The Monte Vista Invitational - Home of the Eliminator!

Every Monday, Weds & Friday we will meet at 6pm at Oak Hill Park near the MV Parking lot starting June 20th, 2016.

Please be prompt.  We will do a group "core session" and warm up prior to breaking up into groups based on ability and fitness levels.  Bring a reusable water bottle to practice - with your name on it!   Water is critical especially in the summer.

Remember, these are voluntary group runs designed to get you introduced to your teammates while you build a strong base of miles this summer.   You should be running on the other days as well.  See the SUMMER TRAINING GUIDE for more ideas.

The cost for the Summer Running Club is a modest $35 donation.  This covers the price of club insurance, treats during the summer, and of course, the famous Summer Run T-Shirt!   Click on the handout below if you did not get a copy of the form from the coaches.

See you there!

              Mustangs LOVE summer running!!! 

Get yourself ready for the Mustang Summer Club, and the XC Season as well, by doing these things first:

1.  Get new shoes - unless you bought new trainers at the end of track, start the summer with new shoes.  Let Mom and Dad know that you will probably need another pair as the season progresses.  Please do not get your running shoes "off the shelf" at a big box sporting good store.  Be properly fitted at a running speciality store like Forward Motion Sports or Fleet Feet.

2. Plan on recording your miles!  Use the XC Stats training log or an app with your GPS watch or even just a paper journal.   Don't hesitate - start this now.  Sign up for XC Stats and start recording.  Or, you can get a paper one at Forward Motion Sports for $10.  You can also use a calendar, or a blank notebook.  Record your workouts, where you ran, how you felt, special comments.

3.  Hydrate, Hydrate, Hydrate - as we write this, it is mearly 100 degrees out.  It is a no-brainer that you need to keep your body well hydrated over the summer.  Drink all day long. Most runners can easily drink 6 or more, 12 oz bottles of water a day.  Use your bladder as a guide - when you are constantly running to the restroom, and your urine is clear, you are hydrated.  When your urine is dark yellow, you are still very dehydrated. 

 

4.  Buy a sports watch to measure "minutes run" or, get to know how to use Google Maps to track your routes and figure out your mileage.  For timing, most high school runners use 8 min per mile as a rough guide for measuring how far you've run (40 minutes = 5 miles).  If you are top varsity runner, you can probably use 7 min / mile as a guide, even for your slow long runs.  New runners can use 9/min per mile.

Google maps has a slick tool that lets you 'trace' your route, and it will total the distance run.  Go to this link - click on "create a route".  Type in 94526 (or your zip code), and then click the " + " button on the left to zoom in.  Find your street, and when you are ready, click "Draw".  Then position the cursor on the map, and click periodically to trace a route.  You can move the map at anytime by lifting the cursor off the route, and "pulling" the map in the direction you are traveling.  Play around with this.  It's great.  Coach Davis has saved a few routes from Monte Vista that you can look at (Richard Lane run, Roundhill Loop, etc).

http://www.usatf.org/routes/

Happy miles! 

11/15 -Rankings and news coverage for the Mustangs.  Check out what people are saying on our Team News Page.
 

11/6 - EBAL Championship Meet at Shadow Cliffs - MONTE VISTA SWEEPS VARSITY TITLES!

• Varsity Boys placed 4 in the top 5 and earned First Team All League honors for: Tim Chrisman, Tristan Miller, Daniel Maneloveg, and Nick Vomund. Matt Johnson and Ben Smiley finish 10th and 11th and earned Second Team All League.  Brendan Lau rounded out the team in 24th place.  They scored an amazingly low 24 points and ran the #2 fastest team time ever at Shadow Cliffs.
  
• Varsity Girls broke the all time course record while turning back a tough Granda team 40-43.  They placed 3 in top 6 with Brooke Starn, 2nd on the day, running 16:50 (previous course record was 16:57.7). Meredith Corda was 3rd in 17:32, Maddie Coney was 6th in 17:53. They all earned First Team All League. Elana Lim was 12th and earned Second Team All League. Alex Wilson rounded out the scoring with a 17th place, followed by Lauren Cervantes and Morgan Dowling who both ran sub 18:50!
  
• Frosh Soph Girls also take First Place! Olivia Bame, Audrey Coney, Karalyn Sawchuk and Sidney Isom finished 1, 2, 3, 4 and Melanie Kim took 7th, all earning FS All League!
• Frosh Soph Boys finish in 2nd Place just 11 pts from the title!
• Other Highlights:
  • Peter Davis: 1st Place Boys JV race (1st Team all League)
  • Paige Moldenhauer: 2nd Place Girls JV (1st Team All League)
  • Carson Sawchuk, 3rd, Sam George 7th for F/S Boys (F/S All League)
  • 69 runners made new personal records on the course including 27 girls and boys who improved their times by over a minute!
    
• Full results on XCSTATS and here

Dear Parents and Runners,

If all you do is read this sentence and not the rest of this email...then RSVP for the Dec. 2 banquet, pretty please.

Team Banquet RSVPs Needed ASAP: We need a very accurate headcount for our team banquet for dinner ordering purposes. All team members eat FREE! Family members are $15 for adults and $10 for kids. All details about the Dec. 2 banquet are on the RSVP page here.

NCS Tomorrow - Come Watch! Come watch our Mustang varsity squads battle it out with the best teams in the North Coast Section on the course at Hayward High School. Both our girls and boys are ranked #1 going into this meet. We have big targets on our backs as only two teams will earn a bid to the state meet. This is a GREAT course for spectators -- lots of easily visible action with minimal effort. Our runners would love to have a fan base cheering under clear, sunny skies. Boys race at 11:15 (awards ceremony at 11:50) and girls at 12:50 (awards at 1:30). Tickets are $6/$4/$4 (adults/seniors/students) and can be purchased at the gate or, new this year, ONLINE in advance. Allow plenty of time for parking. Find maps, course records, live results, and many other details on the NCS Cross Country website.

Team Budget Update A big thank you to all who donated the suggested amount, those who gave something, and of course, those who gave more than the suggested amount! While we did not actually get full family participation or hit our donation goal, we were able to reduce expenses and do some strong fundraising (e.g. food sales at the MV Invite, corporate matching grants). So, we should find ourselves in the black at season's end. While all expenses are not recorded, we feel good enough about our budget position to be able to buy a proper dinner for the athletes at the team banquet.

Go Mustangs!

Courtney Corda

Team Parent on behalf of the coaches

UPDATE:  
Nov 11th, 2015: Updated Rankings put MV first overall in both boys and girls...all divisions!   Rankings here.

After completing the "regular" season, the Mustang Cross Country team finds itself high in the polls and earning the attention of the local print and web media.   Here are a collection of recent news releases featuring the MVXC team:

- Girls and Boys Varsity retain #1 North Coast Section Division One rankings.  XC Express rankings.

- Girls #2, Boys #5 in all of Northern California (all divisions combined).   Details here.

- Girls #5 in lastest statewide D1 rankings.   Highest position ever!  PrepCalTrack.com link

- Brooke Starn's winning race is highlighted on several web sites including an article and photo in the Contra Costa Times (see handout for photo of article).  Link to CC Times story here.
- DyestatCal Mt Sac Summary features Brooke.
- XC Express Interview with Brooke (from Track, 2015)
- Dyestatcal post race interview with Brooke. 

- Starn, Corda, M Coney, Chrisman and Miller earn "tops in Nor Cal" at Mt Sac.   Clink here.

Sr Tim Chrisman finishes 2nd in the Subsweeps race. 
Jr Tristan Miller (right) is 5th.

- Boys team at Mt Sac is featured in San Ramon Valley times story.