List of 8 news stories.

• 10/2 HVAC Champs - Tiger FINISH FAST!

  9/29/2024
  Lindsey Bachman
  I want to start by thanking each of you for your commitment to the cross country team this season! 7 weeks ago, I shared with you 3 program goals I had for our time together. My 3 P's were, for XC to be a POSITIVE experience for each of you each day, for you to focus on your PERFORMANCE by always giving your best, and for you to celebrate your PROGRESS as you go. Going off of those goals, Coach Skinner and I can say with confidence, we had a tremendously successful season! It has been a true joy coaching this team and watching you all grow into such supportive teammates who ran with pride, gave your bests, and always finished fast! 

   

  Speaking of fast, Wednesday's night of racing at the HVAC finals was filled with speedy performances! It was also packed with family, friends, classmates, and fans of all sorts lining the course to cheer and volunteer, so a huge thank you for bringing the energy and showing your support. With nearly perfect racing conditions and a supremely  marked out course, our Tigers took to the starting line for one final time this season, prepared and ready to give their best. Racing for their first time ever in separate girls and boys races, our Tigers appropriately and strategically marked up with their pace packs from the start. From the 800m mark on, it was all about the passing game and chasing down as many other jerseys as possible. On average, our runners moved up 9 places over the course of the last mile of the race, further proof of their smart pacing at the start. And finally, when the colorful flags of the finishing chute came into view, our Tigers were ready to press in and dig deep for a final sprint to the finish. This solid race strategy led both our girls and boys teams to their fastest average finishing times of the season (13:34 for the girls, and 11:48 for the boys) and 24 total PRs! 

   

  STELLAR STATS

  • 27  - Our total number of finishers, which was our highest number all season!!
  • 1:59 - How much time our girls team improved their average finishing time by. 15:33 to 13:34!
  • 15s - How many seconds our boys team dropped their average finishing time by. 12:03 to 11:48!
  • 3 - Number of debut runners who completed their first 1.5 mile races! Congratulations Alby, Everett, and Rachel
  • 3:24 - The largest PR on the girls team. 17:16 to 13:52, congratulations Sadie!
  • 4:13 - The largest PR on the boys team. 17:55 to 13:52, congratulations Sparsh!

  TEAM SCORES / RESULTS

  For these championship races, scoring worked slightly differently than at our regular season meets. While the top 5 runners still contribute to the team scores with the 6th and 7th runners serving as tiebreakers and displacers, after a team's 7th finisher, the remainder of their runners do not count toward placement in team scores. Additionally, teams with fewer than 5 runners do not displace runners in team scores. This means that a runner's rank in the overall placement may be different from the number of points they earned for their team. If you look at the overall results, runners highlighted in pink were not included when considering team rankings. Additionally, only the top 15 runners from each school received bibs, so runners 16 and beyond from each team do not appear in the HVAC main results, but they are accurately recorded in our USN team results and historical rankings.  Below are the top 7 finishers for the girls and boys 1.5 mile races:

   

  Girls - Ava (33rd, 12:17), Elaina (34th, 12:23, 2:05 PR), Mila (36th, 13:05, 1:03 PR), Sadie (42nd, 13:52, 3:24 PR!), Elliott (44th, 14:12, 24s PR), Rachel (46th, 14:25), Sari (49th, 14:48, 2:37 PR)

  Boys - Jennings (4th, 9:27, 6s PR), Ayman (5th, 9:30, 24s PR), Brody (6th, 9:37, 1s PR!!), Hugo (12th, 10:08,, 16s PR), Dylan (16th, 10:25, 30s PR), Hudson (17th, 10:27, 50s PR), Lucas (19th, 10:30, 1:00 PR!)

   

  It is worth noting and celebrating that the times run by Jennings, Ayman, and Brody rank them as the TOP THREE times run by 5th graders in the last 4 years, and Ava and Elaina rank as the #2 and #5 girls. That is really impressive running and a sure indication that the future of USN XC is looking faster than ever!

   

  FAREWELL & FEEDBACK

  Regardless of rankings, places, or times however, Coach Skinner and I hope each of you is walking away with positive memories and goals for the future. We would so appreciate it if you could take a few minutes to complete THIS GOOGLE FORM to share your thoughts on the season, goals for the next, and any feedback you may have to help us better improve the experience for future 5th graders to come!

   

  It has been an honor coaching you this season and we hope to see you all back out on the course next season for more fast and fun times!

• 9/23 - Final Week Practice Plans

  9/23/2024
  Lindsey Bachman
  Monday - base run
  Tuesday - meet prep, shake out run & fast strides
  Wednesday - no practice, early dismissal (HVAC Champs @ RC, girls race 5:30, boys 5:50)
  Thursday - no practice, MS conferences (optional JV 2 mile @ 5:30 at the RC)
  Friday - no practice, MS conferences

• 9/5 Meet Results - Tigers Make PROGRESS!

  9/8/2024
  Lindsey Bachman
  Just when I think Coach Skinner and I cannot get any more proud, 24 of you turn out to cheer, race, and cheer again like you did tonight! The excitement and anticipation of our second race was palpable at practice Thursday afternoon, but come 5:30pm at the starting line, it was downright electric! If you missed the live version of our pre-race cheer or just want to relive the magic, I highly recommend you check out the video posted on our team page. This is the sound of TIGER PRIDE! I will probably be looping this audio for all of my own pre-race runs for the remainder of the season. 

   

  Magical Moments

  • Our team doing the wave for every runner that passed by the pavilion in the girls and boys 2 mile races!
  • Our girls team racing with its first official full team of 7!
  • Everyone's terrific effort and smart pacing that lead to 22 personal best finishing times!

  Team Scores & Scoring Runners

  The 5/6 field this week was significantly larger than last week, with 6 scoring teams in the boys race and 8 scoring teams in the girls race. I point this out to give context as to why our overall team scores are higher in comparison to last week. And while really low team scores are neat, bigger and more competitive races often lead to faster times, and that in my opinion, is the most fun of all! Complete team scores and results are attached to this email as well. 

   

  Team Scores: 

  • Boys 1.5 Mile Race: 1st Place (35 pts) out of 6 scoring teams
  • Girls 1.5 Mile Race: 8th Place (204pts) out of 8 scoring teams

  Point Scorers:

  • Boys 1.5 - Jennings Collier (2nd), Brody Terker (4th), Ayman Abuali (5th), and Dylan Hyatt (18th)
  • Girls 1.5 - Ava Warren (21st), Mila Kennedy (41st), Elaina Yu (42nd), Elliott Holliman (43rd), and Sadie Magner (57th)

  Pride / Pace / PR Running

   

  We spent a good portion of practice the past week discussing what it means and feels like to run a race with smart and strategic pacing. We went over pace groups and how to use them to your advantage in both practice and race scenarios and finally, we set new goals to chase after! This focus and strategy spoke for itself in our team results, as our team dropped it's average time by over 1 minute from 14:17 to 13:15. Over half of our athletes ran even or negative split races (meaning they maintained their pace from start to finish or got faster throughout) and nearly every athlete who ran set a new personal best. The average improvement/time drop of runners from our first to second race was just over 90 seconds. Special shout outs to Elliott, Dylan, Sadie, Lucas, Edwin, David, Hayes, and Ava for all improving more than 90 seconds! Over the short span of 1.5 mile race, that is a significant amount of time to drop!

   

  Best Efforts & Fast Finishes

  • Huge shout outs to Spencer, Aarav, Indy, Linus, Jacs, and Hudson for racing in their first meet! Each runner gave their all and when they saw the finish line, it was nothing but full speed ahead!
  • Our PR King and Queen of the meet goes to Dylan Hyatt (10:55) and Elliott Holliman (14:36) who each dropped INCREDIBLE amounts of time from their previous races, improving by 5:40, and 3:36 respectively. There commitment to start their races with smart pacing and increase their effort throughout paid off big time!!

  Barrier Breakers

  Dropping time is always something to be celebrated, but there something extra exciting about breaking through a specific time barrier that calls for extra applause. The following athletes ran themselves into new time categories: 

  • Sub 10 minutes - Jennings, Brody, Ayman
  • Sub 12 minutes - Lucas, David, Ava
  • Sub 14 minutes - Edwin, Arthur
  • Sub 13 minutes - Hayes
  • Sub 18 minutes - Sadie, Sari

  RESULTS - Finally, team score sheets and complete results are posted on our team page on the school website and linked here. Take note of the "9/5 Results" tab in the spreadsheet, as well as the "Season Results" tab, and the "Pace Groups" tab. All three provide different valuable insights into your races and future training.

• 9/9 - Week 5 Practice Plans

  9/8/2024
  Lindsey Bachman
  MONDAY - Progressive endurance run with pace groups (15 min)
  TUESDAY - Tempo Tuesday (partner loops, half tempo, half race pace)
  WEDNESDAY - Hills hills hills! 
  THURSDAY - Base run & strides
  FRIDAY - Time Trial (5 laps)

• 9/2 - Week 4 Practice Plans

  9/3/2024
  Lindsey Bachman
  MONDAY - No School, Endurance Run, 20-30min on your own
  TUESDAY - Hills hills hills! 
  WEDNESDAY - Base run & strides
  THURSDAY - Meet prep day (optional evening meet at the RC)
  FRIDAY - Form Friday

• 8/29 Meet Results - Tigers Run with PRIDE

  8/30/2024
  Lindsey Bachman
  Coach Skinner and I could not be more PROUD of this team! This week you all collectively demonstrated a heightened sense of focus in practice (especially during drills), excellent effort during our workouts, tremendous thoughtfulness in our reflection & goal setting, and top notch sportsmanship and enthusiasm at our meet. Our team's presence and performance on Thursday was a beautiful display of our program goals in action! A huge thank you to all the parents, siblings, and friends that came out to support and volunteer, and of course another well deserved shout out to every runner who seized the opportunity to toe the starting line for the first time!  There are too many highlights from last night to list them all, but below is a recap of some!

   

  Magical Moments

  • Our team cheer before the race! If there was a prize for best and most enthusiastic team cheer, our team would have won it hands down! You all brought the ENERGY!
  • Our team looking super sharp on the starting line with our uniforms and custom USN bib #s! (shoutout to Goach Gimblett for making those!)
  • EVERYONE finishing their first 1.5 mile race!
  • The boys team earning a near perfect team score!
  • Everyone that stayed to cheer on the 7/8 races, sprinting back and forth on the course and cheering until the last competitor finished!

  Team Scores & Scoring Runners

  For those new to cross country, when it comes scoring, the team with the lowest score wins! The places of the top 5 runners from each team are added together to create their team's score. In the event of a tied score, the 6th and 7th runners' places are used to determine the tiebreaker. Additionally, while the 6th and 7th runners' places are not factored into the team score in non-tie circumstances, they can always play a valuable role by driving up the score of other teams by  finishing ahead of their 5th place runner. This important role is what gives 6th & 7th runners the title known as "pushers." Long story short, EVERYONE counts and makes an impact on this team, from the first to last runner to cross the finish line!

   

  Team Scores:
  
  GIRLS 1.5 RACE
  

  1. FRA- 45
  2. USN- 88

  *Non-Scored: Harding, LWS, Overbrook
  
  BOYS 1.5 RACE
  

  1. USN- 20**
  2. FRA- 61
  3. Harding- 63

  *Non-Scored: Covenant, Overbrook, LWS
  

  
  **Our boys team earned a nearly PERFECT score!!! As our team so confidently calculated on Friday, a perfect XC team score is 15pts. Anything under 25 falls into the UNCOMMON category, so this is really really neat!

  
  Point Scorers:

  • Boys 1.5 - Jennings Collier (3rd), Brody Terker (4th), Ayman Abuali (5th), and Hugo Miller (6th)
  • Girls 1.5 - Ava Warren (13th), Mila Kennedy (16th), Elaina Yu (17th), Elliott Holliman (20th), and Sari Zaganoev (21st)
  • Here were our scoring runners in each race:

  Pride / Pack Running

   

  An extremely effective and strategic way to race well as a team is by staying in a pack and moving up steadily as the race progresses. Pack running not only increases motivation and accountability within the pack to push and keep pace, it also has legitimate energy conservation effects. Pack running is one of the things our team did an EXCELLENT job of in last night's race. For example, our top 5 boy finishers were separated by only 9 seconds! This is what's known as the "spread," and you will see it highlighted on our results spreadsheet. The lower the spread from our first to final finisher the better! other fantastic pack running on display was from Keshav Parhik who locked in with a sub 12 minute group of his 6th grade teammates, the 13-13:30 pack of Lucas Munoz, David Perry, Grant Shuster, and Ava Warren, the 14:20s crew of Arthur Tift, Elisha Woodruff, and Hayes Shallenberger, and our 16:30s trio of Dylan Hyatt, Edwin Nelson, and 6th grade teammate Mark Braun, and finally our 18 minute duo or Elliott Holliman and Sari Zaganoev.  

   

  Best Efforts & Fast Finishes

  Effort and enthusiasm were in no short supply out on the course but special shout outs go Sparsh Shah and Sadie Magner for giving it their all on the final home stretch! Running 1.5 miles is not easy. Finishing fast is the cherry on top!

   

  Goal Getters

  • Mila achieved her goal of finishing in the top 20. She was 15th in the girls race!
  • Elaina achieved her goal of finishing in the top 3 girls from our team!
  • Aymn far surpassed his goal of finishing in the top 15. He was 5th overall!

  RESULTS - Finally, team score sheets and complete results are posted on our team page on the school website and linked here.

   

• 8/26 - Week 3 Practice Plans

  8/27/2024
  Lindsey Bachman
  MONDAY - Endurance Run (10min max laps)
  TUESDAY - Speed day
  WEDNESDAY - Starts & Kicks
  THURSDAY - Meet prep day (optional evening meet at the RC)
  FRIDAY - Form Friday

• 8/19 - Week 2 Practice Plans

  8/19/2024
  Lindsey Bachman
  MONDAY - Tempo Run (partner 400s/perimeter loops)
  TUESDAY - Endurance Run (10min max laps)
  WEDNESDAY - Hill repeats 
  THURSDAY - Mixed speed intervals
  FRIDAY - Form Friday