Relay results? We actually have a few (Thanks, Coach). Upcoming Schedule Highlights.

Go Blue Ridge -- "WHS XC Competes in Relay Meet" (scroll down).  Foard and Freedom had the winning teams.  The Watauga team of Matt, Jacob, Connor, and Evan were 2nd and the Boys had 4 of the top 10 teams.  The Girls best team (Kathleen, Mandy!, Lauren, and Sidney) finished 5th.  But the Kathleen/Mandy/Lauren/Sidney anchor reports that Sophia of the Sophia/Lily/Simran/? team passed her before the finish.

We usually do not get full results for races like last night's.  Don't worry.  Did the Cranberry team come back to pass the Apple, Boysenberry, and Date teams?  We'll probably never know.  And some runners did compete individually.  (And got home at 9:30pm.)

It's been a dry August.  The Greenway has almost completely dried, after a rough July.  The Weather Channel's station is reporting only 3.85 inches, compared to the August average of 5.07.

The university has a meet Friday evening at 5:00 and 5:45pm.  The Covered Bridge Open, including WHS grads Andrew Vandenberg and Kayla Schneider.

Let's look at the schedule.
Wednesday, September 4  Caldwell County Invitational, at Lenoir Aquatic & Fitness Center.
Wednesday, September 11  Freedom, Patton, & South Caldwell at the Greenway
Saturday, September 14   Furman Classic in Greenville, SC
      Often, the team does not take everyone to these meets.  Usually about 48 runners.
      Furman does have a football game at home, at 12 noon, on this date.
      We will see J.L. Mann again, with their jerseys that look just like ours.
      Plus more schools from Georgia and South Carolina.  It's another big meet.

And skipping a few but hitting some highlights. (See the entire schedule),.

Saturday, September 28  The High Country Classic, back at the Greenway, includes an Open run for parents and others, and a Middle School/Kids 2 mile race.  Start training, parents!
Saturday, October 5  Wendy's Invitational at McAlpine Park in Charlotte.  This race often gives runners their best times of the year and it's spectator friendly.  A very big meet.
Wednesday, October 16   Conference Championship, at Freedom High School in Morganton.
I think Watauga's going to win both Boys and Girls conference championships and maybe even qualify in the top 4s in the West 4A regionals.  The West is not that strong this year, so take advantage if you can.  But it will not be easy.

Relays this evening, starting at 5:00pm. UPDATE

Tonight's meet will be 4 X 3000 meter relays, not usual 5K races.  Watauga should have a lot of teams competing against each other, in addition to the other school's teams.  (So watch out, Kathleen or Michael might be gaining on you.)

UPDATE -- Coach Mac says everyone's running at 5:00pm, so they should be done by about 6:00-6:15pm.  So maybe they'll be back to WHS much earlier than 9:00pm.  (Also good because there will be more runners on the course.  It can be pretty lonely running the last legs when everyone is spread out instead of clumped.)

Here are directions again.
St. Stephens High School in Hickory.
Take Hwy 321 south to Lenoir.  Turn left onto Hwy 18/64.  Turn right onto Hwy 90/64 towards Taylorsville. Go about 14 miles on 90.  Turn right onto Hwy 127 before Taylorsville.  Go about 12 miles.  Cross over the Catawba River.  At the top of the hill, turn left onto Cloninger Mill Road. Continue on Cloninger for 1 mile to the light.  Road changes name to Kool Park Rd.  Go straight for two miles. Turn left onto Springs Road.  Go 1/2 mile.  Turn left at the light.  Look for St. Stephens School signs. (1:15, according to Google Maps.)  

I apologize for the disruption of this blog for a key weekend of the season.  I've learned a little more about the domain name business.  The domain, or web address or URL, wataugacrosscountry.net now belongs to someone else (who benefits, I guess, from the heavy traffic).  However, we now have rights for 3 years to wataugacrosscountry.org, which was the domain up until the summer 2011.  I will try to set that up over the next few days.  At that point, both wataugahighcrosscountry.blogspot.com and wataugacrosscountry.org should work.

I have a bid in for $20 in for the rights to wataugacrosscountry.net.  I'm sure it will not be available until the traffic dies down.  Even then, maybe it's too valuable.  (Maybe I'm motivated or dumb enough to offer more, right?)  But Watauga Cross Country ran for many years without a website at all and in recent years with a different web address, so I think it will not be any great loss.

Next Meet Wednesday at St. Stephens, Hickory

An important goal each season is to win the Northwestern 3A/4A Conference.  Watauga has usually won in recent years and has a very good chance to win this year.   Patton and Freedom sent some of their runners to the Clash of the Classes.  Wednesday will be a chance to see (most of?) the others.

These weekday meets usually start at about 5:00pm. Back to WHS about 9:00pm or so.

St. Stephens High School in Hickory.
Take Hwy 321 south to Lenoir.  Turn left onto Hwy 18/64.  Turn right onto Hwy 90/64 towards Taylorsville. Go about 14 miles on 90.  Turn right onto Hwy 127 before Taylorsville.  Go about 12 miles.  Cross over the Catawba River.  At the top of the hill, turn left onto Cloninger Mill Road. Continue on Cloninger for 1 mile to the light.  Road changes name to Kool Park Rd.  Go straight for two miles. Turn left onto Springs Road.  Go 1/2 mile.  Turn left at the light.  Look for St. Stephens School signs. (1:15, according to Google Maps.) 

Carnival results again -- Girls

Watauga Democrat -- "WHS Participates in WNC Cross-Country Carnival" 
Go Blue Ridge -- "Hellenbrand Leads WHS at XC Carnival"

Girls results:
Kathleen 20:10
Lauren almost PRed on a slow course, with 25:20
Maddie Allain was right behind her at 25:20.  She did PR, by over a minute!
Sylvia PRed also, running a 28:14.
Alicia, Chloe, and Kasey ran their first 5Ks!

Esteemed coaches: (though not more than Coach Mac, Coach Hoyal, and Coach Quick!)
Coach Honea was there with his AC Reynolds team.  Lots of good luck to him.
Also, I've been wanting to note that the Mt. Tabor cross country coach, Patrick Cromwell, was an ASU grad.  He had both the Boys and Girls winners at Saturday's possibly even more competitive meet in Charlotte.

Carnival results again - Boys

There is another meet on Wednesday, so keep running.  The schedule shows it at St. Stephens High School in Hickory.  See link to Directions on left column here.  The team has meets the next 3 Wednesdays.

Some Boys results:
Michael 16:59.
Will PRed with 17:06, on a tough course to PR.
Grant, in his first high school 5K, ran 18:48, 4th best on the team.
Joel, also in his first 5K, was 7th with 19:35.
Devin got a PR also.  He ran 20:19 on a hard course.
Zack Cole was spiked at the start and ran a painful race.  Not a PR, of course, but a strong effort.
Brody ran his first 5K in 22:21.
Jake and Daniel both PRed by over a minute!

This reminder from last year still seems appropriate.  "If your time was not too sensational, be aware that Josh Anderson ran his 2009 race in Hendersonville in 25:32.  Just 16:37 Saturday." (2012 race)

NC Runners has video of the championship races.

"Cross Country -- Bleak Prospects?" 

WNC Carnival Saturday! UPDATE #2 Full results

Watauga Cross country UPDATE 4:40pm --
Boys Championship: Holland, 16:59, 16th. Vandenberg, 17:06, 22nd. Osborne, 17:34, 34th.
Girls Championship:  Mansure, 20:10, 14th.
Boys Invitational:  Pilkington, 18:48, 16th.
Girls Invitational:
Boys Individual:
Girls Individual:
Boys 3K:  Hellenbrand, 11:07, 2nd. 
Girls 3K:  Finley Collins, 13:59, 11th

UPDATE 1:40pm -- Asheville Citizen-Times: Cardinal Gibbons won both Girls and Boys Championship races.  Watauga 7th Boys and 12th Girls.

Early results only for leaders, here at NC Runners feed.  There's a big meet in Charlotte too.  At Hendersonville: no meet records this year.  It must be pretty soggy still, even if they worked hard on it.

Final results at mid-afternoon here (Slipstream) and at NC Runners' meet page.

Thanks if you've found your way here.  And by the way, there's another meet Wednesday.

I'd better add some words, for those who haven't found this site yet. "Cross country" watauga Carnival Hendersonville Gibbons. "Cross country" "cross country"

New web address, NC Runners

It looks like we lost our address, wataugacrosscountry.net, but here we are. This one does not need to be updated each year, so in the short run, we will not restore that URL. (It's a real nuisance to pay and update.  JohnB failed 2 years ago, I succeeded last year, and obviously I failed this year.)  We might want to consider buying one someday.

NC Runners has (free, sponsored) coverage of the Carnival.  NC Runners is going to place more of their content behind a paywall.  We will link to what they have that's free, and I hope a few of our readers will subscribe.

Hendersonville details

Go hard and have a great time.  This is a tough race.  Crowded, very good competition, and the course may still be a bit soft.  GO Watauga!

T.C. Roberson's meet page.  NC Runners meet page.

Here's another article in the Asheville Citizen-Times -- "WNC Carnival attracts another big field" (Thanks, NCPrepTrack):
"more than 1,300 runners from North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee." 

Travel Schedule
The sun rises at 6:51am Friday, in case you need to get a run in.  It's light by 6:30am.
Buses leave Watauga High School at 4:00pm Friday.
The team should be at Jackson Park from about 7:30am until 1:30pm Saturday.
Return to WHS at 5 or 6 pm Saturday.

Race Schedule

Championship Boys  8:30 am             

Championship Girls   9:00 am

Invite Boys               9:30 am             

Invite Girls                10:00

Individual Boys         10:40 am           

Individual Girls          11:20 am

3K Race  / Boys       12:00 pm           

3K Race  / Girls        12:20 pm

Directions
South entrance

From Interstate 26 – take exit 53 (Upward Road). Go towards Hendersonville/Flat Rock 1.4 miles. Take right at 176 / Spartanburg Highway (major intersection at Super Ingles). Go 1.3 miles. Take right on Glover Street (there are a couple of small, brown Jackson Park signs before this turn). Go 0.7 miles into South entrance of Jackson Park (note – Glover Street is a small, residential road).

North entrance  Anyone arriving after 8:15 should come in from the south entrance.

Spectators/cars can also enter from the North entrance off of Hwy 64/Four Seasons Blvd (which becomes Martin Luther King Jr Blvd) but only if they arrive early.  

 

Wednesday -- Recap Clash and a look at Carnival

NC Runner's recap of Saturday's races, includes the Clash.

Asheville Citizen-Times article  -- Cross Country Carnival is Saturday. 

Next Weekend's Meet -- Let Coach Mac know if you're not going.

Next week's meet in Hendersonville, the Western North Carolina Cross Country Carnival, is another fun meet.  There will be lots of strong teams, and Jackson Park is challenging.  The team will leave Friday and stay overnight.  Coach Mac will need to know as soon as possible if any athlete is not going on the overnight trip.  The team needs to book rooms, and unless informed otherwise, he assumes everyone is going.  The cost will be $20 for the room.

Clash Results -- West Forsyth wins 4 of 8

It was a good day to run.  A new season.  The rain did not start until after all the races, the course was almost dry, and the temperature never rose above 63 degrees.  West Forsyth won 4 of the 8 races.  Watauga got 3 second place and 1 third place finish in the Junior and Senior races.  Athletes from 4 other visiting teams won races.

The Junior races were the fastest.  Tim Coffey of Mooresville ran 10:01, ahead of Michael Holland's 10:06.  In the Senior race, Garrett Farrimond, of West Forsyth, ran 10:05, in front of Matt Osborne's 10:25.  West Forsyth Sophomore Nelson Russ finished in 10:16.

Junior Sophia Bhalla of Lincoln Charter won by a large margin at 12:00.  Sophomore Ellen Spencer, of West Forsyth, won her race at 12:21.  Watauga Juniors Kathleen Mansure and Lily Weeks finished in 12:45 and 13:09.

One of the brightest spots for Watauga was Senior Andrew Harrelson running again.  He has been injured, only ran one race last year, and was not at full speed in 2011. He ran 11:59.  Not bad for his first race back. 

Boys results:

Girls results:

Go Blue Ridge article -- Jackson, Holland, Osborne Pace WHS in XC Opener.  "West Forsyth paced the field winning four races---Garrett Farrimond won the boy's senior race in 10:05.0; Nelson Russ won the boy's sophomore race (10:16.6); Sarah Timberlake won the girl's freshman race (13:35.4), and Ellen Spencer won the girl's sophomore race (12:21.1)."
And more on Watauga: "Grant Pilkington finished fourth (12:20.5) in the freshman race; Joel Brown was sixth (11:18.6) in the sophomore race."

Saturday's Races

Pioneer Clash of the Classes

NC Runners made their guess at who Watauga would have running this year: Boys and Girls.  Obviously, some amazing seniors are gone. Drew Boyette (to NCSSM) and Joe Wiswell are gone.  Carson has gone with rest of the Middlebrooks to Michigan.  The Wangler sisters and others may be injured this week.  On the other hand, there's still one Vandenberg and it looks like Mandy Eagle-Farrar is back.

Watauga won 3 of the 8 races last year.  Michael Holland is the best bet to repeat in the Junior Boys' race.  Darby's gone and Lynde might rest.

The Bhalla sisters, from Lincoln Charter, will be hard to keep from repeating in the Sophomore and Junior Girls.  Hannah McBride, of North Stokes, had won in 2010 and 2011, but Lynde beat her last year and Celia has a good chance to beat her this year in the Senior Girls.

Ben Sprinkle, of Alexander Central, won the Junior Boys last year.  Let's see what Matt and Jacob can do.  Michael won the Sophomore race, but Will beat him in the Freshman race two years ago.  Josh Hall, of West Wilkes, won the Freshman race with a strong kick, but Matthew might be with him and outkick him Saturday.

We still need several more concession and other volunteers.

Last year, Coach Mac asked Wataugans to park on the gravel lots by the swim complex.

How to Watch a Cross Country Meet  -- Page 1 is not relevant for the scrimmage.  I especially like the last (3rd) page on "How to Cheer for Distance Runners," with good and bad examples.  Also, if you yell the runner's name, make sure you don't get it wrong.

Parents Meeting Tonight during Practice 6:00pm, UPDATE Coach Mac's meet schedule

Coach Mac is having a meeting for parents this evening (Thursday) at 6:00pm.  It should be in the cafeteria.  There's a small fee for the team, about$20, and new runners will need to buy a uniform.  Bring your checkbook.

Drug testing for athletes.  Here's the written policy, effective already.  It includes the forms.  News articles -- HC Press and Watauga Democrat.  It's a good idea to be skeptical of all drug policy and all infringements on our rights.

Here's the updated meet schedule from Coach Mac.  You can also find it to left, under "2013 Schedule."

Clash of the Classes

The Clash of the Classes is coming up this Saturday.  The Clash is great.  Freshmen only have to compete against other freshmen, it's only 2 miles instead of the standard 5K, and it's a great course, even if it's soggy this year.  Not a fast course.  The forecast high temperatures include the Weather Channel's 61 degrees (.gov 68).  My personal forecast: It will be a beautiful, except for one or two 5-10 minute periods when it will rain hard.

It looks like at least 13 teams will be competing, but there's no team scoring and Watauga wouldn't have overwhelmed that this Saturday anyway.  Or would it?--I guess we'll never know.  This is a scrimmage only, since it's before the first permitted meet date.

Here's the schedule:
10:30am MS Girls and Boys
11:00am Freshman Girls and 11:25 Freshman Boys
11:50 Sophomore Girls and 12:15 Sophomore Boys
12:40 Junior Girls and 1:05 Junior Boys
1:30 Senior Girls and 1:55 Senior Boys
2:15 Awards 

Volunteer for food or help. 

Run Saturday, Volunteer for next Saturday, Parents meeting Thursday, Drug testing of WHS athletes

There is a run tomorrow morning at the Greenway.  Many of the athletes will be working this one.  Fun run (1 mile) at 8:00am.  5K at 8:30am. Starting across the street from the armory.  Find you strength!

Don't forget to volunteer to work and bring foods and beverages to next Saturday's (August 17) meet. (It's a scrimmage officially, not quite a real meet.)

Coach Mac is having a meeting for parents at 6:00pm next Thursday, August 15.  It will probably be in the high school cafeteria.  It's usually about 45 minutes or so -- not as long as the practice outside.

Also, the Board of Education will be deciding on drug testing of athletes at their August 12 meeting.  Here's the agenda packet.  See Page 88 and following.  News articles from last month's meeting: High Country Press,  Watauga Democrat,  Go Blue Ridge.

Coming up this Saturday -- The LCW Find Your Strength 5K & 1-mile Fun Run

The LCW Find Your Strength 5K & 1-mile Fun Run

August 10, 2013 @ Clawson-Burnley Park in Boone, NC

Packet Pick-Up and Race Day Registration: 7:00 – 8:00 a.m.

1-Mile Fun Run: 8:00 a.m.   5K Race: 8:30 a.m.

Early Registration (by 8/3): $15 (5K) or $10 (Fun Run)

Registration (after 8/3 or on race day): $20 (5K) or $15 (Fun Run)

Make checks payable to Watauga High Pioneer Club and mail to: Randy McDonough Watauga High School, 300 Go Pioneers Dr. Boone, NC 28607

The Watauga High Pioneer Booster Club along with Watauga Cross Country, Pacers, and Lacrosse will be sponsoring the LCW Find Your Strength Races. The proceeds from this event will benefit the Leigh Cooper Wallace Scholarship Fund.  "This scholarship was given for the first time this year to a very deserving WHS graduate from the class of 2013. We hope to be able to give this scholarship for many years to come."

Form is available under Announcements, to the left here, and at Watauga High School, Hardin Park School, Andrea McDonough State Farm Insurance, and The Wellness Center.