Great Oak Workout Week Day Five

¡Hola!

So we're at the Seaside Invitational here in Ventura. It's a beautiful day today, about 75 to 77 degrees, and we're right up on the beach here. So it's the first time we've been at this new course, so we're gonna kind of test it out here in a few minutes with our freshman girls race and kind of see what it's like. It looks like it's gonna be a couple loops and then out the pier and back, and hopefully we can get some pretty good times. Early season meets for us are just all about kind of seeing where the freshmen are at and hoping we can get out and discover a kid that maybe hasn't shown anything in practice, but they're a gamer. Just try to give them some experience and get ready for Woodbridge in a couple weeks. Some of the older kids, it's a chance to see how their training's paid off over the summer and just kind of break that monotony of how hard we work. I mean, obviously we worked really hard this week and we're not going to be 100% fresh, but I think just getting that race under their belt keeps them hungry. Loop, parking lot, out, back in, loop, finish. You guys got it? Yes, coach.

Awesome.

Here's a map if anybody wants to try to figure that out on the map. We got a few kids that I think will stand out today. I think Ariana Griffiths is going to show that she can run with anybody. She's been looking really good in our workouts and really intense in terms of staying with the top girls, so I think Ariana's gonna have a really good race on the girls' side. On the boys' side, we've got so many good guys that are really close, so I think for me it's kind of answering the questions of who's ready to race, you know, who's ready for that top 7 at Woodridge. We've got a new guy in Cole Saweers Jaeger, and we're kind of curious to see where he's gonna come out today. How close can he be to Chris and Gabe and, you know, and our senior boys? We've got 5 or 6 really good senior boys, and seeing if that hierarchy has changed in the last year or not, or if it still kind of plays out the way it's always played out. Those are some questions I want to see answered today.

Have fun.

We go out and compete. Remember, we've only got 7 girls running today for the freshmen, right? So that means that each one of you guys are important. Our 5 best girls are going to score, and that's going to determine whether you guys win or not, right? So that makes Brandi very important. It's Robles very important. Makes Hanchumaker very important. You guys got to step up, right? Each one of you guys, Chloe, you guys all have to get out there and find a way to have a good race. Race today so that we can win. We'll have 3 girls probably right up in the top bit. The other 4 of you guys got to find a way to get 2 more up there, okay? And then we'll do pretty well. So go out maybe with you guys probably towards the front and you guys probably sitting in like 15th and then working your way forward, okay? Good to go? Alright, Coach, it's all yours. The format of this meet is a great one for early season because it just goes by grade level.

Half mile to go, Ainsley, half mile to go, let's go, pick it up. Doing great, Divine.

I think our team performed really well this week. Our freshman girls also did really well considering we only have 8 of them when we're used to having more. They all just killed it.

Hey, Greyhawk on 3.

1, 2, 3.

As a leader of this team and looking back on every race from freshman girls to senior guys, I think we did extremely well. We came out here, we took care of business, we won every single race, we took home the title, and we just really crushed it today.

I feel like this week training-wise was a little rough.

All right, Mateo, 700 to go. What's your What you got? What you got? 700 to go.

Start cranking.

Go with him, Austin. Come on, John. Come on, Kyle. Get up there, Scott. Show them what you got, Scott.

After completing this race, I feel like it sets me up for the future races. I feel like I can be able to do it, complete it, and finish strong in those. Turning around and seeing my guys coming in 1 through 5, I was really ecstatic, I have to say. I really wasn't expecting us to all finish top 5, so I was really excited for the team and for our goals.

The race went well. I think I pretty much came and did what I hoped I would do, and I got some more experience going into the season. Season, so that's a good thing, and it'll give me confidence for the later races. I think our team did really good today.

On the girls' side, obviously, Ariana Griffiths is showing that she's one of the better girls out there. I don't think there's a lot of kids that can run 17 flat on this course, so it was a good sign.

The race went pretty good today. At the start, it felt pretty brisk. We all stated that it kind of felt like a normal tempo, and then once it started picking up, half mile left, it started feeling a little more like, you know, of a cranking-type race, but I feel like I have a lot more conditioning and work to do to get to the level I want to be in. That's up at the top of the nation. I trained super hard all summer not to come here and get 5th again like I did last year. I came here to just prove what I can do even on a hard week of training.

Battling for that top 7 spot initially in the season, this really helped out a lot. Kind of seeing that I can really do what these other guys are doing and knowing that it's possible for me to be in top 7 on this nationally ranked team. Just knowing that anything's possible.

Overall, I thought it was really good. I mean, we just finished the senior boys and we were 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 in the sophomore, junior, and senior boys races, so I was really happy about that. Feeling good about where the kids are at. We found that we've got a lot of depth, which we knew we probably would have, and a lot of kids that are battling for those varsity spots moving forward. So it's exciting when you finally see them in a Great Oak uniform and see what they're capable of.