Paul VI Cross Country

4x MOC Champion (1984, '88, '89, '94)

Archive for September, 2011

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Shore Coaches Invitational 2011: Details

Posted by Breton on September 29, 2011

Two quick notes for parents and runners wondering about practice today – 9/29/11. It will be held at 2PM since the kids are let out at 1:30PM.

Second note: BRING YOUR OLD JERSEYS with you on Saturday. Everyone – from freshmen to seniors. We need them ASAP.

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Let the October and the prep for the Championship season begin! This coming week will be a fun, race-filled starting with your first taste of Holmdel on Saturday. With a couple seniors taking the SATs, it’s time for a squad of underclassmen to show NJ cross country what they can do.

Itinerary:

7:15AM Meet at Paul VI HS

7:30AM: Bus leaves for Holmdel

9:15AM: Approximate arrival time at Holmdel

10:50AM: Boys Varsity D (MacFarlane, Verna, Patterson, Balzer, Marino, Durante-Koller, Cleary)

12:10PM: Boys JV C (A. Munns, Feeney, Rizzo, Boldurian, Lang)

1:10PM: Boys Frosh (Rottler-Gurley, Schmidt, Packi, P. Munns)

2:15-2:30PM: Depart for Paul VI HS

3:45-4:00PM: Approximate arrival time at Paul VI HS

“Make each day your masterpiece; just do your best each and every day, don’t try to be better than someone else, just try to make yourself better each day” – John Wooden

“I don’t feel any pressure at all. It’s the other runners who have to worry. They have to deal with me.”  – Jason DiJoseph, Paul VI XC

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Carlisle Invite: The lone NJ team makes the trip worthwhile

Posted by Breton on September 24, 2011

The day was started off right by the JV guys with a great race in the biggest race I have ever seen as a cross country coach. 539 runners toed the line as the spacious Carlisle XC course allowed for the mass chaos. Our JV guys, led by sophomore Robert Cleary, took 13th as a squad out of 43 teams. Cleary worked his way up from 60th place at the mile to 25th at the finish, an inspiring performance leading a refreshing sophomore class. Anthony Rizzo also netted a big PR on a sloppy, rolling Carlisle course and two freshmen left Pennsylvania with big smiles on their faces. Both Parker Munns and William Schmidt shaved over a minute off their previous bests!

JV

25. Cleary 18:29 (-:41, PR)
41. Durante-Koller 18:42
83. Rizzo 19:15 (-:25, PR)
125. Feeney 19:47
127. Boldurian 19:49
207. Lang 20:39 (-:09, PR)
226. A. Munns 20:47
267. Schmidt 21:18 (PR)
386. Rottler-Gurley 22:22
402. P. Munns 22:33 (-1:41, PR)
526. Packi 27:15

The Varsity guys toed the line two hours later, the lone New Jersey squad in a 38 team mix. Captain Neil MacFarlane was out in the lead pack with Patterson, Verna, Marino, and Balzer in tow, roughly all top 40 after the first mile. The tides then turned for a couple of the guys. Two gave up spots in the last mile while the other two surged forward. It was Mike Patterson who charged home with the biggest PR of the day on the Varsity side, moving up admirably in the last mile. Balzer held on as best he could but the sophomore lost some spaces, still registering a PR on the day. No doubt that once the endurance catches up to him, he’ll be dangerous in October and November. All in all, it was a decent team performance. Beaten sizably by a first place team from New York, the guys were happy with their place but knew that more could be done. Some that had fantastic summers are still looking for that first great race of the season. One thing is for sure – the more you think about it happening, the less of a chance it will work out for you in the end. We’ve had hugely positive signs from team as a whole and if we all can improve a little bit, day in-day out, this season should be huge. If we can starting closing gaps here and there and stop over-catastrophizing/over-analyzing, this team – though young – could be as good as any we’ve had in last decade or more. They’ve been used before but several quotes stick out for that long prep for every race:

“A race begins the moment you forget you are racing” – Unknown

“For optimum progress and peak performance, practice the three P’s of running: Patience, Perseverence and a Plan” – Jim Fortner

“I tell our runners to divide the race into thirds. Run the first part with your head, the middle part with your personality, and the last part with your heart” – Mike Fanelli

“Once you’re beat mentally, you might as well not even go to the starting line.” – Todd Williams

Varsity (2nd out of 38 teams, 268 runners)

9. MacFarlane 17:08
23. Patterson 17:35 (-:17, PR)
36. Balzer 17:52 (-:05, PR)
48. Marino 18:03 (Season PR)
63. Verna 18:25
64. Booth 18:26 (Season PR)
84. Gallagher 18:39

The parents – as always – were a tremendous help, cooking up a good post-race meal on Saturday and providing the coaches with only the race and the race’s outcome to worry about. More pictures to be posted but you can also find them all, thanks to George Balzer Sr., on the Facebook group PVI XC. Check it out.

On to Shore Coaches!

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Posted in Meet Recap, Results | Tagged: , | 1 Comment »

Carlisle CC Invite 2011: Details

Posted by Breton on September 22, 2011

Time to head to Central Pennsylvania and represent the state of New Jersey boys…

Date: Saturday, September 24th

Race Distance: 5,000m, there are signs every 500m on the course.

Course: Located at Carlisle HS. It has a decent amount of turns. and will most likely be VERY MUDDY so bring your spikes! Parents, it’s an EASY spectator course. You should be able to watch your kid the whole way. Has been the site of numerous NCAA Regional Championships and Finals.

Awards: Trophies to the Top 5 in the Champions Race, Medals for Places 6 through 30; Trophies to the Top 5 Teams in the Champions Race; in JV Race, medals to the Top 10 Junior, Sophomore, and Frosh runners; Team Trophies to the Top 5 JV Teams

Prep: Bring enough running clothes to last 3-4 days!! It’s going to wet in Carlisle and you’ll want extra shorts, shirts, socks, etc.

Itinerary:

PRE-RACE DAY

9:30AM - Meet at the Patterson’s

12:00PM-12:30PM – Arrive in Carlisle/Mechanicsburg area.

1:00PM – Lunch

1:30PM-2:00PM – Check into hotel rooms

Rest of the day TBA

RACE DAY

10:15AM – JV RACE (Durante-Koller, Cleary, Rizzo, Feeney, Lang, A. Munns, Rottler-Gurley, Boldurian, Schmidt, Packi, P.Munns, Bretschneider)

12:15PM – CHAMPIONS RACE (MacFarlane, Verna, Balzer, Gallagher, Marino, Booth, Patterson)

SUNDAY

We will be stopping on the way home to get a nice, soft long run in somewhere – possibly Valley Forge (on the way home, about an hour out).

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Briarwood Invite: Young Team, Big Step Forward

Posted by Breton on September 18, 2011

More pics to come as they’re posted…

The guys took on the famous hills of Belmont Plateau yesterday at the Briarwood Invitatonal and had an encouraging showing. Take a look below. Captain Neil MacFarlane showed off his summer training as the junior wound up 9th in a tough Varsity Division I race this year, matching his over PR set last year on the flat Brown Invite course. Though our pack was hoping to be up about 15-20 seconds, the guys stuck relatively close to each other, a testament to how they trained this summer. As was said the guys – the base fitness is there but the race execution, ‘fire’, etc. is not yet where it needs to be. It will come. Only two of the guys returning this season had extensive varsity experience last year so week in, week out, improvement will be the name of the game. All in all, a great start on a challenging course. When we close the gaps, this will be a very dangerous team.

9. Neil MacFarlane 16:58.5 (Briarwood PR by 50 sec)
31. Adam Verna 17:47.6 (Briarwood PR by 41 sec)
37. Michael Patterson 17:53.5 (Briarwood PR by 2 min, 12 sec)
52. Dan Marino 18:17.0 (Briarwood PR by 1 min, 53 sec)
54. George Balzer 18:21.3
65. Peter Gallagher 18:33.4 (Briarwood PR by 14 sec)
66. Chris Booth 18:36.5 (Briarwood PR by 1 min, 19 sec)
7th out of 17 teams

In the JV race, sophomore Jake Durante-Koller led the way with a monstrous PR on a tough, tough course. He set the tone for a stellar JV showing with a bunch of the guys recording huge drops in time. Most encouraging, however, was the way they ran their last mile. They were aggressive and picked up several spots around the final perimeter loop. All four of the top finishers for the JV squad are sophomores, a class to watch this season. Junior Alex Munns showed some real fight in the last 400 meters, outkicking several and looking the strongest he has ever looked in a Paul VI uniform.

Jake on his way to a medal.

23. Jake Durante-Koller 18:35.6 (PR by 29 sec)
47. Robert Cleary 19:10.0 (PR by 6 sec)
82. Anthony Feeney 19:41.9
83. Anthony Rizzo 19:41.9
113. Alex Munns 20:18.6 (Briarwood PR by 28 sec)
133. Brian Lang 20:48 (PR by 6 sec)
13th out of 27 teams

Soph Robert Cleary (L) kicking to a 2nd consecutive PR

William Schmidt was first in for the “froshies” running admirably. Parker Munns and Mike Packi had big performances, destroying their previous bests (if you convert the 3000m time to 3200m.

73. William Schmidt 11:40.0
90. Parker Munns 12:22.7
113. Mike Packi 14:09.8

Parker!

Next up is a new race on the schedule this year, the Carlisle Invite in Central Pennsylvania. The guys will leave Friday AM to get a run-through of the course and they race mid-day on Saturday. First, however, comes a solid week of work.

Posted in Belmont Plateau, Meet Recap, Results | Tagged: , , | 1 Comment »

Briarwood Invitational 2011: Details

Posted by Breton on September 15, 2011

Date: Saturday, September 17th

Distance: 5,000m (Varsity and JV), 3,000m (Frosh)

Awards: Top 25 in Varsity Race gets medals, Team Plaque and Medals for Top 3 teams; Top 25 in JV ‘A’ Race receives medals, Top 15 in JV ‘B’ Race gets medals, Top 25 in Frosh Race

Itinerary:

10:45AM Meet at Paul VI HS

11:00AM Bus departs for Belmont Plateau, Fairmount Park, Philadelphia

2:00PM Varsity Division I (Large School) Race - MacFarlane, Gallagher, Verna, Balzer, Marino, Patterson, Booth

3:05PM JV ‘A’ Race (Next 7 Runners) – Cleary, Durante-Koller, Rizzo, Feeney, Lang, A. Munns

4:05PM Freshmen Race – Rottler-Gurley, Schmidt, Packi, P. Munns

4:45PM-5:00PM Depart Belmont Plateau to return to Paul VI

5:20PM-5:35PM Return to Paul VI HS

Let’s all remember we’re racers now. It’s one thing to train well, it’s another to show that same desire, tenacity, and excitement on the course. Consider these:

“When you put yourself on the line in a race and expose yourself to the unknown, you learn things about yourself that are very exciting” - Doris Brown Heritage, 5-time World XC Champion

“When a person trains once, nothing happens. When a person forces himself to do a thing a hundred or a thousand times, then he certainly has developed in more ways than physical. Is it raining? That doesn’t matter. Am I tired? That doesn’t matter, either. At this point, willpower will be no problem.” - Emil Zatopek, 4-time Olympic Gold Medalist

“Anything worthwhile, will never come easy”

“I tell our runners to divide the race into thirds. Run the first part with your head, the middle part with your personality, and the last part with your heart.”  - Mike Fanelli

“The will to win means nothing without the will to prepare”  - Juma Ikangaa, Tanzania

Be ready to go on Saturday – come prepared, focused, and most importantly, excited. It’s a later starting race – get your normal sleep (don’t sleep too much or too little), eat what you normally do for breakfast, and Varsity guys may even want to get a quick jog in when they wake-up. We’ve had an amazing last three weeks of training – now let’s capitalize on the course!

Posted in Belmont Plateau, Important Information | Tagged: , | Leave a Comment »

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