It is so nice to be out in the sunshine and the 50-60 degree weather. While not all of the track days we have coming up will be as beautiful as today, I hope that you will take advantage of the nice days to work hard and enjoy it at the same time. Spring is definitely in the air, and our big track meets are just around the corner. As coaches, we are really impressed with what we see in our first few weeks of workouts - both in your ability and your attitude/teamwork. We will have our first test on Friday with the Alumni Meet. I am excited to see where our experienced athletes are to start the season, and I am also pumped to see what our new athletes are going to bring to the TEAM - in terms of performance, but more importantly in terms of excitement, energy, and attitude. I love the surprises that we start to see from you at the first few meets. I love seeing athletes step up to the challenge and show us what they are made of. I feel that it is very important to start the season off with a positive and fun track meet. So, don't be nervous or scared - just be excited to do your best, gain some experience, and then work to improve from there.
New Balance Indoor Nationals - It was definitely a great weekend to be representing Davis Track & Field. Nine of the athletes on the TEAM traveled to New York to compete in the New Balance Indoor Nationals, and it was a very successful weekend. The girls 4 x 800m relay team (Ellie Child, Joanna Boyd, Taylor Cox, and Shea Martinez) came home as National Champions! Not only did they win the relay, they ran the U.S. #3 fastest time ever run. Ellie was perfect as a starting leg - she was aggressive and handled the physical 1st leg very well. Although there was a lot of pushing going on, she stayed calm and ran a 2:14 opening leg to give us the lead. Joanna stepped up big time for us, running her season best by 6 seconds with a 2:17 - and keeping us right in the race. Taylor ran a very smart and steady race with a 2:14 split - and put us in the top position going into the final leg. Shea finished it off by pulling away with a very strong move over the final 300m of the race to blow away the competition by 5 seconds on her way to a pr 2:08 split. You can see the race video at http://www.runnerspace.com/video.php?video_id=81576-Girls-4x800-Section-1-New-Balance-Nationals-Indoor-2013 (it's good footage other than the interruptions from the shot put). The girls also ran very strong individual races. Shea came back in the open 800m to finish 4th in a very competitive race with a 2:08.00 - Utah's 2nd fastest all-time and a new school record (it was also fast enough to win the indoor nationals 10 of the past 14 years). Ellie ran 5:00 in the mile (Davis #2 all-time and her indoor track pr). And Taylor ran 2:16 for another solid race in the 800m. Although the boys were somewhat overshadowed by the girls performance, they still ran some impressive times as well. Preston Johnson started us off with a 15:07 in the 5000m - it was good enough for 7th place overall. He missed being all-American by only .06 seconds. Preston won his heat, and would have had a good shot at top 5 if he could have been in the faster heat. Preston came back a day later to run 4:21 in the mile (Davis #3 all-time). And the boys 4 x mile team of Brayden Cromar, Alex Hedquist, Jackson Sagers, and Skylar Williams ran 17:43 to finish 11th in the race. It is a time that would have won nationals many years in the past, and this year was a very competitive year. To put it into perspective, our boys ran 17:39 in 2011 and finished 2nd by only 1 second. The boys splits were - Brayden 4:26, Alex 4:22, Jackson 4:27, and Skylar 4:25. I have posted some pictures on facebook if you would like to take a look. Davis was well represented as we continue to show our abilities on a national level.
Time Trials - Great job last week with the time trials - we saw some great things that we hope to build on in the next few weeks. We were particularly happy with our depth. You can see all of the time trials results at www.darttrack.blogspot.com
Alumni Meet - Will be this Friday, March 15th - the girls hurdles will be the first event and will start at 3:15. The rest of the schedule is attached to this email. We have a few expectations for the meet: 1) That everyone stay from the start to the finish - the meet will be over at about 6:15. Even if you are done with your events, we want you all to stay until the end encouraging and cheering for your teammates. 2) That everyone do their best. Try very hard not to compare yourselves to other people on the team - just do the best that you can do. We will score the meet with 4 teams - Alumni, Seniors, Juniors, Sophomore/Freshman. I hope that we will get to see a few of our alumni at the meet (even if they are not competing).
We will be using the alumni meet to decide what you are going to run at the Super Meet next week, so treat it like a meet and show us what you've got. If you are still not sure what event(s) you should compete in, choose 2-3 events that you think would be fun and that you could do well, and do your best with those events. You will have opportunities later to try other events.
Eligibility - if your papers are not in, please get them done ASAP.
Uniforms - We will hand out uniforms on Thursday. You will only be allowed to take a uniform if you have turned in your eligibility papers and you don't have any U's. I would like you to race in your uniforms at the Alumni Meet on Friday. If you are not yet eligible, you can still compete on Friday (it counts as a practice) - but you will just have to compete in your own track clothes (nbd).
Saturday - We will not have practice at the school on Saturday (March 16th) - but distance runners will meet that day at the school at 8:00am for a long run.
Davis Super Meet - Next week we are hosting an 11 team invitational (Davis, Fremont, Weber, Viewmont, Bingham, Riverton, Bountiful, Mt. View WY, Evanston, Rock Springs, East). The girls compete on Tuesday, and the boys compete on Wednesday. It is going to be a great start to our season, but we are going to need everyone's help. We will be going over assignments and officiating training at practice tomorrow (Wednesday), and we will finalize those assignments before the meet. Everyone who is eligible will get to compete in at least one event. We will do the registration beforehand, so you are not able to just do whatever events you would like. The entries for both the boys and the girls will be posted at practice on Monday. I will send out more information about the meet for athletes and parents in my email this weekend.
Competition Shoes - It is recommended that you have a pair of spikes or other competition shoes specific to your event. While it is not required, it will definitely improve your performance. Striders in Layton always has a good collection of distance and sprints/hurdles spikes. You can also find spikes online at www.eastbay.com - Eastbay also specializes in throwing and jumping shoes. They often have some great clearance deals.
I know that is a lot of information. I hope that you are all starting to get comfortable with the track routine. If you are at all discouraged, keep at it. Be patient with yourselves and realize that there is great satisfaction in accomplishing goals that you really have to work to attain.
Thanks,
Coach Talley
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