The Brewster Bear Classic
 Posted by ahhsxc on October 2, 2010 at 5:03 PM |
Jason Breaks Arnold's 5K Record!
Angelene and Robin medal in frosh race
Jason on his way to a new Hamilton record
After days of gloomy rain, the day dawned dry and bright. A crisp October
morning, just pefect for XC running. Once again a "skeleton" team of Hamilton's
most dedicated runners were climbing on to a 7am bus heading for another
race.The destination today was a new one, The Brewster Bear Classic. This was
our first visit to this event, but I doubt it will be our last.
As soon as we got off the bus we knew we were at a big meet. We walked past
the orange Nike bus, t-shirt vendors, food stands, and the multi colored tents of
the other 47 teams. Finally we found ourselves a nice, dry spot right across from
the p.a. system that was blasting music. Maybe it was the music or maybe the
large crowd, but you just got the feeling that today was going to be an exciting
day.
First race up was the girls' freshman race. Shanelle, Mikayla, Robin and
Angelene were filled with eagerness and couldn't wait to strip off their sweats
and toe the line. (Ok, so maybe I'm exaggerating a little) The girls' race was a
quick 1.5 miler. Robin and Angelene both finished in the medals coming in 17th
and 19th. Angelene also brought home a PR as did Mikayla both of them running
about a minute faster than previously. That was the first indication of what was
to happen later that morning. Ariel was up next. Running solo in the boys' frosh
race, he also set a PR slashing his time by about a minute. It quickly became
clear this Brewster course might be muddy, but it was obviously not slow.
Because of our bear bones roster (Come on you missing guys, you have to
show up for Saturday meets) a deciion was made to skip the varsity races and to
run our squads in the JV races. This meant that Jason and company would have
to run in a larger field, but we had no idea how much larger. The JV race took
off with 330 runners in it (see the video section of the site). At the blast of the
starter's horn our boys in red and white charged out with the rest of the mini
army that wound itself up the first grassy hill. The weather conditions were
perfect and Jason was ready to "seize the day"and run into the Hamilton record
books. He blazed through the course, his ninth place finish at 18:22 eclipsed
Arnold Lane's 2008 record of 18:40. This makes Jason now the top runner in
modern day Hamilton XC history. Hopefully, this is a record that will continue to
fall as Jason and Joel push each other through the rest of this season. Alexis
(21:45), James (23:15), Travis(25:37) and Isaiah(25:37) also all PRd as well.
Coming back from a DNF at Westlake, Brandon also PRd (23:27) and impressively
so after having to recover from being pushed and falling at the crowded start.
The girls' JV race found Dulce all alone on the starting line. Hats go off to
Dulce. Her courage, dedication, and determination to comeback from her
injured knee has been an inspiration to this team. Hoping to just get another
low stress 5k under her belt, she started the race just hoping to finish steady and
strong. However, the results wound up being better than that. She took
advantage of the relatively flat course to run a 26:08, only a minute slower that
her PR at the State Meet last season. We could not have hoped for a better
performance. Our finger remained crossed
It was a happy team that spent the rest of the meet soaking up the sunshine,
collecting free colored spikes and laces from the Nike bus and chilling to the
music. And as if things hadn't gone well enough for Coach Aiello. He also got to
see his son Dom PR and run into the #3 spot for New Ro. All in all a great day. It
almost makes you look forward to the next meet: our return to
Briarcliff.....almost.
Robin, Angelene and Jason bringing home the hardware
Angelene and Robin medal in frosh race
Jason on his way to a new Hamilton record
After days of gloomy rain, the day dawned dry and bright. A crisp October
morning, just pefect for XC running. Once again a "skeleton" team of Hamilton's
most dedicated runners were climbing on to a 7am bus heading for another
race.The destination today was a new one, The Brewster Bear Classic. This was
our first visit to this event, but I doubt it will be our last.
As soon as we got off the bus we knew we were at a big meet. We walked past
the orange Nike bus, t-shirt vendors, food stands, and the multi colored tents of
the other 47 teams. Finally we found ourselves a nice, dry spot right across from
the p.a. system that was blasting music. Maybe it was the music or maybe the
large crowd, but you just got the feeling that today was going to be an exciting
day.
First race up was the girls' freshman race. Shanelle, Mikayla, Robin and
Angelene were filled with eagerness and couldn't wait to strip off their sweats
and toe the line. (Ok, so maybe I'm exaggerating a little) The girls' race was a
quick 1.5 miler. Robin and Angelene both finished in the medals coming in 17th
and 19th. Angelene also brought home a PR as did Mikayla both of them running
about a minute faster than previously. That was the first indication of what was
to happen later that morning. Ariel was up next. Running solo in the boys' frosh
race, he also set a PR slashing his time by about a minute. It quickly became
clear this Brewster course might be muddy, but it was obviously not slow.
Because of our bear bones roster (Come on you missing guys, you have to
show up for Saturday meets) a deciion was made to skip the varsity races and to
run our squads in the JV races. This meant that Jason and company would have
to run in a larger field, but we had no idea how much larger. The JV race took
off with 330 runners in it (see the video section of the site). At the blast of the
starter's horn our boys in red and white charged out with the rest of the mini
army that wound itself up the first grassy hill. The weather conditions were
perfect and Jason was ready to "seize the day"and run into the Hamilton record
books. He blazed through the course, his ninth place finish at 18:22 eclipsed
Arnold Lane's 2008 record of 18:40. This makes Jason now the top runner in
modern day Hamilton XC history. Hopefully, this is a record that will continue to
fall as Jason and Joel push each other through the rest of this season. Alexis
(21:45), James (23:15), Travis(25:37) and Isaiah(25:37) also all PRd as well.
Coming back from a DNF at Westlake, Brandon also PRd (23:27) and impressively
so after having to recover from being pushed and falling at the crowded start.
The girls' JV race found Dulce all alone on the starting line. Hats go off to
Dulce. Her courage, dedication, and determination to comeback from her
injured knee has been an inspiration to this team. Hoping to just get another
low stress 5k under her belt, she started the race just hoping to finish steady and
strong. However, the results wound up being better than that. She took
advantage of the relatively flat course to run a 26:08, only a minute slower that
her PR at the State Meet last season. We could not have hoped for a better
performance. Our finger remained crossed
It was a happy team that spent the rest of the meet soaking up the sunshine,
collecting free colored spikes and laces from the Nike bus and chilling to the
music. And as if things hadn't gone well enough for Coach Aiello. He also got to
see his son Dom PR and run into the #3 spot for New Ro. All in all a great day. It
almost makes you look forward to the next meet: our return to
Briarcliff.....almost.
Robin, Angelene and Jason bringing home the hardware
