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Tugman Park from home

May 18, 2018 (Afternoon)

Exercise Type: Run

Comments:
Ran mid-afternoon (can't remember why we waited, or what we did in the AM).

STATE MEET: Big picture, great day; smaller picture, a strikes-and-gutters day for me as a coach:

* Hunter ran a dismal third in the 1500m. We talked about him "staying in contact" with the leader. He was too far back and essentially took a 3K approach to his 1500m: too conservative, and he ran out of time and distance. Emmett Klus from Burns got out (not too fast) and gapped Hunter and Jack Casalino. Hunter and Jack made up the gap, about 20m, from 600 to 1000, but the moment they caught up, Emmett (a 1:57 and 4:0x guy) took off. Big gap. Jack passed Hunter, and Hunter -- still running low 60s for a final lap -- finished 3rd. Bummer.

* Maddy ran solid. Just didn't have much juice, as well. Finished 4th. But for her to execute TWO solid races, that's a great thing.

* Callan...crapped out. I did the opposite with him: made him too aggressive. I told him to go for it, and he did, but too aggressively in the first lap (including a wayyy to aggressive mini-surge from 250 to 300). He faded BADLY and scored 0 points.

* Jaesa ran OK in her 800m. Not very fast, and not a season-best, but solid, getting 7th place and a podium, which was nice.

The boys team race is where it got interesting. Even though distance under-performed (hoping for up to 15 points from Hunter and Callan; got 6), the rest of the team showed up! Big runs by Colton in the 100 and 200, and chipping points from the field events, and it was looking possible for the win!

It came down to the 4x4, between us and Salem Academy. They'd just won the 300m hurdles and were only 5 points back. But their 4x4 was much faster. I did the math:

* SA had to finish no better than 3rd
* We had to finish 6th, out of the slow heat!

I told the guys. We had Garrett back in our 4x4. He's a quiet kid, but super-super athletic. He didn't race it at districts (as he did the 100, 200, 4x1 and LJ), but was in today.

I told them the situation. He got a big smile of his face, said something like, "Cool", patted Callan on the back and off they went.

I knew then, that they'd do it.

In the dark, under the lights at Hayward, that team:

* Henry (54-high)
* Callan (53.x)
* Hunter (54.x)
* Garrett (51.x)

We won the fast heat, with Garrett barrel rolling onto the track after diving across the finish line.

We ran 3:34.58, a solid time amongst the other 3A schools. From there, we had to wait.

It was a good race. Right away you could see there were 3 teams head-and-shoulders above the rest. This meant at least we'd beat a couple teams.

But Salem was running super-well, and by the fourth leg, they were gunning for 2nd! SHIT. Their anchor got the baton, I think, in 3rd, and passed on the backstretch to get 2nd!

But the dude from Portland Christian, gunning against Salem's guy that just won the 300 hurdles, wasn't done! He PASSED Salem on the home stretch and finished TWO-HUNDRETHS ahead of him. That was a pivotal two-point swing.

Salem Academy got 6 points
We got 3 points.

We won, 62-60. We won, as it turned out, by two-hundreths of a second! Had Salem finished second, we would've tied.

WE WON!

The rest of the night was pretty cool:

* our girls tied for fourth!
* Under dark skies (and, sadly, empty stands) all four trophy teams for Boys and Girls got to go on the infield.
* we all celebrated on the field, then got our trophy
* Pictures: both girls and boys teams took turns on the podium, taking official pictures.

After that:

* we all went back on the field and got a picture sitting on the soon-to-be-demolished East Grandstand
* we all took a victory lap. The kids took off without the dang trophy, so I sprinted after them. It'll likely be my last-ever lap on the old Hayward.
* we didn't have much of a meeting; just a mini-huddle. I hope I didn't step on Gary's toes, but simply said, "You're gonna do a lot of cool and great things in your life, but you're going to remember this".

After that, we did what we promised: go to Prince Pucklers, this ice cream place a block away, for ice cream. Got there right before it closed, then had ice cream outside (not me), and sung Jaesa, Happy Birthday.

And that was it! State Champs. Oh, and CA and I went a block down to Agate Alley for a celebratory beer.

TOUGH year, but a great ending.