CCS F/S Top 8 Meet Results posted...

thanks to Hank Lawson and www.lynbrooksports.com

http://www.dyestatcal.com/ATHLETICS/TRACK/2010/fs_res.htm

Prep notes: Mountain View track team has new coach, high hopes

To say the Mountain View track and field head coaching job was thrown in Steve Kemp's lap may be stretching it a bit. But, it's not far from the truth. One week after he was hired as an assistant, then head coach Evan Smith offered Kemp the top job.

"Maybe coach Smith was burned out coaching both boys and girls," said Kemp, 56. "He just told me he was going to quit and asked me if I wanted the job."

Kemp, in his first high school coaching job, isn't just some guy off the street who took the job on a whim. He's a three-time World Masters champion, winning the 100-meter hurdles in Puerto Rico in 2003, the decathlon in Japan in 1993 and the pentathlon in Eugene, Ore., in 1998.

A native Canadian, Kemp came to the South Bay to train for the 1980 Olympics as a decathlete.

"There were world-class throwers everywhere you went," Kemp said. "I just hung around with them. The all-comers meet in Los Gatos had some great athletes back then."

Kemp, born in Belleville, Ontario, returned to Canada and won the decathlon at the Canadian Olympic Trials. However, Canada and the United States joined more than 60 countries in a boycott of the 1980 Games in Moscow.

To read the rest of this article, go to the following link:
http://www.mercurynews.com/peninsula/ci_14806703

The key to running fast on race day: Muscle Tension

Getting fit is rarely the problem. It does not take a genius to get an athlete in good physical shape. The problem arises when we need someone to be ready to race at a specific time. We’ve all experienced a race where we completely fell apart from the start of the race and felt completely off, despite going into the race with training going well. How does it happen?

If I knew exactly, I’d be a genius, but one thing that could play a role is muscle tension. It partly explains why we feel good one day and flat the next. Have you ever wondered why most coaches have you do strides the day before a race? Through experience, most have figured out that if you do just a little faster stuff the day before a race, you feel really good the next day. One of the reasons is muscle tension.

So, what is this mysterious muscle tension? This might anger some of the scientists types, but its best to keep things simple. We can get incredibly complex on explaining what resting muscle tension is and how it can be altered, but when we do that it loses it’s practicality in application to the real world. With that in mind, here’s the useful simplified way to look at muscle tension.


To read the rest of this article, go to the following link (this should be one more blog to follow daily):
http://stevemagness.blogspot.com/2010/03/key-to-running-fast-on-race-day-muscle.html

Thoughts on this subject?  What other aspects affect race day performance?

Sports Injuries: When to Tough It Out (NY Times)

YOU have been playing a lot of tennis recently, and now you think you have tennis elbow. Or you’re a swimmer with an aching shoulder. A cyclist with sore knees. A runner with pain in your heel.

Do you go to a doctor, or tough it out?

Now, before you read on and decide I’m a therapeutic nihilist, I have to tell you that the idea for this column was suggested by a doctor-athlete, Paul D. Thompson, a marathon runner and a cardiologist at Hartford Hospital in Hartford.

And his answer to his own question?

To read the rest of this article, go to the following link:
Sports Injuries:  When to Tough It Out

More Newspaper coverage...

Oak Ridge relay team sets school record at Stanford (edhtelegraph.com)

Paly's MacQuitty breaks 44-year-old school record (mercurynews.com)

2010 CCS Track and Field Leaders (paloaltoonline.com)

Hodur leads Folsom at Stanford (folsomtelegraph.com)

TRACK: Youthful Lady Balers look to build upon recent success (freelancenews.com)


Granite Bay's Holt shines in 3,000 at Stanford (granitebaypt.com)

Vista track team competes at Stanford (folsomtelegraph.com)


Sky's the limit for Serra runner (smdailyjournal.com)

Harvard lures Napa's Ruegg

Napa High’s senior distance running star Kurt Ruegg has announced that he will attend Harvard University beginning this fall.

Ruegg, one of the top cross country and track runners in the country, chose Harvard after visiting other Ivy League schools.

“Once I made my trip back there, it was an easy decision,” Ruegg said of his trip to the prestigious Cambridge, Mass. campus. “The Boston area is just great. I loved it.”

Ruegg had athletic scholarship opportunities, but the brilliant Napa senior chose an NCAA Division I in the Ivy League where athletic scholarships are not available.

To read the rest of the article, go to the following link:
http://www.napavalleyregister.com/sports/high-school/article_fe244528-3635-11df-bf02-001cc4c002e0.html

A Tribute to Rick Milam courtesy of Keith Conning and THE CONNING TOWER...

Rick was honored this past Saturday at the Stanford Invitational.  The following tribute was read at the Stanford Invitational by Keith Conning.  Link to Keith's blog posted below.  A well deserved award for Rick.

While attending San Jose State in the 1960’s,Rick started working with Dr. Bruce Ogilivie, the first person to study Sports Psychology. During this time Rick also worked with Bud Winters, the Track and Field Coach at San Jose State. For those who don’t know Bud, he was the coach of what became “speed city” and had many of his athletes became Olympic Champions, Lee Evans, Tommy Smith, and John Carlos to name a few.

Rick worked from Dr Ogilivie in many other sports besides Track and Field but Rick always gravitated back to the sport he really enjoyed, Track and Field.

After graduating from San Jose State, Rick spent 2 years in the US Marine Corps starting Operation Transition at Camp LeJuene, NC.

After being discharged from the Marine Corps Rick came back to San Jose State to get his teaching certificate. While student teaching he was hired as a substitute teacher at Homestead High School in their History Dept. He heard that they needed a track coach, so he volunteered for that job too. In his first year he took a rag/tag track team and won the CCS Championship.

At this time he also started officiating at some of the local meets because there were not many that would take time to do so.

During this time he married Margaret and they had one son, Brian.

Over the past 44 years Rick has officiated at thousands of Track and Field Meets in the Bay Area. Many times being the meet director.

He has been an official at 4 Olympic Trials, many NCAA finals, PAC 10 finals, and the Texas Relays.

In recent years he has been the meet director for the International Children’s Games, held in San Francisco, CA. This meet involved children for 87 countries from around the world. He was the meet director for Track and Field area of the Senior Games held here at Stanford in 2009 where 8000 runners competed over 9 days.

Last year Rick was honored with a Certificate of Recognition from the State of California Senate, Stating in part, “Through more then 45 years of service as a track and field coach, teacher, mentor, and advocate for children and young adults”

The Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors also honored him with their Resolution that states , in part, “Rick was presented the Central Coast Section(CCS) Distinguished Service Award for his dedication and contribution to the positive educational growth of the student-athletes in the CCS”

Over the past 33 years Rick has been the driving force behind the Los Gatos High Schools “all comers” meets held in January and February just before track and field season starts and again in June and July..

1979 He started the Los Gatos Athletic Association All-Comers Meets with Willie Harmitz . They put on 16 meets a year.

1982 He started the CCS Top 8 Meet and Frosh/Soph Classic at Los Gatos High School.

1986 He became a Track Official at Stanford.

2001 He received the Dick Barber Meritorious Service Award from the Pacific Association of USATF.


Found at the following link:
http://theconningtower.blogspot.com/2010/03/tribute-to-rick-milam.html

Stanford Invitational newspaper coverage...

TRACK: Boys 4x400 takes sixth at Stanford invite on Saturday (Hollister Free Lance)
Indians’ Souza seventh in state in long jump (Napa Valley Register)
Napa track stars Ruegg, Souza sparkle at Stanford (Napa Valley Register)
Gunn's Margerum tops Stanford Invite in long jump (Mercurynews.com)
Drake girls mile relay team has strong run at Stanford Invitational (Marin IJ)
Paly's MacQuitty runs state-leading mile time (Palo Alto Online)


More will be posted...

California Track & Field Journals: Jacque Taylor - Intro and Phillip MacQuitty interview...

Courtesy of milesplit.us and CalRunners.com

Hey Milesplit! My name is Jacque Taylor and I live in Northern California. When I was 6 years old I moved from Aptos. If I hadn't moved, I'd probably be playing soccer at Aptos High School. From the time I was 5 to the time I was 16, I litterally lived and breathed soccer. I think I have been everywhere in California at least 3 times! Not only that, but I have gone out of the state for soccer tournies. Honeslty, I was always the kid that would complain everytime we had to run a lap around the soccer field, sometimes I even tried to bribe the coaches.


To read the rest of Jacque's entry, go to the following link
http://ca.milesplit.us/articles/38941

...and for those of you asking for an interview with Philip MacQuitty, here it is also courtesy of milesplit.us.

MileSplit.us Track Chats: Philip MacQuitty

Catching up with former College Park HS/Stanford U. runner, Lindsay Allen...

Today we chat with former College Park HS and Stanford University runner, Lindsay Allen (picture to the left courtesy of Running Times and dad).  She was the lead runner for College Park as they won their first state cross country championship in 2003 (6th runner tie breaker over Sultana in an epic battle).  During her track career, she qualified for the 1600m./3200m. as a sophomore.  She won both races at the North Coast Section Meet of Champions as a junior and just missed recording the same double as a senior, finishing 2nd in the 3200m.  You can see her Stanford accomplishments on her bio page on the McMillan Elite website at the following link as well as her blog:


http://www.mcmillanelite.com/lindsayallen.htm


1) How did you get started with the sports of cross country and track and field?
I began running in 5th grade for my local youth organization. I went out for track and field because all of my friends were on the team. At the time I was convinced I was a sprinter, so I just had fun with it until I took it more seriously towards high school.
We didn’t have a cross country program before high school, so I didn’t do cross until I started at College Park.

2) What was your first success you remember in either or both sports?
I didn’t know how to define success when I first began running, then sibling rivalry kicked in. My sister first broke 6 minutes in the mile in 8th grade, so naturally I wanted to break the ‘6-minute barrier’ in 7th grade. I was 2 grades behind her and sure enough I broke 6 minutes in 7th grade and I’m sure I didn’t let her live it down.

3) Looking back to your time at College Park, what are some of your highlights in cross country? Track and Field?
There are so many highlights, I had a blast in high school. Our team had some of the most amazing people I’ve ever known. One that stands out was winning the state meet my senior year. That was something I’d looked towards since my freshman year. We dyed our hair purple and got super psyched up for the race. It was nice to see the perfect culmination of all of our hard work. 

As for track, I loved all of our dual meets where I got to double or triple on the track and high jump. I loved hanging out at the high jump pit and taking a break from the stress of racing. I also remember qualifying for the state meet my sophomore year. Before then, the state meet seemed untouchable, but that enabled me to feel like I could race with the best and mentally put me on a higher level.

4) What do you feel like really worked for you in terms of training during your high school years?
Pretty much all of Chuck’s training! I tend to respond well to mileage, so at the time I was doing what I considered high mileage for a high schooler. I really loved hills and speed work; 400s, 200s, pretty much anything on the track.

5) Tell us a little about your coach at CP, Chuck Woolridge, and his role with your development as a runner.
He did a great job of progressing my mileage and intensity over my 4 years there. I think staying healthy and consistency in training is the key to improving. Honestly I don’t even remember us discussing it- it just happened. Without even realizing it, each year every aspect of my training ramped up. I would do 1-2 more intervals than the year before, I would run 10-20 minutes longer on my long run, and a few seconds faster on each rep. It was perfect. He knew me better than I knew myself. This might be a sore subject for him, but before a race, he’d tell me what he expected, and sometimes I would just laugh or brush him off. But sure enough, I’d run that time in the race and he’d just give me the ‘I told you so’ look.

6) What were some of your highlights for you while at Stanford University?
My senior year I made our NCAA cross team and I was fortunate enough to be a part of a National Championship. That’s a once in a lifetime experience and I’ll never forget running down the homestretch with my teammates when we found out.

As for track, I loved all of our home meets. The excitement surrounding the meet and all if the great spectators made my races at home special and usually lent itself to good performances.

7) Who were your coaches at Stanford and how did they help you develop as a runner?
My freshman year Dena Evans was my coach. She recruited me to Stanford and just kind of ‘got me.’ She made training fun and enabled me to adjust to college training. I remember in track we needed a rabbit for the 1500s at the Cardinal Invite. I was supposed to be the rabbit for 2nd fastest heat, but when the rabbit for the top heat didn’t show, she volunteered me. She walked over to me and told me to run 600m as fast as I could. I didn’t even have time to freak out before the gun had gone off and I was out. I ran for my life, got some sweet TV coverage, and it got me so pumped up to race with the best.

Peter Tegen was my coach my last 3 years. He has a lot of experience with elite athletes and helped me to work on my speed as well as introduce me to the longer races.

8) What was the biggest change for you in terms of training from high school to college?
My biggest change was not having those EASY days I was used to in high school. Some weeks I don’t feel like I was able to recover between workouts, which was my own fault but probably took its toll on me. It took me time to realize some days I would have to run alone in order to recover.

9) When did you first start thinking about running past college?
I hadn’t thought about running post-collegiately at all until my teammates from Stanford began graduating and seeking running opportunities. My Stanford teammate had joined McMillan Elite the year before I graduated so I was able to visit and get a feel for the team. It only took a trip or two before I was hooked on the life up here.

10) How did you end up choosing Greg McMillan as your coach?
Once I visited Flagstaff and got to know the McMillan Elite team, I realized it was really the whole package. I bought into Greg’s coaching philosophy and never needed to look into other options.

11) What has been the biggest change for you now that you are running for yourself as opposed to a school?
I remember one distinct moment last year when I was toeing the line for a race and thought, ‘Wow, I’m a professional now. Adidas expects things from me. I owe it to them to perform.”
And it mattered in a different way than college, not necessarily more. There was more pressure in the sense that I had committed myself, essentially full-time, to this pursuit, so it had better go well. I guess it was a pressure I put on myself.

12) What is your main event of focus right now and what is the next big race for you?
My main focus right now is the steeplechase. I’m doing some 1500s and 800s to work on speed, but my first big race will be a steeple at Cardinal Invite.

13) What advice would you give to high school runners who have dreams of running in college and beyond?
I’ve always believed that if you can have fun with running, really love it, and just get out and run consistently, you’ll improve. I definitely took it very seriously in high school but it never overwhelmed my enjoyment of it. I think that can turn a lot of people off of running, because it’s not an inherently enjoyable sport.
Set challenging goals for yourself and always keep them in your sights. Figure our ways to help you achieve them, anything is possible.


Thank you very much for your time Lindsay!  AJC