Halfway through the season

The Blackhawks are halfway through the 2011 XC season and have had much success up to this point with much more to strive toward. In their first GNL meet of the year last week with Deer Park at Medical Lake the girls showed their strength and depth taking the top six spots overall and scoring wins against Deer Park (15-49) and Medical Lake (15-49) to start the season 2-0 in league meets. On the boys side last week they raced the top team in the GNL in Deer Park and came very close to beating them, only loosing by three points (26-29). The team scored a win against Medical Lake (23-36) to start the season off 1-1 in league meets.

In their second league meet of the year, for the only home meet, the Blackhawks went against Clarkston on Wednesday at Salnave Park. Continuing their dominance the girls raced first and took the top 12 spots overall and improving to 3-0 in league meets by winning 15-50. On the boys side they showed a good pack mentality to have the top nine spots within 55 seconds of each other and taking 12 of the top 13 spots, with a Clarkston runner in 5th place overall. The final score for the boys was 16-47 to improve to 2-1 in league meets. There were a couple first time racers including Claire, Kit and Alex as well as some effort awards for Tanner, Bradley, Kali, Amanda, Mattie and Shyann for strong races and great improvements over prior races. After the races the team welcomed Clarkston for the second annual potato feed which was a great success thanks to all the parents for their organization as well as bringing all the food. 

Up next for the Hawks is the prestigious Sunfair meet on Saturday in Yakima. In this special meet the runners run in flights which places them against other similar ability athletes. For example all the # 7 runners run against each other and so on. This will be a great opportunity for the varsity teams to see how they stack up against some of the best teams in the Northwest. Information can be found here. Races start at noon (for our runners). 

Farragut Invite

The Blackhawks followed up last week's great opening meet with races yesterday at Farragut State Park against some more tough competition. The course is arguably one of the hardest in the area with a lot of rolling hills plus a goat hill right before a long climb. Even though it was difficult the majority of the kids loved the course for its challenges throughout. To start the day off the JV girls raced first and improved on last weeks performance by fielding a complete team to finish 4th out of 7 teams. Led by Johanna, who followed up her top 15 from last week, she finished 10th place overall. Closely behind her was Anika in 12th and Mattie in 13th with Breeann and Signe completing the top 5 scoring runners. It was Mattie and Signe's first xc race ever and they performed very well.

The second race of the day featured a rematch from last week with Lakeside in the JV boys race. Led with strong top 10 finishes by Regan, Derek and Mark the boys finished with 45 points, but in the end came up 3 points shy of a victory. With their second straight second place team finish the boys showed their strength in running in a pack and working through the field racing very smart. Up next for the JV boys will be a hard matchup with Deer Park on Wednesday at Medical Lake.

Moving on to the varsity races where all schools raced against each other, but with two scoring classifications, in which the Blackhawks were in the big school division. On the girls side, with strong schools including Riverside, Timberlake, Coeur d'Alene and Lakeside, the Blackhawk harriers won their second invite of the year, edging out CDA by only one point. The top five scoring included Sanne (2nd) Amie (3rd) Kendall (7th) Kelsey (11th) and Kali (12th) with Amanda (17th) and Kinsey (24th) rounding out the varsity squad.

In the last race of the day the varsity boys, similar to the JV, showed their pack mentality with 6 runners together until the 2-mile mark. Leading the Blackhawks was Devon who ran a very strategic race, just like last week, moving through the field to finish 7th overall with a time of 17:38. Over the final mile the rest of the runners battled it out to the finish with Nick, Dakota, Corey and Jesse rounding out the scoring five for the Hawks. In the end they placed 4th overall just 13 points behind GNL rival East Valley. Come Wednesday they will start league competition against Deer Park and Medical Lake.

Links:

• Full Results
• Team Results
• Spokesman Article
• CDAPress Article

Notes:

• Check out our Facebook group page (Blackhawks XC) for more pictures from the meet
• GNL #1 Deer Park, Medical Lake meet will be at Medical Lake High School on Wednesday. Times for races are 4:30pm JV Boys, 5:00 All Girls, 5:45pm Varsity Boys (note change)
• No meet on Saturday Sept 24

Silverwood Invite

For the first meet of the year the Blackhawk runners brought home hardware for both the boy's and girl's teams. To start off the day the JV boys ran very strong against tough competition from mostly Idaho and Montana. They ran smart and worked their way through the field during the second half of the race to capture second place overall, only behind powerhouse Rocky Mountain HS from Idaho. Leading the way 14th overall was Jesse who had a huge PR thanks to the hard work that he put in over the summer. Following him was DJ, Derek, Mark and Kyle as the scoring five. The top four teams where:

1. Rocky MT -- 15
2. Cheney -- 103
3. Hazen -- 110
4. Capital -- 127

The next race was the JV girls who ran very well for being young and not having too much experience. Coming in first for the team was Johanna in 15th place earning her a medal and a t-shirt in a big PR over last year. Next Breeann and Linsay, two freshman, crossed the line for their first 5k ever followed by Katelyn rounding out the JV team. Because of some injuries and ineligible athletes the JV girls did not have a complete team, but look forward to Farragut and getting back on track.

As the day began to heat up the Varsity races were up next. With large fields and a tight course in places the boys ran smart and moved through the field well, shown by Devon moving from 65th at the mile to finishing 35th overall leading the team. Showing his athletic ability and speed Dakota just edged out freshman Kameron for 2nd place on the team and 51st overall in the race. Rounding out the varsity was Nick, Corey, Regan and Matt. With some very strong teams from Idaho and Montana the boys claimed 9th place overall with 292 points as a team out of 27 teams. Here are the top four team finishes:

1. Timberline 53
2. Rocky Mountain 59
3. Meridian 126
4. Lakeside 192

The last race of the day was the girls varsity race which went out fast and had our girls in good positions early. At the mile the Blackhawks were 1-2 with Sanne and Kendall, followed closely by Amie and Mariah. The harriers showed their strength finishing with four in the top 21 overall; Sanne took the individual title with Amie 11th, Kendall 14th and Mariah 21st. Rounding out the top five scoring runners was senior Kali racing well after missing the past two XC seasons with injuries. The team title was very close and a delay with results the Blackhawks learned they took the top spot over last year's Idaho 3A state champs Timberlake. Here are the top four spots:

1. Cheney -- 81
2. Timberlake -- 84
3. Rocky Mountain -- 87
4. Timberline -- 92

Here is an article in the CDA Press. 

Here are the full team results.

Here are the full meet results.

(Pictures to come at a later time)

New Facebook Group

For those on facebook we are just starting a new group to connect current runners with past alumni who ran for the program. Please request to join the group, it is titled Blackhawk XC.

Start of the Season

Almost two weeks are already complete to the 2011 XC season for the Blackhawk runners. Last week 45 runners went to Twin Lakes for our annual retreat and had a great time. Activities there included singing, dancing, doing team skits, running, eating, fox and hounds, swimming, team relays, and much more. (Picture to right shows most of the team having some fun after doing team relays) The veterans had a lot of input and helped share many of our motivational stories including CLIMB, the rock story, pull the rope, the second mile, and the robot story. Have your child explain these to you and their meaning.

Here are a couple of the team skits from the retreat. First is Kung Fu Fighting which placed second overall followed by the winner with Lady and the Tramp: This is the Night.

Then on Tuesday the team time trial was held at our home course at Salnave Park. For the first time the distance was 3.0 miles for all runners in a time trial. The girls started first and ran very well with 5 of last years state team running within the top 7. There experienced showed through as well as their determination to improve on last years placing. It will be a battle all season to reach the top 7, but they will push each other all the way and work together to accomplish what they have set out to achieve. 

To finish off the day the boys raced next. With last year's state team loosing 4 seniors everyone knew there are spots open for the taking. And those who put in the work this past summer showed through strongly. This team's goal is to get back to state and Tuesday showed that even though they are not too experienced they are willing to take a risk, step up, and work together to get to Pasco. Full results can be found here: Time Trial.

Here are some reminders for the next week or so:

• Practice is at 8am to 9:30am Saturday 9/3
• No Practice on Monday 9/5 for Labor Day, but get in a 30-40' run on your own
• First meet is 9/10 at Silverwood with the first race at 8:30 (JV Boys) more info to come next week for this meet. Here is the meet website.