Along with the success of our cross country athletes, our parents have also set some records for the number of photos taken during the 2009 cross country season.

Photo galleries are online for every activity from summer camp training through the State Championships in Fresno.  You can re-live the season with these great photos from Richard Crellin and Preston Ferguson who took over 5,100 photos of our kids this year.

Click the 2009 Cross Country Photos link to view (remember, you must first be logged on as a registered user).

Annual Awards Banquet

Friday, December 4, 2009

6:00pm

Voyagers Church

State Cross Country Itinerary

http://www.cifstate.org

DATE AND SITE:  Saturday, November 28, 2009 -- Woodward Park, Fresno.  Girls at 9:05am and Boys at 10:10am.

DIRECTIONS:  I-5 North to CA-99 North to downtown Fresno then to CA-41 North to Friant/Audubon off-ramp and follow the signs to the South entrance (Audubon) of Woodward Park ($7.00 for adults and $5.00 for children).

REVIEW:  Woodbridge Cross Country enjoyed success at the CIF-SS Prelims meet at Mt. SAC in Walnut last Saturday, November 14th.  Both the boys’ and the girls’ teams finished third (out of 16 teams) in their heat to advance to the CIF-SS Championships meet next Saturday, November 21st at the Mt. SAC college championships course (CIF-SS Prelims full results). 

REVIEW:  Other than the serious and disappointing injury to Julie Heins (she is going to be fine by the way; she had surgery to repair her broken femur and is up and walking a little bit already), League Finals 2009 (Meet Results) turned out to be even better than we were hoping.  Our athletes competed very well in this most competitive league and many achieved their fastest times of the season even though they ran on a course with two pretty good size hills in it.  

Our boys ran 78:05 (79:39 last year) to finish 4th and advance to the CIF Championships and our girls ran 92:28 (99:54 last year) to finish 1 point out of 3rd but also advanced to the CIF Championships.  Derrick Fleming moved to #5 all-time with his 15:12, Dillon Scott is in a tie for #6 all-time with his 15:21, and Josh Kingsland moved to #9 all-time with his 15:30.  These young men passed up some very good runners from our past teams.  Three all-time best in one year is pretty impressive. 

REVIEW:  We enjoyed an excellent meet last Thursday at the Apache Invitational (final results) in Arcadia.  48 of our athletes ran season best times and our team ran our fastest times of the year.  Derrick Fleming moved to the #4 all-time WHS list (also 4th on the all-time senior list), Dillon Scott moved to #7 all-time (#4 junior all-time), and Josh Kingsland moved to the #10 all-time (#6 junior all-time). 

REVIEW:  Our squads competed in the Jaguar Invitational in San Diego County against some of the best programs in the San Diego section (Mt Carmel, University City, Torrey Pines, etc.) and we came away with some pretty good results.  We attend this meet to prepare for the heat and hills that is traditional at the CIF championship meets.  We were not disappointed.  The weather was hot and the hills were challenging.  The boys’ course was longer than the standard Cross Country course (3.1 miles) and the girls’ course was shorter than a regular cross country course (2.6 miles). 

REVIEW:  First off, I would like to express my appreciation to our athletes (for the hard work they have put in for the season thus far and for believing in the things our coaches have asked them to do), to our coaches (for the tireless commitment to each athlete on the team), and to our parents (for all the help with the extras associated with our program) for the successful season we are enjoying thus far.  It is a privilege to be associated with such a special group of people.  Saturday was a perfect example of how all these elements were at their best.  Our athletes performed well, our coaches ran all over the place to help our athletes and our parents did a terrific job with our picnic (and, of course, our softball game). 

We enjoyed a very good day at the Orange County Championships last Saturday.  The weather was on the hot side which made our times slower (probably 15-30 seconds), the competition was fierce and our athletes came though with outstanding performances at this meet.  Even though this is not one of the fastest courses we have run this season (two good size hills involved), we still had some excellent marks.  

SUMMARY:  We discussed the results achieved last Tuesday at the League Cluster meet.  As we mentioned in our discussions, we achieved a number of season best marks, our girls upset El Toro and even though our boys did not have their best race of the season, we ran well enough to maintain our ranking and put ourselves in position to reach our goal of competing at the CIF Championships.  

SUMMARY:  Once again, Yucaipa turned out to be a fun, successful and excellent tune-up meet for us as we head into the league cluster meet.  The weather cooled down enough to make it pleasant for the meet and the results were pretty darn good.  Even though the course was challenging, our athletes registered impressive finishes (4 first place and one third place finishes for the team results and many individual medals).  We had many athletes earn their first medal ever at this meet.