March 10th-16th: LPS Duals and Heritage JV

I want to thank everyone one on the TEAM for the efforts that have been put in over the past 2 weeks. The sport of track & field in Colorado can be very trying at times, especially when the weather does not cooperate. However, the 120 athletes that have come out for the TEAM this spring have done a very nice job dealing with the inclement weather and making the best out of whatever situation we have been faced with. 

Results for the JV home meet can be found on our schedule/calendar page. The throws results have not been posted yet. As soon as I have them I will put them up. 

Our athletes did a nice job on Thrusday going out and competing in the first meet of the season. A few of the highlights were freshman Jacob Hansen's win in both the 110 and 300 hurdles, freshman Abby Walz winning the 200 meter dash and sophomore Brooke Smetanka winning the 1600. Freshman Tristen Dean also had a great day taking 2nd place in the long jump with a leap of 18 ft 2 inches. Not bad for his first high school competition ever! 

Competing in Varsity Meets
As the season goes on there will be continued opportunities for athletes to move up from the JV level to the varsity level. Just because you ran the JV meet this past week does not mean that you will be competing at the JV level for the entire season. Every Monday, the coaching staff sits down to discuss meet and practice performances from the week before. This is typically when we make our meet line-ups for the upcoming weeks meets. When we decide on our line-ups there are several things we take into consideration when figuring out who will compete at the varsity level.

• Work ethic and effort in practice
• Performance from previous meets
• Sportsmanship
• Desire and readiness to run at the varsity level

State and League Championships
The 2 biggest meets of the season each year for our varsity are the State Championships and the Continental League Championships. If you want to see what it takes to be competitive as a varsity athlete at the State and League meets here are a few things for you to check out. 

• 2013 Colorado 5A State Track and Field Championship Results
• 2013 Continental League Track and Field Results
• What did it take to qualify for state in 2013 (5A Boys)?
• What did it take to qualify for state in 2013 (5A Girls)?

Qualifying for state is a pretty simple process. Have one of the top 18 marks in the state  by the end of the season in an individual event or relay and you are in. These marks must be obtained at a state qualifying meet. All of the varsity meets we will be competing in the rest of the season are state qualifiers. 

School Records and All-time Best List
These list are all still being developed, but the coaching staff has been going through results all the way back to 2001 to try and create our all time best lists and school records. We are doing the best we can to start developing these by class in addition to the overall school records. If you ran XC in the fall all of the records by class have been updated.

• School Records and All-Time Best Page

LPS Spring Duals Meet
Our varsity will be competing on Saturday this week in the Littleton Public Schools Spring Duals meet at Arapahoe HS. Line-ups will be posted on our home page and here on the blog by Tuesday night. Here is the preliminary information for the meet.

• Meet Information and Time Schedule (PDF)
• Line-ups: Posted on the Homepage 
• Arrival: All Vista athletes competing should arrive at Arapahoe HS by 9:30 a.m. We will have the tent set up on Saturday for the TEAM. If you are not competing until much later in the meet arrangements will be made for a later arrival time with your event coach. 
• Departure: All Vista athletes should plan on staying for the entire meet. We will have a brief team meeting at the conclusion of the 4x400 meter relay. If an athlete does have to leave the meet early you should check out with your event coach first and then Coach Dalby. 

Heritage JV Meet 

• Where: Heritage HS
• When: Friday, March 14th 
• Schedule and Order of Events: JV vs Heritage and Rock Canyon (pdf)
• Line-ups Posted on the Home Page
• Out-of-class: 1:55
• Bus Departure: 2:10, all athletes competing must be on the bus to Heritage HS with the rest of the TEAM.
• All athletes competing should plan on staying for the entire length of the meet. We will have a brief team meeting at the conclusion of the 4x400.
• Ride Home: Please arrange a ride home from the meet with your parents or another member of the team. 

Spring Break Meets and Practices 
We will have practice each day during spring break from 10 a.m. to approximately noon. The coaching staffs expectations are that if you are in town you should be at practice. If you are out of town, you are expected to be following the workout plan that your event coach will provide for you. 

There are several meets on the schedule the week of spring break:

• Grand Junction Invitational: This meet will be for our top varsity athletes. The coaching staff will be renting vehicles in order to transport the team to Junction. However, we will be in need of a few parent drivers to help if anyone else is planning on making the trip. We are going to leave Friday morning at 10 a.m. and will stay in Grand Junction that night. We are returning after the meet on Saturday evening. 
• Sabercat Invitational: This is also on the first Saturday of break. The Castle View meet will be an opportunity for athletes not going to Grand Junction to be able to compete in a smaller varsity competition if you can meet the varsity standards mentioned above. 
• Fort Collins HS/Altitude Running Invitational: This is a competitive varsity meet being held on the last Saturday of spring break. If you would like to compete in the FC meet you will have to be in attendance for at least 3 practices during the week of break. 

Email and Text Communications
If you would like to stop receiving team emails or texts you will need to log back into the registration system and remove your contact info. In addition, if you are not receiving team communications through email or text you will need to log on to the system to either add or correct your contact info. 

Note to Middle and Long Distance Runners
If you have been "Going the Extra Mile" this season, I would like for you to continue to do so through the month of March. Just make sure that if you are running in the mornings that these are kept to 30 to 35 mins easy and not more than 2 to 3 times a week. If you are running on Sunday's please keep the pace at a recovery effort. Sunday runs are always optional and can be between 30 to 60 mins in length. If you need Sunday off to rest, take it!