Roller Coaster Week:

Monday/Tuesday:  Getting ready for Regionals. 

Wednesday:  We're not going to Regionals.    

Thursday a.m.:  We MIGHT be going to Regionals.
                                                      

Thursday p.m: We ARE going to Regionals! 

Friday:  Still getting ready for Regionals. 
                               

Saturday morning:  Running at Regionals and waiting for results.
                                      

Saturday afternoon:  We qualified for Sectionals!                                                                                                                                                           

We were back at Oakhurst Forest Preserve today, a favorite place for many of our runners.  The day was chilly to start with, but did warm up as the day wore on, and the best part is that it stayed dry!!!!  The runners have worked hard all year for this day, and today their efforts paid off.

Great job, everyone!!!

(Thanks, again, Dr. Childs, for your pictures that you contributed to the site.)

Setting up camp.

                   

Walking through the course.
(Someone is feeling extra
 confident today!)

Checking out the muddy first mile.

As always, Oakhurst is a beautiful setting for a cross country race.

"Don't worry, Mr. G, we've got this covered!"

Girls Varsity:  
   Final run-outs.

 

Final prayer, cheer, and words of encouragement from our #1 Fan.

The girls are off and running.

Coming out of the woods

At the half way point...

                          

The only bad thing about this course is that it's not very spectator friendly, so we didn't get to see the runners again until the finish line.

1st for the team, 13th overall, with a time of 20:10, her PR for the year.  
Who says you can't run well with bronchitis?????
 

Coming in 2nd for the team, 20th overall, with a time of 20:29.  Still fighting an injury, but actually cut off almost 4 minutes from her last 3 mile race only 2-1/2 weeks ago.  Had the team not qualified today, both of our top runners would have qualified as individuals.

Another PR, cutting off around 1-1/2 minutes from her best 3 mile time this year.  Final time was 22:01, putting her in 39th place.  Amazing!

 

Today's time- 22:12, her PR, and more than 2 minutes faster than her last 3 mile.  Wow!

Final finish: 22:25, ANOTHER PR (cutting off almost a minute from her previous best).  Impressive!

The Girls Sectional-Qualifying Team with Coach Ana.  This was for you, G-$!!!

 Boys Varsity

The key word here is "Unity"!

 We had lots of fans cheering us on from the sidelines.

Mr. Morris, one of our faithful supporters.

The girls were happy to be on the sidelines for a change.

And cameras were out in full force.

    

 GO!!!

 

 

 

Coming out of the woods:

 

Further along down the path...

And now coming into the finish...

Final time:  16:51, his PR (37 seconds faster than his best 3 mile), and 18th overall.
(He also would have moved on as an individual had the team not qualified.)

Finishing in 38th place at 17:52, a great time.

Final time:  18:35, his PR, and a 45 second improvement.

A 21 second improvement and finishing in  19:06.

Reducing his best time by 1 minute, 13 seconds to finish in 19:27.

Final time: 20:06

Final time: 21:24

Waiting around for the awards celebration.

It's always helpful to have some goodies around in the meantime.

 

It's almost time

Finally, time for the awards ceremony...

The girls did it!  They qualified for Sectionals as a team.  (Is that a look  of disbelief????)

She'll never be the same again!

And the boys did the same!!!

Coach, we never could have done it without you.  
THANK YOU!!!

Next up:  Sectionals, at Lisle High School, October 30, 2012.