and fought every step of the way. She has earned the anchor spot for the future.
I have wanted to run our best 4 x 800 in the Ea. Ma. relays, Coaches Elite, DCLs and Division I states. We have had so much illness on this relay that I have had to replace at least two legs every meet. So when we ran 10:02 at DCL without Lucrecia and Anna I felt like we were starting to race well in what I believed would be our strongest event. Yasmine Hashemi and Lizzie Fineman did a great job filling in at DCL to give our best race to date and solid state seed time. We have had 4 girls run 3:10 or faster in the 1000 and that predicts a very good 4 x 800 team. Our problem has been that we could not get them all together in one race.
Anna Rhatigan has run very well for us this season, but was sick prior to DCL and missed most of the week going into the Division meet as well. She was not feeling 100% and she had not done a workout in about 2 weeks so we felt it best to hold her out of the 4 x 800. She did show great courage and ran a stellar 4 x 400 leg.
So our 4 x 800 went into the state meet without one of our strongest legs. Having to adjust thoughout the season and ask different kids to step up gave us some comfort in making changes the week of the state meet with this relay. Each girl went in believing that we are one of the best teams in the state in this event without having the comfort of a collective relay time to support that idea.
We were able to survive this because of the improvement of the other 4 girls in Alkehya Chaparala, Rebecca Grusby, Lucrecia Aguilar and Lizzie Fineman. Getting Lizzie up to speed is such a hurry and also getting Lucrecia well in such a short time was huge for us. This group of girls ran so well in face of so much adversity that I feel this was one of the best relay efforts in our history. These girls ran so well in the kinds of conditions that truly tested each one of them and came up with a team PR of 21 seconds. That is relay teamwork at it's best. I am beyond proud of these kids including Yasmine, Emily and Anna who all got us here.
Lizzie was injured for a good part of the early season, but worked hard to come back and finished the season qualifying for states in the 600 and looking very strong. So she became our first alternate for the 4 x 800 and split a 2:28 at DCL. From watching her I knew from her cross country season and her 62 high 400 PR that she could run an even better split. I felt at DCL we found another state level 4 x 800 leg outside of the girls that had already run 3:10 or faster. In fact I ran her in that relay at DCL hoping to see just what she showed.
Lucrecia was sick prior to the DCL for many weeks and was only back for 2 days so I ran her in the 400 at DCL as I felt that would be easier on her than an 800 leg.
9 days later I trusted that she would be able to give us a strong leg on our 4 x 800 working to place at States and to advance to All State.
Alekhya had also spent time with sickness and was just starting to get back into the swing by DCL.
So faith carried each girl into the state meet and when I asked them to write their goals for the meet I asked them to each really mean what they put down.
Their individual goals on paper were almost exactly what each kid ran in the meet. That is focus and follow through with the big exception being Lizzie running 3 seconds faster than her goal.
Thanks,
Steven
