Blog for April 20-21

Friday, April 20, 2007

Vandy is also considered a home meet, so no road trip this weekend.

The ladies did their shake out on their own.

Saturday, April 21, 2007

11:00 a.m. Sprinters departed from loading dock. Christa began her warm up for the pole vault.

12:00 p.m. Christa felt good and she wanted to open at 10 feet. It was a good idea to start at that height because the week before, we felt that we took too many jumps. By the time she got to 11’ 7”, she was fatigued. She finally got a chance to use those new poles.

11:55 a.m. The 4x100m relay team (Pollock, Rives, Giles, and Turner) began their warm-up.

12:55 p.m. The team of Pollock, Rives, Giles and Turner put together a spectacular performance. I wasn’t shocked or surprised to see them come two tenths of a second away from qualifying for the Mideast Regional. They crushed the school record that they set just last week. The Regional qualifying time is 45.70 and we ran 45.90. We are knocking on the door.

2:25 p.m. Jess and Lynette warmed up for the 100m but were taking too long to get to the start. I don’t know where they did their warm up, but it wasn’t where the rest of the girls who were participating in the 100m did theirs. I like the girls to get a few block starts before the race and they made me a little nervous by getting there 10 minutes before the start.

Lynette was in the first heat. She had a really good start and ran a technically sound race. She didn’t have any room for error. Lynette ran 11.71, a P.R. and a Regional qualifying time.

Jess ran in the second heat. She didn’t have a great start, but it was good enough to put her in position to run a P.R. Jess was less than two tenths of a second away from qualifying for the Mideast NCAA Regional. The qualifying standard is 11.75. Jess ran 11.90.

2:30 p.m. Britney and Khalia began their warm up for the 400m. I walked over to give them some coaching points, but Khalia had this look in her eyes like something was on her mind. I didn’t want to put too many technical pointers on their mind.

3:20 p.m. Turner was in a solid heat. The competition was stiff. She got out to a good start but seemed not to have enough in the tank to finish as strong as I would have like her to finish, but I saw she had a lot on her mind during her warm up. Maybe she’s a little happier because we notice that her status has changed on her Facebook page. It stated that she was no longer single. Wish that would have happen before the race…lol

3:20 p.m. I spoke to Britney prior to the race and told her to go out and sprint the first 200 meters, and that’s what she did. Britney had a better finish and she dropped her time slightly. All I ask is that we improve every weekend and let us not give our food away to bystanders. I don’t think she heard me…Do not give our cold Gatorades away to those who wouldn’t take things away from their team mates and give it to you.

3:55 p.m. Rives and Giles began their warm-up for the 200m and Liz (Grandma) began her warm up for the triple jump.

4:10 p.m. Rives got out of the blocks with aggression. She caught the girl in the lane next to her within four strides. It was an awesome race. Lynette picked up another NCAA Regional Qualifying time and another P.R. by clocking 23.71 in the 200m.

Jess got out of the block really well, but was a little shocked when the girl in the lane next to her collapsed on the track. I guess she was trying to keep up with Jess. But anyway, Jess didn’t finish as strong as I would have liked her to. She cruised through the finish line. Jess didn’t P.R. but she still ran 24.40, which is no walk in the park.

Big Lizz began her warm up for the 400 hurdles.

4:30 p.m. Little Liz did some good things in the triple jump, but overall, we still need to improve on the third phase and clean up the landing. Liz was a little disappointed. We are going to work on patience. If Liz doesn’t perform well, she gets a little down. That’s a great attitude to have, but we have to work on that attitude. Check out this 3rd phase... not bad. Just need to put it all together.

5:00 p.m. Big Lizz had an awesome race. She ran an NCAA Mideast Region qualifying time and P.R. by clocking 59.88 in the 400 hurdles. Once Lizz got over the first hurdle, I knew she was going to finish strong. All we have to do with Lizz is to get her to attack each hurdle and snap the trail leg through.

5:45 p.m. The team of Khalia, Jess, Lynette and Britney shattered the school record and was two seconds off the qualifying standard. Britney came up big for us as Big Lizz couldn’t recover in time to run on the 4x4.

Overall, we had a great weekend.