Starting Out With a Bang!

 The school year has barely started, but high school xc has been going strong for a while. Austin actually had a meet 2 weeks into August, called Lamplighter, that was at 11 pm. The very first race had to start under the lights, so that meant that the last race was super late. It was a humid night, not to mention extremely late, but he still did pretty well. I think he was hoping to do better, but for the first meet of the season, 16:52, 22nd place, was pretty good. 

It's called Lamplighter because it's with lights!

Owen and Austin

Isaac just graduated in June, but was there to cheer on the team before going off to BYU I.

They did some more training for the rest of the summer, and he came out with a bang for the first official race of the season at Rambling Rock, an invitational, where our team hosted. He came in 4th place at 16:17, and his team came in 1st! They all did so well and are now #1 in their Region. JV came in 2nd, and the Freshmen came in 1st as well. 

He's leading the pack here.

Coming in for the finish.

Here's an article that we found on a Michigan running blog. On the site, the title is "Solid Like a Rock," and our mascot is a rock. 

http://michigancrosscountryspeedratings.com/

"Just comparing opening sequences, you can see the rise. Two years ago, Mercado debuted his career with a 19:54 here. He began to show his talent later in the fall, then in track, breaking 5:00 in the 1600m as a 9th grader. That translated to cross, where he was on the cusp of breaking 17:00 here a year ago. The cusp then became a consistent mark, as Mercado closed the year with six consecutive sub-17’s. Now a new level, a 16:17 that matches where he was late last season. He’s always kept the rock rolling, so look for more down the road."

The day I read the blog was the next Tuesday, which was the day of the first dual meet. Austin came in 4th again at 16:16. The amazing thing about that race was that it was against Brighton, who is #8 in the State, and Northville,  #1. We lost to Brighton by 1 point at this meet, and the 3 guys ahead of Austin were the top runners at Northville, and he was able to stay with them most of the time. Jack and Sam, his teammates who are just behind Austin, were with them for a good part of the race as well. Again, so proud of our team!!

Jack, Austin, and Sam.

This was part of the last mile. I didn't get a photo near the finish line.

Today, the invitational was the hardest course in the area because of all the turns, rocks, and hills. Austin has a plantar wart on his left front ball, which hurts a bit. Nevertheless, he came in with another PR at 16:14! And 4th place, again! The varsity came in 3rd, and JV came in 4th (Freshmen are all in the JV when they don't have a specific race for them.) Austin got a t-shirt for finishing in the top 10, plus he got to keep the team trophy this time. The team captain, Sahib, got to keep the first one. There's another dual meet this Tuesday. I'm assuming Austin is running in it. Last year, his coach usually had him skip the dual meets and only run the invitationals, where it counts the most, since Austin's talent was just budding, and he kept getting sick. Coach didn't want to overwork him. Now, he's pretty solid, though. Solid like a Rock! 

This is the team trophy from today, Austin's medal from today on the left, and his medal for his jacket from last week's meet on the right. I didn't go today because I was at Erik's game. Jason got a good video of Austin's name being called for his medal today. More about Erik's progress next time!

I keep reminding him, however, that he doesn't have to be the fastest or the best for us to support him and be super impressed. We love seeing him at this level, but things can change quickly in xc, and I don't want him to get discouraged or feel like he's letting us down if he has a bad race. Running as much as they do is no joke. And running a 5k in under 21 minutes is amazing! The fact that he has moved up so quickly just blows my mind! (BTW, he is currently #52 in the State of Michigan.)

I also need to add a little blip for his coach. At the end of the school year, his contract wasn't renewed because the athletic director thought he was "hard to work with". The examples he gave were that he asked for more money for uniforms for all the guys in the no-cut sports of track and xc (meaning lots of guys are on the team), and he told the AD that the mat for high jump and pole vault was unsafe because there was a crack in it. The AD also said that the track team didn't make enough progress. (They had more guys go to States for track last season than ever before!) So the AD didn't renew the contract, but he didn't follow the standards of hiring a new coach 2 weeks later (he hired him the very next day), nor did he alert anyone on the school board of what was going on (also against the standards). Well, when some of us parents got word of this (no complaints by Coach, btw), we fought and we fought hard! Coach was one of the best college coaches in the Midwest for guys and girls (sometimes ranked The Best) for close to 20 years! I could go on and on, but I won't. This is his retirement job, coaching the high schoolers, and as you can see, he's doing a fantastic job!

Go Rocks!