McPherson Open

McPherson, Kan. – The McPherson College track and field team opened the 2010 outdoor season on a high note, as sophomore David Parry won the 800-meters and junior Andrea Swanson posted an NAIA National ‘B’ Standard throw in the shot put Saturday afternoon at McPherson Stadium.

“I was pleased with our performance,” said McPherson coach Joe Eby. “We had some solid performances for the start of the outdoor season and even a few PR’s. I am excited to see what we can do in the weeks to come. It will be nice to be able to compete on a more regular basis from here on out. I think it will help without team progress. We still have some things to work on, but we are going in a great direction."

In the men’s 800 meters, Parry held a slight lead over Tabor’s Justin Ball coming into the final 100-meters of the race. It was a sprint between the two athletes with Parry edging Ball at the line with a time of 1:58.77.

Coming off a recent trip to the NAIA Indoor National Meet in Johnson City, Tenn., Swanson took third in the shot put with a throw of 12.91 meters. The throw was good for third place behind Mollie Dahl (13.96 meters) and Amber Dunham (13.22 meters) of Bethany College.

Other highlights on the women’s side included freshman Shireana Robinson finishing fourth in both the women’s 100 meter and 200 meter dash with times of 13.01 seconds and 27.43, respectively. The meet was the first of Robinson’s career. Along with Robinson, sophomore Rachel Leuthold took third in the pole vault with a vault of 3.20 meters.

On the men’s side, sophomore Javier Ceja was the top collegiate finisher, but second overall in the 1500 meters. Ceja posted a time of 4:15.23. Other notables included freshman Kyle Smith taking fourth in the 5,000 meters (16:40.83), freshman Ben Barker finishing eighth in the 100 and 200 meter dash (11.41; 23.15), freshman Garret Sharp took sixth in the high jump (1.78 meters), and freshman Grant Miller finished eighth in the men’s hammer throw at 35.65 meters.

The men’s 4x100 meter relay team finished in the third position with a time of 44.10.

The Bulldogs will now prepare for next weekend’s Tabor Invite. The meet is schedule to begin at 10:00 a.m. in Hillsboro, Kan.

New Signings

Lots of new signings check them out on the McPherson website http://www.mcpherson.edu/athletics/track/11/signings.asp

NAIA indoor nationals in Johnson City TN

Johnson City, Tenn. – McPherson College’s Mitch Krier, Andrea Swanson and Javier Ceja came away from their national championship meet appearance with mixed emotions, but having gained invaluable experience at the national level.

Krier was the top Bulldog finishing in fifth place in the men’s pole vault with a vault of 4.85 meters to seal his place as an NAIA All-American. Krier cleared both his opening height of 4.70 meters and 4.85 meters on his first attempt, but failed on his attempts at 5.00 meters.

Ceja, who competed on Friday in the men’s 5,000 meters finished in 31st place with a time of 15:43.59.

On the women’s side, junior Andrea Swanson threw 42’8”, improving on her previous nationals mark of 40’5.5”. Swanson ended the meet in 12th place out of 29 participants.

The Bulldogs will open their 2010 outdoor season next Saturday, March 13, when they host their annual McPherson Invitational.

Bulldogs Fare Well at Central Missouri

The bulldog track team was in full swing this past weekend, making the trip to Warrensburg, Missouri home of the Central Missouri Mules for the Mule Relays. The women competing on Friday were Andrea Swanson in the women's weight throw and the shot put, Rachel Leuthold in the Pole Vault and Torey Fry in the 1600m. All three women competed very well. Swanson threw the Weight Throw for the very first time in competition and set the new school record at 42'1.25'' placing 12th overall. In the shot put swanson placed 4th with a throw of 42' 6.25''. Leuthold cleared 10'2'' which placed her 6th overall at the meet. Rachel had some very good attempts at 10'8'' and we are very excited. To finish out the day, Torey Fry competed in the women's 1600m with a time 6:45.35. All in all the women competed very well and we are excited to see what they can continue to do in the future!

The men traveled to Central Missouri on Saturday to give it there all at the Mule Relays. Everyone showed up to compete and it was a great day for an indoor track meet. Grant Miller and Steve McCrate competed in the Weight Throw, both throwing season bests. Garret Sharp competed in the High Jump, showing some improvments. Mitchell Krier won the Men's Pole Vault with a clearance of 16'.75'' and had 2 very good attempts at 17'. The Bulldog sprinters runing in the 60m were Ben Barker, Gini Ibe and Ratt Muor. Leterius Ray and David Johnson competed in the 600. Kyle Smith ran the 1600m. All of them competed well.




Women's Results
Men's Results

Amador Signs letter of intent for Spring 2010

Jason Amador of San Bernardino, California signed a letter of intent for the Bulldogs for this spring. Jason is a great addition to the McPherson squad and will help us on the track in the long sprints.

Clary Sign Letter of Intent

Evan Clary of McPherson, KS signed with the Bulldogs Track and Field program. Evan will be a great addition to our throws program. He is a natural born leader and very coachable. We are very excited that Evan has choosen McPherson College and feel that he will be transformed into a National Caliber thrower.

Three Sign for the Bulldog 2010-2011 Recruiting Class

McPherson College CC/TF team has signed three standout athletes to join the Bulldogs for the 2010-2011 Recruiting Class.

Callie Colden of Kirk, Colorado has signed letters of intent with Track and Field and Volleyball. We are very excited to add Callie to our roster next season and feel that she will help to make our Womens program stronger. Callie comes to us from Liberty High School in Joes, Colorado. For the Bulldogs Callie will compete in the short sprints and the triple jump.

Joe Sumpter of Downs, Kansas has signed a letter of intent to join the Bulldogs 2010-2011 recruiting class. Joe joins us from Osborne High School and will hurdle for the Bulldogs. We are very excited to add Joe to our Roster and feel that he will be a great addition to our squad.

Emily Girard of Osborne, Kansas will join the Bulldogs for the 2010-2011 track and field recruiting class. Emily is also joining the womens volleyball team here at McPherson. Emily comes to us from Osborne High School. Emily will hurdle for the bulldogs and we are very excited to add her to the team.

Swanson Qualifies for Nationals as Bulldogs Compete well at Ward Haylett Invite

Saturday January 9th, the Bulldog Track and Field squad competed at the Ward Haylett Invite hosted by Doane College in Crete, Nebraska. The morning started off quite early for the Dogs with a departure time of 4:45am...yes that's right, am!! Our trek to Crete, Nebraska was a smooth one and when pulling into town with the temperature at a whopping negative 14 degrees, the team and coaching staff were all excited that we were competing indoors!!!

The meet went smoothly and the Bulldogs competed very well. Andrea Swanson, a senior from Littleton, Colorado posted an "A" standard mark in the Women's Shot Put with a toss of 42'9''. This mark places Swanson currently #3 in the event for the NAIA this season. On the Men's side, Freshman Grant Miller out of St. Johns, KS competed for the first time in the Weight Throw.

Mitchell Krier walked away with a win this past weekend in the Pole Vault with a jump of 15'5''. Krier is currently ranked #1 in the Pole Vault for this season in the NAIA. Also competing in the Vault for the first time this season was Andy Woodward who posted a mark of 12'1.5'' after coming off of injury. On the women's side, Rachel Leuthold also competed in the Vault. Garret Sharp competed in the High Jump.

The "Rodent" crew was out in full force at the Ward Haylett Invite. Our sprint crew on the Men's side; Ben Barker a freshman from Muskogee, Oklahoma and Juniors Ginikachi Ibe and Rattanak Munor from San Jose, California competed on the track for the first time this season in the 55m and the 200m dash. Also competing in the 55m was Freshmen Drew Talbott and in the 200m dash was Talbott and Senior Ryan Brown. On the Women's side for the 55m sprint was Junior Transfer out of Washington, Sonia Fuentes.

The distance crew showed up for the Men's 3k Saturday afternoon and competed well. Senior Shaun Griffin, Junior Matt Brown and Freshmen Kyle Smith, Dan Meibaum, David Johnson and Fred Miller were among the Bulldogs racing at Doan College. Senior Leterius Ray competed in the 800m run.

All in all the Bulldogs of McPherson College were a force to be reckoned with at the Ward Haylett Invite. The Bulldogs are off for three weeks of hard workouts preparing for the Sooner Invite at the University of Oklahoma in Norman, Oklahoma on February 6th.

Complete Results

Back in McPherson

Monday was the first day of practice. We have some new faces on the team. We have three people who have transferred in at semester. Javier Ceja a 5k, 10k runner from California, Tony Leal a 400, 800 runner from Hartnell College in California and Sonia Fuentes a sprinter hurdler from Washington. The team has been working very hard the past few days. Everyone is sore from new drills and exercises we have added. I am very excited about the group we have for this track season. We have an exciting season ahead of us. Stay tuned our first meet is this weekend at Doane College in Nebraska.

Bulldogs open Indoor Track Season with Krier breaking school record and qulaifying for Nationals

Bulldogs compete at KU


December 5th the Bulldogs competed in the 2009 Bob Timmons Challenge at the University of Kansas. With lots of excitement and enthusiasm the Bulldogs came to compete and did some good things on the track and in the field.


Mitchell Krier of Sterling, Colorado breaks school record and qualifies an "A" standard for the 2010 NAIA Indoor National meet with a mark of 15'7''.





Other Bulldogs competing were Mike Baxter who placed 6th in the 3000m, Kyle Smith placing 8th in the 3000m, Garrett Sharp in the high jump, Rachel Leuthold and Drew Talbott in the Pole Vualt, Ryan Brown in the 400m, Leterius Ray in the 600yd, David Johnson in the 800m and David Parry in the 1600m.


We were excited to have an early meet, before winter break, to see what everyone could do. All in all everyone showed up and competed. The coaching staff was pleased with the days performances and really excited for the Indoor Track season to be in full force.


Complete Results


Bulldogs Jump at KSU All-Comers

December 12th a skeleton crew of three jumpers made the trip to Manhattan, Kansas for the KSU All-Comers Indoor Meet.


Mitchell Krier broke the school record and improved his National Qualifying mark with a jump of 16' 00.75'' good enough to place 2nd.


Also jumping for the Bulldogs was Freshman Garrett Sharp of Chanute, Kansas. Sharp jumped a season best of 6'2.25''. Senior Leterius Ray competed in the Long Jump for McPherson. He finished with a jump of 17'11.75''.




Complete Results

Cross Country finishes 4th and 9th at KCAC Championship meet

The McPherson College cross country teams finished their seasons at the KCAC Cross Country Championships on Saturday morning at Lake Afton Park in Goddard, Kan. The men finished fourth overall, while the women turned in a ninth place finish.



Freshman Mike Baxter was the top finisher for the Bulldogs men. Baxter crossed the line in 27:11.00, good for 16th place and a life time PR for 8k. Finishing 17th, and second for the men, was senior Shaun Griffin with a time of 27:12.00. Freshman Kyle Smith finished third for the Bulldogs at the 27:40.00 mark.

Sophomore David Parry and junior Matt Brown rounded out the top five, finishing with a time of 29:11.09 and 30:59.00, respectively.

1 mile 2 mile 3 mile 4 mile 8k
1 Mike Baxter 05:09.0 10:35.0 16:20.0 22:15.0 27:11.0
2 Shaun Griffin 05:09.0 10:29.0 16:17.0 22:08.0 27:12.0
3 Kyle Smith 05:08.0 10:39.0 16:26.0 21:54.0 27:40.0
4 David Parry 05:31.0 11:27.0 17:39.0 23:46.0 29:11.0
5 Matt Brown 05:27.0 11:31.0 18:01.0 24:43.0 30:59.0
7 Fred Miller 06:39.0 13:07.0 20:09.0 27:06.0 33:02.0
8 Zach Dowling 06:27.0 13:22.0 20:39.0 27:37.0 34:04.0
9 David Johnson 06:58.0 14:40.0 22:44.0 27:47.0 34:30.0



"I was really proud of the guys", said coach Eby,"they ran well at the biggest meet of the year and improved on last years place. Its a step in the right direction."

men's results

For the women, sophomore Kati Beam paced the women with her time of 22:19.00, good for 43rd place. Sophomore Katie Logan was the second runner to cross the finish line for McPherson, posting a time of 22:26.41. Freshman Torey Fry finished third, while sophomore Krissa Fuentes took fourth for the Bulldogs with times of 22:48 and 23:20, respectively. Junior Katey Taylor rounds out the top five women’s finishers with a time of 24:25.

women's results

1 mile 2 mile 5k
1 Katie Logan 06:28.0 14:00.0 22:25.0
2 Kati Beam 06:32.0 14:04.0 22:18.0
3 Torey Fry 06:43.0 14:23.0 22:47.0
4 Krissa Fuentes 06:46.0 14:33.0 23:18.0
5 Katey Taylor 07:15.0 15:22.0 24:25.0




Coach Eby said, "It was great to see the girls place as a team at the conference for the first time in a long time, this is also a huge step in the right direction. Overall we just need to continue to build on the momentum we have started this year. If we keep going in this direction the future of McPherson Cross Country will be very bright."

NAIA Mid-States @ Southwestern

The McPherson College men’s and women’s cross country teams competed at the NAIA Mid-State Classic Saturday morning. The Bulldog men finished 17th of 22 teams, while the women place 20th of 22 in the annual event hosted by Southwestern College.

The meet consisted of over 170 runners for 22 teams.

Colorado College won the men’s team title with 125 points, barely edging the Wayland Baptist Pioneers, who finished with 126 points. Sophomore Silas Kisorio of Oklahoma Christian University won the individual men’s title with an 8k time of 24:50.86.

Freshman Kyle Smith was the first Bulldog to cross the finish line at 28:01.70 (89th place), followed closely by fellow freshman Mike Baxter at 28:08.68.

Sophomore David Perry (167th, 30:37.62), junior Matt Brown (191st, 32:18.08), freshman Dan Meibaum (204th, 34:32.43), freshman Fred Miller (208th, 35:59.70), senior Zach Dowling (212th, 37:14.31) and freshman David Johnson (215th, 40:34.08) as ran for McPherson.

On the women’s side, Kansas Wesleyan University won the overall team title. The individual women’s title went to Francine Nzilampa as she completed the course in 17:41.29.

Sophomore Katie Logan was the top finisher for the Bulldogs. Logan finished in 89th place with a time of 21:44.95, the 18th fastest women’s 5k time in McPherson College history. Sophomore Kati Beam and freshman Torey Fry were the next to finish for McPherson. Beam finished in a time of 22:39.85, while Fry finished at 22:56.62.

Sophomore Krissa Fuentes (133rd, 23:09.00) and junior Katey Taylor (155th 25:26.80) also competed for the Bulldogs.

The KCAC Championships are scheduled for November 7in Wichita. Winners at the KCAC meet will receive the automatic bid to the NAIA National cross country meet.

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.