Friday, March 23, 2012

Maxwell vs. Hiltz times 3!

Battle #1 (1600m.)
Battle #2 (800m.)

Battle #3 (1600m. Relay)

23 comments:

Anonymous said...

opps..battle #2 is battle #1

Albert Caruana said...

Fixed.

Anonymous said...

And that is the thrill of competition. Wow! what an exhibition of talent. Too bad the local newspaper can't figure out what a great battle we witnessed.

Anonymous said...

The Santa Cruz paper provides much greater coverage than anything the mercury news ever does for San Jose. The minor sports like xc and track are non-existant. As for newspaper coverage who gives a crap, it's a dual meet. The videos, results and comments on here are more than worthy. I don't see any video of Carrie Verndon's dual meets on here. Quit complaining.

Anonymous said...

What a strange comment. What does Carrie Verdon have to do with this? This was a series of great races by two nationally ranked runners in our region. If someone took video of one of Carrie's great races and sent it to Albert, I am sure it would be posted here as well. Again, what a strange comment.

Anonymous said...

Exactly the point. Why complain about the media. Who cares.

You would think that the slv coach would set up a few of their kids as pace makers, basically have them run 800 then drop out to help their runner take out the pace. All the aptos girl does is sit and kick.

Albert Caruana said...

Why lead when you can kick?

Anonymous said...

The SLV coach doesn't need to set up "pace makers" for Maxwell, she ran some amazing paces on her own, in all three races.

The "aptos girl", Nikki Hiltz, is one of the best 1600/milers in the nation. She can choose to run those nationally ranked times how ever she wants. Her strategy is working for her and she can (and does) take a race out from the start and still win.

Those two girls ran some amazing times for March, and those races were fun to watch. Personally I am glad the videos were posted so I could see them myself.

You asked "who cares?" - Well, if you don't, why did you watch the videos in the first place?

Anonymous said...

Those videos were great. Those were outstanding performances.

Out of curiosity, was the final baton handoff by the winning team legal? It occurred at the about the 3:04 mark, and it looked like it was out of the zone. I work at meets, and I want to make sure I understand the rules correctly!

Albert Caruana said...

Yes it is. The end of the zone is 10m. past the finish line.

Anonymous said...

Why not set up pacemakers see if she can't go faster. That's why.

Anonymous said...

She had a great race and she did it on her own, even better. And again, you are the one who said "who cares", so why are you even bothering to comment on something that supposedly is of little interest to you?

Anonymous said...

No. Who cares was directed at the newspaper article that a poster wanted. That is not worthy of a dual meet. The coverage here is sufficient.

I will give props though, they beat the best down in so cal in a dual meet.

That said I would have run a pace maker knowing hiltz just sits and kicks. I admire maxwell's guts leading both races.

Anonymous said...

"all the aptos girl does is sit and kick"
True but its working for her. 4:49.2 is the fastest 1600m time in the nation so far this season. Great videos and great dual meet! These two runners are so fun to watch especially Nikki with her exciting finishing speed!

Anonymous said...

SLV + Aptos = grudge match + nation leading times
a rivalry for the ages, and a ton of fun to watch. i say charge $$ for admission and invite all Norcal schools to see how a Dual meet should be run!

Anonymous said...

Seriously. Anyone who doesn't think that two girls running the top times in the NATION at a dual meet isn't worth being in the papers is crazy.

Who cares if someone gets a 4:49 (in March!) by sitting and kicking, it's still faster than anyone else the nation has run it so far! It's not like she won by sitting and kicking a 5:10.

Anonymous said...

Faster times have been hit indoors so let not get crazy here. The east coast has just started their outdoor season. 4:49 will not hold as the fastest time in the nation.

This was two great runners going at it in a dual meet. The rest of the meet was unimpressive. Again, the coverage here is sufficient.

Anonymous said...

They rank indoor and outdoor as completely separate sports. Indoor is over. As of right now Hiltz's time is the #1 1600 outdoor time in the nation, per Dye Stat. And, if you want to bring up indoor, she was ranked 16th in the nation for the 2012 indoor season in the Mile, and it was the first and only indoor race she ever ran!

The east coast may just be getting started, but so is the west coast - including Hiltz. She will most likely run faster than this March time, as will most of the other runners on the east coast and west coast. So your point there is moot.

This was two nationally ranked runners, running top NATIONALLY ranked times at a Dual meet in March. That alone is enough to warrant any and all coverage.

I am not even in the same league as Maxwell and Hiltz, but you gotta give props where they are due and stop trying to find a reason to be so negative.

As for the person who complained about the press coverage, they do have a point. Right now there is a photo and story about five So. Cal girls that all ran a 4:56 - 4:57 1600 at an invitational. Hiltz's and Maxwell's times were 8 - 6 seconds faster and no mention of it. Probably because it was a dual, but that makes it even more impressive.

Anonymous said...

If you want press play football / volleyball; basketball; softball / baseball.

Otherwise what are you complaining about? This is the way it has always been. Am I wrong?

Every year TV, newspapers, etc. fail to cover top finishers of major races and instead focus on some sob story, etc. We do a sport that few care about and most administration view as an annoying liability. And that's fine, but don't cry about it... They need to sell papers, people don't care and don't read articles about high school girls running a 1600. They have no idea what a 1600 is, or how fast 4:50 is. There is no story there. So they don't put it in.

Not being negative, just the truth.

Albert Caruana said...

Several factors in play in regards to what is reported in the newspaper. One is you need a coach or coaches who contact the media. Seconds you need a track savvy writer who understands and appreciates the sport. Lastly, it all comes down to space in the newspaper for the following day. If space is limited, that track story might not make the cut.

The Headless Horseman said...

Ok, first off the Dye Stat rankings are wrong. There are many, many marks that are not included. I can look at the CCS or Nor Cal lists and see many names not on the list. So to say a time is #1 in the nation is up for debate without a national database, which there is not.

So to change the subject... lets talk about the great distance runners in Northern California. Here are my thoughts:

Top Nor Cal Distance Runners taking all distances into consideration:

Boys:
1. Luna
2. Bishop
3. Joyce
4. Davis
5. Brazeal


1. Maxwell
2. Hiltz
3. Verndon
4. Sturges
5. Fraiser / Robinson

hank said...

Track used to get lots of coverage years ago (50's-70's). I'm scanning articles now where the papes would cover workouts, would print dual meet dope sheets and so on. That cooled in the 80's and when the internet came along it really cooled (just look at a papers want-ads, used to be huge, now it's not even enough to line your bird cage with.

As far as the DyeStat Section lists... Rich knows that the DB is messed up. The marks are there, it's just that they think schools are in different sections (VC is in the SJS and St Francis is in the SS just to name two), they are trying to clean it up (they also only load Invites unless it's from a credible source). But if you look at the Statewide list, then all the marks for CA are there (I haven't look at the National List).

hank

John said...

Two points. Newspapers can't afford the staff to cover a track league meet. Second, websites devoted to HS track are just not getting the job done (discounting this one).

It's been said countless number of times that Albert does a fantastic job covering Northern California track. Unfortunately that's not the case elsewhere. The big problem is not that DyeStat's ignores this part of the state, it's that their coverage of the sport overall is poor and not timely.

Look at DyeStat Cal right now. The picture of the Girls 1600 at Mt Carmel saying results and highlights coming soon has been up since Saturday. Still nothing. Plus until today there was nothing about the Distance MOC at Azusa. Now it only mentions Blake Haney with a link to poorly formatted results. It seems all they care about is pointing out how many DyeStat Elites there were at a given meet.

You can complain about other sites, such as LetsRun, but at least they try to stay current and provide timely analysis and links to articles. DyeStat seems to make no effort at all.

If we can't even promote our sport competently from within, how can we expect the general media to care about Track?

Albert - if you ever decided to expand this site you could probably easily unseat DyeStat, here in California....

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