Blog Archives

Racing at Northwood

8/31/2013

The middle school girls got the team off to a great start by winning over fourteen teams. Seventh Grader (also athlete of the meet) Alexis Roehl won the race by 52 seconds and set the table to help the girls score 26 points. Second place was Rugby with a score of 114. Seventh grader Mandy Williamson finished 3rd, followed by Eight grader Natalie Johnson 6th, Freshman Heather Barth 7th, and Eight grader Brenna Bertsch 9th.

The middle school boys were our second team to toe the line at Northwood. Eight grader Rex Stancliff led the team with a 7th place finish, followed by Seventh Grader Cole Oen 24th, Freshman Cedric Reese 29th, Seventh Grader Taylor Gagnon 38th, Seventh Grader Jacob "The Hornet" Newton 44th, and Seventh grader Seb Reese 45th. The middle school boys finished 4th out of 15 teams.

Northwood provide the first chance to have a JV boys division and the Central boys took advantage of that to finish 3rd (with 88 points) out of 12 teams. The top five boys for the Knights through the chute were Jr Thomas Devine 4th, Freshman Richie Osborn 5th, Soph Ryan Keogh 24th, Jr Shay Doward 25th, and Soph Darian Colgrove 30th.

The Varsity girls saw Regular EDC Powers Shanley and West Fargo for the first time this season. West Fargo showed that they are not going to let the Central girls move past them easly by winning the meet wtih 43 points compared to the girls second place finish with 80 points. Freshman Karly Ackely continued her great early season start with another win. Soph Grace Roehl finshed 6th, quickly followed by teammate Jr. Rachel Cox 8th, Eight grader Rachel Torrey was 19th, and Jr Jordyn Thomas was our fifth runner in 46th place.

After Sr Camron Roehl saw his two sisters run so well the pressure was on him to match their performances. And he did by winning the race by 34 seconds. Soph Leif Larson continue his breakout year by finishing 4th, Jr Chris Caraballo running in his second meet finished 9th. Senior Ben Wood moved up in the team standings to be our fourth runner and finish 11th. Soph David Hettich continued his huge improvement over last year and finished 14th. The boys won the meet over EDC power West Fargo 39 to 46. There were 16 teams in the meet.

Northwood on Thursday

8/28/2013

Tomorrow we have our second meet of the 2013 season in Northwood. Hopefully things will go as well as they did at Hillsboro. The meet starts at 4:15pm with the girls Jr. High 3k race. We will again see the Fargo Davies team along with West Fargo and most of the other teams we saw at Hillsboro.

It has been an unusual week of practice. The hot weather has changed our practice schedule. With the early dismissal of classes and the mandated practice times being either before 8am or after 7pm, we have been running at 6 am. Some of the runners love the earlier time and others are definitely sleep running through their first few miles, but there has been no complaining. They have come to early practice ready to go to work!

The above picture shows off all the HOT PINK shirts that the Knights won at the Hillsboro Early Bird meet on Saturday. Missing is Camron Roehl & Richie Osborne.

Captains Crunch - Week 2

8/25/2013

Wow! This week was very busy and a lot of fun. This week school started and we had our first meet in Hillsboro. The first day of practice after school started you could tell that people were a little bit tired but everyone stayed positive. It was over all a very hot week and there was a lot of humidity but everyone still tried to run everyday despite the heat and humidity. The Saturday meet in Hillsboro was a blast we had a first place finish in the junior high boys and girls. Alexis Roehl won for girls and Richie Osborne for the boys. Following their awesome performances was Karly Ackley in the varsity girls race who took first as well. In the varsity boys race our first finisher was Cameron who placed 2nd. Overall team places were really good the girls placed 2nd as a team just behind Fargo Davies and the boys Finished first beating Fargo Davies by one point. All the boys including myself were really happy with our performance as a whole. This was my first varsity team win that I was a part of. I was ecstatic when they announced that we won. It's very fun to be part of a team that won a first place trophy. All in all I was excited for everyone today and it was very fun to cheer and race with all my teammates.

Leif Larsen, Soph, Captain

As some of you may know, we finally got to run our first meet of the year at Hillsboro yesterday! While watching the girls in practice, I started to see who I thought were going to really stand out in the first couple of meets. But I had many surprises! In the Jr. High race, Mandy had an unforgettable first race! It was so great to watch all of her hard work pay off in that 3k. But, I'd have to say that watching the Jr.High race, one of our newest members to the team, Aislinn, was a big surprise as our sixth runner! Every time she would pass by the varsity girls cheering for her, she had the biggest smile on her face. That was really awesome to see. I would have to say the yesterday was a huge step in the right direction for the Knights. I'm really excited to see how well we can continue to perform.

Jordyn Thomas, Junior Captain

Great Start at Hillsboro

8/24/2013

The boys won the Hillsboro meet with a score of 28 points, barely nudging out last years runner up at the state meet Fargo Davies, 29 points. Davies Senior Brandon Scheel won the race, followed by Central's Camron Roehl and Leif Larsen. Rookie runner Chris Caraballo had a great first race by finishing 6th, followed by David Hettich, 8th, Keelan Murphy, 9th, Ben Wood 11th, and Ian Kelly 19th.

The girls finished second behind Fargo Davies's girls. Central's Karly Ackley won the race followed by Rachel Cox, Grace Roehl, Rachel Torrey, and Meghan Allan rounded out the top 5 for the Knights.

Seventh grader Alexis Roehl won the Jr High division and lead the girls to the team win.

Freshman Richie Osborn won the boys Jr High division by running down the leader at the finish line.

Athlete's of the meet: Seb Reese and Rachel Torrey

More to come once I receive the results.

Family BBQ/Parents Meeting - Hillsboro meet

8/23/2013

Last night we had our Family BBQ/Parents meeting at Lincoln Park. We had hamburger and hotdogs from the grill and tons of great food brought to us by the parents. It was a fun night to get to meet the parents and talk to them about the upcoming season.

There is a feel of excitement for the first meet tomorrow in Hillsboro by the parents, athletes, and coaches. I think everyone is ready to see how their hard work has paid off, get a measurement of how much have they improved.

Hillsboro will also provide some information on how good the teams are compared to other teams in the state. On the girls side teams will include Hillsboro who is defending class B state champions and preseason ranking of #1, also Fargo South girls #4 class A, and Davis Girls #2 class A. On the boys side Fargo Davis boys ranked #2 in the preseason poll will be the heavy favorites.

Captains Crunch - Week 1

8/20/2013

The season has finally started. It's crazy to think that this is going to be my last high school xc season. While this is my last season, my sister Alexis is starting her first season of cross. I'm glad that she has been around the sport for a few years so she has a base knowledge of what is going on. When I started I just ran where they told me to go. My other sister Grace will be entering her sophomore year, and after dodging an injury is running well. I'm really getting excited for the first meet. Our boys team is looking as good as I can remember. I only wish that I could spend a little more time with the team. Because I am in soccer as well as xc I have to balance practices, games, and meets. Fortunately no games and meets interfere with each other. For the past three weeks balancing practices has been easy run in the morning with the team go to soccer at four. With school coming up things are about to get harder. I will still probably run in the mornings but will have to get up much earlier. As a team we worked really hard this summer and I can't wait to see all that hard work pay off. It's going to be a fun season.

Camron Roehl, Senior, Captain

The second week of practice has so far been a hot one. But the girls have been nothing but positive! The older girls that have been running all summer were told to do their longer of their two runs in the morning and in the afternoon, run with some of the newer girls. I decided to run with Alexia Scott, an 8th grader who ran for the team last year, who was having some trouble with her ankle. She almost stopped and went 2 miles instead of 3, but said that I helped encourage her to do her full mileage even in the brutal weather. The girls are a combination of nerves and excitement for our first meet this Saturday in Hillsboro. For a lot of them, it will be their first cross country race ever. It's going to be really exciting to see how everyone's hard work will pay off!
This season is going to be really exciting for the girls! People will definitely be surprised!

Rachel Cox, Junior, Captain

week 1

8/18/2013

The first week of the 2013 cross country season went very well! We have gotten the new runners into the routine of practice and they are getting to know everyone. Some of the new runners have even braved jumping into the ice bath after runs, others have only lasted about a minute before deciding its too cold for them! Our first full team speed workout of Run-Bike-Run went very well at Lincoln Park. All 55 that started the workout finished the workout, it was great to see no one give up, and working hard. There were a lot of smiles afterward feeling the success of knowing they worked hard.

Week 2 is always one of the busiest weeks of the season. It looks like we are going to have our first days in the mid 90's on Monday and Tuesday. So the coaches are making adjustments to the workouts already and have moved our speed workout to Wednesday when it is supposed to be cooler. Wednesday is the first day of school for our 7th to 9th graders, and 10th-11th join them on Thursday. Thursday, at 6pm, at Lincoln Park is our family night BBQ. It is also our parents meeting after we eat, allowing the parents a chance to meet the coaches and ask questions. We will also be handing out our order forms for XC clothing.

Saturday finally brings our first meet of the season at Hillsboro, 10am, Aug 24th. The runners that have run all summer are super excited to see how much they have improved after all their hard work this summer. The new runners will get a chance to experience their first meet. There will be some very good teams at the first meet, Hillsboro Girls (#1 in class B), Fargo South Girls (#4 Class A), Fargo Davis Girls (#2 Class A), and Fargo Davis Boys (#2 Class A). Along with those ranked teams there will be several top 10 runners in both Class A, Class B, from both the boys and girls teams.

First 1000's of season

8/13/2013

We did our first 1000's of the training season for those that ran all summer. 1000 meter repeats are one of the main workouts for our team. Today's were run at tempo pace, which is slower than race pace with not much rest between each individual 1000m. We could tell that they put in some good strong miles during the summer. Most of the runners picked up the pace where they left off last season or even faster than their personal record.

Our new runners continued working on getting stronger and comfortable running some easy miles. Everyone will get a chance to try a speed work on Thursday when we do Run - Bike - Run at Lincoln Park Drive.

1st Day of practice

8/12/2013

Today was the first day of practice for the 2013 Cross Country season. It is always an exciting time, combined with questions. Who new is coming out? And of course the opposite side, who is not there that you hoped would be?

Central had a very good first day, 58 boys and girls showed up today! So different than when I first started 20 years ago, two decades, when we had 5 boys and 1 girl out for Central. Those first years Red River and Central practiced together with one head coach for both schools, because the numbers for both schools were so low.

We will spend the next 12 days of practice to get to know each other as teammates and get ready for our first meet at Hillsboro on Saturday Aug 24th.

Goofy Relays

8/9/2013

Today was the last day of summer running. I enjoy summer running, its a time for everyone to run together without the pressure of races, just working each other to improve and most of all have fun. We always end the summer with our Goofy Relays. There are races with cartwheels, golf ball on a spoon, bear crawl, running with large shoes, and ending with the twirling around the golf club to get dizzy.

Practice changes on Monday, we have to become more "formal" with taking attendance and forms that need to be signed by parents, and fees paid.. BUT soon we will have our first meet, Hillsboro, on the 24th. Everyone is excited to find out how much stronger and faster they are from the summer of hard work. I'm normally excited for the first meet, but this year the level of excitement is a little higher. Both teams have big goals, and more importantly they have done the work during the summer to achieve those goals. So lets start the 2013 season and enjoy the fun it will bring!