Raiders - Bringin' The Heat

Coaches Corner

Raider(s) Of The Meet - The Raider(s) Of The Meet award will be given to those athletes that through their performances, caught the attention of the Coaches. This week, the Coaches have selected Justine Drake and Maiya Todd as our Raiders Of The Meet. Congratulations!

Mustang/JV Open/Plainfield South Invitational

You gotta love the efforts on 3/11 at the JV Open. That, and a thing called perspective. I think I was talking to Lamya and she said "We won a lot of races tonight!" Lamya was right. We haven't seen that level of success every week. Here is where the perspective kicks in....I told her we run a tough schedule against much bigger 3A teams. I basically told her that we want to run like a "BIG" school. By doing this, when we get to competition our size, we can be successful. We can win some races. We can compete. I saw a lot of exciting things at the Open and Plainfield North meets. One of my very favorite "AllTime" moments came when we were suddenly short handed in the JV 1600 Relay. Justine Drake volunteered. From my point of view, I didn't want to put Justine in a position where she was at a disadvantage. I didn't want the pressure on her. She proved us all wrong! Justine's teammates gave her the baton and the lead and Justine extended it. She wasn't going to be denied. Justine ran a career best 77.7 taking over 5 seconds off her previous best. That tooks guts and determination. Justine didn't want to let her teammates down. Well done to the JV 1600 M Relay Champions, Jill Richer, Abby Schlenker, Lily Taylor, and Justine Drake. The moral of this story? Ask yourself, "What can I do for my teammates?"

Tacchi/Crenshaw/Preuss - I love it when things start to roll and we get some momentum going. Over the last three meets, we have seen many of you take a step forwards. Perhaps no one as much as Maiya Todd. While it's only taken 3 years for Maiya to run the (400) race differently, things clicked Friday night at Plainfield South. Maiya's previous best was 67.7 last April during the outdoor season. At Plainfield South, Maiya ran a blistering 65.62! Over 2 seconds faster, and on an Indoor Track. Maiya is not alone as many of her teammates seem to be getting better and better. How good can we be? We will continue to find out Friday night at our Indoor Conference Meet. Over these 3 meets we have had over 27 PR's. That's an incredible number and I'm amazed that the times have made huge drops, and our field events have improved. Where we go from here is completely up to you! Where can we improve?

1. Remain consistent in your work ethic. We need to outwork our competition.

2. Make sure you warm up properly before you compete and cool down after.

3. Are you eating right and sleeping enough? Take care of yourself. Go Raiders!  

O's No's - Our Thursday 3/11 JV meet was a great season tune-up meet. Everyone ran some good times for their off events so they can apply that speed race to their event. Bianca Montenegro 3:20.46 was only a few seconds off her 800 PR. Ava Childs 71.14 and Courtney Knight 72.19 went 1st and 3rd in the 400m with Ava setting a PR. Kendall Arlasky 86.1 and Mikayla Jacoby 94.89 also ran 400m times that will help their 800m. Justin Drake 7:16.71 ran her first 1600 of the season. Ava Child 33.44, Courtney Knight 33.6 and Kendall Arlasky 38.38 all ran career first 200m to increase their 400m speed.   On Friday 3/12 our distance team did some amazing things. Justine Drake 3:07.32, Lamya Pulliam 3:09.28, Bianca Montenegro 3:18.57 and Mikayla Jacoby 3:57.33 started the night off with a 13:32.5 3200 Relay. Both Justine and Lamya ran 3 second 800m PR’s. Next, Katie King 13:57.7 ran 1:20 PR in the 3200m and Grace Gibson 14:34.75 an awesome first 3200m.   In the 800m Abby Schlenker 2:30.36, Ava Childs 2:42.78, Courtney Knight 2:43.06 and Justin Drake 3:12.02 all ran close or better than their PR’s.   Erica Mote 6:05.67, Julia Clingen 6:38.41 and Kendall Arlasky 6:49.35 all ran excellent 1600m races competing against their competition. To complete a great night Abby Schlenker 67.28 and Justin Drake 77.85 ran on the champion 4x4 relay earning Justin Drake athlete of the meet for competing at a high level in her three races.  

Crissey Chronicles - What a difference a week makes! The throwers not only improved in number of throwers from four to fourteen, but we improved technically and confidence-wise, as well. Last Thursday at the JV meet, Ciara Jackson threw 30-feet plus, again. Nikki Newman tossed a great mark of 25-6, while Maggie Bair fouled two great throws both North of 30-feet. We also welcomed back Tai Johnson and Mercedes Whitaker. At the Planfield South Invite, Ciara Jackson threw a monster throw of 32-10. That was another PR for her. Kelsey Breen's confidence continues to improve weekly and that was proven with her PR of 26-6. I'm excited for the next several weeks to see which throwers continue to improve. I have the feeling that there will be some great competition amongst the throwers in coming weeks.

Points To Ponder -"To be a champion, I think you have to see the big picture. It's not about winning and losing; it's about every day hard work and about thriving on a challenge. It's about embracing the pain that you'll experience at the end of a race and not being afraid. I think people think too hard and get afraid of a certain challenge." - Summer Sanders

"I've learned in my life that it's important to be able to step outside your comfort zone and be challenged with something you're not familiar or accustomed to. That challenge will allow you to see what you can do." - J.R. Martinez

Team Building - Team Dinner Thursday in commons. All hands on deck for the Indoor Conference Meet on Friday night!