State Championship! -- Saturday in Kernersville, 3:30 and 4:30

The 4A races will be at 3:30 (men) and 4:30 (women), as confirmed by NCHSAA site. (But the Watauga Democrat says, "The Class 4-A boys begin at 2:30 p.m. and the girls start at 3:30 p.m.")

Beeson Park in Kernersville:  map of course (with inset that will help you find the park)

Driving -- From the east or west of Winston Salem:

Take I-40 to Kernersville (do not take Business 40).  Exit at Hwy 66 and turn north, toward Kernersville.  Turn left onto Shields Rd (intersection with a stoplight, Clark’s BBQ on the far right corner).  The course is located at the intersection of Shields Rd. and Beeson Rd.

Bus Parking: 

Turn left onto Beeson Rd and enter the park just past the baseball fields.  You may park in the baseball/softball lot (first right after entering the park).  Team tents can be set up on the outfield of the baseball fields.

Primary spectator parking: 

From Shields Rd. turn right into the large field.  Follow the directions of the parking attendants.

Exiting from spectator parking:
turn right onto Beeson, and then turn left at the light onto Union Cross Rd.  Union Cross Rd. goes back to I-40.

Watauga qualifies, Darby 1st 17:35 PR, Peter 2nd 15:50 (Sunday updates)

From NC Prep Track:
Boys: 4-A West:  TC Roberson, Ardrey Kell, Watauga, Myers Park.
Girls: 4-A West:  Ardrey Kell, Watauga, TC Roberson, Myers Park.


So both teams qualify for state meet next Saturday.


Individual results are now posted:
Girls:  Middlebrook, 1st, 17:35 PR; Harman, 6th, 18:46 PR; Barbour, 8th, 19:03
Boys:  Vandenberg, 2nd, 15:50; Anderson, 5th, 16:00 PR
Also Team point results


Anderson, Brackney, Pitts, Hickernell, and Seagle all PRed, while the Vandenbergs just missed.  Great job!
Coach Honea notes that these times were on a course was a bit muddy.  For more details.


Photos of Peter in Boys' race.
News reports: GoBlueRidge

Good luck at Regionals!

The team has worked hard for a long time.  Let's go!

More on 4A Regional Championships in Charlotte Saturday

From WXC Boosters:

This is the schedule for the regional meet on Saturday:

Race Times:

10:00 AM: 3A Boys, 10:30 AM: 4A Boys, 11:00 AM: 3A Girls, 11:30 AM: 4A Girls

Awards will follow shortly after the last race and will go in the order of the races. There will be T-shirts on sale & concessions will be available. Top 10 will receive "All Region" honors.

Coach Honea on regional, state, and training.  And on latest rankings.

4A Regional Championships, McAlpine Park, Charlotte, Saturday

Here's a look at last year's regional and state races:  Boys regional and state, girls regional and state.  Coach Honea has another set of year-to-year results for Watauga runners at the Conference meets in Lenoir.

 #1 runner.  NC Runners has Darby Middlebrook ahead of other strong 4A runners: George, Kramer, Foreman, McBride, Gordon, and others.  Kramer, Foreman, and Gordon will be at the Regional.
Update: Boys: Peter #9 in 4A.

Not much detail yet, but here are links to this year's Regional and State meets.  They do not yet announce times for this Saturday.  For State, the following Saturday, one of the comments says the 4A times will be: 4A Men 3:30 p.m.; 4A Women 4:30 p.m.  NC Prep Track also has those State 4A times.

Thanks from Coach Mac, upcoming events, and video from Conference races

From WXC Boosters:

Coach Mac sends the following thanks:

I want to thank everyone for all the help this (last) weekend for the fair. We had great crews working and sold almost 500 hotdogs. It was very intensive but well worth the time as we raised almost $2000 in 7 hours + a few staying after and picking up and emptying garbage.
Also thank you in advance to all who are working concessions Friday night at the football game.
Coach Mac

The Cross Country Senior Recognition Banquet is coming up November 14.  Information on planning and volunteering for that event.

Coach Honea has videos and splits from the Conference Meet: Girls and Boys.

It's still a long way out, but the forecast is for a nice day in Charlotte for the Regional meet, October 29.

Watauga wins conference meet! -- Updated with full results, links to news reports

Watauga won the conference meet in Lenoir this afternoon and will go on to the regional meet in Charlotte on October 29.  Congratulations!

Update: Coach Honea has the times: Boys, Girls (partial). 
Update: Watauga Girls full results from Honea.  NC Runners has results up too.

Update: Local news reports: Pioneers Sweep, Pioneers Breeze.

There are still a few spots to help out with concessions Friday night.

Coach Mac needs drivers

From WXC Boosters:
Coach Mac needs drivers today. The team is leaving at 2:30 this afternoon. Anyone available?

He still might need a few tents, too.

Elementary & Middle School Races, Have a tent?

Fast races this afternoon.  One of the highlights was seeing 4 Vandenbergs running together.  Holden Perry (Tailwinds) won the 1st-3rd grade race by a large margin.  Mary Louise Sprague (Tailwinds) held off a pack of fast boys to win the 4th-6th grade race.  Aaron Dobbins (High Country Runners) kept up a strong pace to win the 7th-8th grade race.
^{Coach Mac is looking for a couple of tents for the race tomorrow.  It looks like it might rain.}

Wednesday details -- NW 3A/4A Conference Meet

From WXC Boosters and Coach Mac:

Here's the schedule for Wednesday:

5:00 PM- Men's Race

5:40 PM- Women's Race

Remind your runner that the weather is going to be considerably colder Wednesday.

Our volunteers sold almost 500 hotdogs Saturday at Valle Crucis!

Kids' races this afternoon

The Elementary and Middle School races, postponed from last week, happen today.  This was to be the schedule last week, so it's a good bet for today:

4:00 pm            co-ed race for 1^st – 3^rd graders

4:25 pm            co-ed race race for 4^th – 6^th graders

4:50 pm            co-ed race for 7^th & 8^th graders 

From WXC Boosters: " We will be practicing around and helping with those. Runners should get dressed and get down to the covered bridge as soon as they can."

From Coach Honea: "Tues – regular Tuesday workout.  Medium run, strides, circuits.  People who are finished racing after Wednesday will only run about 15 minutes."
(Honea also has an interesting post today on opportunities to continue team running.)

This week -- Practice 6:00pm Monday, Conference Wednesday UPDATES

Practice is on the track at 6:00 on Monday.  See Honea's "What we want".

Elementary & Middle School races Tuesday afternoon.  It's probably too late to sign up, but it might be worth asking still.

Wednesday – Conference championship at Lenoir.  First race at 4:30.
 Update (from WXC Boosters):

Wednesday is a big day. We will be in Lenoir for the Northwestern Conference CC Championships. Runners will get out of class at 2:15 and buses will depart at 2:30. 

Right now the races are at 5:00 and 5:30 with boys 1st. I will let you know if anything changes (in the past we have run at 4:30 and 5:15).

This will be the last meet for most of team.

Interested in concessions on Friday?

Update (more from WXC Boosters):
We will cut down to the top 9 or 10 runners on each team for regionals which is Saturday, October 29.

I will be sending out info on the Footlocker Nat'ls soon. We will be taking a group down to the Southeast Regional on Friday Nov. 25. The races are Saturday the 26th. For info on Footlocker, go to footlackercc.com You can register there for the races.

Also be looking for info on the end of season banquet. It should be the week of Nov. 14. Come out and help us celebrate the season.

Update 3:30pm (not from WXC Boosters): We were hoping that we would see the President running on the Greenway with his top Secret Service runners, toward the High School.  He was going to shower and meet his motorcade there.  But it is believed that he was running late (or heard that Watauga's practice was delayed).  They decided to drive instead.

MileStat.com Review

Monday practice will be at 6:00pm, not immediately after school (dismissing at 1:00pm).  Due to unannounced events.  And for most runners, only 3 more days with teammates and coaches, at least for this season..
 
In Virginia, a beautiful day, but a competitive field, on the road, with lots of teammates missing.  Strong performances by key runners. The Varsity teams were just barely off their Wendy's pace.  Overall, a good performance with a lot of promise.
Varsity Boys
Varsity Girls
JV A Boys
JV Girls

News reports: from Richmond. Update: and from GoBlue Ridge. Sophie Chase broke the previous meet record by 20 seconds and last year's winner and previous record-breaker, Megan Moye, by 18 seconds.

Update:  All these photos had been available, but are no longer viewable without a subscription.  Too bad.
Good action photos: Peter, on his way to a PR. Kicking.  Avery and Josh finishing. Darby at the start and with a crowd of her new friends (Chase691, Moye337).  Later in the race and finishing.  They missed Hannah, but here's a wonderful, painful shot of Madison finishing.  Hailey's relief.  Here's Hannah, and Madison and Hailey again.
See photo collections, by FlemingJK and BradnTam (Thanks).


No photos from Valle Crucis (or PSATs), but good reports.

First results from Coach Honea from MileStat.com Invitational

Coach Honea reports on results for Watauga runners.

Girls JV won 2nd!.
Anna – 12th, 21:36
Girls Varsity got 5th., led by Darby, 4th, 17:58.
The Varsity Boys got 19th and Peter PRed with a 15:49.
No team finish for the JV Boys, so far.

MileSplit results, when they are posted, will be here.  There are some Watauga photos already.
And they've been working hard at Valle Crucis. Good work!

Update: Full results.  JV Boys 11th.
Update: Here's a brief summary of the Varsity A races.  The Girls winner broke the meet record by the 22 seconds and beat last year's winner by 18 seconds.

MileStat.com meet, rainbows

Two rainbows over Watauga this afternoon.  I wonder if there were a 3rd and 4th.

Coach Honea reviews information on the Virginia teams and runners.
Also, see this Richmond news report: "defending champion Stafford will be boys teams to watch."  "Cosby's Megan Moye will return with the chance to defend her 2010 Invitational title, which she won in a meet-record 17 minutes, 42 seconds. Scheduled to attend is Lake Braddock, which has the state's current leader for the girls in junior Sophie Chase."
MileStat webpage about the meet.  Good luck with parking and don't bring your dog.

In case you're staying home this weekend, there are still a few needs and jobs.  Also, from WXC Boosters:
Anyone who still needs to bring stuff for the Valle Country Fair can drop it by Hardin Park or WHS and leave it in the office.
Also we need anyone who can show up at 4:15 to the fair (traffic will be better then) to help clean-up from the fair.  They pay the team to do this.