Bulldogs WIN!!!!!

Mens pre race huddle

The men’s and women’s McPherson College cross country teams captured the team titles at the McPherson College Open on Saturday, Oct. 10, at the McPherson Country Club.

“I am very pleased with how we competed today,” said McPherson coach Joe Eby. “To have both teams win at our home meet is exciting and sets us up well for the end of the season. I have been very pleased with the progress the team has shown so far. I still feel like we can get better, but I like what we have done at this point.”


Top 3 Kyle Smith, Shaun Griffin, Mike Baxter mid race

McPherson College was one of four teams at the meet.

The McPherson men’s team won the team title with three runners finishing in the top six. Shaun Griffin was the third finisher across the line in a time of 28:17 with teammate Kyle Smith right on his heel (28.36). Freshmen Mike Baxter was the third bulldog across with a time of 28:47 to come in sixth place out of 30 runners.

Sophomore David Parry and freshman Dan Meibaum rounded out the top five for the Bulldogs, with Perry finishing in 31:42 (15th) and Meibaum in 33:28 (19th).

The McPherson College women’s cross country team finished in a tie for first with Bethel College. Junior Brittany Delker continues to lead the Bulldogs, finishing fourth overall in a time of 22:12. Sophomore Katie Logan was the next Bulldog to finish, crossing the line in 23:17 (7th).


Kati Beam (23:42, 9th)

Sophomore Kati Beam (23:42, 9th), freshman Torey Fry (24:11, 11th) and freshman Paula Carpenter (24:30, 12th) finished out the top five for the Bulldogs.

Results can be found http://www.mcpherson.edu/athletics/crosscountry/09/schedule.asp


Group post race

Ceja and Martinez sign with Bulldogs

Martinez in gray and Ceja in Green will look much better in Red

Ruben Martinez and Javier Ceja signed with McPherson College on Saturday night following a 1, 2 finish at the McPherson Brooks Open. These two are going to bring a new intensity to the team. Ceja who has a PR of 14:40 in the 5k and Martinez who has a 15:10 5k PR will be contending for KCAC championships this spring in the 5k and 10k and potential All American status at the National meet. We are very excited to get them here in January and get them in the program.


Saturday night signing

Big weekend for the Bulldogs

With 30 days to go till the big KCAC meet, this weekend is a big weekend for the cross program. We are hosting our home meet, the Brooks Open at McPherson Country Club. Women's race goes off at 10:15 and men will race at 11:00. This meet will be a great test as we will see some teams we have yet to see so far this year, including a few conference schools.

There will be three top guy recruits on campus. Ruben Martinez makes a return to campus and he is bringing Javier Ceja who is also from LA, California with him. Joining those two on Saturday night will be Morgan Peterson from McPherson. A lot will be going on the next few days in McPherson, it is an great time to be a Bulldog

Marathon Pace workout

number 4-5 with coach Jilka on the way out.

On Tuesday we hit up the dirt roads for a marathon pace workouts. It has been great to see the progression of the athletes from week to week. We went further than we ever had for this run and looked controlled doing it. I am continually excited to see the progression and just thinking about what the future will bring for us.


Top 3 on way back

We are very fortunate to have these dirt roads within 1.5 miles of our track. Its perfect warmup/cooldown distance for us. Each block is a mile and the crop fields and tree lines mark the half mile, so we are able to get splits. We do all of our long runs out on the dirt roads and any tempo work. It is great having a marked out area with soft surfaces.

OSU Jamboree

We loaded up the Bus at 3:00 pm to head down to Stillwater. We had about a 3 hour ride and it went by quick. We arrived at the course with perfect weather outside.


We walked the back part of the course with the steps and hills. I really liked the course, thought it had a nice mix of hills, trails, grass, and wood chips. After a quick tour of the course we loaded back up on the bus and went to a Pasta dinner put on by the Stillwater HS team. They had good food and all proceeds went toward their program. Something we will do for years to come if they continue to put this event on.

Team after pasta dinner

Next it was off the hotel. Not the best hotel I have ever stayed in but we were only 15 min away from the course. Most of the evening was spent relaxing at the hotel due to an early morning the next day.

The team was up at 4 am for a shakeout run and Pancakes in the lobby. We loaded up the bus at 6 am to head over to the course. It was still dark out when we arrived on sight, but with the girls racing at 8:00 am i wanted to make sure we were there and they did not feel rushed getting ready for the race.


Course at 6:15 am

We had the a series of unfortunate events happen to our girls team this week. We had two freshman, Torey Fry and Paula Carpenter who were banged up to the point where they could have raced but I didn't want to risk setting them back for the upcoming weeks so we held both of them out. Kati Beam was in the school play and had to miss the meet and another girl who got sick on race day. So with our lack of depth to start with, all said and done we were only able to put 3 girls on the start line this weekend. The good part was the three girls ran well. Brittany Delker was our number 1 with 21:20 only 2 seconds off her PR, Katie Logan was our number 2 with a time of 21:42 almost a minute faster than Missouri Southern, and her time from last year and only 10 seconds off her PR.


Top Dog of the week Katie Logan finishing in a season best

Krissa Fuentes was our number 3 with a time of 24:47 which was faster than her Missouri Southern time 3 seconds off her PR and almost a minute faster than her time from 2008. So for all of the unfortunate events leading up to the race the ladies raced very well.


Men's Race start

Next up was the guys. The guys ran a good race but I am still waiting for all of our top 5 to put together a good race. We have had two solid weeks of training and workouts leading up to this meet. Shaun Griffin (the birthday boy) had a great race. Running 27:28 which was 59 seconds faster than his time from 2008. He was followed by Kyle Smith who had another solid performance running 27:48. Next in was Mike Baxter running 27:59, then Matt Brown who ran a seasons best on the tough course running 31:21 over 2 min faster than his time from 2008, and finishing up the scoring for the Bulldogs was David Parry with a time of 32:07. Dan Meibuam showed great improvement over his race at WSU running a 33:15 which is almost 6 min faster than his projected time from the Shockers race. Zach Dowling was the 7th man running 34:18 which was over a minute and half faster than his time from 2008. Fred Miller (39:05) and Ben Denton (44:49) also has solid performances for the Bulldogs. The men's team average time for the top 5 was 10 seconds faster this year over the 2008 team, so they are showing improvement across the board.

While at the meet I also had a chance to talk to one of our top girl recruits for next year Kylie Bourquin from Follett HS. We had a nice chat and she is excited to come for our overnight visit weekend.


Waiting for the Bus

All in all another good weekend. Next up is the McPherson Brooks Open. It will be a good smaller meet for us. We will get a chance to match up against some other conference schools that we have not seen yet, I am excited to see what we can do.

Polls

Polls have always been something I look at with amusement. Most of the time it is someones best guess or a match up on paper to see which team is better than another. To me polls have always been interesting but nothing more than that. Since I arrived on the NAIA scene polls have more weight to them. They can determine weather a team makes it to nationals or not. To me this is absolutely ridiculous. If you have schools that always race on fast courses or historically have been good but are having down years they are just considered to be good because they have always been good. Cross Country is one of those sports where every course is different, they might not even be the same distanced based on how they are measured etc... It is very hard outside of head to head competition to judge how one team would run against another. But each week I still find myself checking the NAIA web site http://naia.cstv.com/sports/m-xc/2009Ratings.html http://naia.cstv.com/sports/w-xc/2009Ratings.html to see where the pollsters think our team matches up in the conference. And as of right now I would say they hit the nail on the head for where we are right now. I will say that I am excited to see what will happen at the conference meet when we finally match up head to head with something on the line.

On the women's side we started the year off in 9th, we then moved up to 7th for two weeks after our first meet and the latest poll has us at 6th. As I said earlier I feel this is a honest representation of where we are right now. I do feel that if we can pull things together for the end of the year we could place higher but we will have to stay on our game and keep making major improvements.

The men started the year off at 5th, after our first meet we dropped to 6th which again was justified with our number 3 man going to the meet as a spectator. The next week we moved back to 5th without racing which always makes me laugh and this week we find ourselves sitting in 4th.

The next two weekends should tell a big story about both teams. If we can continue to improve and be successful we will be set ourselves up very nicely for a great end to the season. With the way workouts have been going I have the utmost confidence in our ability to run our best at the end of the year and realistically that's all that matters. Only time will tell.

Creating the whole athlete

Fitness and developing the whole athlete are two of the main concepts that I feel are important while building a program. Right now we have our sprinters, jumpers all working together on gaining a base. Starting next week we are going to divide them up into two separate groups and start working on short and long sprints work. All of them will continue to lift and go through our core/plyo/agility stations. With the distance runners I feel that developing the whole athlete is one of the most important things. The more "athletic" they become, the more efficient their form will become, the less likely they will be to becoming injured. Most runners only run, which means that they are only moving in two planes, forwards and backwards. This can cause imbalances in the muscles which can lead to injuries. If we can do exercises that work side to side movements and working some of the ancillary muscles we can help prevent this and fix some of those imbalances. I am hoping to get some video of our stations to put on here soon and some of the exercises that we work do to become more athletic. The group has come a long way even in the short time since we got together for camp, and I hope that they can continue to make leaps and bounds with our drills.

Missiouri Southern Stampede

We had another very successful meet this past weekend. We had three men, Smith (26:48), Griffin (26:51) and Baxter (27:14) and one women Delker (21:18) make it into our top 10 list. We had two more freshman PR for their high school distances (Smith went from 17:10 to 16:49 and Carpenter went from 19:39 to 18:40) while running the college distance of 8k and 5k. And to top it off 12 of the athletes ran faster than their projected times yet again, all in all a very impressive weekend for the Bulldogs. While all of these things are what we are striving towards, we need to remain focused in the weeks to come with some more high mileage weeks and early morning runs left in front of us. This is the most difficult time of the season with school work starting to pile up and miles being high to keep on track. I feel this team is up to the challenge. We are staying on top of our class work and they continue to work hard every day at practice. Each day I get more and more excited to see what this group is going to do in November.

5k
1 Brittany Delker 21:18.0
2 Katie Logan 21:43.0
3 Kati Beam 23:23.0
4 Paula Carpenter 23:34.0
5 Krissa Fuentes 24:48.0
6 Katey Taylor 27:50.5

8k
1 Kyle Smith 26:48.0
2 Shaun Griffin 26:51.0
3 Mike Baxter 27:18.9
4 David Parry 31:14.1
5 Matt Brown 32:12.1
6 Zach Dowling 33:47.5
7 Fred Miller 37:47.8
8 Ben Denton 43:58.0


Our next meet will be at Oklahoma State University for the Jamboree. This is the oldest cross country meet in the nation and will be another great test for us. We have handled running against the top programs in the nation very well and I expect we will continue that trend in Stillwater. If you want to see the nations best this would be a great meet to come and watch.

Track conditioning

We started track conditioning on Monday. We have kind of a mixed bag. We have some people who are in good shape and we have some people who are not in very good shape. Everyone has been working hard. We have some work to do on our core strength. I think this is an area in which we are lacking severely right now but by May we will be much stronger and it will show. I am going to film our cross kids going through our core stations some time soon so I can post it on here for everyone to see. This is something I feel is very important for overall strength and injury prevention.

WSU recap

we had our first meet of the season on Saturday. I was very pleased with how we competed. This was a very competitive meet but I thought we got in there and mixed it up well. This is a great place to start this phase of the season. We had two lifetime PR’s, Kyle Smith split a 17:10 for 5k which is a PR, what makes this even more impressive is that he still have another 1000 meters left in the race. Paula Carpenter also set a PR for the 4k with 14:52. We had 7 people run better than their goal times, which it a great sign. We also had 8 people run around or better than there time from our 3k time trial and once again we had another 1000 (girls) or 3000 (guys) meters left in the race. Our theme for the team is SUCCESS and making sure each day we try to be as successful as we can. After looking at these results we were successful this past weekend.
Yesterday at 6:30 am we got right back to work with a long run. This week will be a down week in our training to let them recover from our “camp” weeks. I have them on two weeks up one week down training cycle. Then next week we will gear up for Missouri Southern, which should be a big meet for us. I have been very happy with the enthusiasm and effort the team has been putting in day and day out. If they continue down this path we will have a very SUCCESSFUL season.

Place, Name, 1 mile 2000 3000 3 mile 5000 6000
1 Kyle Smith 05:25.0 06:44.0 10:04.0 16:34.0 17:10.0 20:24.0
2 Shaun Griffin 05:25.0 06:46.0 10:11.0 16:44.0 17:22.0 20:40.0
3 Matt Brown 05:46.0 07:19.0 11:15.0 19:10.0 19:55.0 23:45.0
4 Dan Meibaum 06:28.0 08:11.0 12:23.0 20:52.0 21:38.0 25:54.0
5 Fred Miller 06:58.0 08:46.0 13:15.0 22:10.0 23:01.0 27:15.0
6 Ben Denton 09:19.0 11:50.0 17:44.0 29:09.0 30:14.0 35:15.0
Place Name 1000 1 mile 3000 2 mile 4000
1 Brittany Delker 04:13.0 06:47.0 13:08.0 14:01.0 17:06.0
2 Katie Logan 04:13.0 06:47.0 13:18.0 14:17.0 17:39.0
3 Kati Beam 04:17.0 06:58.0 13:48.0 14:46.0 18:19.0
4 Torey Fry 04:19.0 07:07.0 14:13.0 15:11.0 18:44.0
5 Paula Carpenter 04:37.0 07:30.0 14:52.0 15:51.0 19:39.0
6 Krissa Fuentes 04:56.0 08:00.0 15:31.0 16:34.0 20:21.0
7 Alycia Faust 04:57.0 08:01.0 16:08.0 17:19.0 21:26.0
8 Katey Taylor 05:19.0 08:57.0 17:34.0 18:52.0 23:37.0

First meet this weekend

As we are 64 days out from conference we are getting ready for our first meet this weekend at the Wichita State J.K. Gold Classic. Information on the meet can be found http://www.goshockers.com/ViewArticle.dbml?SPSID=61295&SPID=2840&DB_OEM_ID=7500&ATCLID=204782375. The Men will be running a 6k and the women will be running a 4k. I wanted to find a meet that had shorter distances to open up with to give us a chance to get our feet wet and race without having to dive in head first. This should be a good meet for us to do that. I am excited to see what both teams can do.



Training has been going well, we got some solid miles in this week and had a great Tempo run on Tuesday, we have also been in the weight room twice this week. For a lot of the athletes this is there first time in the weight room and I am excited to see the gains we get from spending time in there along with our core circuits. These two things alone should help with injury's and fixing imbalances. Overall I feel we are ready for our first test. This will also mark the first time in many years that the McPherson College Cross Country program has two full teams at a meet. Hope to see some of our fans out there as we get started on our 2009 XC Campaign.

Camp

There is lots to update on. First off our first day of camp we had a 3K Time Trial. To see what type of shape everyone was in. The results were as follows.

NAME 800 1600 2000 3000 Finish

Kyle Smith 2:26 5:00 6:17 9:31 1
Shaun Griffin 2:37 5:15 6:34 9:41 2
Mike Baxter 2:22 5:02 6:25 9:52 3
Matt Brown 6:11 11:38 4
Zach Dowling 3:13 8:30 12:51 5
Dan Meibaum 3:22 7:08 13:42 6
Fred Miller 3:45 14:08 7
Ben Denton 20:13 8

Brittany Delker 3:35 7:10 8:55 12:57 1
Katie Logan 3:30 7:07 8:55 13:05 2
Torey Fry 3:30 7:09 9:05 13:40 3
Kati Beam 3:35 7:11 9:01 13:43 4
Krissa Fuentes 3:34 8:06 10:25 13:39 5
Alycia Faust 3:33 7:54 10:06 15:22 6
Paula Carpenter 3:34 8:05 10:14 15:26 7
Katey Taylor 4:42 9:52 16:12 8

All in all it was not a bad start. We are going to need some people to set up to fill in the gaps we have but I feel by Nov we can make that happen. We have a lot of new faces who are eager to run and get better. There is a lot of room for improvement and I imagine that we will have big drops in time from our first TT to our second.


Slip N Slide

Bottom of the hill

Bay Watch Run



The day after the time trial we left for Mt. Hermon in Toganoxi KS. It was a perfect place for us to get away from campus, get to know each other and train. We had a nice camp area with open fields, a sand volleyball court, basketball/four square court and grass areas for core. Just outside of camp was a state park with fishing lake and dirt roads as far as the eye can see. The group was great, they spent the whole time doing activities together as a team and really got to know each other. We had different groups in charge of each meal for prep and clean up. We got a great long run a great workout and several solid core workouts along with several recovery runs in. I am excited to see how this group progresses and where they go as a team. It was exciting to see the team take charge of camp and do activities on their own without poking or prodding from the coaching staff. Each day and night the team could be found around camp playing games or just hanging out talking to each other. It was just what I had hoped for.


Coaches Dominating Sharks and Minos


Benji taking over the twister game

After 4 days away at camp we came back to campus and were greeted by hot humid weather. We have been back for two days and have been hammering away at the miles and core work. Most of the team is very sore but are still in very good spirits. As we get closer to our first meet I still am placing a very low emphasis on the race as we will be very tired and sore going into the race. This week and next will be our highest two weeks of the season, which for a lot of my athletes means more miles than they have ever run. To me it is ok because our main focus is on the November and running fast at the championship meets.

Who/What/When

The coaching staff will come up with a who/what/when to determine what meets and events you will be participating in. Each athlete will have an individual meeting with the head coach and possibly the event coach to discuss the meets that were picked out. These meets will be picked out to prepare each athlete to compete their best at their final meet of the year whether that is conference, last chance or nationals. This is a very big part of our individualization at McPherson, and the athlete input is always taken into consideration. Competing unattached at a meet, road race or any other non school competition without permission from the head coach will result in immediate dismissal from the team. We set up your schedule for the purpose of having you compete to the best of your ability at the end of the season for your team. Compete outside of the McPherson Team schedule compromises this and will not be tolerated.

7 days

Its seven days till the athletes arrive back on campus. I am excited and anxious to see how everyone's summer training has gone. The Time Trial on Friday night will tell no lies. I hope the team has put in their homework over the summer. Cross Country season is always a special time and the first few days back on campus is even more special. I cant wait to see everyone and be able to work with them one on one on a daily basis.

Community Track meet

We hosted a community track meet Monday at McPherson. We had a decent turn out for our first ever meet. And we are looking to grow the meets. We are having a second meet Monday Aug 3 and we plan to host many more in the summers to come. So please keep an eye out for these meets. All ages and ability levels are welcome.

Mission Statement

To be successful and work hard each day toward team, and individual, goals that will ultimately lead us to our goal of competing to the best of our ability during each championship season.

Waiting for students

As the summer winds on I am getting anxious for the year to start and have the athletes back on campus. I am getting tired of just having papers to shuffle all day. Things are almost set for them to be back. I am excited for camp and to see how hard everyone worked over the summer.

Bulldog Blueprint Intro

From time to time I am going to post parts of our team handbook which we call the Bulldog Blueprint. In this book contains all things related to the team and building a successful program. They will all fall under the label bulldog blueprint. I hope you enjoy. This will give you a very inside look into the program and what we are all about.

INDIVIDUALIZATION:

All of you will be trained differently. For instance, if you ran 40 miles per week in high school, you will be train at 45-50 per week freshman year. If you trained at 60 miles per week, you will train at 65-70 miles per week freshman year. Ideally, you will go up about 10-15 % each year. For example, you may go 65 miles per week as a freshman, 73 miles per week as a sophomore, 80 miles per week as a junior, & 90 miles per week as a senior. This is all peak mileage weeks. I do not believe in a very big taper when training for distance or mid distance races. You may drop down from 70 miles to 50 miles for the championship meets, but nothing too drastic. Some of you may not taper at all. We will always address the two important variables in our training: Volume & Intensity. In order to develop and perform well during a championship season these variables are crucial in our training. Again, everything will be individualized to your specific running needs (Group & Team Training still a part of our training culture!).

- As a general rule, our training philosophy focuses on AEROBIC DEVELOPMENT and becoming a more HOLISTIC ATHLETE.
o Gradual increases in mileage, gradual increases in tempo on daily runs, and workouts that are at or below the lactate threshold. Being able to work increasingly close to your maximum oxygen consumption without suffering from high accumulations of lactic acid in the blood.

start of 2010 recruiting class

The NCAA official recruiting start date was July 1st. Due to my anniversary being on that day and being out of the office and a few other things I had to get done this past week July 6th will be the official start day of calls for us this year. We have already had a few recruits on campus. But the big push for first phone calls will start today. This is an exciting time for us. This will be the first full year of recruiting and I am excited to see what I can do with that big of a time period.

Top 3 on campus, one signs

This past week we had our top 3 recruits on campus. Two are now comitted to McPherson College. Kyle Smith from Junction City and Mike Baxter from Cuyahoga Falls Ohio. Mike is a new addtion as of friday when he signed his letter of intent.



Baxter has run 15:37 for 5k xc and 4:35 for the 1600. He will be a great addition to the team.

I am just waiting on Ruben Martinez for his decision. He seemed to like his visit and I hope he will join the team next year. He would be a great leader for the team. Only time will tell. So far things are looking good for the Bulldogs this fall.

400 training get sent out

This week marked the start of our Long Sprinters workouts. Our workouts are a variation of Clyde Hart of Baylor's workout. This summer will be spent doing some fartleks or varying distances and paces. We also have lifting 3 days a week and plyometrics two days a week. We have a very strong group coming in for the long sprints and we want them to be ready for when we come back in the fall for our strength and conditioning sessions. Here is a little taste of what they will be doing this summer.



Lift Monday, Wednesday, Friday 3 set of 8 reps
Core- Monday, Wednesday, Friday
Plyos, Tuesday, Thursday
(see summer training handbook)

Monday
Hang Clean
Squat
Shrug
Front Dumbell raise
Side Dumbbell raise
Skull crusher
Lat pull down
Flys

Wednesday
Bench
Military press
Dumbbell curls
Push ups
Leg curls
Dips- 3x failure

Friday
Incline
Decline
Standing bar rows
Calf raises
E-Z bar curls
Lunges
Pull-Ups- 3x failure

June-8-14
5 warmup- 3 min on 1 min off x 3- 5 min cool down
5 min wu- 30 sec on 90 sec off x 10 5 min cd
Lift/plyos
5 wu- 2 min, 90 s, 60s, 30s, 15s, 30s, 60s, 90s, 2 min- 5 CD
5 min wu- 1 mile in’s and out’s (100 stride straights (90%), 100 walk turns) 5 min CD
20 min easy
OFF

June-15-21
5 warmup- 3 min on 1 min off x 3- 5 min cool down
5 min wu- 30 sec on 90 sec off x 10- 5 min cd
Lift/plyos
5 wu- 2 min, 90 s, 60s, 30s, 15s, 30s, 60s, 90s, 2 min (1 min recovery jog between each)- 5 CD
5 min wu- 1 mile in’s and out’s (100 stride straights (90%), 100 walk turns) 5 min CD
20 min easy
OFF

June-22-28
5 warmup- 3 min on 1 min off x 4- 5 min cool down
5 min wu- 30 sec on 90 sec off x 11- 5 min cd
Lift/plyos
5 wu- 2:30, 2:00, 90s, 60s, 30s, 15s, 30s, 60s, 90s, 2:00, 2:30 (1 min recovery jog between each)- 5 CD
5 min wu- 1 mile in’s and out’s (100 stride straights (90%), 100 walk turns) 5 min CD
25 min easy
OFF

June-29- July 5
5 warmup- 3 min on 1 min off x 5- 5 min cool down
5 min wu- 30 sec on 90 sec off x 12- 5 min cd
Lift/plyos
4e, 4h, 3e, 3h, 2e, 2h, 1e, 1h, :30e, :30h, :15e, :15h- 5 CD
5 min wu- 1 mile in’s and out’s (100 stride straights (90%), 100 walk turns) 5 min CD
25 min easy
OFF

July 6-12
5 warmup- 3 min on 1 min off x 5- 5 min cool down
5 min wu- 30 sec on 90 sec off x 13- 5 min cd
15 min easy Lift/plyos
5e, 5h, 4e, 4h, 3e, 3h, 2e, 2h, 1e, 1h, :30e, :30h - 5 CD
5 min wu- 1 mile in’s and out’s (100 stride straights (90%), 100 walk turns) 5 min CD
30 min easy
OFF

July 13-19
5 warmup- 3 min on 1 min off x 5- 5 min cool down
5 min wu- 30 sec on 90 sec off x 14- 5 min cd
15 min easy Lift/plyos
5e, 5h, 4e, 4h, 3e, 3h, 2e, 2h, 1e, 1h, :30e, :30h - 5 CD
5 min wu- 1.5 miles in’s and out’s (100 stride straights (90%), 100 walk turns) 5 min CD
30 min easy
OFF

July 20-26
5 warmup- 3 min on 1 min off x 5- 5 min cool down
5 min wu- 30 sec on 90 sec off x 15- 5 min cd
15 min easy Lift/plyos
5e, 5h, 4e, 4h, 3e, 3h, 2e, 2h, 1e, 1h, :30e, :30h - 5 CD
5 min wu- 1.5 miles in’s and out’s (100 stride straights (90%), 100 walk turns) 5 min CD
35 min easy
OFF

July 27- August 2
2x800 @+35 10-15 minute recovery- 3x300 @+15 5 minute recovery
20x200@+20 2:00 Recovery
4x350 @+16 5 Recovery-3x200@+11 3:00 Recovery
Ladder-600(+31)-400(+21)-200(+11)-400(+21)-600(+31) 5 Recovery
2 mile xc run timed
35 min run
OFF

Busy Weekend

This was a busy weekend for me. We had a group run Saturday morning, the group was still small but we had people show up so I hope the word keeps spreading about http://www.mcphersongroupruns.webs.com/.

Andy Woodward of Topeka finally signed this weekend. He had verbally committed a while back and just found time to come down and sign. Got to spend some time with Andy his sister Amanda and his mom. They are great people and I am very excited to have him in the program.


We also added Jessica Becker who just graduated from Bethany College this spring to our coaching staff. She will join us as Throws coach. Jessica just finished off her illustrious career.with a national championship in the shot put. She is going to be a great addition to the coaching staff.


Up next will be Mike Baxter and Ruben Martinez visit to campus. They will be arriving on Wednesday. I am very excited to have both of them here and show them around.

official training started

Yesterday marked the first day of training for the cross country team. This month will be spend on just building miles July will be the start of workouts. Intensity is at its lowest point of the year......153 days left to the conference meet.

Meg and Izzy's wedding

Was honored to be invited to Meg and Izzy's wedding this past weekend. It was a great day. I am so happy for the both of them. They were both glowing all day. I am excited to see them grow together. I wish them all the best.

Pangburn named Daktronics-NAIA Scholar-Athlete

Amanda Pangburn, junior from Albertville, Ala., and a 2006 graduate of Geraldine High School, was recently named NAIA/Daktronics track and field Scholar-Athlete for the 2009 season.

This was Pangburn first season competing in track and field for the Bulldogs after being part of the volleyball team the past three seasons.

“We are very proud of Amanda,” said Joe Eby, McPherson head coach. “This is a great honor to receive and it is nice to see her hard work in the classroom pay off.”

Pangburn competed in the javelin throw for the Lady Bulldogs this past spring.

Pangburn is an agriculture science major and is scheduled to graduate in the spring of 2010.

Recipients of the Daktronics-NAIA Scholar-Athlete award must have a minimum grade point average of 3.50 on a 4.00 scale, be a junior or above in academic standings, and been in attendance at the nominating institution a minimum of one full school year.

Setting up summer training

Before I left for nationals I wanted to have everything set up for summer training. Summer training for cross officially starts June 7th. Until then everyone is supposed to be building up or taking down time depending on when there season ended. We have several recruits that are still competing so they will need a short break before they get back into things. It could make the season very long if they do not take any down time. This summers program is a little less aggressive. I took some pages from the previous schools I worked with. They both had a lot of success during cross and I feel it will work well with our team as well. I am very excited for August 21st when we have our 3k Time Trial to see how things have played out over the summer.

Next up on my list is to put together a summer program for sprints, jumps, and throws.

Back from Traveling

Started my traveling off by heading out to San Francisco, California for the State Community College Meet. Got to see a lot of recruits talk to a lot of coaches and make great contacts. So all in all it was a good trip.

The day after I got back it was off to St. Louis for the NAIA Outdoor Track and Field National meet. It was a good meet and we had a great view from our hotel of the arch. On Friday Antwoine competed in the high jump. A miss at 6'7" cost him a spot on the All American stand. He would have been about 4th or 5th place. He was 7th place with a height of 6'9".



Saturday it was Andreas turn. She set a school record and made the finals for the first time at the national meet with a throw of 44'6" or 13.56m. She was also 7th place.

Both competed well so there is no complaints.

Now my attention shift totally to try to find some more recruits and finish up this years recruiting class strong. Things have been going well and I think I will sign a few more before its all said and done.

Few updates

Recruiting has been going well. We got a verbal commitment from Mike Baxter from Cuyahoga Falls Ohio. He has run 15:37 for 5k XC, 4:35 for mile and 9:46 for 3200. He will be a great addition to the team.


Last weekend we went to a last chance meet at Emporia. Lamb jumped the best he has all year he cleared 6'9" and i still don't know what he knocked the bar down with on his 6'10 3/4". Andrea Swanson set the school record at 13.28m and had a great overall series with all of her throws on the 13 m line or further. Leterius Ray ran in the 200 in 23.50, he had a bad start which did not help because he was in a fast heat. He ran even with the guys coming down the straight he just lost too much ground on the start. Megan Meyer went after the school record in the 5k, coming up a bit short but still ran her second best time of her carer. I am excited to see what she can do next year with more consistent training under her belt.

So now we wait a week till nationals. This weekend I will be off to San Francisco to do some more recruiting and hopefully seal the deal with some of the California Community college athletes. I leave Thursday, and arrive back home on Monday. Then I will turn around on Tuesday and leave for the National meet. Should be a fun filled couple of weeks.

Catching up

So it has been a while since I have posted last. Been busy trying to get recruiting and the team going. We are hosting the conference meet here at McPherson this weekend. I feel that the team is ready to go. We should have some individuals that will be competitive within the conference and will score us some points.

On the recruiting end of things we have had some good days and bad. Last Tuesday we got commitments from Garrett Sharp a 6'6" High Jumper and Andy Woodward who has vaulted 13'6". These will be a huge boost to the track team starting next December. I was also able to watch Jacob Jantzen run a PR in the 200 last Tuesday night. He ran 23.1. I have been talking with some good distance runners but they are all still in the midst of the admissions process. I hope to get them through this process soon and get them there packages so we can see where they stand for next year. If I were able to get one of them they would make a huge impact on the team.

I am going to try and do a better job of updating things on here from now on, hopefully after the season is done I will have time to stop and think for a few mins on a daily basis.

Good weekend

Antowine Lamb

McPherson Track and Field had a good weekend. We had an auto qualifier for nationals in Antowine Lamb who jumped 6-9.5 in the High Jump which currently leads the nation and is the new school record. Andrea Swansons throw of 41-08.75 in the shot also provisionally qualified her for the national meet.

Rachel Leuthold also set a school record in the Pole Vault with 10-08.

There were 6 collegiate PR's from the team at this meet as well.

The team is having another great week of practice with some great weather to go along.....

Sunday we also found out that Torey Fry of Wichita East will be joining the Lady Bulldogs starting next fall with cross country. So all in all a very good weekend.

Three commit

Yesterday was a good day of recruiting. I had three people commit to McPherson. We had Sam Bolin of Kansas City MO, Paula Carpenter of Cheney KS and Brian Reed of Fort Scott all tell me they want to sign letters of intent to run for McPherson next year. I am very excited to add the three of them.

Team Dynamics

There are some team leaders that are starting to emerge from the group slowly but surely. It is nice to have people that I can trust within the team. I had a class room session with the distance people to go over why they are doing the workouts and mileage that I am having them do. There were a few questions that came up on people wanting to know. I have wanted to do this since I got here but have felt strapped for time on a daily basis to fit in the things we need to do and get them off to night class, work, dinner or wherever else they go after practice. So on Thursday we had an easy run so I decided to do it then. I went into the classroom and drew up a big calender and put all of our long runs and workouts up and talked them through the progression of everything. The exciting part about the whole meeting was that the majority of the group came out of it very excited not only for this season but for next year. I am going to do a much more in depth talk at cross country camp next summer, but I feel that the majority of them understand and buy in to what I am trying to accomplish. I am looking forward to the next few weeks. We have been able to get our miles up and for the most part people are healthy. We still have a few aches and pains but they seem like they are getting better, and everyone is adjusting to the new workouts and mileage. I am still increasing the long runs and am going to cut back to one morning run a week on Wednesday to see if they handle that better. This past week I gave them the mornings off to try and get everyone healthy again. I think that the transition next fall will go much smoother with people having put in the base work during the summer. We have a long run today and I am excited to see what they can do, each week has looked better and better, so three weeks into long runs we should look the best we have. The goal for today is 75 to 80 minutes for the top guys and 65-70 for the younger guys.

Team Goals

Yesterday we had our first team goal session. We divided up into our different event groups and talked about what we want to accomplish as a group to make the team better. Then we reconvened to talk about what we can do as a team to become better and what we want to accomplish as a team this season. The conversations were good ones and the distance runners even came back after practice to talk some more about what they want to accomplish and where they want to go with the team. I am very excited to collect all of the information and put it together. They are buying into the changes that need to be made and I feel we are turning a corner.

Talbott signs with McPherson

McPherson College has announced the recent signing of Drew Talbott of Mishawaka, Ind ., and John Adams Heights High School of South Bend, Ind., to a track and field letter of intent for the 2009-2010 school year.

Joining Drew Talbott for his letter of intent signing were (front) his mother Nancy Talbott Young along with (back, left) McPherson College head coach Joseph Eby and Drew's father Mark Talbott.

The 6'2”, 150-pound Talbott lettered in cross country and track and field under coaches Savino Rivera and Bruce Urban.

Talbott was named the Eagles' most improved in cross country, and competed in the pole vault and ran the 400 and 800 meters for Adams ' 2008 sectional champions and regional runners-up track and field team.

“We are very excited to add someone who is excited about the sport of track and field as Drew is,” said recently hired McPherson College head coach Joseph Eby. “I think he will be a great addition to the team.”

Drew is the son of Nancy Talbott Young and Mark and Sheryl Talbott. He plans to major in automotive restoration technology.

Missouri Southern Meet

The Bulldogs traveled to Joplin, Mo., on Friday and Saturday for the Missouri Southern State University Radio Shack Invitational.

Competing on the six-lane, 200-meter flat St. John track of the Leggett & Platt Athletic Center, the Bulldogs came away with personal best by Mark Watson in the 60 and 200 meters, Ben Cummins in the 400 meters, David Parry in the 600 yards, Oliver Williams in the 800 meters, and season bests by Brent Bailey in the 1-mile and the 4x400 relay of Leterius Ray, David Parry, Ben Cummins, and Brent Bailey.

Fourth place finishes in the open section of the 1-mile by Brent Bailey and the distance medley relay of Bailey, Parry, Ray, and Oliver Williams were the Bulldogs top finishes of the weekend. Mark Watson and Leterius Ray placing fifth in the 60-meter and 600-yard dashes rounded out the Bulldogs’ top six finishes.

Andrea Swanson and Rachel Leuthold were the only females competing for the Bulldogs and both posted top eight finishes although neither met their season best set at the Kansas State Invitational.

The MSSU meet was the first time newly hired, McPherson head coach Joe Eby has had an opportunity to see the Bulldogs in a competitive situation.

"I was pleased with the overall performance of the team. I am excited for the future," Eby said.

Eby arrived on campus Jan. 31, and held his first team meeting with the indoor squad on Feb. 2. He has been holding individual meetings with the team members, who have been under the direction of assistant coaches Ryan Jilka and John Hudson since the beginning of workouts for the indoor season.

The next action for the Bulldogs will be their trip to Warrensburg, Mo., for the Central Missouri Classic on Feb. 20, where they will make one final attempt posting NAIA qualifying marks.

Missouri Southern Radio Shack Classic
February 6(a)-7, 2009 -- Joplin, MO
Leggett & Platt Athletic Center
(200 meter, flat track)
MEN —
60m Dash – 5. Mark Watson 7.14, 7.12p PB
200m Dash (a) – Mark Watson 23.83 PR; Jacob Kerbel 25.15; Ben Cummins 25.33
400m Dash – Ben Cummins 55.38 PB
600y Run – 5. Leterius Ray 1:16.71; 13. David Parry 1:19.76 PB
800m Run – 8. Oliver Williams 2:00.19 PB
1-Mile Run – 4. Brent Bailey 4:38.28 SB; Jason Pfoutz 5:39.25
3,000m Run (a) – Shaun Griffin 9:44.22; Josh Niles 10:40.29; Jason Pfoutz 11:51.37
5,000m Run – Shaun Griffin 17:01.32; Josh Niles 18:32.39
60m Hurdles – Jordan King 8.91p; Jacob Kerbel DQ
4x400m Relay – McPherson “A” 3:35.75; McPherson “B” 4:01.72
Distance Medley Relay (a) – 4. McPherson (Brent Bailey 3:23, David Parry 53.5, Leterius Ray 2:01, Oliver Williams 4:35) 10:53.39
High Jump – 8t. Seth Williams 6-00.75 (1.85)
Triple Jump – Jesse Jackson 36-11 (11.25)
Shot Put – Drew Griffin nm

WOMEN —
Pole Vault – 8. Rachel Leuthold 10-02.5 (3.11)
Shot Put – 7. Andrea Swanson 39-07.25 (12.07)

first team meeting

My name is Joe Eby, I am very excited to be here today and have the opportunity to lead this team into the future. I wanted to have this meeting to let you know where I stand from the start. I want this to be your team, so you will set the direction but I want to give you some guidelines. I not only want this to be a competitive team in the conference but at the national level as well. Everyone who is willing to put the time and effort in to becoming the best athlete they can is welcome on this team and I will do everything in my power to help you reach your goals. But remember that this is not a club sport this is collegiate athletics and I want you to treat it as such. This school and this program can be successful. I know what it takes to build a successful team and I want each and everyone of you to help shape a be a part of it. But I also want the commitment from each of you to make this the best TEAM that we can.

I am a big believer in athletics as a life style. To me this means a proper well balanced diet, at least 8+ hours of quality sleep a night, meaning going to be around the same time every night and getting up at the same time every morning. No drugs whether recreational or performance enhancing and no alcohol. Having said that I am not naive to thing that college kids do not and will not drink alcohol but there is a time and a place and in season is not that time and place. If you are under the age of 21 keep in mind that it is illegal for you to ever drink alcohol so be mindful of your decisions.

For most of you I am not going to intervene in your training. Your event coaches are the experts in there area and it is going to stay that way. There will be a few minor tweaks to some procedures but not major changes. The distance and mid distance and long sprints will see the greatest change and we will talk about that in a few minutes.

Eby named to lead Bulldog track & harriers

McPherson College has announced the hiring of Joseph Eby as head coach for cross country and track and field.

A 2004 graduate of NCAA D-III Mount Union College in Alliance, Ohio, where he received NCAA D-III All-American honors at 1,500 meters, Eby has spent the last 2 ½ years as assistant coach of middle distance and long sprinters, and recruiting coordinator for cross country and track & field at NCAA D-III Allegheny College in Meadville, Pennsylvania.

“I am pleased that Joe has chosen to join the McPherson College staff and athletic department,” said LaMonte Rothrock, McPherson College dean of students and athletic director, in making the announcement. “It is exciting to find a young man of the caliber and character of Joe to head our cross country and track programs. He comes with the highest of recommendations from Coach (Bill) Ross at Allegheny (College).”

“Joe brings a history of success in cross country and track, not only as an athlete but also as an assistant coach with two successful programs. Joe continues to run competitively and will bring a new level of enthusiasm to our programs.”

“Joe impressed the interview groups with the recruitment materials he has developed for DePauw and Allegheny and his expertise in recruiting solid student-athletes.”

“Joe will be moving to town and begin recruiting immediately. His focus will be on recruitment of student athletes for the fall if 2009.”

Eby plans to be on campus full-time beginning February 2nd.

“I am very excited about becoming head coach at McPherson College,” said Eby on accepting the McPherson position. “I was impressed with the people, the facilities, and the community on my visit to campus.”

“I’m excited about the student-athletes I had the opportunity to meet, their desire to get better and their goals, which were in line with what I believe is possible for them.”

During his time at Allegheny, Eby helped head coach Bill Ross direct the Gators’ cross country program to three NCAA D-III top 10 national championship team finishes, topped by a third place finish in 2006. In 2006 and 2007, both the Allegheny men’s and women’s teams qualified to the NCAA national championships. Under the directon of Ross and Eby, the Gators have won three consecutive North Coach Athletic Conference (NCAC) men’s cross country team titles along with the 2007 women’s crown.

On the track, Allegheny swept the 2007 NCAC men’s indoor and outdoor conference titles, and the women’s 2008 outdoor championship.

Eby tutored three Allegheny harriers to NCAA D-III All-American status. On the track, he coached three track and field All-Americans, five automatic and seven provisional NCAA national qualifiers.

Following his graduation from Mount Union College, Eby spent two successful years as a graduate assistant coach at DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana, while competing his Master’s degree at Indiana State University in Terre Haute.

At DePauw, he coached three NCAA D-III All-Americans in cross country and helped direct the Tigers’ men and women to top 15 finishes at the D-III National Championships.

During his time there, DePauw swept the 2004 and 2005 men’s and women’s Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference (SCAC) team cross country titles in addition to winning the 2005 and 2006 men’s and 2005 women’s SCAC outdoor track crowns. He coached DePauw athletes to seven men’s and nine women’s SCAC event titles as well as two NCAA D-III All-Americans, four automatic and six provisional qualifiers to the NCAA D-III National meets in indoor and outdoor track.

Joe received his Bachelor of Arts in physical education from Mount Union College in 2004 with minors in health education and exercise science.

As an undergraduate student-athlete, he received All-American recognition following his fifth place finish in the 1,500 meters at the 2002 NCAA Division III Indoor Track and Field Championships. He would go on to be a four-time All-Ohio D-III champion at 800 and 1,500 meters under coach John Homon, winning four Ohio Athletic Conference (OAC) titles and receiving all-conference honors 13 times including twice in cross country. He was named the MVP of the 2002 OAC Indoor Track & Field Championships. In 2003, he was D-III’s top ranked runner at 1,500 meters before injuries brought his season to a premature end.

With a personal best of 3:45.30 at 1,500 meters, Eby was the 2005 USATF Club Champion.

Still an active runner, Eby finished 82nd at the 2007 USATF National Cross Country Championships.

A USATF Level 1 certified coach, Eby has worked in all capacities of meet administration in both cross country and track.

He has developed and instituted strength, conditioning, and dynamic flexibility programs at both DePauw University and Allegheny College.

Eby graduated from Walsh Jesuit High School in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio. He is married to the former Becky Zink.

Tracksters compete well at K-State

A contingent of Bulldogs journeyed to Manhattan on Saturday to participate in the KSU Invitational and came away with a solid set of performances in their season opening appearance.

Leading the way with school records were freshman Rachel Leuthold in the pole vault and junior Mark Watson in the seldom run 300 meter dash.

Leuthold’s fourth place clearance of 10’6” (3.20m) in the vault, behind three Kansas State University vaulters, bettered the old school record of 10’2” by Terra Simouneau, set in 2003.

Two Bulldogs just missed hitting the necessary mark to qualify for the NAIA National Indoor Championships.

Sophomore Andrea Swanson threw the shot a collegiate personal best 40’7.5” (12.38m), just four centimeters (1.5”) short of the necessary provisional qualifying mark, to finish third behind two Oklahoma State University throwers.

Senior Jordan King’s time in the 60-meter hurdles of 8.67 was only 0.17 second off the provisional national qualifier as his finished sixth.

Also, placing in the top were Oliver Williams, sixth in the 1-mile run, Brent Bailey in the 800 meters, and the men’s 4x400 relay.

“I was really pleased with our performance as a whole today,” said McPherson College interim head coach Ryan Jilka. “It’s a little scary, the first meet back from Christmas break, to see where the kids are at.”

“I thought Leterius Ray ran a great 800 for this early in the season and came back and ran a heck of a split leading off the 4x400.”

“We had a new school record, Rachel (Leuthold) in the pole vault, with a vault of 10’6”. Rachel looked really good today. She has been working hard with (assistant coach) John (Hudson) on getting onto a 13-foot pole for the last few weeks and came ready to compete today.”

“Andrea Swanson was close to a provisional mark in the shot put. Andrea had one of her best throws of her career today and can use this momentum to help her in the upcoming meets.”

“I was also pleased with David Parry’s 600-yards and Jordan King’s 60 high hurdles. Jordan was 0.17 seconds from a provisional mark.”

“We are off for a couple weeks and will be able to get some solid weeks of training in before we compete next at Lincoln on Feb 6th.”

Next on the Bulldogs abbreviated three-meet indoor schedule this winter will be a trip north to Lincoln, Nebr., on Feb. 6 and 7, for the Frank Sevigne Husker Invitational on the banked, 200-meter oval of the University of Nebraska.

In addition to Saturday’s meet at Kansas State, the Bulldogs will travel to Lincoln, Nebr., for the University of Nebraska Frank Sevigne Husker Invitational on February 6-7, and to Warrensburg, Mo., for the Central Missouri Classic on Feb. 20.

Events at the Husker Invitational will begin at 12:00 noon on Friday, with Saturday’s schedule set to being at 9:30 a.m.

McPherson Results
KSU Invitational
January 17, 2009 -- Manhattan, KS
Ahearn Field House
(200 meter, flat track)
MEN —
60m Dash – Mark Watson 7.22 PBi
300m Dash – Mark Watson 38.57 SR; Jacob Kerbel 41.85; Evan Gurschick 43.77
600y Run – David Perry 1:20.14; Ben Cummins 1:22.85 PB
800m Run – 7. Brent Bailey 2:01.14 PB; Oliver Williams 2:01.77; Laterius Ray 2:03.80
1-Mile Run – 6. Oliver Williams 4:40.98; Shaun Griffin 5:08.47
60m Hurdles – 6. Jordan King 8.67; Jacob Kerbel 9.97
4x400m Relay – 7. McPherson 3:40.95
High Jump – Seth Williams nh
Triple Jump – Jesse Jackson 38-03.5 (11.67)
Shot Put – Drew Griffin 31-3.75 (9.54); Ben Denton 30-9 (9.37)

WOMEN –
Pole Vault – 4. Rachael Leuthold 10-6 (3.20) SR
Shot Put – 3. Andrea Swanson 40-7.5 (12.38) PR