Hello athletes and families, It has been a great first week of the season. The Time Trial was a great event and we want to thank our Booster for providing bagels, drinks, and doughnuts! Reminders: Athletes need to bring water bottles, have good supportive running shoes, and if possible a stopwatch (doesn't need to be fancy, just one that has stop watch capability). Please look ahead at the race schedule and let Coach Liza know ASAP if you cannot attend a race (which is an absence). We are scheduling busses and paying for meet entries now, so we will need accurate info. Upcoming Practices: Monday, August 30 - Freshman will start practice at 3 pm at the softball field so they will be done by the 4 pm orientation event being hosted at the High School. Regular Practice for all others will be at the regular time = 4:30 at softball field Starting Tuesday, August 31 going forward - Squad Check ins will be at 3:45 pm at the softball fields. Running warmups will start at 4 pm and we will be done ~5:30-6:00 depending on workout. Athletes can bring all the gear to the dug outs to store under covered. Time Trial Results are posted: https://www.athletic.net/CrossCountry/meet/193234/results Meet Schedule: https://wordpress.com/page/issaquahxctrack.com/74 https://www.athletic.net/CrossCountry/School.aspx?SchoolID=408 Class Race Thursday, Sept 2nd at Lk Sammamish State Park Bus Leaves school at 2:30 - be on time! You will need a ride AFTER races from the State Park, no bus back to school. Must have 8 practices before Thursday Everyone goes to race even if not eligible and it counts as a practice Race times: https://www.athletic.net/CrossCountry/meet/194157/info Communication with coaches - absences Athletes (we are building their independence, so families - you are off the hook) need to email Coach D, Coach Liza, and Coach Brookshire any absences as soon as possible, not at the start of practice. Also, email coaches any updates on injuries or other information. Coach Liza - lizarickey@gmail.com Coach Brookshire - KaitlinMBrookshire@gmail.com Coach Donnelly - mattimusrex@hotmail.com Shop Issaquah XC Swag Store: Need all orders in by Sept 5th! https://issaquahcclst663.itemorder.com/sale Presentation from the Athlete and Family Meeting on Thursday, please review it. https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/13P5THheUFc5UsC8x_NyR5qr04KlaCRKB2K5u0Wu8Tfg/edit?usp=sharing Uniforms will be checked out August 31st. Info about pictures coming soon. ~Coaches
Category Archives: Announcements
2021 XC Season Kicks Off Today
IHS Cross Country Season 2021 Hello athletes and families of the Issaquah Cross Country Team, We are very excited to officially start our season Monday, August 23rd. Practices(Athletes must be all green in Final Forms to attend, no exceptions): Mondays-Fridays Aug 23 - August 30th practice will start at 4:30 pm @ IHS upper softball fields Starting August 31st practice will start at 3:45 pm to 5:45 pm at IHS upper softball fields Saturdays - 9 am to 11 am (if no race is scheduled) Attendance and race eligibility: Attendance is very important for team culture, safely building fitness, and coaches'' planning. If an athlete misses more than 5 practices after school starts, they will need to meet with the head coach to determine next steps. If an athlete has 3 unexcused absences (does not notify coaches of absences), this could result in no longer being on the team. We would like athletes to email coaches directly about absences, questions, or concerns. Race eligibility: Jamboree Class Race on September 2nd - need to attend 8 practices BEFORE this race day League Meets starting on September 8th - need to attend 10 practices BEFORE race day Races are Wednesdays and Saturdays. Athletes will take the bus from school (unless at Lk Sammamish Park) and may leave after the meet with an adult/family if they sign out with a coach. Athletes should plan on staying for the entire meet to cheer on teammates. Here is our schedule: https://issaquahxctrack.com/schedule/ Mandatory Athlete and Family Meeting: August 26th, 6 pm at Issaquah High School The athletic director, Mr. Ande will be giving students critical information about participating in athletics and Covid Protocols. The XC coaches will present afterwards and give overviews of the season and our expectations. If you cannot attend, you will need to email Mr. Ande to set up another time for the information to be eligible to compete. His contact is AndeL@issaquah.wednet.edu. Coach Liza will send out the presentation to all families after the meeting to review. Time Trial - We are having a 2 mile time trial on August 28th. Athletes need to be at the softball field at 9 am. We will be having a picnic hosted by the Booster club after the time trial. This is an important event for team building and for the coaches to get some data on where athletes currently are at and create workouts/paces/groupings that are the best fit for the athlete. Athletes Contacts If you have not filled out the Google Forms (from this summer), please fill this out ASAP. It is how we collect email addresses and hear from each athlete. https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfJI_VZTs6clbba9xcHL_wQvLRtX-26rZi3Z4o8UJ2nBTUK_Q/viewform?usp=sf_link We have over 140 students signed up for our programs, which is exciting and a lot to manage at the same time. Athletes need to be on time, prepared, follow the workout plans, and communicate directly with coaches so that we can have a safe, fun, and successful season. Meet our coaches: https://issaquahxctrack.com/xc-coaches/ Spike Night! Get running shoes or racing spikes on Sept 4th starting at 5:30 pm at Redmond Super Jock and Jill. Coach Mike is the manager of the store and athletes will get 15% discount, free spike bag, and well as 50% off the sales rack. Plateau Runner also is offering a discount to Issaquah runners, just tell them you are on the team when you go in.
JULIA DAVID-SMITH NAMED GATORADE WASHINGTON GIRLS CROSS COUNTRY PLAYER OF THE YEAR
In its 36th year of honoring the nation’s best high school athletes, The Gatorade Company today announced Julia David-Smith of Issaquah High School as its 2020-21 Gatorade Washington Girls Cross Country Player of the Year. David-Smith is the first Gatorade Washington Girls Cross Country Player of the Year to be chosen from Issaquah High School. The award, which recognizes not only outstanding athletic excellence, but also high standards of academic achievement and exemplary character demonstrated on and off the field, distinguishes David-Smith as Washington’s best high school girls cross country player
The press release announcing Julia as the 2-time winner can be found here: Gatorade Announces Washington’s Girls Cross Country Athlete of the Year!
A link to all the athletes honored this year can be found here
Congratulations Julia!!!
2021 Issaquah track & Field
The 2021 season kicks off next Monday, May 3rd. We will be practicing from 3:45pm-5:45pm M-F except for meets. Usually we will be meeting in the main gym to take attendance and warm up. Be prepared to be flexible on the 3rd as the main gym may not be available.
Our meets are on Wednesdays this year and will begin at 4pm, here is our schedule:
Wednesday May 12th Home vs Mt Si
Wednesday May 19th BYE/No Meet
Wednesday May 26th Home vs Liberty
Wednesday June 2nd Away at Skyline
Thursday June 10th Away at Hazen
Final Forms is used to track the paperwork and eligibility of athletes so make sure you check your account and are ready to go next week. Also, make sure you are checking the email that is attached to your final forms account as we will be using Final Forms to communicate with you.
Have a great week, looking forward to seeing you all next Monday,
Coach Bean
Regular Season Wrap!
End of Year Celebration - A huge thank you to Jane Yung (Rachel’s mom), Sandy Schmidt (Andrew’s mom), and Rohini Rao (Leila’s mom) for pulling off a wonderful way to celebrate our season after the race. Thank you to Lawrie Robertson for the amazing photos from the season. https://lawrier.smugmug.com/IssaquahHighSchool/2021-Issaquah-Cross-Country Thank you to Gwen Robertson for trusting us to continue your legacy, for your inspiration, your guidance and the many calls and texts when I had questions. This team’s spirit is a testament to you.
Thank you to my rockstar assistant coaches, Katie Brookshire, Jackie Bykonen, and Paul Rickey, who helped me stay organized, made me laugh, and had great ideas for this season! There is no way we could have pulled this off without you. Thank you to the families for your trust, kind words, and amazing support. And finally, thank you to the athletes. Change is difficult, and a lot of change has impacted your lives. I appreciate working with all of you, your positivity, advocacy and ideas, and your team spirit. I hope you had fun!
Award: These are the awards that were announced at the celebration and we will get them to you when they arrive. Team Captains: Julia David Smith, Aja Jensen, Alec Barran, Josh Geisser Most Inspirational: Eliza Fuhs and Josh Delgadillo Most Improved: Ty Lauritzen and Ellie Roberts Varsity: Jane Harig, Giada Oliva, Brennen Rickey, Anna Jensen, Ben Konopka, Ty Lauritzen, Jonathan Liu, Ellie Roberts, Julia Ryan, Sarah Burke, Josh Delgadillo, Eliza Fuhs, Hunter Fulford, Darwin Hanson, Jerry Imai-Takemura, Hunter Scheppat, Emma Wijsman, Jula Wood, Alec Barran, Julia David Smith, Josh Geisser, Andrew Schmidt JV: Ben Armstrong, Evan Barnes, Julianna Cullen, Rachel Dennie, Ignacio Garcia, Ethan Hanson, Ryan Lee, Eli Miller, Ilyaas Motiwalla, Zachary Prouty, Ciara Tubbs, Blake Budos, Evan Daar, Jillian Feldman, Marcus Heu-Weller, Vernika Jain, Ben LaFramboise, Claire Putnam, Ella Rosenkranz, Avni Doshi, Hayden Stowe, Tianyi (Steven) Wan, Cole Barnes, Greta Cavotta, Mathis Delombaerde, Lelia Peterson, Gavin Soleibe, Sienna Tramblay, Ashlyn Wang, Spencer Haas, Aja Jensen, Danielle Kohorn, Kathyrn McIntyre, Ethan Medeiros, Leila Rao, Sebastian Silva What’s next? Well, keep running, doing drills, and doing core! We built an amazing base and those of you continuing on to track (I hope a lot of you!), keep up the work because it will pay off immensely. Talk to your captains if you want ideas on what to do the next 5 weeks. If you had some pains/injuries, take this time to rebuild and strengthen. The virtual XC state meet results won’t be published until the end of April, so watch for those. Some athletes are running at a community sponsored “KingCo” race at Mt. Si on April 17th - best of luck to those runners. Seniors - It wasn’t the season you dreamed of, but I hope it was a season that brought you some joy. Alec, Julia DS, Josh G, Spencer, Aja, Rodger, Dani K, Dani M, Kathryn, Ethan M, Leila, Andrew, Cody, and Sebastian - thank you for showing up and being fantastic leaders for our team. I am confident you will all go on to amazing adventures and we look forward to hearing about them. This isn’t goodbye, it’s just see you later, Coach Liza
Race Recap: Issaquah @ Skyline
We did it! We pulled off a safe, fun, and fast season. I am immensely proud of the positive attitudes, perseverance, and dedication our athletes demonstrated these past 5 weeks. After our final race with Skyline, where both the boys and girls team won, we had a total of 37 PRs for our team. That means 55% of our team ran their fastest races ever this season, amazing. It was a privilege to be your coach this season. Skyline Race - a course with some rolling hills, pedestrian obstacles, and an uphill finish. Our teams ran tough and we saw some great hill technique and strong finishes. In the girls’ race, Julia David Smith was 4/4 on first place finishes this season.
Darwin Hanson continued to drop time each race and was a strong 3rd place finish.
Our freshman, Jane Harig, impressed us each week with her grit and finished 5th overall.
Julia Ryan, Anna Jensen, Eliza Fuhs, and Julia Wood rounded out the rest of varsity with strong 6th, 8th. 9th and 10th place finishes.
The boys’ race exhibited the top 5 working together to finish within 43 seconds of each other. Alec Barran 2nd, Jerry Imai-Takemura 3rd, Jonathan Liu 5th, Brennen Rickey 6th, and Josh Delgadillo 7th.
Hunter Scheppat passed a Skyline runner on the HILL to finish in 9th for the team
Josh Geisser was close behind in 12th place. The ‘fun’ track workouts and teamwork once again paid off with an impressive race.
Race #2 Update: Liberty @ Issaquah @ Lk. Sammamish state park March 20
We have some exciting news about the race this weekend. We had some athletes request we investigate moving it to Lake Sammamish State Park. Well, we managed to pull that off today! It is a beloved place to race and better footing. Please let me know immediately if your athlete is not racing.
This weeks races will at Lake Sammamish State Park on March 20. Meet will be versus Liberty:
Boys Race 1@ 11:00 am,
Boys Race 2@11:30 am
Girls Race @12:00, noon
Athletes – check in with coaches at the UW tent by the main bathrooms 45 minutes before your race for temp checks/attestations/warm up instructions.
All boys will need to be ready to warm up and meet with coaches at 10:30am.
All girls will need to be ready to warm up and meet with coaches at 11:30am
NOTE: You will need a Discovery Pass to park there for the meet.
Volunteers – we have some, but we need MORE to help ensure a safe race. Please email Coach Liza ASAP if you can help out. Remember to wear masks at all time and follow all social distancing protocols!
Also, does anyone have flagging and/or rebar to help mark the course?
Friday Practice – to help us visualize and get familiar with the course, we will meet at 4 pm Friday for our workout @ Lake Sammamish State Park. If students drive, they need a DISCOVER PASS. If they are getting dropped off, please use the lot at the end of the entrance by the concessions/bathroom (NOT by the water sports rental lot).
Vote for Julia!!!!
Hey Team! Our very own Julia David Smith has been nominated for MileSplit’s Best 4-Year Girls Career Award. Voting ends Dec 26th! It takes 2 seconds.
Scroll to the bottom of the page: https://www.milesplit.com/articles/290857/which-female-had-the-best-4-year-career-log-your-vote
We hope everyone is having a happy and safe winter break and new year!
Munch & Mingle!
Sign up here to contribute to the Munch & Mingle. Thanks for coordinating this Marian Tenace 🙂
Cross Country Team Awards Night
Please join the coaching staff in celebrating this year's cross country team during Awards Night at 7PM on Tuesday, November 5th. Munch and Mingle to follow in the Commons...stay tuned!
