On Saturday, December 6th, the 'Best from the West' gather to attack the famed Mt SAC course for the annual Footlocker West Regional Championship.  This was the 30th annual running of this historic race, with the past winners reading like a who's who of future NCAA leaders and US Olympians.  There are grade level races, as well as the formal 'seeded' races for the top boys and girls from the western US.  In the girls seeded race, Californian Jordan Hasay completed an unprecidented four year sweep of event, winning by a ten second margin over D1 State Champion Alex Dunne of San Clemente (who kept her shoes on this time!).  The top 10 finishers from the seeded races form the West Team at next weeks Footlocker Nationals in San Diego.

Two of your Mustangs decided to enter and test the fast waters!  Sophmore Josh Smiley, fresh off his break-through NCS and State Meet race, entered the newly created "Frosh Soph Boys Seeded Championship" race, which drew the top Fr/Soph from the western states.    This race was in addition to all the F/S who raced in the open F/S race earlier in the day.

Right from the gun, Josh was able to settle in the upper 1/4 of the race, running in around 40th place for the first mile.  He passed the clock in a comfortable 5:10, and headed for the Switchback hills.  Coming back into view at about the halfway point of the race, Josh had chewed up a good 15 runners, and was nearing the top 25.  Coming off the final hill, he had moved into 17th place, and while he gave up a couple places on the track coming towards the finish, he was able to pass a runner right at the end to grab 20th place overall in this 'seeded' event!  His time for the tough 5K course was 17: 33 (5:39 pace)

Mike took on the seeded boys race, featuring State Champs and returning Footlocker finalists!  The prerace introductions were pretty impressive, as state winners from Utah, Washington, Arizona, California, Hawaii and Oregon were in attendance.   There were several familiar NCS and NorCal competitors in the list as well.  Mike was able to get a clean start, and stay on his feet despite a number of competitors who fell near him during the first frantic mile.  He cruised through the mile in a conservative 4:58 pace, and then started to attack the pack in front of him in the hills.  Running what he called a tough race, full of ups and downs physically and mentally, Mike pushed through the course and onto the track, where he passed several runners during a mad dash for the line.  When it was over, Mike had taken 66th place, which was the highest placement of any MV runner (in the years that Coach Davis has been going down to Footlocker, which started in 2005).

Results: http://www.footlockerwest.com/cgi-bin/Archives/2008Results.aspx

And NOW the season is finally wrapped up, a full 6 months from when the summer running club kicked it off.  Time for some rest!

Story to follow...

 Results:  http://www.dyestatcal.com//?pg=dyestatcal2008-XCountry-Road-To-State-08-State-Meet-Results

Near perfect conditions greated the MVXC Varsity runners today, along with several FS / JV runners, as they raced a fast 3200 meters on the San Ramon Valley HS track.   A long standing area cross country tradition, the 3200 race provides an opportunity for local athletes to lay down a PR 3200 a week before the NCS meet!  And a number of runners were determined to do just that, as all three heats featured motivated runners who pressed the pace the entire race.

Leading the fast heat, Senior Mike Roderick continued his impressive streak of races, by winning in a stellar time of 9:42.  Jr Amis Matulionis was the next Mustang across the line in 10:11, with Soph Josh Smiley 3rd in 10:23.  On the girls side, both Jr. Nicole Aha and Fr. Kyla Aiuto finished in the top 5 today, as Nicole finishes a close third in 11:59, while Kyla was 5th in 12:05.

Byron Kilian ran a strong race to finish 4th in the second heat, in a great time of 10:52. 

In the 3rd heat, Jr Natalie Scott battles with the JV boys, finishing a close 3rd in 12:50.

RESULTS - click on the handout below:

Individual & Team Results from the EBAL Championship meet hosted by Monte Vista HS at Oak Hill Park.

Congrats to our "All-League" winners, our JV Boys (top MV team today in 2nd place), as well as Mike Roderick, the undefeated League Champion!

Highlights: 

Mike Roderick remains unbeaten in the EBAL!  Another dominating victory.

Varsity Girls finish 5-2 again, led by Nicole Aha in 7th, are 10-4 on the season.  

Varsity Boys finish 4-3 today, move to 10-4 on the season as well. 

JV boys paced again by Byron Kilian (5th). 
JV Girls led by Jen Aceto and Kendall Horalek.  More JV results to follow.

Results - click on the handout below.

See handout below.  All four races - team and individual results.

It's the 1st League Meet!
Weds, Oct 8th.  EBAL Center Meet #1
Hosted by Monte Vista at Oak Hill Park
 
EBAL Standings after Center Meet #1:
Boys
Amador Valley      7-0
Monte Vista          6-1
Granada               5-2
San Ramon Vly    4-3
DeLa Salle           3-4
Foothill                  2-5
Livermore             1-6
California              0-7

Girls
Livermore             7-0
Carondelet            6-1
Monte Vista          5-2
Cal, Granada, SRV   3-4
Amador Valley     1-6
Foothill                   0-7
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

JV Boys Record    6-1
JV Girls Record    4-3
(Unofficial records.  Team scores not tracked until the EBAL Championship Meet)

Race results on Dyestatcal.com :  http://www.dyestatcal.com/?pg=dyestatcal2008-XCountry-Results-October-Week-6-04-Scott-Bauhs-Inv-Results

Download the files below.

Congrats to our "Top Ten" Scott Bauhs Invite T-Shirt winners:
Alex Morris - 5th Senior Boys Race
Amanda Wolf - 2nd Senior Girls Race
Rahul Avasarala - 6th Junior Boys Race
Kaity Swinnerton - 9th Junior Girls Race
Kevin Ho - 6th Soph Boys Race
Zach Chambers - 9th Soph Boys Race
Byron Kilian - 4th Frosh Boys Race
Mikaela Hammitt - 4th Frosh Girls Race

See how our top JV and FS runners stack up over the same 2.0 mile course.  Great times for this early in the season! 

Joe Trail                      12:01               JV

Colton Anderson        12:02               JV

Cameron Bailey          12:06               JV

Byron Kilian               12:10               FS

Vincent Kot                12:19               JV

Sebastian DeLuca       12:25               JV

Logan McCaul            12:25               FS

Dan Roderick              12:27               FS

Matt Terzolo               12:32               FS

Angel Ordaz               12:34               FS

Brandon Rebottaro     12:34               FS

Michael Garaventa     12:38               FS

Eric Bergquist            12:39               JV

Dan Feldman              12:44               FSU

Kyle Murray               12:44               JV

Lauren Gratsch           13:23               FS

Mikaela Hammitt       13:58               FS

Angelyn Brown          14:11               FS

Kristina Chin              14:17               FS

Amanda Wolf             14:21               JV

Lauren Goerz              14:22               JV

Katy Swinnerton         14:23               JV

Kendall Horalek         14:32               FS

Kaitlyn Day                14:51               FS

Jen Aceto                    14:59               JV

Lauren Kuemmeler    15:18               JV

Kirsten Ratliff           15:54               JV

Meghan Yap               16:01               FS

Amanda Stansell        16:05               FS

Alex D’Souza             16:12               JV

Results for each of the 8 races in the handout below.

Varsity girls grab 3rd place, just 10 pts behind College Park in a tough early season match up! 

Check out the race videos on Flotrack, including another great post race interview with Sr Mike Roderick!

http://www.flotrack.org/videos/coverage/view/234123-2008-de-la-sallecarondelet-nike-cross-country-invitational

Photo's?  Some are already loaded to the XC Photobucket site:
http://s182.photobucket.com/albums/x215/MUSTANG_XC/

Beast of the Week winner:  Lauren Gratsch - 4th place F/S girls race.  Earns a varsity spot at Stanford! 

Mustangs set up camp in the premier location (???) and proceed to wreck havoc on the Ed Sias course today!  118 Stangs toe the line in 9 different races.  And when the dust had settled, the results consistently had MVXC at or near the top!  In fact, 9th place was the lowest team finish today - out of up to 25 teams in some of the races!  WOW!

Team medals went to the F/S Boys and Girls "limited" teams with 4th place finishes.  Medals and Nike bags went to the Varsity Girls team for their 4th place finish, and medals and Nike Backpacks went to the first place Varsity Boys team.   (Top overall MV times are in the Handout below)

Many many photos taken by Coach Davis (posting soon), who recovered from the exciting coaches race to snap just a couple shots today. 

The team should be proud of how you supported each other, cheering loudly every time a Mustang harrier cruised by.  And with a concentrated effort - the camp cleanup was great! 

A big thank you to all the Moms and Dads who came out to support the team as well.

Results: http://www.mdusd.k12.ca.us/collegepark/Track/edsias/edsiasresultsPAGE.html

19 Teams entering runners...

over 700 athletes raced the imfamous course...

large crowds gather along the jungle, the eliminator, and the finish area...

And when it was all over (on time of course) the MVXC gang had taken home many of the top honors including:

- Three individual race titles:  Mike Roderick (1st Senior Boys and fastest time on the course today), Josh Smiley (1st Soph Boys, 12th fastest overall) and Kyla Aiuto (1st Frosh Girls race, 6th fastest overall)

- Team "titles" in the Frosh Girls, Soph Boys and Junior Girls races.

- If scored as two large races (all boys time combined, then all girls times) - Monte Vista Boys finish 3rd overall, just seconds from 1st place, and MV Lady Stangs take 4th in the large field (second EBAL squad). 

Many first time runners conquer their nerves and the course today, confident from the hard training that has taken place the last couple weeks.  Great racing action from start to finish, with lots of friends, family and teammates there to cheer you all on.

Photos to follow.  Results for each race in the handout below.  Combined results included (as if it were one large girls, one boys race).

(Photos courtesy of CalSportsPhoto.com - see Photo Link)