Season Awards for 2009

Thanks again for all the fan support this past season. Our runners had a great year and we look forward to next year! Here is a list of the 2009 Season awards. Congratulations to everyone for an outstanding year.

Mountain View Cross Country 2009

Season Awards:

Outstanding Freshman

Angie McGraw

Andrew Follett

Most Improved Runner

Katie Larson

Coelton Hammer

Most Inspirational Runner

Kelli Ellingson

Andrew Blake

Egide Muvange

Get What You Give Award

Valerie Mitchell

Parker Hawkins

Remain Curious

Hillary Holt

Jake Taylor

Runner of the Year
Jordan Mathes
Jake Meeker

JV Awards

Outstanding Freshman

Aubrey Griffeth

Tim Ankeman

Most Improved Runner

Kim Statsney

Ryan Eason Hammon

Most Inspirational Runner

Carly Galimanis

Mark Hagen

Get What You Give Award

Lizzi Smith

Devon Selleck

Remain Curious Runner

Taylor Fletcher

Andy Epperson

Summer Captains
Kelli Ellingson
Jake Taylor

4 Years of Cross Country
Andrew Blake
Mark Hagen
Cody Simmons
Hillary Holt
Amanda Ragan

Tracy's Race Recap (NXN)

NXN Recap:

Racers finish the season with some outstanding results:

Both JV teams won the Idaho award as the top JV team from Idaho. Taylor Fletcher and Andy Epperson both earned all-regional honors at the JV level. Congratulations to all who participated in the JV races. It was a great way to finish off the season and look towards next year.

Girls Varsity:

Varsity girls finished 5th in the Northwest! Not exactly what we had in mind, but a FANTASTIC RESULT NONE-THE -LESS- The girls were two points out of a possible at-large bid for NXN

This is what I pointed out to the girls at our meeting on Monday

What DID WE ACCOMPLISH THIS YEAR?

Jimmy Driscoll: 2nd place

Caldwell Invite: CHAMPIONS

Tiger-Griz: CHAMPIONS

Mustang Invite: CHAMPIONS

Nike Pre-Nationals: 3rd place ( 18.55 average)

Gib Floyd: CHAMPIONS

Mountain Home Invite: CHAMPIONS

District Championships: CHAMPIONS

State Championships: Runner-ups

Nike NXN Northwest Championships: 5th place

Rankings:

31st in the USA

4th in the Northwest ( finished 5th in the Northwest)

Consider who we beat at NXN

The Alaska State Champion

The Montana State Champion

The Wyoming State Champion

The Idaho State Champion

The Oregon 5a State Champion

The Washington LARGE school State Champion

The only teams to beat us were

The Oregon 6a state champion ( Jesuit)

The Washington 3A state champion and runner up (Shadle Park and Glacier Peak)

The Idaho 4A state champion

Boys Varsity:

The boys topped off a remarkable year with an 18th place finish at NXN- this race helped a young team gain much needed experience at the top level of competition.

Consider what they accomplished:

Camels Back Invite: CHAMPIONS

Caldwell Invite: CHAMPIONS

Tiger-Griz: Runner-ups

Mustang Invite: CHAMPIONS

Nike Pre-Nationals: 8th place

Gib Floyd Invite: CHAMPIONS

Mountain Home: CHAMPIONS

District Championships: 3rd place

State Championships: 4th place

NXN Championships: 18th place

NXN Bubble team for much of the year

Things look great for the future as the team is young and ready to make a statement.

REMEMBER THAT FEELING- THIS WILL HELP YOU WORK ALL THAT MUCH HARDER AS EACH OF YOU CONTINUES TO PURSUE YOUR DREAM- AND WITH THAT ALWAYS DREAM BIG-FOR IT IS THE DREAMER THAT ACCOMPLISHES AMAZING THINGS- HARD WORK WILL PAY OFF- IT ALWAYS DOES.

Remain Curious

Tracy

Team Banquet

Our Banquet is next week! We've had a great season, and we hope to see you all there. Attached is the invitation the runners will be receiving and a map of the downtown YMCA parking. Here is the information:

Who: Mountain View XC runners and their families
What: Cross Country Banquet-Dinner
Where: Downtown YMCA
When: 6-8:30 Tuesday, November 24th.
How: Each runner please bring a dessert of your choice.

The fees are $5 per runner or $20 per family.

Tracy's Race Recap (State)

State Recap 2009:

After sitting by myself and doing some serious pouting after the girls race, I watched the boys race on the back side of the course. Still reeling from the girls race, it was hard for me to gather any kind of encouragement for the guys. I did manage some "Go’s" and "Keep Passing" but I would say that I was a complete failure for the guys. Poor coaching at its best. Finally, after both races were complete I found enough GUMPTION to face everybody. I got the team together and we all sat on a hill behind the tents. Both boys and girls and I enjoyed a good cry and I think we felt a bit better about things. I tried to point out some positives but they were hard to come by. The girls are ranked 31st in the USA and 4th in the Northwest yet they cannot claim STATE CHAMPS! The week before they were district champs in a run-a-way. They rolled through the season untouched. Nothing changes that. The boys out did everyone’s expectations and rolled through much of the season as the team to beat. This is the BEST team that I have ever coached bar none (And I have coached some great teams). After the girls race I questioned everything. My coaching, life, fairness, good, bad, honesty, all of these things were roaming through my head as I tried to piece together what had just happened. I didn’t really come to any conclusions other than what I already knew before the gun even went off. That is this: Things do not always turn out the way you want them to. Life as we all know is not fair. We all face disappointments. There really is no rhyme or reason for things, they just happen. You deal with them and then you move on.

The awards. The bus ride home. These were two very difficult things for me to handle and deal with. I was devastated. The kids were devastated, BUT we move on! I honestly did not think that I would make it. The cross country season helped me get through some serious personal stuff that I am still dealing with. I felt better about things after cross country practice. This is one reason why I felt everything would come together for us. Every single person deals with ups and downs in their life. This is just another one.

MOUNTAIN VIEW CROSS COUNTRY IS JUST GETTING STARTED! With the help of parents, COACHES, and the racers themselves I feel better. Tracy Harris will survive to race another day. I definitely learned a lot on Saturday.

Girls:

Five all-state runners- six runners in before any teams 5th runner- that is 99.9% of the time a recipe for STATE CHAMPIOINS. Boise did exactly what they needed to do- they ran a perfect race. They ran way out of their heads and they won and deserved to win on that day. Enough said. Congratulations to Kelli Ellingson (all-state three years in a row), Jordan Mathes (all-state for the first time), Angie McGraw (all-state as a freshman), Katie Larson (ALL-STATE FOR THE FIRST TIME), Valerie Mitchell (All-State for the first time), Hillary Holt (for running amazing on a hurt foot) and Courtney Bennett for an unbelievable second half of her season and race.

Boys:

Lost in the shuffle amongst all of this was our boys team. Once again I was a failure on Saturday when it came to the boys. Our boys team had a remarkable year. At times they looked invincible, while at others they looked vulnerable. This is a team of the future, a team destined for greatness, I simply cannot wait to see what the future holds for these guys.

On race day, 34 seconds separated our 7 runners. That is a great GAP. One simple problem- we were too far back to make a difference. The boys team was and is very young. When the season started we only had one runner with varsity experience. We had a different number one runner just about every meet including state. I think the boys may have been alittle intimidated at state. Why that was I am not sure. Levi Nelson, Jake Meeker, Andrew Nuttall, Parker Hawkins, Jake Taylor, Egide Muvange, and Coelton Hammer - I owe each of you an apology for not being there for you on Saturday. I have never taken defeat well. I learned so much from each of you this season and I can only promise that I will do better next time.

As my son Conor said on Sunday (Conor helped me get through the bus ride with some great texts) and he also really struggled in his race- Let’s face it Dad, Saturday was a bad day for the good guys.

Nike Pre-Nationals Videos

Boys Jim Danner Championship Race



Girls Jim Danner Championship Race



Boys JV Championship Race

This is a great video!

I couldn't find any videos of our XC team to get us pumped up for State, but I did run across this video (thanks to Terry Ellingson) of our girls from the State Track Meet earlier this year. This should get you pumped up to cheer on our girls (and guys) as they compete up north this weekend. Actually, it was just an excuse to learn how to embed a video, but either way, it's fun to watch!

Week 9 Awards

Here are the awards from last weeks race at Districts.

Runners of the Week
Varsity- Angie McGraw & Levi Nelson
JV - Lizzie Smith & Drew Rassmussen

Curious Runners
Tiffani Mitchell & Andy Epperson

Best Finish
Ryan Eason Hammon

Bruce's "Suck it Up" Award
Ali Lindsey & Jake Meeker