Hello Cross Country Family:

I want to give you a recap of the past week and what to expect this week.  But it will be a bit incomplete.  We still have no results from the Amity Invite.  Those of you who attended that meet won’t be surprised.  It was just about the most poorly conducted high school cross country meet we have ever attended.  More about the Amity meet later.

Last Wednesday we attended the Oktoberfest Invite at Silver Falls State Park.   For the first time the meet was not held at “the Ranch” and therefore did not include the infamous “Monster.”  However, the new course did include a mini-monster for varsity runners and it was plenty challenging.   There were complete teams (five or more runners in the same race) from 25 schools.

First up were our JV girls.  Amity Coon finished 18^th out of a field of 118 runners who finished the race.  Aaliyah and Taylor Schutz placed 79^th and 85^th respectively and Kenzie McHuron-Guss was 103^rd.  All of our JV girls raced their hearts out on the rugged course, but we were one short of a complete team so were left out of the team standings.

The JV boys placed 4^th out of 18 complete teams, losing only to 5A schools South Albany, Silverton and Central.  Jensen  Davis led the way by placing 11^th out of 208 finishers!  Backing up Jensen were Seth Staten and Xayd Magana who place two seconds apart in 34^th and 35^th respectively.  McKenzey Johnson and James Gholston were 44^th and 48^th to complete team scoring.  They were backed up by Daniel Arthurs (73^rd); Kobey Carter (104^th); and Brandon Enghauser in 148^th.  So after one scored meet (Toledo was a non-scoring meet and we don’t have official results from Amity) our JV boys are 14-3.

Our varsity girls finished fifth out of 18 complete teams and are currently 13-4 for the season.  They were led by Meaghan Alba, who despite playing an entire soccer game the day before managed to place 6^th in a very talented field that had 140 finishers.  Tegan Weaver backed up Meaghan with a strong 16^th place finish.  Alejandra Artejejo, in her first ever cross country race, was a solid #3, placing 37^th overall.  Gabi Beckstead and a hobbled Kindra Coleman completed the PHS scoring by placing 66^th and 78^th respectively.  Kirsten Bovbjerg was our insurance runner and finished 94^th.

The Varsity boys’ race was a barn burner.  Our team took 6^th out of 25 complete teams to start the season 19-5.  Three of the five teams that beat us were in the 5A division.  Clay Youker demonstrated his natural ability by surprising Tim McIllroy in the final kilometer to finish as out top runner in 18^th place out of 187 finishers.  Tim was three seconds behind Clay in 20^th and Clark Hellesto was another seven seconds back in 26^th for an outstanding top three effort by the Warriors.  Our #4 and #5 runners were two frosh, Shaden Jenson and Duane Hellesto, who placed 45^th and 73^rd respectively.

It rained a little but our gear stayed dry thanks to our pop-up with the great walls donated by Tom Klipfel!  Viktor Bovbjerg brought post-race snacks for the kids and Janette Staten took action pictures for our athletic.net page.

As far as the fiasco at Amity is concerned all I know is that both of our varsity teams placed 2^nd to Crescent Valley.  Meaghan Alba was the overall champion in the girls’ race with a very gutty performance.  Tegan was 8^th, a rapidly improving Alejandra was 10^th; Gabi placed 20^th and Kirsten was 22^nd.  In the boys race Tim placed 2^nd overall while Clark, Duane, Jensen and Xayd all finished between 10^th and 20^th.  I do not have JV results because so many kids got lost in those races!

A big thanks to all the parents who transported our runners to the meet since we did not have a bus.  We could use you this week for trips to the woods.  I will meet the runners at Bald Hill, (Reservoir Rd entrance) at 4 PM on Monday.  Diana cannot be there.  Diana will be with the team Wednesday at Oak Creek in McDonald Forest.  I cannot be at that workout as I have a school meeting to attend.  We will meet as usual at PHS on Tuesday and Thursday.  On Friday we are asking the team to return to school at 4 PM for team pictures.

Saturday is our first serious meet on a fast course.  We will attend the Lake Woahink Invitational in Florence.  The meet is hosted by perennial 4A power Siuslaw.  Also entered is a 6A super team, South Eugene.  It should make for some fast times. 

Race schedule:

We plan to load the bus in Philomath at 8:30 AM.  We hope to have two additional girls on our team before the next meet.  We will keep you posted about that.

The following week of course is our very own Paul Mariman Invitational, featuring 25 of the top teams in the state.  We always put on an excellent meet but we can’t do it without parent volunteers.  Look for an email later this week for you to sign up to help.

All for now.

Chief Joe

Hello PHS Cross-Country Family:

We have an unusual week ahead.  First of all the weather should cool down some 25 degrees and we are likely to get rain, especially on Wednesday.   And we have two meets this week – both on school days.  After this week all of our meets will be on Saturdays.

The first meet is this Wednesday at Silver Falls State Park. We will have a bus for the athletes.  We will load the bus at 1:00 PM.   For the first time ever the meet will not be at the Ranch with the “Monster” hill climb.  It will be at the South Falls area of the park. I am pasting the info I received that you all should know about.

Oktoberfest Invitational at Silver Creek Falls.

Remember that the start and finish will be near Shelter D in the park's South Falls area, and please let parents and spectators know that there is a parking fee of $5 per vehicle (unless you have an annual state park pass). There is an area behind the Shelter for team tents.
We are encouraging all teams to bring water for your athletes. We will have water near the finish for any runner in distress, but can't provide water for all of the athletes competing - please bring your own water jug and/or bottles.

Length of JV Girls and Boys – 3000 meters
Course: Varsity Girls and Boys – 5000 meters

Order of Races: All Divisions
1st Race – JV Girls – 4:00 pm (any number entered)
2nd Race – JV Boys – 4:30 pm (any number entered)
3rd Race – Varsity Girls – 5:00 pm (limited to 7 runners)
4th Race – Varsity Boys – 5:40 pm (limited to 7 runners)

We have 37 schools signed up to come so potentially have some very large races. Please limit your varsity entries to no more than 7 runners! This will help ensure a safe race, as the course is quite narrow in some sections.

Final Results: Final results will be posted on athletic.net.

Awards: Trophies for the top two (2) teams in each division in the Varsity Boys and Girls races.
Medals will be awarded to the top ten individuals in each division of the Varsity Boys and Girls races. Ribbons will be awarded to the top ten in the combined JV Boys and Girls races.
Ribbons will be awarded to members of the top three teams in each division in the Varsity Boys and Girls races.

On Thursday we will rest.  I am encouraging the entire high school team to go to Crystal Lake Sports Park in Corvallis to cheer on our excellent middle school teams.  That’s where Diana and I will be.  The PMS girls’ race is at 4 PM and the boys race at 4:30.  In their first meet the PMS 8^th grade girls placed 1-3-5-6-12 in a field of 90 runners!!  Do you think the future looks bright for our girls’ cross-country team?

On Friday we are going to a very fun event at Keeler Vineyard in Amity.  We have never done two meets in three days before but this meet is too much fun to miss.  But it is the meet when we will need parents to drive the students.  I see that several of you are cleared to transport.  We plan to leave PHS at 1:00 PM sharp.  We will caravan up HWY 99W to the meet.  It will not be as difficult a race as the 37-team Oktoberfest Invite.   The Amity Invite has eight teams entered and we are the biggest school going.  We should be able to bring home a lot of hardware!  Here are the details from the Amity coach:

Amity Cross Country Invitational at Keeler Estate Vineyard

The meet will be run at picturesque Keeler Estate Vineyard, a biodynamic vineyard/farm whose property is very near the HS, but not directly accessible from there. There will be some gentle hills involved, along with gravel, grass, and dirt. One of the "gentle" hills is at the beginning of the race and it's a pretty steep incline. Looks gentle to me from the bottom looking up...

This year there will be onsite parking for buses - in the lower field so watch for directional signs as you near the Keeler Estate Vineyard entrance.

 Harvesting of the grapes will either be happening during the race or near the time of the race. For this reason, we are asking that all athletes and spectators keep to the marked courses and to the public areas. There are plenty of opportunities for viewing along the course, including an observation deck on the hill. Teams and spectators should be careful to pick up after themselves. We are excited to be able to offer this race at such a beautiful, unique site and thank the Keelers for their generosity.

 Restrooms will be open at the high school (if buses stop before going to the course), at the elementary school, and port-a-potties will be available at the race site.

Prizes Galore!

• Medals will be awarded to the first 20 finishers in the Middle School Boys and in the Middle School Girls race. 
• Medals will be awarded to at least the first 20 winners in the JV Boys and in the JV girls race.
• Individual plaques will be awarded to the first 3 finishers in the Varsity Boys and the Varsity Girls race, with the next 17 finishers in each race receiving a medal.
• Team plaques will be awarded to the 1st-3rd  place Varsity Girl and Varsity Boy teams.
• Keeler Estate Vineyard wine will be awarded to the first 3 finishers in the Coaches/Over 21 race (in case of a tie, we'll toss a coin - it sucks to come in fourth...). Adults MUST BE connected to an attending team to race and wine must remained unopened at the race site or on school property.

While we hope to allow everyone who wishes to run entry into the race, we may need to cap entries if they exceed our capacity to successfully manage this event. In such a case, we may have to limit team numbers in order to allow more schools to participate.

 Starting Times

• 2:00 PM Middle School Girls 3K
• 2:30 PM Middle School Boys 3K
• 3:00 PM JV Girls 3k
• 3:30 PM JV Boys 3k
• 4:00 PM Coaches/Over 21 5K
• 4:30 PM Varsity Girls 5K
• 5:15 PM Varsity Boys 5K

OK Parents.  That’s all the info you need for this week.  The info I need is how many of you can help transport at 1 PM on Friday.  And if you are not cleared to transport others but still plan to drive to the meet you can, of course, drive your own child.

Here are the directions to our two meets this week.

Directions to  Silver Falls State Park

Directions to Amity Invite

As always, thanks for your support.

-Chief Joe

Good Morning Cross-Country Family,

I hope you had a restful weekend.  Many thanks to Coach Diana Bushnell and her husband Jason for hosting the team at their lovely home on Friday evening.  Everyone seemed to be having a great time.  We used our team pop-up as a theater to watch McFarland, USA, the popular Disney film about a high school cross-country program.  A special thanks to Mr. Tom Klipfel, who purchased sidewalls for the pop-up.  Not only did it make for a great theater but now our runners will really stay dry at rainy meets and shaded at the hot ones.

This is the last week before the start of classes and the weather looks promising.  We will meet at 4:15 each day.  On Monday and Wednesday we will meet at the high school.  On Tuesday we will meet at the Reservoir Rd entrance to Bald Hill.  On Thursday we will meet at Oak Creek entrance to McDonald Forest and on Friday, if we can arrange the transportation (any of you parents cleared to transport yet?) we will go to beautiful Peavy Arboretum.  That will be a rare Friday practice.  Most Fridays this season will be the day before a race.  And since Friday is also early an release day at PHS we will just give the runners a pre-race warm-up to do on their own.

School starts next week and that means we return to regular after school practices.  The students should be dressed and ready to go at 3:45 when Coach Bushnell will put them through their warm-up.  I will arrive at 4:00 PM for the workout (I get off work at 3:45).  On Monday, August 31^st I hope we can get the team out to Beazell Forest on the Kings Valley Highway for a distance run and some hill repeats!  And of course our first cross-country meet will be on Thursday, Sept. 3^rd : the Toledo Cross-Country Challenge at Ollala Lake.

Here are two items for the good of the order:

IMPACT TRAINING

Cross-country runners typically do not get concussions but we are expected to participate in the concussion-related Impact Training just the same.  Here are the particulars from our school trainer.

Who should take the Impact Training: “Any Freshman who were not tested as 8th graders in the spring by nurse Katie, all Juniors, and any transfer students new to the district who are participating in fall sports.  If the students are unsure, please direct them to the athletic trainers room and I will help figure that out. The plan is to have 10-15 kids per respective sport test at one time in the computer lab to help speed up the process. The test will take roughly 20-25 mins to complete, which is why I would like to set up blocked times sometime in the afternoon to get those athletes tested.”

I hope that our athletes can do the Impact Training on Sept. 4^th.

Sports-Risk Video

All freshman and new athletes to PHS must watch the half-hour long Sports Risk Video.  We hope to do this on Wednesday, Sept. 2^nd, the day before our first meet.  We will give students the particulars at practice.

We have a great group of kids out for cross-country:  15 boys and ten girls.  It is not too late to join the team, so students encourage your friends to come out.  It would be nice to hit 30 participants. 

Let me know if you have any questions or concerns.

Chief

P.S. Don’t forget that the World Track & Field Championships is currently underway and can be watched at various times throughout the week on Universal Sports Network, NBS Sports and NBC.  You won’t want to miss the amazing Genzebe Dibaba of Ethiopia.  She recently set a world record in the women’s 1500 with a time of 3:50.  That is equal to a 4:07 mile run!

2015 Cross-Country Meet and Woods Run Schedule

Mon. Aug. 31^st   Woods Run

Thurs. Sept. 3^rd   Toledo Invite

Tues. Sept. 8^th   Woods Run

Fri. Sept. 11^th   Woods Run

Wed. Sept. 16^th   Silver Creek Falls Invite

Fri. Sept. 18^th     Amity Invite

Mon. Sept. 21^st   Woods Run

Wed. Sept 23^rd   Woods Run

Sat. Sept. 26^th   Lake Woahink Invite

Mon. Sept. 28^th   Woods Run

Wed. Sept. 30^th   Woods Run

Sat. Oct. 3^rd    Paul Mariman Invite

Wed. Oct. 7^th      Woods Run

Sat. Oct. 10^th   Rock ‘n River Invite

Mon. Oct. 12^th   Woods Run

Wed. Oct. 14^th   Woods Run

Sat. Oct. 17^th   Conference Course Preview/team picnic (not a meet)

Mon. Oct. 19^th   Woods Run

Wed. Oct. 21^st   Woods Run

Sat. Oct. 24^th   Conference Championships

Mon. Oct. 26^th   Woods Run

Sat. Oct. 31^st   OSAA State Championships