Dual Meet @ Schaumburg

Hoover Elementary Course

September 11^th, 2008

70-75 degrees, sunny, light wind

JV:  Palatine - 15 / Schaumburg - 49  

Varsity:  Palatine - 23 / Schaumburg - 38

Following a tough week of practice after our first invite of the season the fatigue and heavy legs showed just a bit.  However, we took care of business and completed the first leg toward another MSL West Division title.   As well, our JV girls got back in the winning column in a big way with a 1-6 finish up front.  Hopefully this is the beginning of another long winning streak for our JV squad.

In both races we did great job of getting out and taking control of each race with our pack running.  This is how you win cross country meets.  Helping each other out early and holding one another accountable.  On the JV side we did a much better job of getting out and competing today.  Running faster times will come, but you must first learn to compete and push yourselves when you are tired if you want this team to be successful.  We did a great job of this last night. 

Individually we did not see a lot of PR’s for the season, as expected in the middle of a hard training week.  As well, many of you raced 2.5 miles for the first time.  So don’t look too much into your time.  Our goal is to be at our best at the end of the year.  This means you will be a bit more tired at this time of the season.   

Congrats goes out to freshman Marlena Ruthe for her first individual win of her career, helping lead a 1^st through 6^th finish for the Pirates and placing 11 girls in the top 15.  We could have taken out our first six runners and still won the meet.   Great job girls! 

On the varsity side, we worked well together and did a good job of helping each other out along the way.  Sarah got her third win of the season taking 4^th on the all-time top performance list at Hoover and put herself just ahead of Pirate great Amy Laskowske.  As well, Courtney ran the 9^th best time ever for the course.  Anusha and Olivia also had encouraging performances and are heading the right direction. 

Again, expect to be tired at times.  Learn to push through it and focus on the positives.  Continue to support one another and be a good teammate.  Great things will continue to happen.  As you have started to see, improving individually and doing well as a team is fun.  You must put the continued solid effort into practice each and every day if you want more experiences like this.

BELIEVE….in yourself and your teammates.