Broadalbin-Perth Cross Country

Today was another day of mixed results for us. On the positive side, the majority of our team ran the fastest they have all season. Also, most ran 30-50 seconds faster this year than they did a year ago. In that sense, it was a huge success as we are heading in the right direction. However, we once again came up short on the team side of things as our 3rd place finish by the girls and 9th place on the boys’ side was a disappointment. We continue to be out-kicked and are not finishing as...

Today was a huge step forward for our program, as we finally seemed to understand the importance of running as a pack. I preach this daily, but up to this point, the pack typically stayed together for the first half of a race and faltered on the second half. This week at practice though, the kids stayed within their groups and bought into the idea that if we train together, we can race together. Today, those same groups stayed together as I witnessed them verbally encourage one another to fig...

Today we competed in the Section VII (Pre-State) Invitational in Plattsburgh so that we could preview the course in which this year’s state championship will be contested. This is a tradition I have done with all my teams as I use it as both motivation and a learning tool. It is my hopes that the kids enjoy themselves and work even harder to ensure themselves a return trip in November. It also allows me, as a coach to see what the course is like and gear our workouts to better prepare u...

Today was our first true test of the season as we raced against many of schools we will compete against at sectionals. Overall, we ran well as most set personal best. On the girls side we finished fourth but were only beaten out by one of our fellow Section II Class C schools, Schuylerville. They beat us by a small margin of 6 points, which I believe we can overcome, as our new kids get more accustomed to the 5k distance. Ava Tyler (4 minutes better) and Caroline Iannotti (2 minutes better) s...

Today was an introduction to cross country racing for our mostly inexperienced team. Consequently, we had a mixed bag of results. Through the first half of both the boys and girls races, we looked very strong but many struggled on the second half. I expected this though, as it takes time for kids to adjust to the physical demands of a 5k race and even more so the mental demands. I have high expectations for this group and do believe that they will use what they learn from each race to improv...

Overall, today was a good day for us. The majority of our team ran well with most at or around seasonal goals. Our main competition at sectionals, Schuylerville, did get the better of us so that stung a bit. Physically, Schuylerville and we are identical. They just proved to want it a bit more than us today. Luckily, we have two weeks to mentally prepare for the next time we meet. I am hoping that this close loss will serve as the fuel that motivates us towards a victory come sectionals.

Today was a test for us as we ran short handed on both sides. Unlike the Killian Invitational, this time our team rose to the challenge and passed with flying colors. Others filled the shoes of their missing teammates and kept our packs strong. Although, our team result wasn’t as good as I would have liked our times were better than I expected. This makes me very optimistic of what we can do at full strength. We are peaking at the right time. Now we just have to get everyone healthy and...

Today was a huge success for us. The boys bounced back from their worst meet of the season and the girls continued to build on the success of their last three races. One week ago, the boys mentally lost the race before it even began. Today, they established the pack I have preached to them and proved that it takes a team of runners, not one individual great runner, to be champions. The twenty-six second gap from our number one runner to our number six was the difference. Throughout the race, ...

Today was a mixed bag of emotions for us. The girls’ team ran much better than they have all season and in a much tighter pack. They essentially grew up today and made me much more optimistic about the future. The boys unfortunately took a step backward. We went into the meet without our number one runner (personal reasons) and thus they seemed to be mentally beat from the start. We essentially lost before we even started. Our motto this year is to be more mentally tough and today we di...

In the words of our kids, this was a “fun” weekend. Other than the six-hour bus ride (NY traffic) it was exactly that. Besides being fun, it was also an educational and hopefully motivating one for us. We made the long trip to Sunken Meadow State Park in Kings Park NY to see and compete on the course we hope to finish on this November (site of 2018 NYS Championship). What we learned was that the course was hard. In my many years of coaching, I would rank this among the top two mos...