AgouraCrossCountry

Report on Girls' Team at County Meet

Coach Prater has filed the following report on the Girls' efforts at the Ventura County Championships last Friday:

The varsity girls finished 8^th in Ventura County, only five points behind Westlake, with a better team time.  The Marmonte League is obviously one of the strongest leagues around as it garnered 6 of the top 8 places.  The girls were led by Erin Baird and Kristen Hessick who finished 9^th and 14^th overall.  Emily Hahn and Jenny Archuleta stepped up this week as our 5^th and 6^th runners, finishing only seconds apart.  This coming week, we need to work on keeping our 4^th through 7^th runners tightly packed for as long as possible!

The frosh soph girls were led by Arielle Slater who regained her competitive fire, finishing the difficult course in 22:47.

Ventura County Championships

I'll begin with the report on the Boys Team, and will post the Girls Report once I receive it from Coach Prater.  So keep checking back.

The Ventura County Championship Meet was held at the beautiful setting of Lake Casitas, and involved the 25 or so schools from the county area.  Since this area is considered one of the strongest cross country regions in the nation, the meet is always a good one.  The Marmonte League, as always, dominated both the individual and team races, even though Royal did not run its varsity boys team due to injuries and the like.

Chris Baird added to his great season by finishing 2nd in the Boys Varsity Race.  This cements his position as a first team All-County performer for the second year in a row.  His time was 15:52, less than a second behind the County Champion.

The boys sophomore team ran an awesome race, finishing 3rd overall in the county.  The scoring performers were Brandon Severson (6th -- 17:31), Adam Brosh (9th -- 17:50), Sean Slavin (14th -- 18:08), Cameron Thomas (17th -- 18:12) and Alex Bown (67th -- 20:09).  Three of these sophomores will be running varsity at League Finals.

The boys freshmen also showed their great potential.  Bryan Quintanilla (19:03), Ben Wolhaupter (19:38), and Brennan Bown (19:38) all broke 20 minutes, while Aaron Argiso, Max Byer and Richard Avery also put in good performances.  All of these runners are developing a good work ethic and offer a lot of promise (together with our strong sophomore class) for the Agoura Cross Country team in the next few years.

Congratulations to Harrison Sobel, who defeated 7 county runners on Friday.  I probably should stop publicizing Harrison's accomplishments; otherwise, other coaches may start recruting him away from Agoura!

League Finals is on Thursday, and we will lay it all on the line during what is annually one of the best League Finals meets in the nation!

Great Quote About Running!

Rabbi Jared has come up with a great quote specifically about the sport of running:

"Running is perhaps the truest and most honest sport of them all. There are no lucky calls or breaks in running. Runners can't swing at a bad pitch and get the lucky hit, throw the "Hail Mary" pass to score the winning touchdown or heave the ball from half court to score the 3-pointer at the buzzer. Runners can't blame officials foor losing games and can't have another team member compensate for their inadequacies. Runners are ultimately alone and fully responsible for their sport. They know there is no short cut to getting or staying in shape. Most sports and games allow players to fall out of shape and yet are still able to compete. A runner who doesn't stay in shape simply cannot run at a competitive level. Everything in running is earned and nothing is given." -John Doyle

Neither Jared nor I have any idea who John Doyle is or was, but he certainly knew something about our sport.  Good luck to everyone tomorrow at the County Meet.  It's one of the best meets of the season.

Inspiration from Rabbi Jared

Another great quote from THE RABBI:

"The best way to succeed tomorrow, is to start preparing today." -Anon

That's a great quote I need to bring back in June when summer training begins!

Report on Yesterday's Meet

Agoura High School's cross country team ran into the Thousand Oaks HS cross country juggernaut and the excellent teams from Westlake High School.   Thousand Oaks ran to solid victories against both Agoura and Westlake.  The Agoura Girls Varsity ran to a 28-28 score against Westlake, but lost due to the 6th place tiebreaker rule.  The Agoura Boys Varsity lost by a tight score of 26-30 against Westlake, but the result indicates that we have a shot against them at League Finals.

Highlight of the Day:  Chris Baird finishing first place overall, with a PR of 15:50.  He followed TO's top runner on to the track for the final 250 meters, and passed him going away on the final straight away, putting a victorious finish to the day.

Other top performers:

Girls Varsity:

Erin Baird (2nd overall -- 19:21)

Kristen Hessick (6th -- 19:52)

Katie Klezek (11th -- 20:17)

Girls F/S:

Arielle Slater (10th overall -- 22:45)

Sarah Kislak (22:59)

Girls JV:

Kelly McBride (24:42)

Amy MOffatt (25:05)

Pia Nieghbors (25:32)

Boys Varsity:

Chris Baird (1st -- 15:50)

Matt Schroeder (17:13)

Brandon Severson (17:13)

Boys F/S:

Cameron Thomas (8th -- 18:24)

Daniel Hurlbut (19:19)

Bryan Quitanilla (19:29)

Boys JV:

Perry Casey (18:20) (Perry continues to challenge for a varsity spot)

Jonathan Reuter (19:24)

Jordan Burch (19:25)

Cameron Jacobson (19:34) (This may have been Cameron's best race ever!)

Harrison Sobel (25:09) (Harrison has now defeated runners from both Royal and Westlake!)

There are less than 3 weeks until League Finals.  Let's keep our focus so Agoura HS can peak at the perfect time!

Quote of the Week

Rabbi Jared has come up with another one:

"Excellence is never an accident. It is always the result of high intention, determined effort, and skilled expectations." -Anon

Talent may be an accident of birth and might open some doors, and luck might win you the lottery or some other occasional good fortune, but I agree that excellence is always a combination of intentions and effort.

If you are one of those who think you can rely on luck in life, that brings to mind two other similar quotes I've heard on the subject:  "Luck is the residue of design" and "The harder I work the luckier I seem to get."

Greg Stanger Medals!

Somehow, someway, somewhere on this blog, sometime ago, this editor neglected to list the Great Greg Stanger as a medalist (senior division) at the Woodbridge Meet ... so I am making it up to Greg by giving him his very own post!  Congratulations, Greg.  Way to go, Greg.  Atta boy, Greg.  Here's the ol' proverbial slap on the back, Greg.  You the man, Greg.

Report on Boys' Meet Against Moorpark and Royal

The Agoura High School cross country team faced off against Marmonte league foes Moorpark and Royal yesterday.  The Moorpark course is one of the most scenic anywhere, meandering through the cornfields, avocado groves, eucalyptus trees and pumpkin patches of Underwood Farms, a site used as a location for movies and television shows (an episode of NCIS was filmed there recently), weddings and Halloween events.  The report on the boys teams follows, and I will post Coach Prater's report on the Girls performances in the next day or two.

The boys jv, soph/frosh and varsity teams swept Moorpark with scores of 15-44, 20-38 and 16-44, respectively.  Not surprisingly, Royal (with the No. 1 ranked team in the nation) returned the favor against us, but the Agoura boys posted some very respectable scores, with the varsity boys actually scoring six points in losing 21-37.  Royal coach Ryan Luce told me at the meet that every one of his top-5 runners is being heavily recruited by Div I cross country programs.

In particular, I was very impressed by the overall competitiveness of our boys.  The team is learning how to overcome the typical fears and anxieties of racing and focus on giving their best efforts.  Royal coach Ryan Luce told me that so many teams they face seem to give up before the race even starts, but that certainly was not the case yesterday with the Agoura team.  Our runners showed a lot of character which, despite a world that sometimes wrongly emphasizes image and personality, is ultimately the most important thing of all.

Among our notable performances were these (note that the course was 3.12 miles rather than the more customary 3 miles):

Varsity:

Chris Baird made it clear again that he is an elite runner as he stayed with the Royal front pack, finishing with a 16:55.

Sophomore Adam Brosh continued his steady and relentless improvement, posting a 17:23 and getting inside Royal's 5th runner.

Sophomore Brandon Severson also ran his usual good race, posting a 17:40 despite still suffering the effects of the influenza/cold that has been spreading through the team.

Matt Schroeder bounced back from his knee injury, gutting out a 17:44, and more impressively, conceding nothing by sticking with the Royal front group as long as he could.

Soph/Frosh

Another fine team effort by our Soph/Frosh team, with Sean Slavin and Cameron Thomas leading the way (18:23 and 18:28), four others running under 20 minutes (freshman Ben Wolhauper (19:06), freshman Bryan Quintanilla and first-year runner Daniel Hurlbut (both 19:11), and freshman Brennan Bown (19:59)), with sophomore Alex Bown not too far behind.

JV

Perry Casey once again stepped up to compete early with the frontrunners, before slipping a bit to 18:41.  This is the first year Perry has run cross country, so as he gains more racing experience he will gradually learn how to hang on to the front pack longer.  Cameron Jacobson ran a solid 20:14 despite being put through a challenging workout the day before.  Casey Johnson stepped-up with a solid 20:32.

Freshman Aaron "Paisano" Argiso ran his best race of the season, finishing in 20:47 and thereby announcing his coming out party.  True to his Paisano reputation, I noticed Aaron speeding up every time he saw a group of girls cheering along the course.  Knowing Aaron, I'm sure he believes the girls were there exclusively to see him.  Keep training, Aaron, and someday that may turn out to be true!

Finally, special recognition goes to Max Byer who ran a solid 21:04 despite appearing to be suffering more than anyone with influenza symptoms, and to Harrison Sobel (27:24) who put on a furious kick to defeat a Royal runner!  Way to go, Harrison!

Athletes of the Meet:  Adam Brosh and Ben Wolhaupter

Weekly Erudition from Agoura CC Runners

In addition to Rabbi Jared's weekly inspirational quote (below), team genius Michelle Kislak has forwarded the following Greek phrase which should give you more reason to train hard and embrace pain:

"Tau pathemeta mathemeta."  Greek for:  The suffered are the learned.

Apparently, not only is the difficult training of a cross country runner adding capillaries to your cardiovascular system, it is simultaneously increasing brain cells.  Note also the Greek words for suffered -- pathemeta (pathetic), and learned -- mathemeta (mathematics).

Moving from the intellectual to the inspirational, here's Jared's monthly quote:

"Now if you are going to win any battle you have to do one thing.  You have to make the mind run the body.  Never let the body tell the mind what to do.  The body will always give up.  It is always tired morning, noon, and night.  But the body is never tired if the mind is not tired.  When you were younger the mind could make you dance all night, and the body was never tired...You've always got to make the mind take over and keep going."
          - George S. Patton, U.S. Army General and 1912 Olympian

This is a great quote to remember before a cross country race.  Also, if you've never seen the movie "Patton" starring George C. Scott (who won the Best Actor award), you should go rent it.  The opening speech is one of the greatest moments in movie history (though expletive-filled, so get approval from your parents).