Moron sleep!, errrr More on sleep

I will still be posting over the summer months, perhaps sporadically but I will try to throw some stuff up occasionally. I've had some good thoughts for posts, but no production yet. A lot of what I might post are links to articles and other blogs. Any athlete I have ever coached knows that I am big on sleep. I actually think it's almost useless coaching an athlete, or doing anything athletic myself, unless proper sleep is practiced. Here is another article on sleep to back up my arguments.

A Good Night's Sleep Isn't a Luxury; It's a Necessity

(The author suggests taking melatonin to aid with sleep; I would not suggest this. Some studies have shown that Melatonin actually prohibits you from entering the deeper stages of sleep that the author earlier said were so important)

Coach Nack

After state meet celebration/blues

You would think after dedicating hundreds, if not thousands of hours to a track season that I anxiously await the end of the season. Quite the opposite though, because I wish it could keep going. I actually go into a small "depression" that takes a little while to get over (the first few days off at the beginning of summer break are a great antidote). I liken the feeling to a really good vacation coming to an end. One thing that cheers me up is the thought that I get this way because I love what I do.

Our state meet wrapped up yesterday, and these are my highlights / lowlights.

Lowlights

• Having only one female competitor
• Boys 4x200m. This group is way too talented, and put in way too many hours for this end result. Goes to show that the three most important parts of any relay are the first handoff, second handoff, and third handoff.
• If anyone from CHSAA is reading this, please please please put the kibosh on the past champions celebration on Saturday! This is awful, and it drags the meet to a halt that is hard to boot back up from. Put it at the end of the day on Friday if necessary, just remove it from that Saturday. I understand that it is a promotion of T&F, which I am all for, but change it up. I wouldn't mind a short speech or discussion with a prior winner (or 2, or even 3). Please just spare us the torture of the past champion parade. I'll be the one to say it: NO ONE CARES!
• Chris Ganem in the 800m (Absolutely no offense to Chris here) This race is an obvious low, because he was running hard, he made a move when he had to in order to compete for the win, and he ended up snakebitten. Those of you that were there know the end result, and probably won't soon forget it. Chris, this race does not reflect your running career fairly, yet it does reflect that you are a smart and talented runner. You attempted a move that most would not have tried despite it being essential for the win. The end result is unfortunate, but I admire the move.
• Athletes and coaches not present to support events. Simply stated, if we have an athlete in an event all coaches and all state-qualified athletes should be there for the events. Jumpers should be there for distance crew. Throwers should support the sprinters. Spinters should support the jumps. Distance crew should support the throwers. Any and all combinations and permutations of these groups apply. This will change in the future!
• Having to remove pizza from the hands of 2 of our 4x400 athletes 1-hour before the race.
• Rain. It tainted a great day at the high jump. It postponed the meet. It soaked many of us. It filled up the team tent. It sucked.

Highlights

• First and foremost, Ryan Tomlinson in the high jump. This was the first event of the meet on Thursday, and it couldn't have started much better. Ryan ended up with a jump of 6'7"--a 3" PR--and ended up in 2nd place. Ryan and I talked all weak about beating his rank, and that he did--he went in the 14th of 20 jumpers and ended up 2nd. That is an improvement of 4 spots. Had another athlete not been equally on fire, Ryan might have pulled down a state championship. Check out the video (Ryan's highest successful jump at 6'7". B-E-A-U-TIFUL)

• Natasha Jones in the high jump. I am still not certain how Natasha thinks she did, but I think she did awesome. Just the fact that she was our one female competitor is reason enough to celebrate. Natasha finished at 5'1. She was open-minded to her coaches possible misguided strategy, but it resulted in a quality attempt for a PR at 5'3". Again, check the video 

• Natasha Jones, Cary Dinkel, and Christie Albers out in full support for the team. Natasha and Caryn made it to the majority of all three days, and Christie almost all of the last two. This effort and level of support was highly appreciated. (wish I had a picture...oh wait I have video, thanks Caryn and Christie).

• Finishing 7th overall on the boys side
• Tanner Townsend in the open 400m. Awesome. Talk about raw speed, and budding talent. Tanner dropped his time from the realm of the 50-flats to the 49's. When you reach that level you know some good things are happening. Pretty good considering he originally was not supposed to go to state. When the entries for state were initially posted to Varvee, Tanner was on the outside at around position 23. Only after some scratches did tanner make it. Proving that he belonged, Tanner entered as a #16 seed, and ended on the podium in 4th place. Tanner's final time was a 49.2 proving the quote "when the race is on, all bets are off".

Dedicated readers of the blog will note the repetitiveness of this ad. Don't care. 

I. Love. This. Commercial.

• Our boys 4x400 making it to, and placing fifth in the finals. This is one of the toughest races in track and frequently leads to all four athletes barfing on the infield--an unfortunate sign that the race has been run correctly. Don't know if this happened to our boys, but nevertheless nice job boys, nice job.
• Tanner Dalgardno's exchange with Andy Schultz in the 4x400. This is a lowlight turned highlight because of the above mentioned success, but without this success this would not have been a highlight. Now it is just funny, if not hilarious. Andy did not move an inch prior to the exchange.
• I also had some highlights that did not involve CV (sorry guys), but were exciting for track in general or for old athletes and friends of mine. These are...(in no particular order)

1. Watching Dior Hall of GW running a 13.84 in the 100 hurdles. For a frame of reference how many people do you know that can run a sub-14 100m without the hurdles?
2. Watching Anna Holland of Regis take the 100m, 400m, and darn near the 200m (2nd by 1/1000th of a second!) championship. A triple crown in the sprints would have been amazing. I was certainly pulling for her. (This is the first and last time I will ever root for Regis--I just really wanted Holland to get all three)
3. Watching Connor Winter win another 3 state championships in the 800, 1600, and 3200. This might not be popular amongst our team, because one of our own competes against him, but nevertheless Winter is a great athlete, and from my limited experiences a great young man. You don't see many like him, so I decided to enjoy it while I could.
4. Chaparral's 4x800 team (both mens and ladies) are filled with some of the toughest Sons-'O-guns around. They showed their toughness once again with a first place finish in this event. Congrats to Justin Bills, Nate Purdue, John "Bacon" Bacovcin, and Keagan Vargo for winning and surving the H-E-double toothpicks that I know Sep put you through. This is Sep's 4th 4x800 title (Sepp'll correct me if I'm wrong, I'm sure) all of them well fought by determined, dedicated young men.
5. Outside of the stuff on our team, I loved seeing Brendon Austin (Chaparral) throw the shot the most. Brendon is one of my favorite track athletes, because he had all the opportunity and temptation to solely pursue another sport (football), but did not. I honestly have no idea why. It's never come up in any conversation. I like to think it's because he likes to compete, and he'll take competition in any form, whether it be on the field or in the ring. I would also hope it's because of moments like he had on Saturday. Brendon started the day as a #13 seed, but ended in 4th because of a 4ft 8 3/4in PR throw. That is insane! He basically had a 10% improvement in the span of one throw. That might not sound like much, so for some perspective that is like a 100m runner slicing off 1.1 seconds in a race, a miler cutting off :27 seconds from there already fantastic 4:30, a high jumper reaching a height of 6 to 8in higher than they have previously seen, a 3 to 4ft PR in the triple jump, or a 1.5ft improvement in the boys pole vault. Simply amazing! As a former thrower I wish I had video, because the PR throw was a thing of beauty. Oh, and by the way, despite being a multi-sport athlete Brendon is still going to college to play football. He will be playing at an obscure little place called Stanford. Glad he could still put the pieces back together to slide in there.
6. I enjoyed (yet did not enjoy) getting to see some of my favorite coaches do their thing in their final state championship:

• Coach Mark Stenbeck is a great distance coach that will not return to his team or any other next year, which I think is a great loss for his school, the distance community, and for CO track in general. 
• Coach Matt Burns of Rock Canyon fame, Minnesota Golden Gopher T&F fame, and "Burns-tini" fame is calling it a career, but hopefully only temporarily (best high jump coach around, if you ask me). 
• Coach Cory Hawk from Chaparral is also letting the sun set on this part of his track career. Hawk was the one that reluctantly hired me 5 years ago, and I am very grateful he did (I hope it's mutual). I learned a ton about managing a team from Hawk that prepared me for this year, and was a great resource for me throughout. The kids are going to miss you Hawk, but I guarantee that there is at least one coach who will also. Thank you for everything.
• And finally...Coach John Lancett. Where to begin...? Well, I think a good amount of credit is due to coach Lancett for creating what is likely CV's most successful athletic program. The track team, though young, has regularly finished at or near the top in league and state meets. You can debate the superior quality of the other sports in the school all you want, but the fact remains that the only state champions have come from track and field. The names of those champions are there for you to view in CV's gym everyday. Coach Lancett is at the center of those championships and deserves recognition. Most people know at this point that Lancett and I went to college together and were neighbors in the dorm freshman year, so for 14 years now I've considered Lancett a friend, and I don't like to see him leave. However, I believe that dramatic life changes are an important part of being an adult and I'm excited for him. Some people have kids, some get married, some get married again (and again, and again, and again), some seek gender re-assignment, and some move to distant lands like Bali to fulfill their drastic change. John, I admire you, and wish you the best of luck, and thank you for trusting me with this program you have built.

This was a long one. I hope you made it to the end. The quality of writing probably does not accurately reflect the amount of feeling I put into it to create readability.
Nackfortrack will continue to post throughout the year, although sporadically. I am always open for requests and suggestions for posts. Thanks to my readers, our athletes, our parents, our staff, and all others that help make Sabercat T&F a success.

Nack

Amended state schedule

Thursday's afternoon events were postponed due to weather.

Here are the amended event schedules

Click here for Field events schedule or see picture below
Click here for Track events schedule or see picture below

Coach Nack

Day-by-Day at State

Some requests have been made for the state schedule to be posted. The full, untouched schedule can be retrieved here, but pictures of the schedule are below. (Events highlighted green we are guaranteed to be in. Events highlighted yellow are dependent upon the performance in prelims)

State athletes: You can see a copy of the heat sheets here, but they will be updated (maybe daily) and can be found at the CHSAA website.

Coach Nack

The week that was, and the week that shall be

Congratulations to the the boys Sabercat track team for their second place finish at this weekends two day Continental League meet. The boys scored 112.33 points on their way to finishing behind a great ThunderRidge team, and just slightly ahead of a super talented Chaparral team. We have a lot to be excited about on the boys side. The following boys earned All Continental League staus wit a top-3 finish in their event(s):

Individuals

Daniel Wheeler 200m 22.80sec (3rd)
Tanner Townsend 400m 50.33sec (2nd)

Chris Ganem 800m 1:55.34 (1st), 1600m 4:16.67 (1st), 3200m 9:50.88 (3rd)

Zach Wood 110hurdles 15.84sec (3rd), 300hurdles 40.43sec (2nd)

Mike Thomas 300hurdles 40.56sec (3rd)

Ryan Tomlinson High Jump 6'2" (3rd)

Will Bakemeyer 13' (1st)

Relays

4x200 Tanner Dalgardno, Mason Kasunic, Tanner Townsend, Daniel Wheeler 1:30.13 (2nd)

4x800 Andrew Watson, Mason Arther, Luke Nebelsick-Gullett, Chris Ganem 8:20.59 (3rd)

The girls...well, the girls did not finish where we want them too. I was shocked, and upset to see that we finished in last place in the girls competition. The 12th of 12 teams. I am shocked because we do have quite a bit of talent on the girls' team. There is a ton that I have to say, but much of it is probably best said in person because of how tone and intended message can be misinterpreted in writing. I will say this: a last place finish is unacceptable to me, and it should be to our lady athletes. In the future we (athletes and coaches) will recruit other CV athletes that can make the team better, improve leadership, train harder, train smarter, and will be a top team in the Continental League and in the state of Colorado.

That said we had one All Continental League athlete (Natasha Jones High Jump 5'0 [3rd]), but we had other athletes that places and were great performances that are noteworthy. 

My favorite: Emily Garneau--in the last race of her high school career--ran a 40 second PR in the 3200m to earn a fifth place finish; this was accompanied by a 3 second PR in the 1600m. Awesome job Emily!

Great show: Annie Simon in the 100m ran a very tough prelim and qualified for finals with a time of 13.26. In the finals she ran against some of the best runners in the state and pulled in an 8th place finish. Pretty great for a freshman.

Doubling-up: Caryn Dinkel and Natasha Jones getting 5th and 3rd in the high jump, respectively. This is how you win league meets: multiple athletes scoring in events. Next year we need more of these in more events.

The whole season has now come down to this final week for a small group athletes. These athletes will be attending the three day state meet beginning this Thursday, and continuing through Saturday in hopes of winning a state championship. Castle View's 2011 state qualifiers are

Chris Ganem 800m #3
Chris Ganem 1600m #2
Chris Ganem 3200m #12
Tanner Townsend 400m #16
Michael Thomas 300h #13

4x200 #14

4x400 #12

4x800 #11
   Ryan Tomlinson High Jump #5

Natasha Jones High Jump #9 

Will Bakemeyer Pole Vault #12 

Ryan Tomlinson Triple Jump #16

Relay teams will be decided on by Coach Lancett and Coach Kuhn. Alternates are needed for all of the relays so if you have ran on any of these qualifying relays throughout the year you should prepare yourself for attending the state meet.

Coach Nack

EDIT: Congratulations are also in order for Tanner Townsend who made it to state in the 400m run. I originally missed this, my bad Tanner. (Tanner is super talented, and very fast...can't wait for this race)

League Meet Rescheduled

Today's first half of The Continental League track meet has been rescheduled. The meet will still be on two days, Friday and Saturday. The meet will still be at Sports Authority Stadium. The one change is the time. It will now begin at 4pm, one hour later than originally scheduled.

Sounds great to me! One more day to prepare and fine tune. One more night of good sleep to get, 8-9 hours.

SENIORS: You will be missing all or part of 2 events. The assembly at the end of the day, and Senior Sunset. Hopefully we can steel ourselves against possibly missing a few weepy hugs with teachers, and watching a movie as the sun goes down.

Coach Nack

Ready for league? State?

Below are two very helpful pieces of information that will help a ton going into this weekend.

The first infograph comes thanks of Coach Seppala and his blog, and tells us what the 8th best mark in out league is. (This table is not necessarily up to date because it does not include this weekends meets, but it gives you a general idea). How does this help? Well young track pugilist, these are the marks that you need to aim for. Remember top-8 spots earn points, and earning points is how we win meets. Set your sites on these marks. Train. Eat. Sleep. Hydrate. Achieve.

 The inforiffic table below is my own creation. You may have seen it before, but it is now updated. These are our best times in each event, and how they compare to state entry marks #18 & #1.
Green means you are in the state meet, but you need to keep the fires burning--if you phone it in early you may pay the price. Red means you are on the outside looking in, but you are in the top 50 in the state. I have faith that almost all of you can get there. Lets put in lots of good work, trust your training, and go bring home a league title or two.

Coach Nack