First, here is the numbers break down:

Here are the MileStat results:

 

This meet was exciting for the coaches before competition began. We were entering athletes into not one, but two events that we haven't really contested yet this year.

 

Henry Nelson became the first middle schooler to compete in the 55m High Hurdles in a meet since the middle school team was divided out of the JV. He posted a respectable sub-12 second time in his first go-round!

 

Benjamin and Brennan have been putting in extra practice all January to get ready to join pole vault competition. Both competed for the first time (in a competition that actually started at an appropriate height for them) and each set a competition record for themselves with good, strong attempts at the next height up!

 

Two of our Shot Putters were able to heave their respective cannon balls further than they've ever before. Nic was able to post a gain of 9 inches over his PR from the Middle School meet a week ago. Benjamin has been throwing all season and set a new personal best as well, adding half an inch to his previous top throw. Speaking of personal bests, congrats also to classmate William Sterling, who I believe PRed with his first 20+ throw for the JV squad.

 

The high jumpers and long jumpers have almost all been jumping every meet all season. Though there were no personal records set this week, what is worth noting is the consistency. From the high jumpers: fewer misses and every guy pushing at the top of his range. From the long jumpers: the fewest fouls across attempts and all jumps being made from the board (none behind).

 

The 55m Dash was covered by eight of our athletes and five of those 8 were able to shave a little more time off of this incredibly short race, even at this point in the season. Remember, running a PR every week is a nice goal, but not usually a reality. Every racer was close to their peak time, which is good. Also, the gains in this event are incredibly slim. Take Noah's elite-level performance, for instance. He improved by only 0.02 seconds, a blink of an eye. And yet, this was enough to move him from tied for fifth on our all-time standings to tied for third! Third place is good enough to get his name on the record board hanging on the wall in Coach Carrier's room! Congrats! Luke Hudson also posted his first Elite-Level performance in this event, as he set a new PB by 0.16 seconds. Carter, though at first tricked by a faulty lightbulb in the timing board, also PR'ed by 0.15 seconds and is closing in on breaking the 8-second barrier. Luke Martin and Kyan also defeated their times from our first meet back in December, improving by 0.28 and 0.25 seconds respectively. Yay! Good Stuff!

 

After skipping the 1600 as a team this week, our next record board attack was at the 4x200m Relay. Our squad of Carter, Coleman, Luke Hudson, and Noah, who as a foursome were previously the 5th fastest 4x200 team in our middle school's history, improved their time and hopped up to 4th best with an Elite Performance. Along the way Carter shaved 0.03 seconds off of his previous best in the 200 as he led off the team. Coleman had the unenviable job of being in the 2nd position, the most difficult spot to be in for this relay. We'll never know what this relay time could have been had he not been impeded by a careless athlete from another school (they were not DQed for their infraction, unfortunately) on one hand-off and then general congestion on the other one. Both of those events robbed you of a PR there, but that is unfortunately sometimes the way it goes. The final two legs of the relay were two more Elite performances: Luke for the first time and a PR, and Noah again, but also for a PR and the first time under 26 (13th best on the all-time list). Congratulations all four of you!

 

The 500 has become something of a badge of honor for us and we're always especially excited to see strong showings in this event. Brennan competed for the first time at this distance and started strong with a sub-90 entry point. Very impressive! Benjamin came through for his third PR of the day, bumping about a half second off of his previous best.

 

The "A-Thousand" was next up and saw two PRs and a "neeper." Luke Martin had not competed at this distance prior and was able to set a respectable first-time result south of the 4:00 mark. Arjun was able to race to a one-second drop from his best time back in November. Kyan, showing in competition how much stronger he keeps looking during our endurance runs at practice, also had a four second improvement from the time he set just last week!

 

It doesn't happen often, but every now and again we have an athlete win an event in the JV division, and this meet it was Noah's speedy 300 that ticked that box. This Elite-level sprint of 40.20 seconds for a lap and a half of the track made Noah the third fastest athlete at this distance in StC middle school history and gets him on "the Wall" for a second time this meet! Truly amazing! But he wasn't the only Elite-level performance! Coleman, absolutely crushing his personal best in this event, also blasted to a 3.5 second PR! This places him 8th best on the all-time list! [side note - there are currently FIVE members of the class of 2027 with Elite status in this event!!]. And that's not all, Matthew dropped another 1.5 seconds from where he was mid-December and Nic found a way to shed over three and a half seconds! Both guys are fighting for that 60-second milestone in this event and have set themselves up with chances to make it happen! Keep up the hard work!

 

In the final race of the day, we put up a good fight and kept in contact with the other teams in the race. I mention this because prior to the race we were attempting to psych ourselves out again, comparing what we thought we could do versus what we imagined the big-bad JV athletes were going to do to us. Remember, your main competition is the clock. Control what you can control, and that is how well you run your race. If you can get "help" from the push of competition, that's great, but we need to work towards running PRs like no one is watching or striving against us. Run YOUR race. Brennan and Benjamin took that frame of mind and each walked away with a PR. Brennan found two and a half more seconds out of his legs from when he ran this distance in December. Benjamin wrestled with his own mind right after the 200 meter mark, and thankfully the hungry-for-PR side won out to net him his fourth PR of the day, this time by a little over half a second. It is also worth noting and commending that Ben was only in this event because he volunteered to replace a teammate who had to give up his spot. Thank you!

 

Team rankings-wise, we had another commendable finish, ending up tied for third out of seven schools (and edging out our JV team by five points). Other than the MS Meet, this is never our focus, but it is neat to see when your hard work just gets you there.

 

So, two meets and a Time Trial week remaining. What you got in you? Can't wait to SEE!