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Cross Country
vs Nuttycombe Invitational
The University of Utah Athletics
Coach Kepler's Weekly Recap - Week 2
9/11/2007 12:00 AM | Cross Country
Sept. 11, 2007
BYU Autumn Classic Photo Gallery
It's amazing to think that it is already mid-September and we've had two meets. It seems like practice just began and school started last week. Up to this point in the season, it has gone fairly well. Our effort as a group has been very good. We're a tactical error away in two races from running very well. Injuries have been fairly minimal to this point (knock on wood).
Our first meet at Utah State was run on a unique course with varying terrain. Parts of the course were very rocky and the footing less than ideal. The temperature that afternoon was well into the nineties, however, our athletes dealt with the conditions quite well. Our emphasis in racing and training so far this year has been to run together early and then finish strong. Our 1-5 elapsed time was only :57 seconds which was good to see. Overall, the trip was a good way to start the season.
Meet No. 2 was last weekend at BYU. Other than not getting out at the start well enough, I though we ran a solid race. Our 1-5 elapsed time was only :51 seconds compared to about 2:30 a year ago on the same course on a similar day. The other huge positive was how much faster this years top five ran this course compared to a year ago. With four of the runners the same as a year ago we combined to run 6:09 faster as a group than in 2006...now that is some serious improvement.
At both USU and BYU, we were led by true freshman, Lauren Lewis (Yuba City, CA). Lauren came into the season in excellent shape and has done a great job of taking on her unexpected role of team leader. Oddly enough, in my first three seasons here at Utah as the head coach, we've had a freshman be our number one runner each year. The rest of our group has also done a nice job. A couple of them are fighting off some minor injuries. We have also held out Alyssa Abbott (Reno, NV) as she competed into June during the track season. However, we look to add her to the lineup very soon.
This is a group of very talented and poised young women. I am looking forward to traveling with them as they are also a very close knit group who enjoys giving their coach a hard time whenever they can - I'm an easy target most of the time!
We have some much bigger meets looming on the schedule. We will run at Montana State this weekend. This is a meet that our kids love. The course utilizes a local golf course with a few hills in the first mile. After that it is flat and fast. I considered doing something different this year, but the athletes really wanted to keep this meet on the schedule.
We have performed very well here the last two years and the drive up there is beautiful at this time of the year. You never know what wildlife you might see in Yellowstone National Park. Last year it was snowing in Yellowstone as we drove through on our way home.
Former Ute runner Ashlee Warnick recently moved to Bozeman, so we will eat dinner with her on Friday night. She will be at the meet to cheer on some of her former teammates. Ashlee worked as our student assistant last year after exhausting her eligibility. She is very much missed by all of us and it will be great to see her. I'll check back in after MSU as we'll have two solid weeks of training before going to Stanford.
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