News and Announcements
2012 Alumni Race - Grads rule with double victories!
Over 30 MVXC alumni showed up today for the seventh annual running of this event. A cool day with overcast skies helped to keep worries about the Eliminator to a manageable level. While some alumni came only to cheer, most raced up the 'ol shoes and toed the line with the current squad.
After greeting old friends and teammates, the group headed to the line for a 9:30 start. With the familiar pink course flags in front of them, the group roared off the line and the "race" began.
In what has become an recurring pattern, the race up front featured several alumni who have conitunued running in college, taking on the fastest of the current team members. Farther back, the midpack tried to gauge the first mile to prepare for the hills that once again awaited them. And in the back, the prerace fun continued as packs of alumni and current team members focused on simply getting through the two mile course.
The alumni boys team quickly sent a strong message - run with us if you dare! Bhavick Kanzaria, running for UCSB, went through the first mile in about 5 flat, with '12 grad Drew Feldman and '11 grad Michael Garaventa (both running for SF State this fall) in 2nd and 3rd. With '11 grad Matt Yap in 4th, and '00 grad and current MV coach John Behring in 5th, at the half way point the alumni boys had a "sweep" going.
In the girls race, '10 graduate Nicole Aha, who runs for UC Davis, ran stride for stride with MV Frosh rookie Brooke Starn. In 3rd for the girls was '04 grad Brittany Rezowalli, the former LMU distance star who has missed only one of these races! Similar to last year, a close race between alumni and current team girls formed behind her - the race being too close to call at the mile mark.
Emerging from the hills, Kanzaria was on a roll and streaked onto the field with a course record in site. Sprinting home, he claimed first place in 10:38.6 - just eclipsing his own 10:39 mark from the 2008 race! Fortunately for the current team, Sr Michael Bartz poured it on in the hills, just passing Behring to break up the prefect sweep. Jr Jake Auby and Andres Starr were 7th and 9th, with Sr Cameron Somers taking 4th (10th place) for the current squad. Soph Yian Liou had a breakthrough race today and finished the team scoring. However, in the end the alumni boys took 5 of the first 6 places to score an impressive 16 points compared to the 42 tallied by the current squad. They now lead the series 4-3 over the current squad.
Coming into the park, Nicole had put a small gap on Brooke and powered in for the 1st place medal. Their times (13:21 and 13:26) were the 2nd and 3rd fastest girls times in the seven year history of the race! Race record holder Brittany held firm to 3rd place, while '12 alumni Kyla Auito was 4th, just ahead of Sr Katharine Smiley. Sr Amy Ingram edged alumni Abby Van Muijen for 5th and 6th place. The current team took the next three spots (Elana Lim (frosh), Elena Smith (Sr) and Erin Herting Jr) but '10 alumni Kimmy Abood (chased by teammate Anna Hoyt) was able to close the door on the scoring. In a typically close race - the alumni girls prevailed 26-30.
Andres Starr was the first "rookie" to finish the race and earned the Top Rookie medal, while Abby Van Muijen's 2 minute PR over her best high school time earned her a special "Coaches Award".
A lively social hour wrapped up the festivies. Team Mom Brenda Karczag and her husband Stephan set up a great fruit and bagel breakfast for the tired but energied group.
A special recognition goes out to all the rookie current team members who showed up today to brave their first race. The alumni appreciate you coming out and helping to make this event a success!
Make plans for next years 8th running of this event!
GO MUSTANGS - PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE!
Photos here : http://s182.photobucket.com/profile/MUSTANG_XC/index
Results from all seven alumni races can be found in the handout below.
2012 HSU Distance Running Camp - Wrap up!
Eleven Mustangs traveled to the North Coast to attend the week-long Running Camp. This camp has been in existence since the 1970's and is still run by Hall of Fame coach Jim Hunt and his wife Jo Ann. Asics Aggies running club president Kevin Searls is the camp director and head cowbell ringer for the morning wake up rounds (at 6am each day the runners are rattled from their sleep for the first run of the day).
Mustangs after the Clam Beach run on Monday, July 23rd - HSU Running Camp
During the week, the team heard from notable coaches and professional athletes, while also learning more about the science of the sport including "gold medal running form". Each afternoon the group was bused out to a local scenic run. The team ran along the coast bluffs, along the beach (including a river crossing), into the parks near the Humboldt State campus, and finally, out to the giant redwood trees. With temps in the 60's each day, it was ideal weather for running.
Attending camp this year were seniors Patrick Kragen, Brad Palonsky, Cameron Somers, Michael Bartz, Megan Blair, Ally Lizano and Katharine Smiley. They were joined by Jr Erin Herting, Sophs Nolan Pineda & Caroline Carey, and Freshman Brooke Starn. Coach Davis and his wife Karla (Mrs Coach) celebrated their wedding anniversary with a fancy meal in the dining hall!
Photos can be found at the photobucket site: http://s182.photobucket.com/profile/MUSTANG_XC/index
Please plan on joining us next year for this awesome running experience!
2016 Team Parents: Positions available
2016 Team Booster Liaisons: Tom Maneloveg
For 2012, Monte Vista Cross Country will again use XC Stats.com to track your season and career progress. XC Stats will be the official site for your Training Log, as well as goal setting forms.
If you were part of MVXC in 2011, you should be already registered on XC Stats.com. Please go in and make sure your email and parents email is still accurate. Update any missing information.
If you can not remember your password from last season, there is a easy way for you to get that information.
FOR NEW MVXC PARTICIPANTS IN 2012 - The time to register is now! Get set up and start tracking your summer running. Please click on the handout below: Getting Started with XC Stats.com. In order to register, you'll need our team password. Email Coach Davis to obtain our password: mike.davis@sbcglobal.net
Being registered is mandatory for all athletes. Don't delay - sign up today!
Coach Davis
Monte Vista Cross Country on XCStats.com
XC STATS.COM - Monte Vista Cross Country's Stat page is HERE!
Simply put, the purpose of XCStats is to enhance the Cross Country experience for high school runners, their parents and coaches. We strive to help motivate runners and have them experience success; to engage parents in the sport and increase their awareness of their child's accomplishments; and to save the coach time and give him or her the tools to build a respected and spirited cross country program.
To help realize this purpose, we focus on three objectives.
Recognize Accomplishment
XCStats certainly didn’t invent the concept that recognizing runners for their accomplishments is a good thing. 
But, we will lay claim to developing an exhaustive criteria by which improvements are identified, and when they are, publicly recognizing it with our “You ROCK” catch phrase. It is this recognition that helps motivate high school runners, and gives them a feeling of success, especially since most runners times don’t count in the official team competition, nor are they finishing near the top of the race. In fact, nearly 70% of XCStats runners said achieving a “you rock” was a motivator for them and that this recognition made cross country more rewarding for them. With XCStats, no accomplishment is left unnoticed.
Our goal at XCStats is to recognize accomplishment, for all runners, whenever it occurs, so that this frequent recognition helps to engrain a spirit of success on the team. With this spirit, all runners perform better, are more supportive of one another and it’s a lot more fun to coach.
Inspire Performance
Recognizing accomplishments goes a long way toward inspiring future performance. But there’s more to it. As a coach, you want all your runners to be engaged in the competition and accountable for their performance, regardless of their speed. Not such an easy task, especially with a large team and a long season! To this end, XCStats includes a goal-setting tool, where runners and coaches can collaborate on setting appropriate goals for upcoming races. It seems obvious, but research has shown that goal setting is the most effective way to improve performance, but the process itself is probably more meaningful. When a runner sets a goal, they are taking ownership for their performance, which gives purpose to their training and adds significance to their result. Setting the goal also involves some interaction with the coach, something that not all runners have the benefit of. With goal setting, every race counts, kids stay engaged all season long, and their performance improves.
Build Community
It’s the cross country community, made up of coaches, teachers, runners, parents and alumni that create a vibrant and sustainable program. XCStats is designed 
to help build such a program, by highlighting successes and enabling easy and frequent communication. The service includes a complete email system allowing coaches to send emails directly from an XCStats web page. With a few clicks, the coach can send post-race emails to runners, with a copy to their parents, highlighting their accomplishments. 95% of parents said that XCStats increased their awareness of their child’s accomplishments, and 80% said that it helped them feel more involved with the cross country team. To increase the dialogue between the community members, we’ve added a private discussion forum so parents, runners and coaches can share experiences and discuss topics important to the team.
Despite the fact that we have a massive number of reports (24 in all!), and that we call it “XCStats”, I hope you can see that XCStats is not really about stats. Our true purpose is to improve the cross country experience for runners, coaches and parents. We hope to inspire runners, increase parents involvement with the sport and their children and to free the coach so he or she can spend more time teaching cross country and influencing the lives of our youth.
The Origin of XCStats
XCStats was developed by me, Mike Sherwood, the father of some cross country runners from San Jose, Ca. It started as a modest spreadsheet in 2004, with the goal simply to keep records of my kids’ performances. As the kids progressed through high school, the project grew and became more sophisticated, moving from spreadsheets to databases and now to the web. Developing XCStats.com not only satisfies my hobby of writing XCStats computer programs, but also allows me to expand the availability of the stats which have been so greatly appreciated.
Acknowledgements:
XCStats has benefited from the input from several key advisors. Hank Lawson, the champion, historian and leader of cross country in the Bay Area and the track and cross country coach at Lynbrook High School in San Jose, has guided the definition of the reports, provided valuable feedback on the navigation and usability of the site and provided introductions to other influential members of the running community. Hank works tirelessly for the benefit of Bay Area high school cross country and track, including the development and management of the Lynbrook Web site which is the primary source of running information for this region. Dr. Margo Thienemann, a child and adolescent psychiatrist and close friend, has listened to and provided valuable feedback to nearly every aspect of the project. She challenged early assumptions, that when revised, have lead to vast improvements in the site. Her professional experience has helped shape the philosophy and focus of XCStats. And finally, my kids, Scott and Sarah, who have helped with the graphic design, defining the business model and, of course, by choosing to run cross country in high school. Thank you all for helping create XCStats.com.
