2009 Season Wrap-Up

Hello,

The 2009 Trinity Cross Country season had some highs and lows, some of our lows in part to injury and illness, but I wanted to take some time and recap six things that stood out to show that the Tri-Hawk runners are still pushing this program in the right direction:

1) Summer Training - Coming into the first practice of the 2008 season we only had one runner begin practice with over 200 miles, this season we had four runners (JonElliott, Cody, Theresa and Carmen) over 200 miles...the most in school history.

2) Early Meet Success - On the girls side, Theresa Gross finished high in a tough field at the Nokomis Invitational, ran the fastest time ever for a Trinity Girls runner at the Red Knight Invitational and Lotus Schifsky won the Private School Championships JV race in her first official meet, as well as numerous runners improving on their 2008 times and showing great progress. On the boys side, we put four runners under 12-minutes at the Red Knight Invitational (even running shorthanded) and had a great team performance at the Private School Championships with four runners in the top 15...another Trinity Boys record.

3) Milaca Mega Meet - The Boys team won the first Cross Country Invitational title in school history at the Milaca Mega Meet by finishing 1st of 28 teams in the Class A race. The Girls team also ran well with a 7th place finish of 28 teams.

4) Conference - The Boys team also dominated the field at the MCAA Conference Meet - winning in style and showing their depth with 5 runners receiving all-conference and honorable all-conference recognition (Patrick, Charlie, Cody, JonElliott and Jonathon) as well as breaking the Trinity Boys team time record (1:31:09.0). Lotus Schifsky also received all-conference honors in her first MCAA Conference Meet with a 3rd place finish.

5) Sections - The Girls team was beaten down with injuries and still battled to an 11th place finish at the Section Meet of 20 teams...three runners (Linnea, Lucy and Sydney) even ran personal best times under subpar conditions! The Boys had their sights set high, and although they didn't have the race they envisioned, they still dropped 100 points off of their 2008 team point total and improved to a 9th place finish from 11th place in 2008.

6) When the season was complete, I didn't have to do any second-guessing about the effort of each runner. This is a great group of student-athletes that worked hard all-season long to give the team their best performances.

I also wanted to highlight the team awards given at our Trinity CC banquet, because they are well-deserved and coaches and athletes voted for them. Here they are:

Most Valuable - Boys: Patrick Earhart
Most Dedicated - Boys: Cody Sommer & JonElliott Brubaker
Most Improved - Boys: Charlie Leighton
Spirit Award - Boys: Joe Hrbacek

Most Valuable - Girls: Lotus Schifsky
Most Dedicated - Girls: Rebecca Driessen
Most Improved - Girls: Lucy Leighton
Spirit Award - Girls: Theresa Gross & Carmen Quinlivan

Thanks to the parents and families of the cross country runners for hosting events, providing transportation, timing at meets and for your support throughout the season. Our success comes from the family involvement and positive team atmosphere you help provide for the program.