Great News! // All Conference Awards

 The conference meet was on Saturday morning but All Conference Awards were just announced on Tuesday morning.

Earlier in the day, I saw a social media post from the boys' coaches showing the runners from the boys team who were all conference so I knew that the announcement had been made, but they weren't showing anything about the girls yet.  Then, just minutes before the high school day was over, the girls' coaches announced the four runners from the girls team who were awarded. 

Congratulations to Marissa on receiving All Conference for the first time for Cross Country. This was another one of her goals for her senior year so it was exciting to see that she had achieved another goal for her final season.  (Last year she received an honorable mention but she has never won all conference outright for cross season).  

Congratulations also to Joey, Sammy, and Eden for their All Conference bids.

XC at the FlatRock Invitational

 On Saturday the girls raced down in Carmel at the Flat Rock Invitational.  

This would be our first experience running at this particular invite because in the past, we would run up at New Prairie in preparation for the Semi-State course.  Now, since our post season has been changed around and they not only eliminated Semi-state completely, but the Tigers will now run at the New Haven  Regionals instead of New Prairie, there wasn't a reason to run the New Prairie invite anymore and the team headed south instead.   It was an early morning for all of us as the girls had to be at the school around 5:30 a.m. and Noel, Nolan and I left our house around 6:45 in order to get there in time to watch the boys race, which went at 9:00.  Our varsity girls would run at 9:30 and then Melayna would run the JV race at 11:30.

The Flat Rock Invitation is a 5K course that is hosted by a large church in Carmel so after we were parked in the church parking lot, we walked across the campus and found other parents around the course.  We got there in time to hear the National Anthem and to see the unique fly-over that had been arranged.  The weather was perfect, it was an absolutely gorgeous day, and the course is known for being fast so we were looking forward to a great day.

And they're off!  Delta currently has the fastest ranked runner in the state with our lead runner ranking 4th currently.  They both ran new PR's and proved that this was indeed a fast course.

After they ran past the crowd at the beginning of the race, we went to another part of the course where we were told that we would be able to see them three more times as the course just went in a large loop and then smaller loops several times before heading off towards the finish.  (Neither Marissa nor Melayna were fans of the "never ending" loops because it seemed as if the race would never end.  LOL)

When Marissa passed by us, she was looking strong again and was running in the third position overall for our team.

And then the second time she passed, she  had gone through the large crowd and was able to stride out a bit more and have room for herself to move around.  Her times were still looking good.

After she passed us the second time, we would quickly make our way towards the finish line where you didn't see them until they came over a hill and ran downhill all the way to the finish line.  The winner won with a blazing new course record of 17:02 and Marissa also ran a new PR once again with a time of 19:49!

Congratulations Marissa on moving up on the Sub 20 board

There were a couple of other divisions before Melayna was set to race, so while Noel walked along the course to see what it was like back in the woods, Nolan and I went over to the church's fitness area and he played and got out some extra energy for about an hour.

Then it was time for the JV race and Melayna's turn to run.  The JV team had a quick huddle before the start and then they were off.  Once again, we headed back over to the place high up on the course so we could see them as they ran past us a couple of times.

I love how Melayna seems to be the only one looking at the camera...and that smile!

Melayna didn't like the course and didn't feel like she ran well, but she still finished the day with a two  second PR and a new time to beat of 23:43.

That's enough to make us all celebrate!!

Almost all of the varsity girls ran new PR with several JV runners also besting their previous times and our varsity girls placed 7th out of 20 teams.  (We will compete against 18 of them again at the state meet if we advance to state so the coaches were definitely encouraged by the performance).

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When we got home from the meet, one of the other moms said that she had been taking pictures of the senior runners all season long but had forgotten to give pictures of  Marissa to me previously so she sent a few pictures over to me.  Since I don't know the specific meets that they are from, I'll just post all of them here in no specific order:

NLC Meet #2 // Round Robin

 On Tuesday, September 12th, the Lady Tigers would host the second round robin for the NLC conference.  I have to say that it was a beautiful night and the weather was perfect running weather.  The girls were excited and ready to go, that's for sure.  In fact, when I saw Marissa before the race began, she looked really serious and wasn't smiling.  Because she hasn't felt well in recent weeks and is struggling with some medical issues, I was afraid that she wasn't doing very good but she came over to hug me and when I asked her how she was feeling, she said that in fact (thankfully), she was in the zone and really ready to just get the racing started.

Warm up and stretching before the NLC race begins...

...and then the team huddle, last minute instructions, and prayers.

And then final run-outs before.

At the start...

As soon as the girls passed us at the start, I turned to walk across the field to see them two separate times as they ran through the course.

Eden (from our team) is the first girl in this picture but you can see Marissa a couple of runners back.  She was so frustrated when she passed by that first time because she was almost boxed in and couldn't stride out down the hill.  She finally got to a place where she could run around them and break free from that pack.

And then just a short while later, Melayna passed me at the same spot as she headed towards the woods.

I'm so thankful for Moms who stand at different places throughout the course and also take pictures of my girls since we can't all be at all of the places.

The girls would pass me one more time and then I would turn and head back towards the finish line to watch the final stretch.  Up to the 3k mark, the girls were both on track to run new PR's, but could they hold that same pace?

And then as Marissa ran down that final home stretch towards a 7th place finish and a brand new PR time of 19:55!!   You can see the look of determination on her face as she fought for every single place on that race to the line.  In this picture, there is a pretty good size gap between Marissa and her teammate, but by the time they crossed the finish line, there was less than a second between them.  (Marissa was in tears after the race because she has wanted to get under 20 minutes for a really long time and finally hit that mark.  Welcome to the "Sub 20 Club" Marissa.  We are so proud of you!!

We were still celebrating a huge finish for Marissa when I noticed that Melayna was also running to the line well ahead of her previous times and positions.  She would also run a great race and finish with a new PR of 23:45, getting under 24 minutes for the first time.

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The next day, this picture was posted to the Instagram site for Warsaw Girls XC

And then again as her proud older sister reposted it...

And then the write up on the athletic website.

Congratulations Lady Tiger on going 14-0 in Round Robin action.  Now you are guaranteed at least a share of the NLC conference title.