Comprehensive Stanford XC Invitational results

Thanks to Stanford University's David Kiefer by researching Hank Lawson's site as well as other online resources, you can check out a historical look at the Stanford Invitational results through the years for both college and high school. You can find this terrific resource at this LINK. Thanks to Dave for putting this together. If you can fill any of the missing data, please feel free to email Dave at dkiefer@stanford.edu.

Pre-Season NorCal Cross Country team rankings

Nearly impossible this year with mostly no spring Track and Field season. Feel free to comment below on teams I may have missed or teams that you feel should be ranked higher. The SJS divisions have not been posted yet so I had to either make an educated guess or leave as a question mark.

Boys
1) Bellarmine (CCS) Division I
2) Jesuit (SJS) Division I
3) De La Salle (NCS) Division II
4) Campolindo (NCS) Division III
5) Davis (SJS) Division I
6) Dublin (NCS) Division I
7) Bella Vista (SJS) Division?
8) Monte Vista (NCS) Division II
9) Sir Francis Drake (NCS) Division III
10) Scotts Valley (CCS) Division IV

On the Bubble
Amador Valley (NCS) Division II

Granada (NCS) Division II

Girls
1) St. Francis, Mt. View (CCS) Division II
2) St. Francis, Sacramento (SJS) Division?
3) Oak Ridge (SJS) Division I
4) Campolindo (NCS) Division III
5) Del Oro (SJS) Division III
6) Dougherty Valley (NCS) Division I
7) Redwood (NCS) Division II
8) Granada (NCS) Division II
9) College Park (NCS) Division II
10) Menlo School (CCS) Division IV

On the Bubble
Vista del Lago (SJS) Division III
SF University (NCS) Division V
Lick-Wilmerding (NCS) Division V

Individuals will be posted next...

Podcast: Episode 100 with Laura Schmitt (Former Redwood coach)

For those of you that enjoy listening to podcasts, here is one with former Redwood HS coach, Laura Schmitt. You can find it at this link:

https://themorningshakeout.com/podcast-episode-100-with-laura-schmitt/

You can also check out my interview with her from 2011 which you can find at this LINK.

What Will College Track Look Like On The Other Side?

Thank you to Jesuit coach Walt Lange for passing this along. A deep dive into the future of college XC, indoor, and outdoor track.
https://trackandfieldnews.com/what-will-college-track-look-like-on-the-other-side/

Interview with Amador Valley's John Lester

You can find that interview at this link:
https://ca.milesplit.com/videos/446909

For those of you that may have missed it, Lester's coach, Jason Oswalt, did a presentation about his training at the virtual Humboldt Running Camp. You can check that out right here:

Sir Francis Drake High School to change its name

This has been in the works for the past few years and now made official.
Sir Francis Drake High School to change its name
Here is another LINK.

Here are a few interviews with a former Sir Francis Drake coach and runners.

Former coach Rod Berry
http://www.crosscountryexpress.com/2012/06/catching-up-with-former-redwood-hs.html

Former runner John Lawson
http://www.crosscountryexpress.com/2011/11/catching-up-with-sir-francis-drake.html

Former runner and current Oakland Tech coach Richie Boulet
https://ca.milesplit.com/articles/260207/interview-with-oakland-tech-coach-richie-boulet

Current coach Robyn Berry
coming up...

Here is a SITE with some very cool Drake historical photos, records etc.

Pre-Season NorCal Cross Country individual rankings

Here is my attempt to rank the individuals for the potential Cross Country season. To rank the following runners, I looked at the 2019 state results to find the top returners, looked at the top track and field marks, and also used the MileSplit Compare Athletes page which you can check out at this LINK. Feel free to comment below on any of the rankings below and if you feel like I missed any runners, please add their credentials below.

BOYS
1) Colin Peattie Bellarmine (CCS) Division I
2) Nolan Topper Bellarmine (CCS) Division I
3) Patrick Curulla De La Salle (NCS) Division II
4) Galen Topper Bellarmine (CCS) Division I
5) Spencer Pickren Jesuit (SJS) Division I
6) Michael Chambers Jesuit (SJS) Division I
7) Dylan Gunn Campolindo (NCS) Division III
8) Hudson Grace Redwood (NCS) Division II
9) Godebo Chapman West Campus (SJS) Division IV
10) Euan Houston Amador Valley (NCS) Division II

On the Bubble
John Lester Amador Valley (NCS) Division II
Ajani Salcido Jesuit (SJS) Division I
Kellen Steplight Vacaville (SJS) Division II
Alex Lodewick Campolindo (NCS) Division III
Alex Mader Lick-Wilmerding (NCS) Division V
Kamran Murray Menlo (CCS) Division IV
Calvin Katz Menlo (CCS) Division IV

GIRLS
1) Alexandra Klos Vista del Lago (SJS) Division
2) Harper McClain St. Helena (NCS) Division V
3) Riley Chamberlain Del Oro (SJS) Division
4) Cate Joaquin St. Francis, Sacramento (SJS) Division
5) Lauren Soobrian Los Altos (CCS) Division 1
6) Madison Kackley Gregori (SJS) Division I
7) Hope Bergmark Amador Valley (NCS) Division II
8) Shae Hill Granada (NCS) Division II
9) Kaiya Brooks Crystal Springs Uplands (CCS) Division V
10) Audrey Allen Miramento (NCS) Division IV

On the Bubble
Ellie Buckley Campolindo (NCS) Division III
Evie Cohen St. Ignatius (CCS) Division III
Maya Lacamp Lick-Wilmerding (NCS) Division V

Catching up with Lynbrook coach Hank Lawson...

A throwback to my interview with Hank Lawson from 2008. Hank stepped down from coaching after 2009 and has been timing and continuing to gather results, photos, and videos for the Lynbrook Sports website. 
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For those of you that visit the www.lynbrooksports.com website, you are in for a treat as our next interview is with that websites' webmaster, Lynbrook coach Hank Lawson. Besides keeping all the CCS folks in the loop in terms of results, history and much more, Hank has an outstanding group of runners this year with his girls' ranked 4th in Division II and his boys are working their way up the rankings and could be a factor come CCS time. Hank is pictured to the left in 2004 sporting his high school uniform top.

1) How did you get your start in distance running?
Back in 8th grade, I was challenged to a 600 for a Milkshake. I won the shake and been running ever since (it cost the PE coach $.25 - a well spent quarter)

2) High school and college experiences? Highlights?
Still on the School Record boards at Gunn HS (far right in photo) and De Anza JC in the 4x1 mile. At San Diego State we were 8th in the NCAA XC Champs my Junior year (I was 7th man but was sick that weekend so I didn't get to race - although my name shows in the results for our 5th man forgot his race # so he had to use mine). Guinness Book of World Records for the Baby Buggy push. A team of 50 runners ran for 24 hrs pushing a Baby Buggy and we averaged 4:11 per mile (see below). Running Boston and being 2nd Californian.Yes, 4:11 is correct but this is how we did it. We only ran a 220 (yd) at a time so it was very easy (for some that is) to run 31.35 avg for all of our 220's (since some guys were running faster than that). The way it worked was there were 5 teams of 10 runners. When it was your team's turn, each runner had to run 8 x 220 (resting while the other 9 ran their 220). So you got 4 1/2 minutes to rest between 220s. Then you got 2-3 hours of rest (sleep) while the other 4 teams ran their 220s. It's just that 4:11 per mile sounds more impressive (and the non-runner was able to relate to that mile time) then saying we ran 8x220 at 31.35 (which means nothing to the non-runner). Remember, we had to market this to the paper so they would cover the story. Funny thing is, we told the paper when we thought we would break the existing record so they showed up 5 minutes before that 'predicted' time - well, we were running so fast that we actually broke the record 45 minutes earlier so the paper missed the 'breaking' of the record and had to settle for just seeing the final record mark. The last 30 minutes, all teams were there and we just threw the order out the window and runners were hoping in to run a 220 when they felt recovered and ready to go (we were all getting our picture taken so lots of egos were getting satisfied).

3) You are still competing to this day. How much of your running is done with the team? on your own? What races do you compete in?
When I'm able to run with the team, I'd say 1/4th of my running is done with them. I can hang with the JV runners unless it's downhill, then I can hang with the Varsity.

4) What inspired you to get involved in coaching?
HS XC was a great experience for me and I wanted to give something back to my HS, so I went and coached at Gunn for 4 years. Then I wanted to be a head coach and when the job at Lynbrook came along, I took it.

5) How long have you been coaching at Lynbrook HS? Previous experiences in coaching? Coaching highlights?
Lynbrook from '94 to present. At Gunn from '88-'92. At Hewlett-Packard (I started the South Bay team) from '78-'87. I loved coaching the inexperienced runner when working at HP as a Programmer. Most had never run track, especially the women, and they were all eager to commit to running and to get better. HS'ers are the same, just younger. Sometimes it takes them a little longer to commit to the sport then adults but when they do they are just as excited about getting better and seeing how far they can go. Coaching Highlights... when I learn that someone I coached is now coaching as well, that's a kick!

6) Who do consider your coaching mentors?
Hal Daner (Gunn HS - he's the one that paid the quarter for that milkshake), Forrest Jamieson (Jr High coach, father of XC in the Bay Area - he was the creator of the National Postal races back in the '60s-'80s), Jim Linthecum (De Anza JC) - all great role models.

7) One of your other interests is acting on stage. How did you get involved in that? Any cross over between acting and coaching?
I was tall for my age so in 2nd grade I was given the part of a dancing pickle - been doing it ever since. With XC I have a captive audience so I am always on-stage - life is but a stage. I am very animated and I think that helps to loosen up the kids up as well and then when I compete and put on my 'game face' they see that as well and know there is a time to play and a time to race - and to take them both very seriously.

8) I, like many other people, visit your website (www.lynbrooksports.com) religiously each day. How did the website get it's start?
In '96 I saw that Lynbrook had a web team and a server on campus that was run by kids. I became the mentor of the web team (I'm a programmer by trade) to try and make the site the place to go to for information on Lynbrook HS (not just sports). The XC and Track section grew the fastest and we were getting lots of visits which helped give the whole site more exposure, which in turn required more support and hardware (success breeds success), and then it just kept growing. It then became too big for itself and was requiring too much bandwidth and disc space (over 10gigs I think) so I needed to move it to another server (thank you DyeStat) which allowed me to keep and grow the history side of the site as well as the current year.

9) Where did you get most of the past results? Who have been your best sources?
Plato Yanicks, coach at Menlo-Atherton from '58-'88, has a garage full of results. One scrapbook for XC and one for Track for every year thru 1990, starting with 1947 (when he started coaching in the East Bay). These books are filled with results and newspaper clippings - an amazing resource. I'm slowly scanning and posting the pertinent data from these books (I'm up to 1963 right now). I also inherited what the old XC/Track coach at Lynbrook had (Verne Thornburg), although most of the track stuff had gotten tossed so I went to Gunn HS and went thru Daner's files. Lots of coaches have given me access to their files which I then scan and then give back the hardcopy as well as a disc with the information - any other takers out there...?

10) Based on your experience and scanning of so many results in CCS, who would you pick as the five best runners (boys and girls)?
I'm assuming you mean 5 best all-time... BOYS- Mitch Kingery (San Carlos), Matt Guisto (San Mateo), Gordon MacMitchell (Gunn, he could've beat Kingery's time if he didn't have to sit out a year), Jesse Torres (Independence) and Chris Carey (Carlmont, he only ran the old Crystal Course). GIRLS - Katy McCandless (Castilleja), Lori Chapman (Gunderson), Roxanne Bier (Independence), Rebecca Chamberlain (Leigh), Alejandra Barrientos (SLV) - Tori Tyler (Gunn) had one fantastic time at Crystal which she won all by herself which would be considered a phenomenal performance given no one was even close to her that day.

11) This is your chance to make your plea for any past results (or anything else) that you would like to add to your site.
Coaches - please let me scan your files if you have any, let's not lose the history.

12) Anything else you would like to add.
Please forgive my spelling (Albert, will you clean up for me?) and come see me in "Antigone In the Oval Office" playing at Theatre At San Pedro Square in downtown SJ - I play a Secret Service man protecting the President. I'm a nothing part but my daughter has the lead...

Thank you very much for your time with the interview and the website Hank! AJC

Northern California Invitationals (as well as statewide events)

I will start a list here if you would like to add your Invitational to either the Cross Country and Track and Field schedules. At this point, all dates and locations are tentative and subject to change.

Cross Country
Saturday, January 9 or 16-Lowell Invitational at GGP (tentative)
Saturday, January 23-Westmoor Ram Invitational at Westmoor HS
Saturday, January 30-Artichoke Invitational at Half Moon Bay HS
Friday/Saturday, February 5/6 at Woodward Park
Friday/Saturday, February 19/20 at Mt. SAC
Saturday, March 6th-SJS Subsection at Angel's Camp
Saturday, March 13th-SJS Section Final at Willow Hills, Folsom
Saturday, March 20th-CCS Championship at TBA
Saturday, March 20th-NCS Championship at Hayward HS
Saturday, March 27th-California State Meet at Woodward Park

Track and Field
Saturday, April 3-Dan Gabor Invitational at Amador Valley HS
Friday/Saturday, April 23/24-Dublin Distance Fiesta at Dublin HS
Saturday, May 22-Northern California Frosh/Soph Championships at Dublin HS
Saturday, June 12-NCS Class A and Area Meets at TBA
Friday/Saturday, June 18/19-NCS MOC at TBA
Friday/Saturday, June 25/26-California State Championship at Buchanan HS

From the Redwood Empire area, here are the dates proposed so far.
https://redwoodempirerunning.com/schedule/

Statewide tentative Invitationals thanks to Ken Reeves
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1bKrbf_c9ZgjI_2XbeusbU8hcyven_bd2/view

CIF Announcement concerning sports in 2020/21

You can find their announcement at this LINK. Their schedule is below. NCS update is HERE. SJS update is HERE. Northern Section update posted today at this LINK. CCS update which was posted today on Tuesday is at this LINK. OAK, and SF updates coming up.
Feel free to comment below regarding their proposed schedule in the comment section below.