Big Week

Last I updated everyone, we had returned from our first outdoor meet of the season in Moline, IL with a very bright start to the spring. Unfortunately, the weather has not cooperated since. After a few dual meets with hurricane force winds, we had to cancel 4 meets in a row due to snow, cold, wind and rain. We have also had a lot of injuries since we started workout out agressively on the track, ecspecially those who did not train all winter. And although we did not run particularly fast times at those meets, we competed very well. Even better was that I have successfully recruited 4 "sprinters" to become distance runners and to run cross country this fall!

Last Friday night was our first real chance to get good competition, but once again the weather slowed us down a bit. Despite 30 mph winds and torential rains, good things are sure to come. The 4x800 team that I was sure could run 8:12 finally proved to themselves that the work we put in over the winter is starting to pay off, as we cracked 8:30 without my two studs. Shane Lieby won the open 800 with a solo performance and pr of 1:59. His first time under two minutes! He then came back on Tuesday and tied the shcool record on his first attempt at an open 400m with a 50.2! I am so jealous of runers with that kind of foot speed. Senior Nick Leiby, Shane's twin brother, ran 4:43 to place 2nd in the mile. Although that is not near what I think he is capable of, this proves that with a healthy hip and a warm calm evening, he will run 4:30 before he graduates. Nick also came back Tuesday evening to run a pr of 2:03 in the 800 after going out in a suicidal 56 (not his fault, bad coaching)! Senior Brock Kingsland finally broke through in the 800, running a 4 second pr of 2:05. David Blackford, or Mr Glass as I like to call him, is starting to round into shape, running 2:09 (just in time for him to get hurt again). Freshmen Cody Margetis, Alex Cortes and Brant Watson ran personal bests in the mile, running 5:22, 4:51 and 5:36 respectively.

We have not had the same amount of success on the girls side, but there have been some good performances. Unfortunately we are very short of numbers on the girls squad, which has placed the few I have in a tough position of running more events than needed at times for the sake of scoring points. I could not be more proud of 3 in particular: Emily Gustafson, Cassie Lohmier and Ashley Schmitt. They have ran 3-4 events every Tuesday for the last 3 weeks and have not complained or moaned a bit. And although they are not running as fast as they want, they have competed hard and that will pay off over the next two weeks when we back off for next weeks conference meet.

As all may have noticed from others blogs, the athletes at In-The-Arena have so kindly been supplied with digital video cameras. These will allow our viewers and supporters an ability to see first hand what goes on behind the scenes from day to day. I have to admit I am about as tech-savy as a monkey, so please bear with me as I try to figure out how to use the camera, post in on here and then make some sort of sense of what it is that you are watching. I did have some of my injured kids take video of our meet on Tuesday night, but most of the video is of chopped up races. Tomorrow night is our big home invite of the girls and a huge invite just down the road for the boys. I will really try to take some good footage and post it over the weekend at both of those meets (hopefully they kids give you a good show) and give you a look at what is happening here in Central Illinois.

Thanks for listening and Go Raiders!!!