Saturday, December 13, 2014

Updates from USATF Jr Nationals thanks to Thomas Benjamin

After taking a week off from the State Championships, Rylee Bowen took the National title in the Girls 15-16 age group at the USATF jr National Olympic Championships today in Myrtle Beach, SC. Her time of 17:40.7 not only was the fastest for her age group but also the fastest girls 5k of the day. The time also was her fastest XC 5k of the season.

Lauren Jacob also had a great time of 18:06 to finish 6th in the race.

The Buffalo Babes also took the National team title in the 17-18yr age group featuring runners from SJS (Jenica Dodge,Regina Nyareso & Laura Cox), NCS (Shaz Breedlove), CCS (Emily Aiken) and Lindsey Adams from Douglas HS in Nev.

Also local Mid school standouts Izzy Fauria and Madison Denny finished 4th & 9th respectively in the girls 11-12 race.

Rylee’s 13 yr. old sister kate finished 23rd out of 384 girls in the 13-14 age grp. race while her 7yr old sister Taylin finished in the top 15% in the girls 7-8 yr. old age group

I probably missed some others. The complete results can be found at:  http://branchsportstech.com/2014_Meets/xc/12-13-USATF/Web/Timetable.php?EID=ae7db743c9fa4a8d8

29 comments:

Anonymous said...

Cooper Teare (15:30) of St. Joes 2nd in Boys 15/16 age group. Zach Connelly (16:00) of Redwood Christian took 7th in that race too.

Anonymous said...

Was the course really fast? Those are some smokin times

Albert Caruana said...

It sure appears that way.

Anonymous said...

I've heard that some of the Jr. Nationals courses are much shorter than the results indicate. Can anyone substantiate that?

Anonymous said...

That course is a flat course on a golf course and as I recall has a fair amount of hard fast surfaces. The USATF courses are often inaccurate for JO XC as most are not held on traditional XC courses

Anonymous said...

Alex Scales 9th grader at BCP won the 13-14 race; Neerav Gade 9th grader at BCP finished in 21st; Kevin Chacko 9th grader at Lynbrook 26th; their team from Los Gatos TC won the 13-14 division handily.

Anonymous said...

Colton Colonna (Pinewood 8th grade) finished 22nd in that same race.

Albert Caruana said...

Colton Colonna is very good and will be one of the top freshmen runners next fall. His sister, Nicole, just won CCS in Division V and finished in the top 10 at state for the 2nd year in a row.

GHPADD said...

Having both planned and officiated on various USATF Youth XC courses throughout the Nation I can state that the USATF prides itself in the accuracy of the distance being within 30 meters of the actual posted distance.

However, unless the National Championship is run west of the Mississippi, every, and I do mean every, Youth XC course is set for speed runners with what we in CA call a few bumps thrown in for good measure. Remember that spikes are also worn at a National Meet, helping significantly to keep the course flat and fast.

The biggest issue at any National Meet is family observers being able to see a large part of the course. After all, they have traveled a long way to get there...and it is a National Championship Meet open to all that qualify.

However, knowing that the courses are built to be fast (almost track like in some instances) does not take anything away from the competition or accomplishment of any of the runners.

Anonymous said...

After watching the USATF Jr. Nationals, I was very surprised
that Alex Scales from the Los Gatos Track Club was not rated
among the top 10 Freshmen in Ca.
He dominated the race in 12:33,
winning by over 11 seconds, with
the 2nd runner being the 3rd rated Freshmen in Calif. From what I later heard, he never lost
this year to 3 other runners rated in the top 10.
I'm not sure what criteria is used
in the ratings, but this was clearly an oversight.

Andrew said...

@5:03 PM, it has a bit to do with the lack of exposure for him I think. He runs for BCP, a very big and deep team where he was not on the varsity team. Thus, Scales did not run at CCS or state like many of the freshman probably on the Top 10. And the final rankings were based on state and section probably. Also, SS-bias.

I have not checked my facts on this, so I may be wrong.

Anonymous said...

Great job on a short course, but I think the H.S. post season awards and ranking criteria has a little something to do with how you run at Section, State, and possibly even Footlocker. Not so much about dominating a bunch of F/S races or how you run for your JO team 2 weeks after the H.S. season is over.
Do Cooper and Alex run on the same JO team?

Anonymous said...

In support of Alex Scales(no relation), it's not really a matter of dominating F/S races, but instead looking at the same
course run previously in almost identical weather conditions. In 2011, on the exact same course, Phillip Rocha(State Div. 1 Champ this year)ran 12:47, Steven Sum(State Division 3 runnerup this year) ran 12:48, and Chris Foster(State Division 2 5th place this year) ran 12:48. Alex Scales ran 12:33 this year, faster than
anyone has ever run on the 4K Course by 7 seconds. He also beat the 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 7th
Rated Freshmen Runners every time he raced them this year(he didn't
race the others).
Andrew was probably correct in
stating that lack of exposure by
not running at CCS or State were
the main reasons he was not listed. It wasn't due from lack of
head-to-head competition.
For info., after checking, there is no Cooper on the same J.O. Team
as Alex.

Anonymous said...

Scales didn't run a varsity race all year and probably trained to peak for a 2.3 Jr. nationals course. Rocha, Sum, and Foster were all in Fresno 2 weeks prior their freshman year and I'd guess ran JO's as an after thought. Alex is very good. Probably the one of the top 5 freshman in CCS, although a few had better Crystal times, and the Menlo kid should get freshman of the year based on his 16:12 at state. I don't think Scales runs that. Steven Sum was messing around with a 4:14/1:52 guy his freshman year for the CCS title. They don't compare head to head races. The only races that matter are the end of the year, League, Section, and State. Not FS, or JO's. Scales will probably make NorCal All freshman. Don't get me wrong, he's a great young runner. 16:25 as a freshman at Crystal is outstanding. If he runs Varsity he might be close to16:00, but I think both Foster and Sum ran sub 15:40 at Crystal freshman year, and Rocha......please.
You've done a lot of reaserch on Alex Scales and JO's. Similar weather conditions?

hank said...

http://lynbrooksports.prepcaltrack.com/ATHLETICS/XC/cryat_bi.htm

Just Foster ran 15:40 on Crystal his Frosh year.

hank

Anonymous said...

Sum 15:41 getting outkicked by Davis. Carlmont kid(15:37) was the fastest CCS freshman in 2011. Rocha ran 15:27 at Wooward as a freshman. That's another world. That puts him at around 12:25 for 2.5M with over a half mile still left to go.

Anonymous said...

I wouldn't say Sum was messing around with a 4:14/1:52 guy as a frosh. He lost as was blown away the last 400. Not taking anything away but it is hard to toy with someone when you lose isn't it?

As for Kids that go to Bell I understand why but it does make me wonder too. Many top runners that would be varsity at public schools or even on many league rival teams don't ever get to run CCS or state or even in their league championship for track (only 5 can run). It's crazy to me.

Anonymous said...

Being on the last straight away with a guy like Davis as a freshman is close enough for me. Unfortunately Sum found out 3 years straight that he'd better start his kick at the 1M mark. He was chased down by some really good runners, but I'd say it's worked out pretty well in the end.

I'd have to agree about the Bell kids. At the very least they forfeit 2 years of experience running at the Varsity level. I would imagine the kids really like the idea of being part of an elite team. Many of them have to train alone up until high school and coaching at the public schools is probably an issue too. That being said, I don't think you can duplicate the experience of racing at CIF. Sum and Foster have had 4 shots, and I think it showed.

hank said...

I do believe that a 15:40 (Foster, Los Gatos) is faster than a 15:41 (Sum, Saratoga). So not sure how you can say Sum was the fastest Frosh in CCS in 2011... are you using a different course for your comparison?

hank

Anonymous said...

I wasn't saying Sum ran faster. Vingralek had the best at 15:37. I think all 3 were top 10 AT. I'm saying 15:40 is way faster than 16:25 or any JO time run this season. I thought 11:54 was trying to say Scales was faster than Sum, Rocha, and Foster were as freshman based on their JO times. Know what I'm saying?

Glenn Bass said...

Cassi Land (Sonora SJS ) ran #6 in the girls 14-14 age group for Foothill Gold.

Anonymous said...

Cooper Teare's club is Castro Valley.

Anonymous said...

It looks like Scales had a good season start and finish. Maybe he had a mid-season injury or illness. That's common with freshmen moving up to the big leagues.

There is no comparing the Crystal Springs times. Foster is on the all-time CS Freshmen list. Sum missed it by 1 second. That's dang good.

Steven Sum
15:41 @Crystal Springs also 15:56
12:48 @Myrtle Beach

Chris Foster
16:49 @Toro - Earlybird
15:40 @Crystal Springs
12:48 @Myrtle Beach

Alex Scales
16:26 @Toro - Earlybird
16:25 @Crystal Springs
12:33 @Myrtle Beach

xcstats.com
athletic.net
prepcaltrack.com
This internet thing may be big one day! :)

Anonymous said...

Ahh, now I get it. I didn't understand why everyone was picking on Foster and Sum.

Their high schools are in CCS, so they cover the same courses.

And they all ran for the Los Gatos club in different years/age groups.

Mystery solved.

Anonymous said...

Going to a place like Bell it's easy to get caught up and over train and push too hard. That's likely what happened here. Then you back off for 5-6 weeks and you are running well again. It's a machine, survival of the fittest there.

Anonymous said...

So you know for a fact Scales was injured mid season?. I'm sure Chris Foster had just as hard of a time surviving with the likes of his big bro, and Gieken his freshman year. I'm pretty sure those 2 were faster then anything the machine has produced in the past 10 years.

Anonymous said...

Yeah I agree about Bellarmine. If I was an incoming freshman runner I see the attraction of that school but I wouldn't want to go there. Nobody ever gets really good. You would think that with all the talent that they get year in and year out on the number of freshman that show up running in the 16s that they would be one of the top three state teams every single year. The fact they haven't won a state championship is just baffling to me.

And not being able to run in league or CCS or State, no thanks. I'd go down the road to my local public school or if I wanted Private go somewhere else.

Anonymous said...

You'd better plan hitting that auto qualifier time in track too. I hope there's no wind.

Anonymous said...

I want to add my late 2 cents here since I'm a HS coach and club coach as well...first of all, in USA XC JOs and USATF JOs, the toughest age group is the 13/14 one by far. Usually talent as well as competitiors, drop off drastically after this age group (since they go to HS and focus more on competing for their HS.)

And yes, usually XC JOs times are fast since it's on a golf course and since courses are wide, if you run tangents well, you can knock off tons of secs.

Scales is a very good runner and unfortunately his talents aren't displayed in the post-season since he runs for BCP...Colonna had a bad race as someone pushed him on the first mile mark or he would've gotten top 5 easily as he's been about 15 secs behind Scales during Club and Regional Championships.

And not to take anything from Bowen as she is very talented but you also have to understand that many competitors in HS don't run in the JOs because of the proximity to State and also most go run in FL West the week before.

Great HS XC season indeed and thanks to Albert as always with this very helpful site!

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