Saturday, December 04, 2010

Nacouzi wins Footlocker West Region seeded girls' race

Top 10 girls in Seeded race (4 Northern California girls in top 10)
1)  Julie Nacouzi 18:09
4)  Clare Carroll 18:22
5)  Carrie Verdon 18:22
8)  Anna Maxwell 18:29
Complete results of girls' seeded race

Top 10 boys in Seeded race (Milechman and Kigar both qualify for national meet)
Complete results of boys' seeded race

Nacouzi Wins West Regional Cross Country Championship (Santa Rosa Press Democrat)
Verdon qualifies for Nationals
Tam's Milechman Nabs Spot in National Championships
SLV cross country runner Maxwell eight at Foot Locker West Regional, heads to nationals
Granite Bay's Carroll; El Camino's Kigar qualify for cross country nationals

26 comments:

drew said...

thanks for the fast post! would love to get the rest of the results...

Albert Caruana said...

I am looking but no results posted of the seeded races yet on the Footlocker site.

From what I hear, Nacouzi passed Grabil with 500m. to go.

Anonymous said...

why didnt Nacouzi run at NCS/state?

Anonymous said...

issues with her coach who didn't allow her to run league and ncs or something.

Anonymous said...

her team didn't let her run at those meets because she wasn't attending enough practices.
http://www.pdpreps.com/2010/11/featured/top-runner-non-factor-this-season/

Anonymous said...

thats really unforgivable, to take that opportunity from someone

Anonymous said...

That's ridiculous to think they took that from her! You have to be a team player and it is especially important at this level. She sounds like a spoiled brat.

Anonymous said...

congrats to the norcal runners! Tough luck for Grace Order who just missed out! 2 from the same school would had been fantastic!

Andrew said...

Santisteban was 37th at NXN too!

But wow, what a great showing for Northern California at FLW.

ficickfi said...

Jack Bordoni of Bellarmine won the Junior boys race, and it seems, by the results, that he was not going 100%. Next year he will be leading the bells to, hopefully, another CCS D-1 trophy.... Congrats to him and all of the other NorCal runners!!

John said...

Great showing from the Campo girls. Verdon was up front for a while but she and Orders looked a little drained from State. Orders ran tough but was passed with around 200 to go on the track.

Anonymous said...

it was unforgivable to deprive nacouzi of what now looks like a sure shot at an NCS and state title that she trained incredibly hard for, whether she was a team player or not.

Craiggypop The Angry Panda said...

Dan Milechman of Tamalpais was 7th and Jeff Bickert of College Park was 13th in the Seeded Boys race.

http://footlockercc.com/2010/results/west/Results/12.pdf

Go CP Falcons and Nor Cal runners!

Alan Bell said...

It is wonderful that Julie did so well at Footlocker West. Any questions about her abilities have been put to rest. It was sad that she didn't get to compete at NCS or State. But more concerning is that her reputation is getting inappropriately tarnished. Julie is a team player. She is nice person and not at all "spoiled." She is a good student and has never been in any kind of trouble. But she is quiet and keeps to herself. She would prefer to run than go to a party. Does this make her not a team player? Perhaps the team set too high of a standard of what it means to be a team player. Julie's knee was injured for much of the season and a physician told her not to run on it until it was fully recovered. Instead, she cross trained on a mountain bike. Should she have come to practice each day and just sit around while waiting to be able to run? Or should she stay fit by cross training on her own? This is the same team that sent only 2 runners to the Stanford Invite because the other 5 varsity runners "didn't practice hard enough." Pulling her from the team really hurt the community and the school more than Julie. This is just the start to her running successes. But a school only gets a runner of this caliber once in a long while. It was the school's choice not to run her. If she had been allowed to run at NCS, the team's rank would have risen many places, she would have brought renown to Montgomery and Santa Rosa. She did that the previous 3 years she ran for the team.

Anonymous said...

It sounds like another case of the school admin and a coach trying to play a power game rather than just letting the kids run!

Anonymous said...

Sounds like another case of the coach setting up a policy ahead of time where everyone knows the rules and outcome only to have parents think they know better and their child should have special consideration other than what the rules say. Glad to see a situation where the school backs the coach instead of the school allowing the parents to run the program. How can anyone say "the child is a good athlete and should be above the rules" and think that attitude is best for the child, team and/or community.

Andrew said...

Its a tough line to balance on. As a coach, I feel the right decision was made regarding her absence from championship running. But let's just congratulate her on her successful return from injury and wish her luck at Nationals.

Anonymous said...

You guys are coming to this a bit late. Read the comments at http://www.pdpreps.com/2010/11/featured/top-runner-non-factor-this-season/
Seems like about 80% of the respondents agree with the coach, including her teammates. This is not about Julie as a person, it's about a teachable moment for the athletes and the parents. After problems in the track season, where she was given ample warning, she was not allowed to continue to MOC in the 3200. This year the XC coaches dropped the attendance requirement from 5 days to 3 days per week just for Julie. Even when injured, ( a questionable diagnosis when her mother is the "doctor") an athlete is expected to at least check in with their coach to discuss their progress. We can wish her the best for next week and hope she stays on the team for track season.

Unknown said...

In that article Julie says she understands the decisions, so why keep harping on the fact it was unfair?

Anonymous said...

Does anyone know why Sarah Baxter didn't run in NXN or FL??

Craiggypop The Angry Panda said...

I think I read something about Baxter and her parents deciding to end the season in fear of burnout at such a young age.

Anonymous said...

no I'm not buying it..she should have practiced with her team. That's just ridiculous at this level. No excuse for that.

Peter Brewer said...

Interesting conversation here about the Julie Nacouzi on the team/off the team situation. This does bring up the situation of perspective. Clearly she is a superior runner, and performs very well. By all accounts she seems to be a nice, engaging girl. But I don't know her, her parents, nor am I privy to any inside information. All I know is what I read about her, and what I know from coaching experience.

From the outside, the casual observer sees the runner, the place, the time. From the inside, the coach sees the contribution to the team, the team dynamic, the interactions of the athletes, and more. These are the factors few of us have knowledge of. It may appear that the coach is overly asserting a control impulse. It may be construed that the coach is heading off a parental intrusion manuever. Who knows? This could be a personality conflict situation.

Whatever these unknowns are, my sympathies lie with the coaches on the basis of the reported facts of the situation. Injured athletes should check in daily. If an athlete can attend classes, surely then that athlete can wander over to the start of the workout and make an appearance. Even though I am wont to bash football and soccer and basketball and volleyball for their year-round possessiveness, I have to applaud those athletes for continuing to show up to workouts and competitions even while on crutches or in a cast. Why should cross country be any different than that?

The other unspoken aspect that might be in operation here is the team dynamic. Allowing exceptions for an athlete based soley on ability creates a two-tier team, where talent outweighs everything else, and this runs counter to my own understanding of the definition of team.

Of course, this is purely speculation on my part. I too wish the young lady all the running success possible.

Anonymous said...

Why were the times slower last week then during the Mt SAC race? I noticed several of the girls were up to 20 or 30 seconds slower? Julie won with a time over 18 minutes, but the best times during Mt SAC were approaching very low 17's

Albert Caruana said...

The Mt. SAC Invitational course is 2.93 miles. The course used for the Footlocker West Region race course is 300 meters longer.

Anonymous said...

"The Mt. SAC Invitational course is 2.93 miles. The course used for the Footlocker West Region race course is 300 meters longer"

Thanks. Is it the same course just the finish line is farther away?

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