Upcoming week will be a little different.

OK, team, we'll be splitting the squad this week.  Most of the team will go to the Escalon Invitational at Woodward Reservior.  We will aim for a bus departure of around 2:00 for the meet.  Here is the schedule

3:30 Freshman Girls
3:50 Freshman Boys
4:10 Sophomore Girls
4:30 Sophomore Boys
4:50 Varsity Girls
5:20 Varsity Boys
5:50 JV boys and JV girls combined.

We will likely be back to school at around 7:30.  The plan on the girls side is to take our top JV/Frosh soph runners and make a Varsity Team.  Let's see if we can medal still!!!! I think we can.

The Varsity Girls team will race at the prestigious Clovis Invitational. There they will face some of the top small school teams in the state in what is widely accepted as the State Meet Preview.  A number of top 10 ranked teams are in the race with us as well as a number of teams that are looking to bust into the top 10 rankings.  Varsity girls will depart school on Friday at around 2:30.  Here is a brief itinerary.

The 2015 team before a surprise 5th place finish.
This was the start of our Girls' run of excellence.

Friday Morning - Drop off bags at my classroom.
2:30 - Depart for Clovis
4:00 - Arrive at Woodward Park.
4:15 - Jog course, drills, strides, stretch.
5:15 - Check out vendors
6:00 - Check into Hotel and shower
6:45 - Dinner
8:00 - Return to Hotel, relax, homework, etc...
9:30 - Lights out

Saturday
5:30 - Rise and Shine, very light breakfast
6:15 - Depart for Course
6:30 - Arrive, Woodward Park, Team Area near Valley View picnic area.
7:40 - Small School girls race.
9:00 - Depart Woodward Park.
9:15 - Breakfast
11:30 - Arrive HHS front parking lot.

Frogtown Invitational

With the Varsity Girls team getting the weekend off, it was time for some of our newer runners to shine at the Frogtown Invitational at Angels Camp California.

2 very notable results happened on this day.

1. The frosh-soph girls team, despite resting a number of runners, placed 2nd, earning medals at this meet with dozens of other schools.
2. The varsity boys team, made almost entirely of first or second year runners, placed 8th in a field of 23.

Frosh Soph Girls Race

L-R Jasmine Barrita, Briana Campos, Emely Herrera, Blanca Madrigal, Gaby Lopez run as a pack early in the race

One thing that we always try to teach at Hughson is the power of pack running.  Knowing you've got a teammate at your side that can help push you when things get tough is a huge help.  Knowing that teammate next to you is counting on you to keep going as fast as you can is crucial.  Team running is one of the keys to our success at HHS.

Second Place Medalists!

Our FS girls started to figure this concept out on Saturday.   Because the frogtown course is full of potholes and steep downhills where kids are always getting injured (Emily F fractured her fibula here last year), we decided to sit out a number of girls from the FS squad.  Despite the fact that we were not at full strength, Emely Herrera led teammates Jasmine Barrita, Blanca Madrigal, Brianna Campos, and Gaby Lopez to a second place finish overall.

Varsity Boys Race

Austin Hoach and Miguel Ramos both medaled

In our league opener, our Varsity Boys team placed 5th out of 6 teams.  No HHS team has finished that far back in a league race since 1999. We knew we were better than this result and we knew that steady, hard work would pay off.  On Saturday, our boys started to see a little bit of the results that we know will come by the end of the season.

After being beaten fairly handily on September 6th by league rivals Escalon, Ripon and Hilmar, our boys were ready to take another crack at these foes.  4 TVL teams were among the 23 small school teams competing on this day.

Our boys were again led by juniors Austin Hoach and Miguel Ramos. Hoach and Ramos ran a controlled race that 23rd and 24th in a field of 191 athletes to earn medals.  Hoach and Ramos have been our top dogs all season.  The difference for us this time was that new runners David Magallanes, Trace Huber and Murphy Phillips began to close the gap and run closer to Hoach and Ramos.  This improvement from runners 3,4, and 5 allowed us to get a little revenge on Hilmar and Ripon.  On this day, we beat those two TVL opponents.  Escalon placed 5th in the race and is looking like the strongest boys team in the TVL this year, but we have a few cards yet to play that should allow us to compete well with them by the end of the year..... Stay Tuned!

Frogtown Photos

Lowell Invitational

Sorry for the long delay in updates on the team.  We've had a very busy couple of weeks with 5 meets, a pasta feed, and homecoming in a span of 15 days.  Time to catch up a bit.

The Lowell Invitational is always a high point on our early season racing schedule.  The team loves getting to go to beautiful Golden Gate Park and run in cool overcast weather, after baking all summer in 100+ degree temperatures.  They usually respond with some of their fastest racing of the season.  This was no different.

This year, we were able to showcase our varsity girls squad in front of a meet that included over 70 schools from all over the state of California.  The Lowell meet is a little unsusual in that teams are not split into small school and large school divisions.  We get assigned to races pretty much by a random draw.  As it happened this year, we were put into a pretty tough race.  The field included:

• Henry M. Gunn High School, a large school from Palo Alto that placed 2nd in last year's Central Coast Section Division 2 finals.  Gunn is coached by former 2 time Olympic Team member, Patti Sue Plummer
• Mountain View High, who placed 3rd in last year's Central Coast Section Division 2 race
• Los Alamitos High, a school of 3500 who last year qualified for the Southern Section Cross Country Championship and is likely a top 50 team in the state, when accounting for all divisions.
• Las Lomas High, a perennial power from the North Coast Section.  They were 3rd in last year's division 3 race.
• Sierra from Manteca, who is usually in the top 3-4 of the Sac Joaquin Section division 3 field.
• Christian Brothers of Sacramento, who we have battled many times in the Sac Joaquin Section Division 4 field
• Hughson, the defending Sac Joaquin Section Division 4 champions.

Varsity Girls Squad after very impressive 3rd place finish among large and small schools from all over the state.

As the gun sounded, Alize Hartzke of Oakmont HS bolted to the front with Megan Oblin of Sierra and Amanda Munoz of Los Alamitos.  Our girls took a conservative approach, this being their 3rd race in 8 days.  As the teams approached the mile mark, Hartzke and Oblin continued to lead, running the first mile in about 5:35.  Our girls came through the mile mark in a controlled time of 6:10, sitting back in the low -mid 30s place wise.  Our plant was to move up during the 2nd and 3rd mile of the race.  We accomplished the plan

During the later portion of the race, Hughson athletes were continually moving forward, led by Esmeralda Campos, Elizette Ysias, and Emily Fife. By the end of the race, Fife, Ysias, and Campos had moved to 17th, 18th, and 22nd respectively in the tough field of 171 athletes.  They were followed across the line by Kinsey Langley and Jessie Lawrence in 39th and 40th to round out our scoring 5.  The only question was, where did we place.  The field was so evenly matched, that no clear winner could be picked until the scores had been counted.

As it turns out, we ended up 3rd..... a very respectable placing.  The final scores were

1. Los Alamitos - 89
2. Mountain View - 106
3. Hughson - 110
4. Las Lomas - 112
5. Gunn - 160...

Section rivals Sierra and Christian Brothers finished 9th and 12th in the very competitive field.

The second best part of the day was what has become our traditional post race beach trip.  The kids enjoyed a picnic and games on the beach before boarding the bus to head back home.

Photo Album I will be adding to this over time as I round up pictures from the meet

Hughson Results and Splits

TVL Opener

A very good day on the Girls' side and mixed signals on the Boys' side.  Sorry for the late post, but it's been an extremely busy week.

Varsity and JV Girls

Fife and Ysias with 1k to go.

Emily Fife and Elizette Ysias led a 1-2 Hughson finish in the Varsity Girls race that saw us finish with 24 points.  Large improvements from Esmeralda Campos, Kinsey Langley, and Jessie Lawrence helped our team run a team time 3:05 faster than at this same meet last year.  That equals 37 seconds faster per runner.  Granted the weather was a little better this year and there was less smoke in the air, but it is realistic to say that we are maybe 20 seconds better per girl in our top 5 this year than we were last year.  If we can carry that difference through the end of the season, we will be very competitive in November.

In the JV race, Camille Haupt easily broke away from her competitor from Ripon with about 1200m to go to win by a large margin.  This year's group put 6 girls ahead of where our #1 girl was last year at this point. Jasmine Barrita, Berenice Arguello, Sonia Juarez, Angela Villasana, and Emely Herrera were all faster than the 15:59 put up in the 2016 season opener by Jasmine.  This group is working well together in practice and will provide firpower for the Huskies for years to come.

Joseph Powers on his way to winning the JV race.

JV and Varsity Boys
While the boys races saw good individual results up front for the Huskies (JP handily won the JV race and Miguel was 3rd in the Varsity race), good performances by the other teams in the league exposed our lack of depth.

We have a number of inexperienced boys who do not yet know how to get the most out of their bodies over a 2 mile or 5k race.  This is something we will work constantly to address over the coming months.

Our boys have some ability, but they need to gel and come together as a TEAM in order to truly get the best out of themselves.

Photo Album
Hughson Results and Splits

Lowell / San Francisco Invitational

Hi Team:

Many apologies for getting this information out kind of late.  There have been a number of questions about our trip to San Francisco this Saturday.  This meet is one of the highlights of the year for our kids.  It's always great to get out of the hot, dusty valley and run in the cool foggy city.  Here is a brief itinerary for the day.

• 5:00 AM Arrive HHS back parking lot.
• 5:15 AM Depart HHS
• 7:45 ish Arrive Golden Gate Park, Hellman Hollow (we will set up on the south side of the meadow).  It is very easy to park along Overlook Drive, if you are planning to attend the meet.
• 9:00 First Race Complete Meet Schedule
• 3:15 ish Depart GGP
• 3:30 Arrive at Ocean Beach
• 3:30 - 4:30 ish Picnic and Frisbee at Ocean Beach
• 4:45 ish Depart Ocean Beach
• 7:15 ish Arrive HHS back parking lot.

Varsity Boys bolting from the 2015 starting line.

This is a long day.  The kids should prepare for any weather.  Extra socks are a must after a day of walking around on dewey grass. Tarps are great to lay down on the wet grass, blankets that can get dirty are also a plus.

Currently, we have one of the better small school girls programs in the state, it will be fun to see how we match up to the bigger schools from the bay area.  

On the boys side, Bellarmine High of San Jose will be in attendance.  It will be good for our kids to see what a program that annually ranks in the state or national rankings looks like.

We will be feeding the kids at the meet and at the beach.  This is one of the benefits of having large, successful fundraisers.

Reno Twilight Invitational

The 2017 racing season is underway.  A select group of varsity athletes traveled over the Sierras to Reno to open their seasons at the Reno Twilight Invitational.  The goal of the trip was to run a hard effort, have some fun, and bond as a team.  Mission Accomplisehd.

Girls Race

They're Off!

At 7:53 PM, the gun sounded to start the Small School Varsity Girls' race.  This meet is usually pretty small for the small schools, so we felt we could just run a hard tempo effort for the meet.  South Tahoe kind of upset our plans by bolting to the front and pushing the pace.  At the 1k marker, there weren't many Huskies to be seen near the front of the race.

By the second Kilometer, we had begun to come to the front.  Kinsey Langley made a strong move on the second loop of the course to catch early race leader Carissa Buchholz of South Tahoe.  Kinsey had been in a car accident 13 days previously and had missed 9 days of training as a result.  For her to be pushing the pace and moving to the lead after her last 2 weeks was a bold move and reminded me of the old Kinsey that just went out and ran fearlessly.  

The Award Podium

During the second half of the race, Emily Fife moved to the front to join Kinsey and Bucholz.  By the 3rd K marker, Kinsey had begun to struggle a bit, but Emily was running shoulder to shoulder with her altitude trained competitor.  Over the last 400m, Bucholz put in a little surge to open a gap on Emily that Emily in turn began to close on the final straightaway.  In the end, it was Bucholz of South Tahoe who took the race win with Emily placing second in 16:28.  That time is significant for Emily because it was 8 seconds faster than Abbi Mitchell (now running for St. Mary's College) ran to win this race last year. Abbi went on to run 19:11 by state last year, so for Emily to be ahead of her pace at this point is a good sign for us.

The rest of the Huskies ran solidly.  Elizette Ysias, Kinsey Langly, and Esmeralda Campos placed 4th 5th and 6th respectively.  Camille Haupt, running in her first race ever, placed 17th to round out our scoring 5 and seal the win over South Tahoe 31-39.  Running in their first varsity races ever, Monica Yup and Jasmine Barrita placed 22nd and  23rd respectively.

Boys Race

The Boys Relaxing Before the Race

We only took 2 boys to Reno this year.  Our boys are in a rebuilding mode right now and I didn't feel that we had a full team that was ready to travel.  Fortunately, we have a team dominated by juniors and underclassmen, so we should see big time growth from these kids during the rest of this season and into the future.

Austin Hoach and Miguel Ramos were the two Huskies to toe the line in Reno.  Both boys followed a conservative race plan, just like the girls.  After 1 kilometer, the boys were barely inside the top 20.  However, by the second K mark, they had moved into 11th and 12th.  When I saw them again at 3k, they had moved into 8th and 9th, positions they would hold until the finish.  

Austin's time of 14:59 would have put him as the #2 man from last year's TVL championship squad and Miguel's time of 15:12 would have put him as our 3rd man in the same race.  These two boys will form the nucleus and base of success for whatever we are able to do for the rest of the season.  The chalenge for our boys will be for some of our newer, inexperienced athletes to be able to close the gap on our two frontrunners.  I believe we have some candidates to be able to get that done and that we are looking for some solid results by the end of October.

The trip ended with a 7.1 mile training run around Donner Lake in Truckee the following morning. All in all, we had a very productive trip

Photo Album

Times and Splits