Week of April 16 - 20 & Panther Relays and Desert Hills Recap

Another week, another huge leap for PV Track and Field!  To say we are excited about all that is happening is an understatement.  This past week, we had dozens of PR's and SB's, we grabbed more Herriman Qualifiers and State Qualifiers and even saw two school records fall!  And we even hosted a viral video...
A great time was had by all at the Panther Relays.  We were able to relax a little and have some fun, while getting a great workout in.  We did push for two school records at meet.  The boys 4x800 came up just a little short; however the girls of Alli Baker, Jada Chepkwurui, Rylee Holt, and Jacey Finch posted a 9:51 setting the record by 5 seconds.
At the DH Invite, we fought through windy conditions on Friday to get many people to finals and finished well enough on Saturday to have the boys place 3rd and the girls place 4th.  We'll list out some top finishers and marks, but we must say, our favorite part of the meet was seeing the team rally around teammates - especially as we cheered on Claire in the HJ and all gathered to watch Dylan and Jakobe in the jar finals!  The meet started with Alex posting a SB in the 1600 and placing 3rd.  The girls medley team just missed on a SQ, but hit a top 10 time in the state to take 2nd.  The girls 3200 was a very strong event for us as Ellie PR'ed and placed 8th, Jessica took 6th, Rylee got a State Qualifier (5th), and so did Alli as she placed 3rd and set a new SCHOOL RECORD with an 11:07.36!  (We want to take a second and interrupt to just mention the unique awesomeness we are seeing right now - Alli is ranked in the top 3 for Utah Freshman in the 400, 800, 1600, and 3200 - she is the only girl ranked that high in three events let alone four... she is the best Freshman track athlete in the state of Utah without a doubt!).  In the boys 3200, we had numerous PR's including Mikey's 8th place and Logan's 6th place finishes.  The 110 hurdles had Jake placing 4th.  Samson placed 6th in the 100.  The boys 4x100 took 8th.  Jada made finals in the 400, however she was pulled to focus on her 800.  In the guys 400, Macen placed 6th and Samson took home the win.  Brianna took 7th in the 300h.  And on the boys side, Jake placed another excellent time in placing 2nd.  In a very competitive 800, Jada took 5th and Jacey narrowly missed her SQ in taking 3rd.  Alex was also just off the SQ in his 2nd place finish in the boys 800; Evan had a PR race and placed 7th.  We had two girls 4x400 teams battling it out, one sneaked in the 8th position.  While the boys 4x4 pushed to a 2nd place finish.  In a thrilling boys Jav final, Jakobe place 5th with a nice PR and Dylan hit his SQ and took 3rd with a PR.  Colin was able to take 7th in the LJ on a very busy weekend for him.  And Gina placed 8th in the Shot.  And finally, in her first High Jump ever, Claire not only took 2nd, but State Qualified!  Great job everyone.  Full results here.

Hey, guess what?... we have a busy week coming up!  We will have the Hurricane JV Meet on Tuesday, host a Youth meet on Wednesday, and go to the Dixie Invite on Friday and Saturday.  Here's the schedule for the week:
Monday - regular practice schedule (including most distance runners with an early morning long run).  Team meeting at 3:10 (after warm ups!) in the lecture hall.
Tuesday - JV Meet at Hurricane: start time has switched to 3:00.  MS'ers will be out at 1:30, and HS'ers will be out at 1:35.  Be thinking about what events you would like to compete in at this meet; entries are due Monday.  Meet Schedule (remember, start time has been moved to 3:00)
Wednesday - Youth Meet (K-8th) 3:50 - 6:00.  Please plan on being there to help with the meet after a short practice.  (Some distance runners will have an earlier practice to get their workout in - look at distance schedule.)
Thursday - regular practice schedule.
Friday and Saturday - Dixie Invite at DHS.  Unless there are changes (watch for texts for adjustments), HS will be out at 1:35 and MS out at 1:45 on Friday (the bus will come to both schools).  And on Saturday, we will leave from the HS at 7:45. Meet Schedule (go to the link and click "schedule" on the upper middle of the page.

As usual, athletes must ride the bus to participate and we highly encourage you to stay around and support the team even if you are being signed out by a parent.  Like we already said, one of the best things this past week, was having a big group out supporting our teammates as the meet was coming to an end.  No matter what some people say, TRACK IS A TEAM SPORT!  And those that understand that are feeling the energy of their teammates and understand that this is a special year we are having... let's keep that energy growing.

Thought for the week: "Great things... are never done by one person.  They're done by a team of people."  - Steve Jobs

A quick thought on this... Brooks has put together some formula to measure the "Best Team" in the nation.  By this they mean top athletes, JV athletes, the improvement athletes are having throughout the season, etc... It is a true measure of a full TRACK TEAM... Everyone on a team.  And right now, the boys are ranked #3 in Utah and the girls are ranked #2!  This is exactly what it is all about.  We are a team where everyone can contribute and be a part of something much bigger than self.  Thank you, all of you, for everything you do for each other.  Let's recognize some of these great contributors/supporters by getting your Athlete of the Week nominees in.  You can look at these rankings on our athletic.net page.