Thundercats Win Intrasquad

Saturday brought a close to the first two weeks of practice with our first 5k race of the 2013 season. The team is 80+ athletes strong again this season and we have battled heat & humidity over the last week to improve our overall fitness. The coaches have been very impressed with this team's work ethic and were excited to see how this would convert to racing. Today we found out that we will have a team that can be very competitive this season from top to bottom. It was exciting to see everyone really race at Intrasquad and it will be fun to see the improvement we can make as a team due to the competitive nature of this year's squad. To have a successful season we will need to stay healthy, continue to train hard, work hard in the classroom, and look for every opportunity to improve ourselves and our teammates.

We had a record number of athletes (68) and total competitors (72) finish the race this year. The team battle was very close with the Thundercats team pulling out the victory with a score of 779. They outdistanced the Warhawks (789) and the CORE (803). The battle for varsity was the most competitive we have seen in recent team history. After the first mile there were still 12 athletes in contention for the 7 varsity spots. This led to the fastest time to make our varsity, needing to run a 17:45 to be in the top 7 (to give perspective...the 8th place finish this year would have been 3rd on our varsity last season). Our top 7 from Intrasquad will compete in varsity at the Verona Invitational and include 5 seniors, 1 junior, and 1 sophomore. They include race winner James A (17:08), Bryce H, Brad G, Sam B, Benton DD, Ben B, and Jake R. Our gap between our #1 and #5 runners was an impressive :32. We hope to carry this momentum into next weeks competition.

As we prepare for the start of the school year we will look to balance our school work, training, and sleep schedules. We need to take the time to stretch, ice, eat healthy, and do all the little things. The success of the end of the season will be determined by what we do in the coming days and weeks at practice. Continue to come to practice to perform your best and we will see improvement across all levels.

INTRASQUAD RESULTS
2013 Results & Intrasquad Stat Sheet

UPCOMING EVENTS
Mon Sept 2nd - Captain's Practice @ UW Arboretum - 8:00am
Sun Sept 8th - Ironman Volunteering @ UW Lot 60 - 12:00pm - 4:00pm OR 4:00pm - 8:00pm (optional)

NEXT MEET
Verona Invite - Sat Sept 7th
@ Verona High School
NO BUS - Arrive 7:30am
Meet Begins - 9:00am
Boys Varsity - 9:40am (2012 Results)
Boys JV - 11:00am (2012 Results)
Open 5k - 11:40am
Awards Ceremony - 12:30pm - Varsity =  Top 2 teams and top 40 individuals JV = Top 30 individuals