Alumni Report - 9/29

Ruth Hilton's (Utah State) latest race.
Looks like Ruth is getting some good speed and strength back after her injury last year.
Our runners at DSC had a time trial the other day - here's Luke Peck's report.

Michigan 9/27

Two new "A Standards"! Good job Corey and Tyson on hitting the A Standard and earning your black/gray laces on the yesterday's 2 set Michigan.

Athletes of the Week - Sept. 27

The athletes of the week for this past week are Tyson Boyer and McKenzie Roberts.
Tyson, a Junior, has exploded onto the elite Utah XC scene this year with great races at Murray, Provo and Nebo. One of the top #2 runners in the entire state, Tyson has worked extremely hard to get where he is at. He is dedicated and buys into the PVXC program in every way, and this commitment has truly paid off for him.
Freshman McKenzie Roberts is one of our new runners this year. She is really working hard and is becoming a good young runner. Her commitment to the team, great attitude, and solid work ethic have helped her become this week's PVXC Girls Athlete of the Week.

Nebo Invite

Most of the team took the week off from racing to fully participate in the Homecoming activities; however, the Varsity boys headed up to Nebo on Friday looking to close the gap on #1 American Fork. The results were pleasant as the top 5 took the 3.04 mile course in 81:06 (79:26 for AF - nearly the same gap as last week, with Trevor not running as well). Placing for the boys went Trevor Thompson #3 in 15:33, #6 Tyson Boyer in 15:54 (after running with AF's #2 through most of the race), #9 Corey Kimzey in 16:17, #14 Ryan Nielsen in 16:38 (just behind AF's 5th), and Devin Gillespie in 17th with a 16:44. In the 6th and 7th spots for the team were Dyllen Cafferty and Casey Kimzey who continue to push each other as they battle for the 7th spot. Team scoring went AF 30, PV 49, Pleasant Grove 117, Canyon View 147, and Desert Hills 197 (followed by many others).

NXN-SW: The Lull Before the Storm

Milesplit article on this past week's races. Good little blurb about PV boys.

ESPN Rankings

The newest ESPNrise rankings are out and saw the PV boys have a little movement; up to 42. Great job guys.

State Rankings

The Deseret News has released its newest rankings. PV boys up to 3rd in the state and 1st in 4A!

Michigan 9/21

With the busy race season, we have backed off the Michigan for a few weeks. Yesterday we hit our toughest workout again in the heat and wind (still near 100*). More athletes attempted the workout than ever before and got experience that will help them be more successful in the future. Although we didn't have any new "B Standards", Dyllen and Ells were very close. We also saw a new record as Trevor hit the "A Standard" (for 3 sets!) with a 35:36.

Top 25 in the NATION!

Mark Biro's has posted his new top 50 and the PV boys are ranked 25th! This is just one of of the 4-5 major rankings, but it sure is awesome to see the recognition for all the hard work and great work the team is putting in (especially in a poll where we were not originally ranked).

Provo Bulldog Invite

We continue to see great things for our Cross Country teams here at Pine View. The latest strong results come from the Provo Bulldog Invite held at Kiwanis Park in Provo on Sept. 17.
The JV Girls started the day well with strong finishes from Madi Hanson and Mia Hart. Freshman Maree Wade also had a strong run in her first race of the year.
The JV Boys were paced by Casey Kimzey and Morgan Wood. Jared Ellsworth made the waiting of the bus worth it as he continues to improve as well.
In the Varsity Girls race Kaylee Boyer was in the mix for a top 3 finish, running with a group of 5-7 girls as they battled for 3rd. She held on strong and finished with a 20:10 and 6th place on the 3.2 mile course (an 18:57 State equivalent - 2 seconds quicker than her Murray PR last week). Jessica Peterson and Rachel Stone also ran strong races (21:39 and 21:59 respectively). A nice Varsity surprise has been the performance of Liz Harrison who rounded out the scoring with a 5th place finish for the team.
The Varsity boys avenged last week's loss at Murray by beating Davis by 10 points. Trevor Thompson continues to stake his claim as the top runner in Utah by defeating American Fork's Clayton Young with at time of 16:01 (state equivalent of 15:03!). Tyson Boyer place 7th and Corey Kimzey placed 11th (16:32 and 16:45) just edging out Davis' top runner. Ryan Nielsen and Devin Gillespie rounded out the scoring for the Panthers to lead to the final results of American Fork (44), PV (73), Davis (83).

Athletes of the Week - Sept. 20

Freshmen control the Athletes of the Week from the Provo Bulldog Invite. They are Reed Burr on the guys team and Chancie Johnson for the ladies.
Reed had continued to develop into a strong young runner for the Panthers. His time of 21:23 placed him as the top PV freshman for the meet and had a State equivalent of 20:06 (a PR of nearly 40 seconds).
Chancie has continued to improve greatly for the lady Panthers. At Provo she ran a 27:41 which has a State equivalent of 26:01 - a PR of over 2 1/2 minutes!
Great job guys - it is awesome to see young runners come in and catch the spirit of PVXC and continually improve through hard work. We look forward to great things from you guys for years to come.

Alumni Report - 9/16

A few of our illustrious PVXC grads are out running in college and have started off their seasons. Willy Heinrich, Luke Peck, and Ashley Judd are running for Dixie State (as are some others) and competed at the UC Irvine Invite. And Ruth Hilton had her first meet of the season for Utah State at the Utah State Cross Country Open. XC4EVER!

Athletes of the Week - Sept. 13

After a great showing at Murray, Trevor Thompson and Kaylee Boyer have been chosen as this week's PVXC Athletes of the Week.
A Senior, Trevor has contributed a ton to our team in the past 4 years. He is an amazing runner, has a great personality and loves long walks on the beach at sunset (for those that are interested). Trev has an unlimited future in running that will see him accomplish great things. Congrats on your 1st place finish at the largest meet of the year!
Kaylee is a Junior who has beaten her twin brother in a race at least once! Despite starting XC as a Sophomore, she has developed into one of the best harriers in the State. At Murray she took 16th overall and 9th in 4A. As she looks to improve on her place through the rest of the season and finish in the top 5 at State and break the school record on the State Course we wish her the best since we know she can do it.

Run-A-Thon

Each year, PVXC puts together a 12 hour run-a-thon for our fundraiser. A fundraiser is needed to pay for meets, hotel rooms, uniforms, Trevor's face transplant and other necessary items. Each athlete is responsible for getting at least $50 in donations either through pledges per mile or a lump sum. Those businesses that donate $50 are added to our team sponsor banner that hangs at Panther Stadium during home football, soccer, track, and of course XC events as well as many community events. Those businesses that donate $300 receive their own banner that can be renewed each year for $200.
Anyway... with nearly 70 athletes on the team, this year it was possible to field three teams (Silver, Black, and Maroon) with about 20 athletes per team.
We had a great time running from 3:00 in the afternoon to 3:00 in the morning on Friday-Saturday Sept. 3-4. The fundraiser went great; the Family-Friends Hour from 6:00-7:00 was a huge success; and breakfast at midnight was fantastic (Thank you so much to Megan's mom and dad and Colton's mom - you guys are awesome and everything tasted great!). Of course Coach Holt had to once again show his soccer skills - although they only come out once per year, they are quite masterful! - and there were many good ultimate games. As always, the team bonding was the highlight and fun was had by all.
For those that got pledges by the mileage here are the results: Black(105.25), Maroon (99), Silver (96) - the big difference the Black team's large number of Family-Friends that won them the 10 bonus miles!

Murray Invite

The Varsity boys and girls headed up to Murray this past Friday. Despite the guys forgetting a few things and a blowout in their suburban near Leeds, the teams arrived safely and had an afternoon shakeout run on the State course. Then we looped around a while until we finally got the Murray course and hit a prime parking spot! (Thanks to Coach Holt on all accounts - good and bad!)
Although the course was shortened from the usual 5K to a 3 miler due to the flooding this past Spring, the race went well - with the expected multiple restarts because of the HUGE field of runners.
The Varsity girls were running shorthanded, as Sierra has developed some shin problems and Madisson is out hurt with some tendonitis (Liz stepped in very well, however, and posted her best race of the year - nice work!). Leading the girls to a solid 18th place was Kaylee Boyer with her impressive 16th place finish in a time of 18:37 (an 18:59 state course equivalent). As Kaylee keeps this up, she has a great shot at setting the school record and finishing top 5 at State!
The guys hit the ground running after their solid showing at SUU and continued to roll. Winning the overall title was Trevor Thompson with a time of 15:02 - 12 seconds up on 2nd - (state course equivalent 0f 15:20, which would be another school record!). The Jail Break was in full effect as Tyson Boyer soon followed up Trevor with an 8th place finish in 15:32 and Corey took 12th with 15:45. After these three we were in first and we held onto 2nd as Ryan came in at 16:08 (33rd) and Devin (48th) in 16:21. Everyone ran solid and the gap over Mt. View grew to 42 points - and more importantly in the 4A breakdown, with pretty much every team in attendance - the score was 51 PV/71 MV! But as the boys said on the way home, "We can't rest here."
Now we set our sights on Provo Bulldog for our overnight trip - Boys are looking to close the gap on Davis and girls are looking to continue to develop stronger in the 4,5,6,7 spots and set themselves up for a Region Title!
Here's the links to a few articles on the race:
Deseret News
Milesplit - Southwest Update

August Athletes of the Month

Pine View Cross Country Athletes of the Month for September are Ryan Nielsen and Megan Frodsham. Those chosen for this award receive a t-shirt from the school and have a picture place in the trophy case.
Ryan's consistent development has really helped push our Varsity boys to the level which they are now at. Last year, as a Junior, Ryan exploded onto the XC scene with times and places he had never been near before. He continually improved and placed 3rd overall (and on the team) at the 2009 Region 9 Championships. This improvement continued into the track season and through the summer. His commitment to the team has continued to show as his strong 4th place on team and 12th overall showing at SUU helped the Panthers defeat defending State Champion Mt. View.
A lot has already been said about Megan as she has already been awarded an Athlete of the Week award a few weeks ago - but I'll say some more. Even in the weeks since the race season began at the start of the school year, Megan has continued to improve. She went from being a "surprise I made Varsity" to a major contributor on the Varsity team. This, along with her major contributions of positive attitude and team recruiter make Megan our Girls Athlete of the Month.
Way to go Ryan and Megan - you guys are awesome!

View from the Pine

On Labor Day, Coach Holt took the Varsity boys on an adventurous run to the top of Pine Valley Mountain. The 7 mile round-trip run (with some hiking!) climbed from the Oak Grove Campground at 6300 ft. to 10300 ft. at the top of Signal Peak. We all avoided major crashes off the shear cliffs and were able to laugh when both Kimzeys survived their wipeouts. It was a great break from the usual labors of workouts and we enjoyed amazing views from top and cool temps (notice Trevor had his shirt on the whole run!). And now, we'll all be able to say that we ran right up the front of that beautiful blue mountain to the very top! (pics forthcoming)

@ Dixie - 9/7

Tuesday, the JV runners participated in the Dixie race. Although the course was long - measured at 3.35 - the team did well. The girls had a strong pack of Liz Harrison, Kylee Becker (each 26:27 - a 24:20 state equivalent), Mia Hart (26:46), MaKayla Baxter (26:47), and Mariah Harris (DNF - ankle injury) and pushed each other throughout the race. The boys did well competing with the Varsity teams of the other area schools led by Dyllen Cafferty (19:04 - a 17:32 state equivalent - 4th place), Casey Kimzey (19:32), Morgan Wood (19:39), Jared Ellsworth (19:40), and Wesley Plumb (20:07).

Athletes of the Week - Sept. 8

Kylee Becker and Taylor Shakespear have been selected as our most recent athletes of the week. Kylee is in her first year running for PVXC and has shown great improvement and potential. She has established herself as one of the top JV runners, with the potential to soon break through to the Varsity. As a Sophomore, Kylee has a lot of room from growth and has already began to bridge the gap from the Level 1 workouts to the Level 2 - a process that is sometimes difficult for runners, but she is handling it well and learning from each and every workout and race.
Shakes is another example in the long line of runners who have seen the benefits of hard work. Also a Sophomore, Taylor started running last year and was all knees and elbows. Taylor's desire to be a contributing member of the team has led him to morning workouts, Level 2 workouts, and great improvement.
Good job guys! Keep up the great examples.

Southwest Regional Rankings

ESPNrise releases its first SW Rankings and has the PV boys in 6th. This is a pretty solid position based upon where we finished last season. So as usual, good job boys; you are setting an amazing standard for the youngsters to follow for years to come.

Run to the Top

An nice article in today's (9/6) Spectrum about the boys breaking into the top 50. Check out the article here: Run to the Top

Michigan 9/1

Congrats to Tyson, Corey, Trevor, Devin, Ryan, and Casey for hitting the Michigan "B Standard". On the girls side, Kaylee, Megan, and Sierra each hit their "B Standard". The top three guys and Kaylee were all just short of hitting their "A Standard" times. Based upon the improvement from last week to this, the next Michigan workout will yield a few "A's" and a few more "B's". Get those Michigan Laces on those racers!

That being said, here is a little explanation of the workout. A Michigan is a tempo workout created by the head XC coach at Michigan, Ron Warhurst, and introduced to us at the end of the 2009 season by Coach Roberts. We have tweaked the workout to run 1/2 on the track at 5K pace, 1 1/2 miles on the grass (two big loops) at adjusted 10K pace (10K pace plus a few seconds depending on athlete level) - this makes one set. The runners complete two or three of these sets to a specific pace and end with a fast finish 400 - hard as you can go.
Two standards have been set for the Michigan. The first is the "A Standard" which is the goal for our top Varsity; the second is the "B Standard" which is more reachable and a goal for seasoned JV runners, but still difficult to reach. The goal is to make the Michigan a standard workout for PVXC and develop it into a status symbol for the team.
Upon completing the workout under one of the Standards, runners receive a set of laces for their racing shoes - gray and black for the "A" and gray and white for the "B".