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Thursday, October 17, 2013

WBAL #2 and WCAL #2 Results

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8 comments:

  1. AnonymousOctober 18, 2013 7:38 AM

    I'm a parent new to high school cross country. Can someone explain what a Center meet is?

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  2. Albert CaruanaOctober 18, 2013 7:58 AM

    Maybe Hank or someone can explain this one better than me. The Crystal Springs center meets have been around for a while. They have been meets were teams come in and get a chance to race on the CS course. They are not quite invitationals.

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  3. AnonymousOctober 18, 2013 9:27 AM

    What is the difference with the 5K course and 2.4mile course used by the WCAL at Baylands?

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  4. AnonymousOctober 18, 2013 9:41 AM

    They don't run the last loop backwards. 4 laps for a cross country 5k is a bit much.

    ReplyDelete
  5. hankOctober 18, 2013 9:44 AM

    Ok, getting me started on History stuff, well here is what I could find... First, history of Cross Country in the Bay Area and how it got it's start:

    http://www.prepcaltrack.com/ATHLETICS/XC/crybook.htm#CCSHistory

    I especially like this paragraph on Crystal Springs course:

    "Crystal Spring's odd distance (2.95) is attributed to the fact that when the
    course first opened, a large trench was dug for a pipeline right where they
    wanted the start to be. Hence, they had to move the start forward a bit
    making the course shorter than the designers had originally intended."

    And as for what Center Meets are and how they were started... Well a history on the man that brought Center Meets to the Bay Area can be found here:

    http://www.prepcaltrack.com/ATHLETICS/XC/crybook.htm#Jamieson

    But if you don't want to read all about Coach Jamieson, here is the part about Center Meets:

    "Cross country was not new to Southern California. Contemporary records indicate
    that Southern Section championships (including San Diego County schools, which did
    not form their own section until 1960) date to 1926. However, few multi-team
    invitationals were held, in part due to the paucity of high schools offering cross
    country as an interscholastic sport. Rather, most races were dual meets, oftentimes
    scheduled to start and conclude on tracks during halftimes of football games.

    Effective? Probably. Demeaning? Forrest certainly thought so, and set about
    to implement his own solution.

    It seemed logical to him that a regularly scheduled series of meets, held at a
    single racing venue central to all participating schools, was a more reasonable option.
    Thus was born the “Center Meet”, an invitational meet held two or three times each
    season, every year, offering each runner the opportunity to guage his progress over
    the span of his high school running career. In the fall of 1948, following a year of
    promoting and browbeating, Chula Vista hosted its first Center Meet on the grounds of
    San Diego State College. As the post-war economic boom accelerated, more schools
    opened and more cross country teams sprang forth; Forrest’s Center Meets flourished."

    and on getting it up here to the north...

    "Cross country on the San Francisco Peninsula was non-existant at that time (1952).
    Indeed, throughout the entire San Francisco Bay area, only Balboa, Poly (now closed)
    and Lowell of San Francisco, Lincoln and Tech of San Jose, Hayward, Bishop O’Dowd
    and El Cerrito in the East Bay, and Tamalpais in the North Bay are known to have
    offered the sport following the war. Even Stanford University had no cross country
    team. But it did have a beautiful, verdant, oak-studded golf course located midway
    between San Francisco and San Jose. Just the perfect venue for a Center Meet.

    With the assistance of Jack Weiershauser, then head track and field coach at
    Stanford, Forrest convinced the University’s administration to open its golf course
    each fall to the local high school harriers. These Peninsula Center Meets grew in
    popularity to 1200 meet participants, eventually overwhelming the local golfing
    community which persuaded Stanford to kick the kids off their course following
    the 1963 season. Fortunately, through the dedicated efforts of former Carlmont
    High coach Loren Lansberry and former College of San Mateo coach Bob Rush, a
    permanent home nestled in the Belmont foothills overlooking the Crystal Springs
    Reservoirs was secured, where the tradition of holding Center Meets on the last
    three Thursdays in October continues to this day over the rustic, sepentine trails
    of Crystal Springs International Cross Country Course."

    That's all I know and I'm sticking to my story.

    hank

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  6. AnonymousOctober 18, 2013 11:35 AM

    "Anonymous said...

    What is the difference with the 5K course and 2.4mile course used by the WCAL at Baylands?
    9:27 AM"

    .7 MILES.

    You asked.

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  7. AnonymousOctober 18, 2013 7:10 PM

    As FYI, in the WBAL #2 Girls JV race, finishing in 12th overall place, currently listed as Unknown is bib # 1462 of King's Academy. I don't know her name.

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  8. hankOctober 18, 2013 8:03 PM

    The TKA girl accidentally cut the course short so she was listed as "unofficial" so that the team scoring wouldn't be messed up.

    hank

    ReplyDelete