Cupertino High School Cross Country 2003
Page last updated: 12/19/03
Home of the Pioneers
Head Coach  Paul Armstrong
Awards and Season Recap

CCS Coaches All-CCS team
Honorable Mention:  Julianne Hansen

ALL-LEAGUE
Top15 - VB & VG, Top 10 - F/S & JVG,  Top5 -JVB
Julianne Hansen(VG)(5)  Greg Shaver(JVB)(2)

MVPs
Andrew Loc   Julianne Hansen   Daniel Zhang

COACH'S AWARDS
Ansel Misfeldt   Joyce Lu

SCHOLAR ATHLETES
Shannon Dye   Joyce Lu   Lisa Neinchel   Anthony Shoan
3.5and above GPA
Lisa Chang    Hsin-Chang     Elizabeth Chen    Shannon Dye    Stephanie Fuh
Julianne  Hansen     Sarah Ho    Joyce Lu    Patricia Lu    Ansel Misfeldt

BLOCK Cs
(first varsity letter in any sport)
Sarah Ho   Patricia Lu   Daniel Zhang
Stars
(varsity letter past the first one)
Stacie Boyle   Lisa Chang   Shannon Dye   Ken Han   Julianne Hansen   Weihow Hsue
Andrew Loc   Joyce Lu   Ansel Misfeldt   Gautam Peri   David Rabinowitz    Xi-Lin Yeh

CAPTAINS
Shannon Dye  Weihow Hsue  Stacie Boyle  Joyce Lu

PIONEER SPIRIT AWARD
Greg Shaver    Marina Monica

300 MILE CLUB

SEASON RECAP

How do you evaluate a cross country season?  Is it by the individual or team placement at meets? Could it be by the team finish at the league finals?  Or, perhaps it is the attainment of the CCS qualification.  Each of you probably had your own goals for the season.  My major goals for this season included the following:  (The same as last year.)
 1)  Everyone improves from the beginning of the season to the end and/or from last season to this season.
 2)  Start with more people on the team and retain as many as possible.
 3)  Try to get more girls on the team.
 4)  Minimize chances for injuries by monitoring mileage and  lessen pavement pounding.
 5)  Teach and coach to the success process model.
Added for this year:
6) Try to do a shin splint exercise at every practice.
7)  Light weight training at least once per week.
8)  Try to do more individual goal setting.
9)  Focus on running the Crystal Springs course more.
10) Do more work on relaxation, focusing, and mental preparation.
11) Fund raisers.
12) Add more "fun" things.
13) Try to get two mile splits at Crystal Springs.

This season was very successful.  But could it have been more so?  Certainly, by my primary criterion - individual improvement- it was.  Everyone except three people who ran in the league final set PRs during the course of the season.  Of those those three, two were injured and the third did not put in the necessary time and was slightly hurt.  I was pleased by the increased numbers of runners who came out for the team.  We actually had enough girls for not only a full varsity team but a JV team as well.  A number of very good freshman came in and were challenging for spots on the varsity team throughout the season.  We did not win a championship, but the girls did place among the top teams.  The boys finished seventh at league and girls placed fourth.  Last  year both varsity teams finished fifth.   Again, the team times were significantly better for both teams than last year.  Almost everyone improved in some way.   Almost everyone improved from the beginning of the season to the end.  We retained almost everyone who started the season (raced in a meet), losing only three.  We only had one season ending injury and that was due to a chronic ankle problem.   I define the success process model as a construct that produces results by breaking down the end goal into milestone success points and simple segments that allow the goal(s) to be reached..  That means every practice and meet must produce a result that will lead to the final meet.  The final meet (DAL Finals) is the last success measuring point. Milestones such as minimum mileage,  the 5:30/6:15  first mile, and the 24 200s were established.  The fitness course, Saturday long runs, crunches, push-ups, rest days, course strategies, more weight work this year, etc. are all segments that go toward meeting the goals. Everything should come together at the end of the season.  It is similar to putting a puzzle together.  You decide where to start and complete parts based upon what's working or which pieces are available, adjusting the completion strategy along the way as needed.

End of season statistics:
1. Julianne had the 16th best time at Crystal Springs in  CCS..
2. The girls had the 18th best team time at Crystal out of 84 teams.
3. The boys had the 49th best team time at Crystal out of 90 teams.
4. We almost had five complete teams at league finals.
5. 2002 DAL: 23 runners,  VB - 116 points, 90:37, VG - 144 points, 115:00,  JVB - inc. team, 7th,  F/S - 5th,  JVG -  no team
6. 2003 DAL: 32 runners,  VB - 135 points, 89:51, VG -   90 points, 102:46,  JVB - 106 points, 4th,  F/S - inc,  JVG - we had a full team
7. CCS: 2002: 1 boy, 2 girls    2003: 1 boy, 7 girls (a team)
8. State: 2002: no one    2003:  1 girl

Keys to success for the future:
1. We must continue to get more people out for cross country and keep them on the team for four years.
2. More of you have to run during the summer.
3. The overall attitude that we bring to practice and meets needs to be less of  "surviving" and more of  running to "full potential."  In other words, show up          ready to run and compete, especially at every meet.
4. Weekend meets will become mandatory unless excused by the coach.
5. We will increase the mileage load for the "older" boys.

Season  Highlights:
08/18 (Mon)  Pre-Season Starts                            6:00PM    Cupertino HS
We started with 18 on the first day .

09/04 (Thu)    Lynbrook Center Meet (2.1)                3:30     Lynbrook HS
We were slightly unprepared for this meet because we had one less week of preparation compared to last year and only 22 of  39 people ran.  Nevertheless we had some good performances in terms of placing not in terms of time.  We have a long way to go to drop our miles per minute times down.  Our  top 25 performers in Girls Varsity were Kim (10), Stacie (13),  and in the Boys Varsity were David (13), Weihow (19),  Andrew (23), Xi-Lin (24).  In the open  (JV) section, the top 25 performers were  Phillip (15), Greg (17), Robert (19), and Ken (21).  Remember, this was a low key tune-up meet.  Now the real work begins. 

09/04 (Thu)    Fall Sports Night                                 7:00      Auditorium
11 families were represented.

09/11 (Thu)    FireBird Invitational (2.05)                   3:30     Fremont HS
Plenty hot!! The weather that is. We had several good performances.!  Julianne's 8th place in the Varsity Girls and David's 21st place in the Varsity Boys were our best finishes.  Julianne's time will place her on the all time list for this meet. Weihow  and  Kim ran strong also.  I was impressed by the effort that  Si gave  in the frosh/soph race.  Turns out he had the 6th fastest male time and the 7th fastest overall from CHS.  Another freshman, Ryu, wasn't much farther behind him.  Lisa C., Shannon, Lisa N., and Patricia had a big improvements (+1:00 min.) from last week.  I was a little disappointed in our overall finish in the races with full teams: BV, GV, and BJV.  But, we did do better than last year in our placing.  The Girls Varsity was 6 minutes faster than last year.  You've got to believe in yourselves.  Everyone is running under the same conditions.  Ok, so it was hot.  You must hydrate all the time and be especially careful with your fluid intake starting several days before the meet.                            

09/18 (Thu)    Saratoga Scrimmage (2.0)                    3:30     Saratoga HS
This meet was changed from an invitational to a scrimmage due to a paperwork snafu.  Some teams dropped the meet or sent reduced teams.   There was no team scoring and no awards.  The course was changed a lot due to construction around the campus.  I think the course is a little slower than last year's course.  We had a number of people out for various reasons.  My message to the team was to race from the gun.  Push yourself to the edge and if you go over don't worry about it.  A number of people have just been running enough to get by.  We are about to start a new phase of training which will be harder physically and more intense mentally.  We must  prepare ourselves by finishing the first phase knowing the true measure of what we can do.  We saw some big time gains from a few runners, no progress from others and few went backwards.  Our  best place finisher was Julianne's 2nd place behind Saratoga's  state 1600 champ.  Our Varsity girls looked stronger than the previous meets.   Sarah  had a breakthrough  time and will  move up to the varsity for the next meet.  Sid ran his first meet and impressed with 4th place in the JV race. Gautam was noteworthy in his first race of this season.  Our other top ten performers were Weihow  (8), Kim (6), and Stacie (8).

09/23 (Tue)    Central Park Invitational (2.3)               3:15    Central Park
Same course as last year with a slight alteration because of construction on the new library.  The weather was much more comfortable than the prior meets this year.  We were coming off of our base period training, so I was curious about how we were going to do because we had a light training period last week. Sometimes this means a drop in times, but it is still early yet.  The most notable time drops between last year and this year were Robert  (1:41.0) and Lisa C. (57.5).  There were other improvements but with smaller changes.  There were also changes the other way.  Our Girls Varsity did a great job capturing 4 (top 20) medals (Julianne -6, Kim -14, Lisa C.-16, and Stacie -20) and placing 4th overall.  The Boys Varsity  ran better as a team but finished a disappointing 9th, but David sprinted at the end and got the last medal in the Boys Varsity at 25th.  Sid received a medal for his 19th place finish in the JV race. 
                
09/27 (Sat)     Stanford Invite (3.1)                            12:00   Stanford Golf
Canceled by Coach Armstrong
10/4 (Sat)       Artichoke Invitational (2.33)                 1:00    Half Moon Bay                     
Did anyone see any artichokes?  The hill, the hill.  "Don't walk the hill, run it.  And, run the downhill."    Our first hill race of the season.  We scored  4 medals:  Julianne(7), Kim(17), Stacie(28), and David(33).   The  varsity girls had a decent outing.  The varsity boys were a bit missing in action.  I was a little dissatisfied with the overall team performance. 

10/11 (Sat)     Serra Invitational (2.95)                      10:00    Crystal Springs
SATs anyone?  We ran a reduced team due to SAT testing today. Today was a day for a gut check for some and a get your feet wet for others.  This was the first race this season at 3 miles and 3 miles with hills. On a remarkably good weather wise day, we had a number a good and great performances.  None of the girls or freshmen boys had run this course before or this distance in a high school cross country race. All of the varsity boys have run this course before.  Julianne is still tearing it up with a 5th place finish only 1:11 out of first place.   Kim and Stacie ran good races in their Crystal debut .  All of the varsity  boys  except two (one was 12 seconds off a fast time)  broke their personal records for this course.  The freshman boys ran well relative to their progress.  Weihow and Robert had the biggest improvements for this course of 2:18 and 1:55 respectively!!

10/14 (Tue)    SCVAL - Crystal Springs (2.95)            3:15    Crystal Springs
A chance to run against our league only competition .  My expectations were not high  because we raced on Saturday and we our concluding a a period of  load training.  Nevertheless, we had a few noteworthy  performances.  Julianne  finished 5th again.  David cranked a PR with a good time and 1st place in the JV race. Stacie and Sarah also had PRs.  The Girls Varsity finished in fourth place just ahead of  Lynbrook and ran a team time that would qualify them for CCS if they can meet or beat it at League. Ken was just 3 seconds off of his PR. 

10/23 (Thu)   Crystal Springs #2 (2.95)                       3:15    Crystal Springs
Our last chance at Crystal before the league finals.  Spirit week  took  its toll on focus and energy.   The course seems to be getting dustier without any rain this season.  Some of our runners are having breathing problems.  However, we continue to have good performances.  Julianne finished  5th again in a personal record time of 18:53.  Others setting PRs were Hsin-Chang, Stacie, Ken, Jeff, and Qing. 

10/30 (Thu)   Lynbrook Invitational (2.1)                    3:30    Lynbrook HS
              (also doubling as the FUHSD District XC Championships)  ALL MUST ATTEND
Fall weather has finally arrived.  Everyone except two (of 31 runners) had a personal record for this course.  We collected eight medals: Julianne, Kim, Lisa C., Stacie, David, Andrew, Daniel, and Greg.  A very good showing compared to last year.  I was most pleased to see the JV girls (we actually had a full team), who have struggled a good part of the season with injuries,  finish the race.  We ran better this year than last without question in terms of  time and placing.  We are close to challenging for the team title in several of the races in the future.  We need more runners, summer base running, and full participation in all meets. 
                        
11/04(Tue)     DAL League Finals (2.95)                     2:15    Crystal Springs  ALL MUST ATTEND
I see a successful season not in terms of wins and losses, but rather in the improvement that is made over the course of a season.  Everyone has set a PR this season, except three people.  And, two of those  people were hurt.  The overall team, F/S, VB. VG, JVB, and JVG, has improved.  This meet showed it.  We still have a long way to go to get to where I want us to be.  But, we have started that  train and we are building steam.  The day, started with a great race by Daniel and Si in the F/S race.  Both set  big  PRs.  The Boys Varsity struggled again, but set three PRs and David qualified for CCS finishing 16th .  Xi-Lin just missed CCS finishing 17th.  The Girls Varsity finisihed 4th and qualified for CCS via the at-large route. Stacie ran "out of her mind" and set an 86 second PR.   Julianne was a medal winner with her 5th (again) place finish.  In the JV Boys race Greg cranked a 2nd place finish while setting a PR and received a medal.  Both earned All-League honors.
                        
11/15 (Sat)     CCS Meet (2.95)                                 10:00   Crystal Springs 
                         MUST ATTEND if we qualify
It was dry, but the course was wet , muddy, and slippery.  Nevertheless, everyone faced the same environment.  No one set a PR today because of the conditions.  However, the girls were predicted to finish 7th and they did., but I thought  we could place ahead of  Lynbrook who finished 5th.  David was the closes to his PR, 11 seconds slower, while Kim and Joyce were 13 and 24 seconds off respectively.  Although, Julianne was running with a slight injury, she finished in 10th place and qualified for the state meet.  This is only the 8th time that CHS has sent someone to the state meet and this is the third time for a girl.  Our only other girl state meet qualifier was Celeste Dunlap in 1996 and 1999.  Julianne has the Girl's Frosh school record and is only 10 seconds behind Dunlap's school record at Crystal Springs. The girls team is only 43 seconds behind the school record set in 1981 by the team that finished 6th at CCS.

 11/29 (Sat)     State Meet (3.1)                                   TBA    Woodward Park, Fresno
It did not rain and the course was dry.  Julianne finished in 70th place out of 186 finishers with a time of 19:40 on the 3.1 mile (5K) course.  She was the 5th  finisher from CCS in D2.  She outpaced everyone from Mitty and Los Gatos as well as most of the Aptos team.  These three schools sent teams to the meet from our section and division. Her time is  the fastest of any girl from CHS at the state meet. Celeste Dunlap, the only other CHS girl to run in this meet, ran in 1996 - 20:19 and 1999 - 21:09 placing 46th in D4 and 77th in D3 respectively.  The state cross country meet has only existed since 1987.  All of the meets have been held at Woodward Park in Fresno.


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