District Championship Sat. 10/19 (High School only)

District Results:
Boys Division III
Girls Division III

Course maps: Findlay Owens 5K Course

Owens Community College – Findlay Campus
3200 Bright Road
Findlay, OH 45840

Meet Notes – This is it…the “win or go home” point of the season. It’s the date circled on our calendars that we work back from in terms of our training cycle. We look to peak these next two weeks as we seek to advance to the next level.  This year, we face an uphill challenge due to changes in the District meets. Whereas the last two years have seen a draw based on seed voting by all of the coaches, with the Division III split into to districts, this year we return to a single race.  Some familiar competitors are now running at Ottawa Glandorf, but the girls race in particular is stacked with talented teams this year.  With the changes, the top five teams and any individuals in the top 20 overall advance to Regionals in Tiffin on 11/26.

Some great story lines to watch this year:

• Our girls team was very young last year with five freshmen, a sophomore and a senior. This year is similar with two freshmen, four sophomores and a junior…but five of the runners have District experience.  As mentioned, the girls race is stacked with talent, so it’s going to take our very best to have any chance of advancing. Can the girls make it FOUR straight years?
• The boys also have an experience team, with only two making their first trip to Findlay. Moreover, they have been on a tear lately with their pack running and consistency, lead by school record holder Augie. We don’t have seeding to go by this year, but their team average puts them in contention. Can this become the first ever boys team to advance to Regionals?
• Fresh off a school record performance at leagues, Augie looks to repeat as an individual qualifier to Tiffin.  Kennedy will look to join him with a Top 20 finish.
• This year’s league meet at Bryan was run on a very fast course under near perfect conditions.  Findlay has seen some very fast times as well, including a school record for the girls in 2017.
• We have a couple senior boys who may be running their last cross country race of their high school career.  This is the most bittersweet aspect of this time of year. Here’s hoping they get one more week!

Those are all exciting aspects of this race, but at the end of the day the ends of those stories have yet to be written.  Average times and recent races don’t break records or qualify to move on…we have to execute.  As we told the athletes this week, we can’t spend time worrying about what we can’t control…how many good teams there are, how those teams run, what the weather is like. We have to focus on what we can control: our preparation this week and our performance this Saturday.

The course is exactly the same as the past three years: it’s flat and pretty fast.  It’s also fairly spectator friendly, allowing folks the chance to see the start, most of the first mile, and the finish with only a moderate amount of walking.  There are a lot of straightaways, but there are also some sharp turns that keep it interesting.

This will be a long day…we leave at 8:15am and won’t get back until mid-afternoon, so rest is essential. We arrived with about the same amount of prep time last year and it was just about perfect, so we are looking to keep the same type of schedule this year.  The runners will have plenty of time to walk and examine the course, and to get themselves mentally and physically prepared for their race.  The atmosphere at this meet it usually pretty great, and we anticipate the same this year.  We will be sticking around to wait on the official results to be posted for the boys before we pack up and get ready to leave (and there are always plenty of photo opportunities after).