Merry X-mas

Copy and paste the website below and check out the video of the senior runners

http://sendables.jibjab.com/view/rhnyE4dz7gXAehbf

Megan Tarlton Green Bay Press Gazette All-Metro

Congrats to Megan on her 2nd All Metro honors. Good job!!!!!!!!!!

CROSS COUNTRY ROCKS!

State pictures

Marissa finishing strong. Can she catch Miller from 3-Lakes?

Megan opening a gap on her competitors.

Pictures from Sectionals

What a wonderful picture of the whole team.

The girls showed their muscle once again at Sectionals. Making history at both schools by being the first to go back to back to State.

Megan running with the big dogs of Lourdes. She made us proud and eveyone was cheering for her

Goals for next year

Right now just relax for a week. Go for a light run and prepare for your next sport be it basketball or wrestling. Here are some thoughts for next year.


Guys: Place in the top half of all meets.
How to do this? We have a really young team next year. Basically, just get out there and run during the summer so practice doesn't destroy you.
Andrew and Edwin need to do a lot of hill work and strengthening exercises to put on some muscle.
Jake and Austin,our two freshmen this year, will need to put some miles in and do some races this summer. Jake did two of the three races I did this year. Expect big things out of these two young men.
Hunter: Only one thing, need to work on your stride to become more efficient, which will allow you to run faster.


Girls: Place 1 or 2 in all races including Smiley
How to do this? Number one thing is to stay healthy by avoiding injury and for everyone get out there and run on soft surfaces and do your core exercises.


Whitney: More running over the summer, plus a race or two will help improve your speed. The most important thing is to strengthen your knee. Do squats and leg extensions. Plus improve your core muscles.


Marissa B.: You are overcoming knee surgery so go by the advice of a physical trainer to avoid injury. Y0ur knee problem is similar to Whitney's. Do leg strengthening exercises and run on soft ground


Hannah: Run over the summer and do hills once a week to improve you overall speed and strength.


Marissa P. : You need to work on strength in the legs. You are a power runner who needs a better finishing kick. Lift weights and do speed workouts especially at the end of your longer runs. You better be in shape because I am going to beat you at the Lakewood race.


Brittany, Danielle and Cassidi all need to run over the summer to improve their endurance.


Alanna: Only one thing here. Heal those shins and then strengthen them by doing the exercise I showed you.


Amanda: Same as Alanna only with your ankles. Do the exercises I showed you.


Tarlton twins: I saved you for last because you already have the speed and endurance, but you are lacking one key ingredient to reaching that top level. Running efficiently by not tensing up your upper body. Don't believe me but another coach I was standing by at the race commented that both of you looked stiff as your run instead of being fluid. Top runners look like they are running effortlessly in a race. Also look at channel twelve news(they have you on there) and compare your running style with the other top runners. Both of you have arms and shoulders up not using them efficiently. Improve your overall running style by smoothing it out which in turn will allow you to go faster and put you in the elite level.


Coach Twardowski and I have been discussing about what we can do to help everyone to achieve their full potential. One thing we know we did wrong was we stopped or did not do as much strengthening after SPASH. We get so caught up on mileage and running we forget about the whole package and that is strength. Look at when the injuries started to pop up and some times slowed was right about the time of SPASH. We were so focused on doing more and more running we missed doing CORE exercises and leg strength which could have led to the injuries. Next year we will be doing these exercise all season long.


Lastly, I encourage you to put your goals or thoughts on the comments. What do you want to do next season?

State

The competition at state was pretty fierce this year in Div. 3. Considering the top runner over all was from Div. 3 and broke the course record. We finished one place ahead of last year and once again missed another place be one point. Could have gotten as high as 6th place. Megan had a good run and was off by 5 seconds from last year. Injuries showed in this years race as most of the runners had slower times from last year. Having Marissa Popp in the mix kept us on top of things. Whitney by far had her best race by beating her time by 30 seconds and placing 18 places better than last year.

Some are disappointed about their performances at State this year. Now you can do one of two things with your disappointment. First, you can depress yourself and let one race determine your whole year and complain about it. Geez that is a real bummer if you do that. Ladies you have done things this year we have never done before. Placing at SPASH(by defeating a defending state champion), placing at Iola, and having an individual Conference champion plus we still placed at DC Everest(Losing it to the defending state champions) and Rosholt. Look it at this way.....there are teams out there dying to go to state or placing as high as we do in our meets. You have nothing to be ashamed of or hang your head about this season. OR, stay positive about the season look at your limitations and your strengths and improve for next year season. Set your goals for next year because Coach Twardowski and I are always looking for improvement.

Gotta love the weather

Nothing better for resistance training than 45 mph winds. Girls in preparation for state had a good workout in the wind and rain. We started out running into the wind. It was cold and hard going, and sometimes the wind gusts would stop us in our tracks. Nothing feels better when you make that corner and run with little effort back to the school. Every year we get some unique weather that gives the season that extra touch. It always seems like we get the high winds and snow around the time for State. So far Saturday is looking good. See you at the pep rally. I know Mickey and Heather will have something special planned.

Important thank you

My biggest thank you goes to my wonderful wife CJ who has to put up with me for the entire season. She becomes a single mom of my three boys on my meet days, she deals with my insomnia the night before and she keeps me organized and sane. Thank you honey.

Thank you's

I like to show my appreciation to all the great parents who have been showing up at our meets to cheer on our runners because we put some on some pretty big miles. Some of the parents I had a chance to meet for the first time like Cody's dad. Parent involvement makes our races special. Cheering on every runner from first to last. In some cases our last runners get the loudest cheers.

Big Thank You For everyone who helped out at the Conference meet. Especially Rick Bartels who took on organizing the course.

Other thanks goes out Mrs. Popp for getting me some great pictures of our races because sometimes I don't get a chance to do it.

On that subject thanks to Mickey and Heather for doing some of the postings and checking my work. I don't have enough time in the day to get it all done. Mickey and Heather are also two seniors I will be missing greatly for Mickey keeping me organized to Heather keeping me sane these past four years. Their leadership will be missed.

Mrs. Bartels in doing the T-shirts because lets be honest Coach Twardowski and I have no fashion sense. Mrs. Aschinger for helping in organization. If anyone knows of anyone I have missed and I probably did please let me know.

Ladies Sectionals

Congratulations to the Lady Running Rebels. Once again we had an awesome Sectionals and going onto State. We beat Peshtigo and Sevastopol in a tight race. It took all of our girls to beat Peshtigo. Watching Megan and Marissa Popp battling with the Lourdes in the front was exciting. They beat the top two from Peshtigo. Then Miranda was next behind the second runner from Peshtigo. Marissa and Alanna beat their runners to seal the deal. It was that close I never heard so much yelling in a race. Everyone beat the girl they had to beat and did not allow anyone to pass them so we didn't get surprised like we did at Smiley. In the end we had more speed. Amanda and Whitney both came in front of Peshtigo's last two runners and were right behind Peshtigo's five runner. For some people, well ok they were the 6th and 7th runners and don't matter in the count, BUT in the guys race Gillett beat Lourdes(who by the way was expecting to sweep Sectionals) with a tie breaker of the 6th man. Gillet boys team ran as a team to win Sectionals. Ladies you have been running as a great team all season, but you ran more as a team at Sectionals, and it was a great thing to see. It shows the great chemistry and how much hard work we have done this season. Just about everyone has shaved at least a half a minute and some took almost a minute off their times from last year.

Guys at Sectionals

Well, the guys season is over. You guys ended the season on some really good notes. One was winning the Conference that had some pretty good competition from Florence and somewhat from Crandon. Jake winning again as individual champion. Your goal was 8th at Sectionals and you guys earned 7th. Not bad, we haven't placed that high in about four years. Most important are some of the memories we will be taking from this year. Three lakes no more said, and Nate trying to stay on his feet at SPASH. Then my four seniors graduating this year. Had some great times in the past four years with Nate, Jake and Cody. Then we have Tim who came out his final year and it was good to have him because his kicking speed was awesome to see. We will have Edwin, Hunter and Andrew coming back as well as Jake and Johnathan coming up from Jr. High. Our future is looking bright.

One more from 3-Lakes meet

more racing

oh no more racing

Crazy girls

more pictures

Funny pictures

Boys at Smiley

Expectations

The Freedom Sectional on Saturday is coming up fast. For some of our seniors it will be their last race. Come into the race with a goal in mind by setting a personal best time, to place higher, or just to beat someone who has beaten you this year. Don't be afraid to challenge yourself. By the end of your race be able to look me in the eye and say to me you left everything on the course with no regrets. Heather has already done this at Conference. She is still coming to practice even though her season is over now that is dedication and leadership.

There is going to be some great competition at this Sectional because I do believe a state champion will be coming from this Sectional. Both boys and girls will have to run strong in order to move on to state. We came in last year as a dark horse now we come in with a target. Everyone has given Oshkosh Lourdes the Sectional title both boys and girls teams. Don't be afraid of them. Lets give them competition and make sure they are looking over their shoulders at us and then pass them.

What is the team goal? Guys top 8 and girls top 2 are good goals.

Finally, enjoy the day. Run with a smile on your face.

Snapshots from Conference!

Everybody hug Halee!

Crandon Invitational Champions

Both the girl's and boy's teams took home trophies at the 2010 Crandon Invitational!

Warm weather again

It has been nice to see the nice warm sunshine again. Practices have been going great and some of our injured runners are starting to regain their strides. Merrill and Rosholt were good meets for us. Crandon meet this Thursday will be run a bit differently with a different tactic. Coach T and I will explain it on the way to the meet on Thursday. I will add more pictures in the next couple of days.

Cross Country Swimming?

more pics from 3-Lakes

Running at 3-Lakes

3-Lakes Race and upcoming races

Wow!! In my 11 years of coaching, I have never seen so much rain at a race. I watched as the race course slowly sank underwater. I was glad that 3-Lakes continued with the race because most organizers would have canceled. Even though there was some apprehension by our runners, they really did have a lot of fun. We will have some great memories from this race.

I am putting info up for the next two races. We have our good luck charm from last year. Mr. Mc Craw gave us a 4 leave clover.

Having fun at Iola

Smiley Invitational

Varsity Girls

Boys start

JV Girls Start-345 girls

Smiley was a very good race for both the boys and girls teams. We did about where I expected in both Division 2 and 3. What was really amazing is that we were competitive with some of our top runners battling injury. I thought the JV girls race was the most interesting because of the sheer number of runners in one race. Girls just kept coming and coming in that race. Of course we had Nate crashing at the finish of the race of the boys varsity race, and getting some pretty nasty road rash.

Nate falling

For the next few weeks we are going to races that are not top on our calendar. This last week we saw some great competition and we have done very well. 1st at SPASH was awesome because we never won as a team by beating Edgar, 2nd at DC Everest is respectable losing to Edgar and 3rd at Smiley once again Edgar being the top team. At the end of October is obviously where our focus will be. We are going to use some of the races as speed workouts and may keep a few people out to heal them up. It is time to do some real good quality workouts to improve our fitness coming into the second part of the season so we peak at the right time.

Other pictures from Iola

Iola meet pictures

SPASH girls