AgouraCrossCountry

Ventura County Championships

At the Ventura County Championships held at Moorpark High School last Friday evening, Katie Klezek earned a 3rd place medal in the Seeded 1600M race (5:28.22) and a 5th place medal in the Seeded 3200M (11:54.09).  Erin Baird earned a 4th place medal in the Invitational 1600M (5:20.21).  Chris Baird ran a PR in the Invitational 1600M (4:25.57) and now will focus on his specialty, the 3200M, for the remainder of the season.  Perry Casey ran a PR in the 800M (2:09.34), finishing just ahead of John Reuter (2:09.72) who ran his best time of the season after suffering several injuries.  Logan Bedell, Adam Brosh and Michelle Kislak also ran well in their 1600M races.  Congratulations to Derek Johnson of Agoura HS who is the county champion in both the shot put and the discus!

Chris Baird Has 20th Best Time in State

Click here and then cursor down to the Boys 3200M list.  This is from a list of the top-40 performances in the State.  Note Chris Baird has the 20th best time in the State at this point in the season.  Also, discus thrower Derek Johnson is listed as having the No. 1 throw in the state.  My understanding is that he also has the No. 1 throw in the nation!

Report on Meet vs. Westlake and Newbury Park

The last league meet before county and league championships produced some notable efforts, including the following:

Freshman Logan Bedell showed her usual competitive drive with victories in both the JV Girls 1600M and 800M, plus a strong showing in the 4 x 400M.

Freshman Bryan Quintanilla had a great breakthrough with a 5:02 PR in the 1600M and 11:28 PR in the 3200M.

Chris Baird ran to an easy victory against the Westlake and Newbury Park varsity boys with his comfortable 9:48 in the 3200M.

Jordan Burch returned from his doughnut binge with gutsy performances in the 1600M and 800M.

Liska Gunther ran a fine 6:32 in the 1600M in her first race ever!

HARRISON SOBEL COMPLETED AN AMAZING SEASON:  HE ACHIEVED A PR IN EVERY SINGLE RACE THIS YEAR IN THE 800M, A FEAT THAT NO ATHLETE WILL EVER BE ABLE TO EXCEED!!  HE ALSO DEFEATED 5 OTHER RUNNERS!!!

Other PRs:

Phoebe Simon 2:45 800M

Deanna Aaron 3:01 800M

Heather Hamilton 3:17 800M

Cam The Man Thomas 5:09 1600M

Max Byer 5:26 1600M

Ashley Warren 8:13 1600M

Katie Klezek 11:56 3200M

Michelle Kislak 12:13 3200M

Sara Kislak 13:29 3200M

Richard Avery 12:46 3200M

If I missed any PRs, e-mail me!

Spring Break: Bairds Run WILD in Arcadia

This past Friday night at the Arcadia Invitational Erin Baird earned a 4th place medal and ran 11:19.04 in the 3200M, then on Saturday afternoon her big brother, Chris, one-upped her with his 3rd place medal and 9:24.69 in the Boys Open 3200M (a 13 second PR!).  Congratulations also to Agoura HS Discus Thrower Derek Johnson who won the Saturday evening Invitational event with a tremendous throw of 192' 6", which now ranks him as the best in the State.  Also noteworthy was Westlake High School's Cory Primm who won the 800M in 1:49.50, the best time in the nation!  The Arcadia Invitational is annually considered to be the top high school track and field meet in the nation, and this year was certainly no exception.  Congratulations to the Agoura HS athletes who participated.

Spring Break Schedule

We are at a critical juncture in the season, so don't lose your focus while on vacation this week.  The schedule is as follows:

Friday 4/6  On your own 4-6 miles

Saturday 4/7  On your own 5-8 miles

Sunday 4/8  Optional

Monday 4/9  8:30AM at Chesebro

Tuesday 4/10  4:30pm at AHS track.  Workout will be from 8 - 12 400Ms (2 at GP-2, 8 at GP+2, 2 at GP-2 with 60-90 sec recovery.  B and C group will skip every 3rd interval.  Coach Prater will be there if her plane lands on time from Atlanta and will make any necessary adjustments.)

Wednesday 4/11 Chesbro 8:30am

Thursday 4/12 AHS track at 8:30am

Friday TBA

Saturday TBA

Varsity Boys/Girls and JV Boys Defeat Calabasas

The Agoura track and field team competed successfully against Calabasas yesterday, winning every division except the JV Girls team which lost a close battle.  Once again the distance runners contributed mightily, including the following PR's:

800M

Logan Bedell 2:36

Jessica Stoffel 2:55 (Impressively, this was on the heels of her success in the half marathon on Saturday at the Great Race)

Deanna Aaron 3:07

Mitchell Squires 2:52

Harrison Sobel (Incredibly, Harrison has run a PR every single meet this season!)

1600M

Evan Fehler 5:14 (who is now officially faster than Marc Mahlknecht ever was  ...  come on Marc, you can't sit around and let that happen!)

Ben Wolhaupter 5:04

Bryan Quintanilla 5:12

Casey Johnson 5:16

Trevor Hochhaus 5:37

Jake Higgins 4:51

Matt Schroeder 4:51

Sara Kislak 5:50

Katie Klezek 5:30

Sara McGillewie 6:29

Kyla McGinley 7:07

Heather Hamilton 7:11

Deanna Aaron 6:53

Due to timing problems, we cannot verify whether anyone ran a PR in the 3200M.

Excellent Performances at Pasadena Relays

Only athletes who meet certain standards are invited to participate in the Pasadena Relays.  The Agoura High School distance runners who participated yesterday at Pasadena City College's beautiful facilities were Erin Baird, Michelle Kislak, Katie Klezek, Chris Baird, Adam Brosh, Matt Schroeder and Jake Higgins.  They all performed well, running near or better than their previous PR's.  Michelle Kislak ran another great PR (5:27) and won a medal in the Open 1600M.  Erin Baird had a huge seasonal PR in the 1600M invitational race, improving her time this year by nearly 10 seconds in running 5:17.  Chris Baird finished 4th in the Invitational 1600M, equalling his PR at 4:27 despite having run two difficult races only two days before against TO and Simi Valley.  Adam Brosh, Jake Higgins, and Matt Schroeder ran 4:49, 4:53.77 and 4:54, respectively, in the Open 1600M race.  It was a great opportunity for these athletes to run in this prestigious, competitive meet, and should prepare them well for league, county and CIF meets later in the season.

Report on Meet vs. TO and Simi Valley

Chris Baird won both the 1600M and 3200M against the strong distance runners from Thousand Oaks HS and Simi Valley HS.  He surprised the TO runners in the mile by hanging back and using them as wind blocks, and then putting together a great kick to the finish.  In the 3200M, he led the entire race and ran a "comfortable" 9:45.  Perry Casey also put in two noteworthy performances, setting a PR of nearly 10 seconds by running 4:50 in the 1600M and followed that up with a 2:11 PR in the 800M.

Here were the day's other PR's:

800M

Katie Klezek 2:32

Bryan Quintanilla 2:25

Harrison Sobel 2:59.5 (he also defeated 3 runners from Simi Valley)

Casey Johnson 2:23

Stacey Goldberg 2:58

Deanna Aaron 3:12

Sara Kislak 2:37

Perry Casey 2:11

1600M

Logan Bedell 5:41

Stacey Goldberg 6:37

Olga Galchenko 7:00

Kyla McGinley 7:16

Casey Johnson 5:18

Evan Fehler 5:19.8

Trevor Hochhaus 5:45

Max Byer 5:27

Mitchell Squires 6:15

Brandon Severson 4:56

Perry Casey 4:50

3200M

Katie Klezek 12:18

Logan Bedell 12:54

Casey Johnson 11:40

Brandon Severson 10:38

Bryan Quintanilla 11:29

Max Byer 12:07

Aaaron Argiso 12:07