State XC 2012

It was a beautiful day for the 2012 Utah 3A State Championships held at Sugarhouse Park.
The girls came into the meet thinking a top 4 team placing was possible and although we didn't quite get that, there were some great runs and some valuable lessons learned.  Park City and Ogden proved to be the class of the 3A field and ran some of the fastest team times in Utah history - and Cedar's Aimee Bryson set a new state record.  Leading the pack for PV was Rachel Stone running a strong 10th place and finishing as the 2nd fastest time in PVXC history with a 19:09.  Rachel was followed by Jessica Peterson (31st - 20:32), Mia Hart (33rd - 20:40).  Liz Lunt ran a strong 4th for the team placing 43rd with a 20:56.  Rounding out our scoring was Kaelie Gillespie who ran a 21:56 for 73rd.  Taylor Boyer placed 81st with a 22:07 and Aubrey McBride placed 103rd with a 22:57.  Despite placing 6th, this was the 2nd fastest team time in PVXC history (only to last year's time).

The boys also had hopes of a high finish at State and found themselves in position for 2nd/3rd throughout much of the race before dropping back to finish 5th.  Michael Finch ran very well and placed 3rd in a new school record time of 15:39!  Byron Warby ran a strong 16:30 (14th fastest time in PV history) to place 20th - and he will be coming back as the 3rd ranked returner next year.  Casey Kimzey (28th - 16:43), Paul Gaona (43rd - 17:02, new PV Freshman record holder and fastest Freshman in 3A!), and Matthew Young (47th - 17:06) rounded out the scoring.  Jason Lindhardt placed 57th in 17:19 and Colton Bowler placed 75th in 17:41.  The boys also ran the 2nd fastest time in our history.

Overall this was a very positive season.  We have set ourselves up for many good years in the future.  We will greatly miss our Seniors - you have all meant a lot to our program.  Thanks so much for all you have done.

2012 Region 9 Championships

Another solid performance from the Pine View Panthers at the Region 9 Championships held last night (10/9/12) at Bicentennial Park - the Region North Course - in Cedar.  Here's The Spectrum's article.  Everyone ran their guts out and we are all proud of how all the Panther harriers did.
As usual, the Youngsters got us off to a great start in the Middle School race.  The race was an estimated 1.8 miles on the medium and short loops of the course (leaving out the long loop).  Sergio Diaz continued his near perfect season with a region championship in a time of 11:32.  Other PVXC Middle Schoolers who place in the top 10 were Dallen Gillespie (5th) and William Ward (10th).  Alli Peterson made it a sweep for the Panthers with her victory in a time of 14:00.  She was followed by Rylee Holt (2nd), Cristina Gaona (4th), Jacey Finch (5th), and Rachel Lusk (8th).  We are very proud of our Youngsters program and look forward to many more years of contributions from them.
The JV girls placed 3rd and had probably their best race of the season.  They were led by Aubrey McBride who finished 6th and was the top non-Cedar runner in the race.  Megan Finch, Chancie Johnson, Erin Farish and Meskerem Stucki rounded out the scoring runners for the ladies.
The JV boys had another very strong race and nearly perfect scored the meet placing 5 in the top 6 and 7 in the top 13.  Matthew Young was crowned JV champ as he outkicked a DH runner in a time of 16:57.  3rd place was Kyler Prisbrey followed closely by Taylor Abel and Taylor Hobbs.  This was a great race and prepares the Panthers to fill in next year's Varsity spots very well.
The Varsity girls went out hard trying for their 3rd straight Region title.  Through the first two miles the race with Cedar was very close, but in the end we came up just a little short.  Rachel Stone ran a very gusty race and finished 2nd breaking 19 with a time of 18:58 (our 2nd fasted time on this course ever).  Jessica Peterson placed 6th (our 5th best time) and she was followed by Mia Hart (9th - 8th ever) to round out our top 10 finishers.  Liz Lunt (20th) and Taylor Boyer (27th) also made the team proud and really went for it throughout the whole race to finish off our scoring.
Like the girls, the guys were looking to extended a consecutive Region streak - to 6th - but also came up just short.  Michael Finch finished his season undefeated in Region and now looks toward pulling the upset at State after winning in a time of 15:39 and setting our school record on the SUU/North Course as well as the all-time course record (excepting the short year of 2010).  Casey Kimzey was our other top 10 finisher placing 7th with a strong race from beginning to end.  Totaling our points were Byron Warby (13th), Colton Bowler (18th), and new Freshman record holder for the course Paul Gaona (27th) in his first Varsity race ever.
Although the results may not have been totally what we wanted, their was some great running done by many of our athletes.  We are super proud of everyone and the hard work that has been put in this season.  Great job Panthers!

Ahtlete of the Week - Snow Canyon

The Athletes of the Week from our Snow Canyon meet are Reed Burr and Brianna Esplin.  Both have seen great improvement throughout the season and have worked very hard to get there.
Reed, a Junior, has seen his times drop from the 19's to the low 17's in the last couple races (17:03 - Cedar and 17:05 - SC).  And he has been placing as one of the top JV runners as well.  It is great to see Reed's commitment to practice and the team paying off for him this year.  Reed has a love for hairless chihuahuas, and one of his life's goals is to get one and name him Saint Ralph. 
Brianna, a Freshman, came out this summer and has seen steady improvement throughout the year.  You can find her always pushing herself and others around her every practice.  At Snow Canyon she had her best race of the year and placed as our 4th JV runner.  Brianna enjoys making her own paper clip jewelry while listening to Led Zeppelin in the dark of her grandmother's underground cellar.

Snow Canyon Invite

A bit warm over to Snow Canyon yesterday, but some good results on the new SC course (do to the flooding a month ago).  The Youngsters ran well with many top 5 finishes by PV runners - including Sergio Dias (2nd boys), Cristina Gaona (4th girls) and Rylee Holt (5th girls).
Many of the schools ran their full squads (except us and DH), so it may have looked as if PV got a bit swamped on the girls side, but the JV girls ran well.  Aubrey McBride was the leading PV lady (good to have her getting back from injury a little), followed by Megan Finch, Chancie Johnson, Brianna Esplin and Erin Farish to round out our scorers.  The boys were led by Braden Johnston who placed a solid 11th in 16:20, followed by Paul Gaona (13th), Taylor Hobbs (14th), Matt Young (15th) and Kyler Prisbrey (22nd) to help the boys place 2nd to a full strength Cedar squad - a good strong showing for our JV boys as they fought over the 2 Varsity spots that are still in a little bit of flux.
It was especially nice to see the progress in some of our younger runners.  Those that are coming to practice and putting in a full effort are really starting to see it pay off as we prepare for Region next week.

Athlete of the Week - Cedar

Some good strong races by Maquel Millward and Casey Kimzey have earned them the Athlete of the Week awards for the Cedar Invite.
Maquel, a Junior, has worked very hard all year to overcome some major shin splint issues and is really starting run well for us.  At Cedar she finished as the 3rd JV runner on our team, and we look forward to continued improvement in the next few weeks.  Maquel loves Appropriate Tuesdays and various ugly things.  She hates calendars because they remind her of months... many many months - even years.
Senior harrier, Casey Kimzey, had one of his strongest races ever at Cedar.  Casey, a team captain, has worked very hard to be a strong #2 on our team - even giving up soccer to work on solidifying his position.  His sub 16 at Cedar was a PR and put the team in a great scoring position.  Casey enjoys raucous games of Risk and Battleship and would rather not play card games with 1 armed chimps.

Cedar Invite

The XC team headed to the Cedar Invite last Friday at Cedar HS.  This meet is a great opportunity for our runners to judge their improvement for the year since it is also the first race we run each year.
As usual, the Youngsters started us off very well.  Alli P. led the girls with a strong time of 12:30 for the 1.75 mile course.  Sergio D. ran a great race and won the boys race in a time of 10:33.
In the high school races, the JV girls saw many PR's and big improvements off of the first race of the season.  The Varsity girls didn't run their best, but still managed a 3rd place finish behind Rachel Stone's 5th place finish.  When the scoring was broken down to just our region schools, the girls ended up 2nd behind Cedar, but not too close like we were last week when we actually beat Cedar in the broken down region scoring.
The boys JV really hammered the course again this week finishing all scorers in the top 10 and getting a score of 36.  Paul Gaona ran a great race to place 2nd in 16:31 for the 2.95 mile course.  He was followed by Matt Young in 16:47, Taylor Hobbs in 16:54, Nick Hill in 16:55, Kyler Prisbrey in 17:00 and Reed Burr finished just outside the top 10 with a 17:03.  The Varsity boys showed some strong improvements and bounced back from last week's less than impressive run with a 2nd place showing to DH.  Despite running a little flat Micheal Finch (a little blurp about Mikey on Milesplit) was able to pull out the win in the last 1/2 mile with a time of 15:07 (just a few seconds off the course record),.  Casey Kimzey ran his strongest race of the year and placed 13th (15:53) followed closely by Byron Warby in 15:54.  Jason Lindhard (16:08) and Colton Bowler (16:19) rounded out our scoring.
After many great races and time improvements it is now time to focus toward Region.  The JV's will be racing at Snow Canyon on Wednesday and then Region will be held at Bicentennial Park in Cedar on Tuesday the 9th.

Nebo Invite/Wahsatch Rendezvous

On Friday the 21st the Varsity teams raced at the Nebo Invite.  This year's version of the course was a flat, fast grass course at Salem Hills (measuring 3.25 miles).  The girls had one of their strongest team races of the year - taking 4th out of 25 teams and placing Rachel Stone (6th) and Jessica Peterson (8th) in the top 10.  The boys took 7th place and were paced by another great performance by Michael Finch who placed 2nd.  Mike is quickly becoming one of the Panther XC greats!
Saturday, the JV raced at the Wahsatch Rendezvous.  Both teams ran very well.  Megan Finch and Sarah Ballantyne were the top 2 finishers for the Panthers.  The boys took the team JV title by dominating the race - Kyler Prisbrey placed 4th, Matthew Young 5th, Paul Gaona 8th, Taylor Hobbs 9th, Nick Hill 10th, Josh Farish 12th, and Reed Burr 13th all came in under 18:00 for the 2.91 mile race.

Athlete of the Week - Nebo/Wahsatch

For this past weekend's journey up north, Sarah Ballantyne and Paul Gaona have earned Athlete of the Week.  Sarah is a Freshman who is in her first year of running with PVXC.  She had a great race at Wahsatch and placed as our 2nd JV runner in her first race!  Sarah has no fear of black cats or ladders, but is deeply afraid of the number 13.  Paul Gaona is also a Freshman.  Paul ran a little with our Youngster XC Club last year and showed a lot of potential.  He had a breakthrough race for himself at Wahsatch placing as the 3rd PV JV runner and helping the team with the JV title in dominating fasion.  Paul apparently likes snakes and everything strange.  He dislikes being normal and normal people.

Alumni Update 9/22

Many PVXC'ers are out there running in the college ranks this year.  So let's give a little update on them.
SUU:  Tyson and Kaylee Boyer are starting off the year great up in Cedar.  Both are fighting to be on the traveling squads for the T-Birds and are two of the top Freshman in the program.  Here are the results from their race last week down in Cali.  You can check out their time trials and get other update on them at the SUU XC page.
Utah State:  Ruth Hilton (former XC record holder and current 1600m school record holder- and State Champ!) is in her Redshirt Senior year as a standout Aggie harrier.  I have yet to see results rom her for this year, but we hope she is fully recovered from the injuries that have set her back the past couple years.
Dixie State:  A few PVXC grads are running for the Red Storm.  Along them are Josh Decker (team captain back in '08) and RJ Smith.  You can check out their results for the first race at NAU here.

Salt Lake Trip / Car Wash (coming soon!)

This week we are taking our overnighter to Nebo and Wahsatch.  The athletes took home an info paper and it was also sent around via email, so hopefully everyone who was invited (and their parents) know what is going on there.  Let's go race well!

Next Saturday we will host our 2nd Annual PVXC Car Wash at Sandstone Elementary from 10:00am-2:00pm.  Athletes - get selling your tickets.  Parents - encourage them to sell tickets.  Others - contact your local XC'er to purchase a ticket for $5 or just pay when you come.  This Car Wash is the fundraiser for the athletes to head down to California for the Foot Locker West Championships, so let's help support our awesome XC runners!

Michigan 9/18-19

This week we held our first Michigan workout of the season.  The team is really rounding into form and this workout was proof of it.  Congratulations to Mike Finch, Jessica Peterson, Rachel Stone, and Mia Hart for hitting the "A Standard" (Mia for the first time earning her Black/Silver laces!)
The following athletes all hit the "B Standard" (those with an * are hitting the mark for the first time and earned their laces): Casey Kimzey, Jason Lindhardt, Byron Warby, Colton Bowler, *Braden Johnston, *Taylor Abel, *Hunter Kimzey, *Josh Farish, *Nick Hill, *Kyler Prisbrey, *Danny Arellano, *Krenshaw Yazzie, Nicole Heinrich, Liz Lunt, Taylor Boyer, *Chancie Johnson, and *Kaelie Gillespie.
Great job everyone!

Athletes of the Week - Time Trial #2/Herriman

Am I catching up yet?  We had better announce the Athletes of the Week for last week before we race this week.  So...
For the boys we have Kyler Prisbrey (Junior) and Colton Bowler (Junior).
Kyler is in his first year running XC and shown amazing potential.  He has steadily improved through the summer and the school year to become one of the top JV runners on the team.  He likes people that dress as panthers, hunting large game, and neighborhood kick-the-can games.  He dislikes those who don't smile at Laffy-Taffy jokes.
Colton is starting to come back strong from injury early in the summer.  He has worked his way back to Varsity (a spot he held throughout last season) and is looking forward to an awesome end of the season.  Colton enjoys a good scavenger-hunt (but not as much as Byron!) and historical documentaries about various diseases.  He would rather stay away from deep-fried bananas and orange creamies.

And for the ladies: Erin Farish (Senior) and Kaelie Gillespie (Sophomore).
Erin is in her first year of XC as well.  She has really started to do well in her running and is making great improvements.  Erin enjoys getting beat at volleyball by Coach Holt, but she dislikes those who open doors for her.
Kaelie has worked very hard to work her way up to a Varsity spot this season.  At Herriman, she had a strong race on a very tough course and really closed the gap on the other Varsity runners.  Kaelie enjoys all things with her family (fights, yelling, all forms of various recklessness).  However, among her dislikes are hang-nails and badminton games gone array. 

Race Reports: Murray/Herriman

I have been slow and haven't updated race reports for a little while, so I had better say something quick.
The Varsity boys and girls headed up north the past two Fridays for big invitationals.
The first (9/7) was the Murray Invite.  Both teams did well and finished in the top 10.  The girls were led by Rachel Stone who placed 37th to help guide the team to 10th place overall.  This was a strong finish by the girls and shows that they are on the right path.  Mike Finch led the boys to a 7th place team finish with his 6th place overall in a time of 15:54 on the 5K course. 
This past weekend we raced on the toughest 5K course in Utah - and I didn't believe it until I saw it, but it really is! - up at the Herriman Invite.  The girls improved on last week's performance and took 3rd place overall with Mia Hart (14th), Jessica Peterson (5th), and Rachel Stone (4th) all earning 1st and 2nd team awards.  The boys also took 3rd - defeating DH for the first time this year.  Placing in the top 14 for the boys were Byron Warby (12th) and Michael Finch (2nd).  Great job everyone!  This week... up to Nebo and Wahsatch!

Pine View Time Trial #2

We had a great time trial on Tuesday.  Nearly every runner hit a quicker time than the first time trial. The Youngsters and Girls were especially impressive.  Congrats to Sergio D. who set the records for the Middle schoolers by 31 secs. on the 1 mile XC course with a time of 5:28 - very impressive.  Addi B. also set the girls record and led a pack of middle school girls at 6:35-6:45 - awesome times!
Many of the HS girls ran time up to 2 minutes quicker than their previous times.  And Mike Finch just missed the HS boys record by just 1 sec. (even though the course is about 30 meters longer than previous years).

Athlete of the Week - Dixie

With some strong performances all around, it was difficult to pick the Athletes of the Week from the Dixie All-Comers.  But the runs by Taylor Abel and Megan Finch have risen to the top.
Taylor paced the boys to a win at Dixie by finishing 5th overall in a time of 17:35 our 10th fastest time on this course.  Taylor, a Junior, is in his first year with XC and is making an immediate impact.  Taylor likes his marshmallows roasted to a golden brown and his waffles burnt to a crisp.  Among his many dislikes are purple wildflowers.
Megan, one of our few Freshman girls, is having a great first season of XC.  She was our 2nd finisher at this race and is really starting to run well.  She has many great years of cross in front of her and we look forward to her development and contributions to the team for years to come.  Megan likes everything her brother hates and hates everything he likes - kind of weird!

Dixie All-Comers

Some clouds rolled in and made Tuesday a great evening for racing at the Region South Course held at Bloomington Hills North Park.
The Youngsters started the team off well in the middle school race.  Sergio D. led the race throughout and ended up winning by 5 seconds with a killer kick in the last 150 meters.  Dallin G. also ran very well.  The ladies were led by Alli Peterson who placed 3rd overall in the girls and Josie Bushar who had her strongest race this season.
With the Varsity girls pulled from the race, Kaelie Gillespie paced our girls team over the 3 mile course.  She placed 23rd overall and ran a solid 23:30 on this very difficult course.
The boys were fighting for the remaining 3 spots on the Varsity trip to Murray this coming weekend.  Going into the race, there were 8 or so boys who had a good shot at the spots, and 4 of them ran together the whole race - making for a very exciting finish.  They all ran very well and finished 6-8 overall led by Taylor Abel, the Braden Johnston, Mathew Young and Colton Bowler.  Nick Hill finished 5th for the team (14th overall) and rounded out our team scoring.  We don't have the official results, but it will be very close between PV and Cedar for the win - pretty impressive without our top 4 runners.

Athletes of the Week - Cedar/Hurricane/SUU

We had to go back a few weeks and catch up our Athletes of the Week from the first three weeks of the season, so here they are:

Cedar All-Comers -
Boys: Nick Hill.  Nick is a freshman who ran in the Youngsters group with us last year winning many races including the Region Title.  Nick has continued his strong running this summer by having a great race at Cedar that propelled him to the Varsity squad for the Hurricane Invite - pretty big deal.  Nick enjoys Appropriate Tuesdays, morning runs with a sunrise and Coach's crazy rants about left-handers.
Girls: Aubrey McBride.  Aubrey is a senior who has worked very hard this past summer and had it pay off right away.  She had a great race at Cedar, probably her best race ever, placing 3rd on the team and 14th overall.  Aubrey enjoys being the official treat girl this season and knows the value of peanut butter M&M's and Wheat Thins.

Hurricane Invite -
Boys: Jake Taylor.  Jake, another freshman, was chosen because of his hard work and example.  Jake ran a very strong run for his first HS race and did it with a smile.  Some of Jake's likes: blue cheese, the smell of dirt, and lazy winter days.  Dislikes: diet drinks and the KGB.
Girls: Mia Hart.  Not many runners have worked as hard as junior Mia Hart.  At Hurricane she placed 5th overall and made the huge jump to elite Region runner.  Mia truly enjoys dirty hair and Christmas sing-a-longs.

SUU and Highland Invites -
Boys: Michael Finch.  Senior Mikey Flat Stanley Finchy Boy had one of the greatest races in PVXC history at the Highland Invite at Sugarhouse Park in SLC.  Mike led much of the race and ended up placing 3rd to a national top 20 runner and top 75 runner.  Mike enjoys laughing - a lot, and giving me a grin in class that makes me think he is up to something fishy (or Finchy, I've heard it both ways).
Girls: Sally Lawlor.  Sophomore Sally Lawlor has seen tremendous improvement this season.  One of her goals is to make Varsity and with her hard work she is on her way.  Sally's biggest joy is making the coaches wonder what she is thinking since she never talks.  Her biggest pet peeve is coaches who make up stuff about what she might be thinking since she never talks!

Great job all of you!  You guys are amazing examples of what PVXC is all about!

SUU & Highland

There were a lot of good races at SUU this weekend - as well as some opportunities for learning.  The JV Girls got things started with Kaelie Gillespie taking 14th.  The Varsity Girls placed a solid 2nd with Rachel Stone, Jessica Peterson, and Mia Hart placing in the top 10 (3rd, 4th and 9th respectively) and recording the 4th, 5th and 6th fastest PV times on the course.
The JV Boys ran as a great pack and took 1st in the meet.  Colton Bowler (2nd), Kyler Prisbrey (3rd), Taylor Hobbs (4th), Nick Hill (5th), Paul Gaona (8th) and Josh Farish (10th) all placed in the top 10 and scored a meager 22 points.  Casey Kimzey took 6th to lead the guys to a 2nd place finish - with Casey and Byron both cracking the top 20 PV times on the course.
Michael Finch was up in Salt Lake and ran the Highland Invite on Friday.  He ran a groundbreaking run and took 3rd just off of Saarel (PC) and Cross (Ogd) after leading much of the race.
Also check out the Milesplit Article.

Nike SW Pre-Season Rankings

The Nike SW Pre-Season Rankings are out and the PV guys are listed as a "Bubble Team"!  This is a pretty big deal for us to go into the season with this type of recognition.  Counting the teams listed would find us ranked as the 11-14 team in the 6 Southwest states.  I think this is big props to our program and how hard we have run the last few years.  We know there are teams coming after us, and there are teams we need to go after to reach our goals, so let's use this as motivation to keep the tradition alive and rolling!

PV Time Trial #1

The storm held off and we were able to get our 2 mile Time Trial in on our home course.  This race is an important one since it is one of the first ones for many of our new runners and it becomes the basis for workout paces for the next few weeks. 
The Youngsters ran first... and fast.  Sergio D. ran a 6:02 followed by Dallin G. in 6:11 and then a slew of 6th-8th grade guys in their 1 mile version of the course.  The girls were led by Addi B. (now you have to move to PV!) and then 6-7 girls in a tight spread including Alli P, Cristina G., Rachel L., Rylee H., and Josie B.  This was our largest turnout ever for a Youngsters race and it says a lot to the dedication and commitment of this next generation of PVXC superstars!
In the high school race, Mike Finch put in the 2nd fastest time on this course at 10:22 and then a huge group of guys led by Casey Kimzey followed up with some great packing.  The girls were led by Rachel Stone who turned in a 13:43 and then a great grouping for the ladies as well as our usual 4-6 runners really pulled up toward Mia Hart who took 2nd today.