2016 Season

So the 2016 season will begin on Wednesday March 16th at 5pm at Snow Canyon High.  This will be a Camp through Snow Canyon High Track and Field every Monday and Wednesday until May 18th.  Then the regular track practices will begin May 30th and go until the end of July.  More information will be given out next Wednesday (March 16th) at 5pm so plan on attending.  Can't wait to see our amazing athletes!!

Congrats McKay!!!!

Congrats to McKay Wells for winning the 1500 meters at the Hershey USATF National Championships in Lisle, IL with a time of 5:15.29!!  He is less than 5 seconds from breaking the National Record for his age group!  Way to represent the Quickfeet team McKay!!!

Watch McKay Wells go after the Hershey USATF National Championship 1500 meters tomorrow

Here is the link to watch McKay Wells go after the Hershey USATF National Championship Sunday in the 1500 meters in Illinois.
http://live.usatf.tv/liveworldtrialsyouth.html

GO MCKAY!!!!  We are proud of you!!

USATF Junior Olympic Cross-Country Championships

Good Luck to Sarah Snow tomorrow morning at the USATF Junior Olympic Cross-Country Championships in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.  She is representing Quickfeet and all of Washington County tomorrow as she runs in the 3000 Meters.  She will be competing about 9am (Utah Time) and you can watch it live at USATF.tv.  Go get 'em SARAH!!!!!  Btw, Sarah and Lily Poulton competed at the prestigious Footlocker West Championships last weekend at Mt. Sac and finished 3 and 4 overall in the 7-8 grade girls race!!!  Way to go LADIES you are AMAZING!!!

Day 7

The final day of competition ended with 2 more Quickfeet athletes garnering All-American status.  First in the 7-8 Boys 1500 Meters McKay Wells ran an amazing race and PR'ed by 11 seconds to finish 3rd in the nation!!  His time of 5:26.76 puts him only 15 seconds off the National Record of 5:11.  McKay is still in this age group next year so we shall see what he can do with a full year under his belt!  If you have never seen McKay run it is a thing of beauty!  McKay is now the highest finisher (3rd) of any Quickfeet athlete on the national stage!  Congrats McKay!
Our second All-American today is actually our only 3 time All-American….Jaslyn Gardner!  Jaz did an amazing job this week especially since she has been battling a hamstring injury since our State Meet.  We are so proud of Jaz and she is a great example of hard work and dedication!!  Jaz finished 7th today in a close 100 meter final.  She actually has to get ready now for the Hershey National Finals next week as she has been invited to defend her 100 meter title from last year.  Good Luck Jaz!  You will be AMAZING!!
Our other two athletes that performed on the final day were Jaylon Gardner (13-14 Boys Discus) and Sophia Jensen (11-12 Girls) 1500 meter.  Jay finished 31 out of 41 competitors in the Discus and his parents had to go back and forth between the Discus and Jaslyn's 100 Meter.  Nothing like doing them at the same time!  Congrats coach Jay!!  Sophia decided today to keep her lunch in and not compete for throw-up champion like she did in the 800 meters earlier this week.  She was so much more composed and confident going into this event and it showed with a new PR of 5:26.73 and finishing 36 of 50 runners!  What an amazing addition to our team Sophia and Oliver have been to our team in only the last 6 weeks!  Congratulations to ALL of my 23 athletes who made the trip to Houston this year and competed to the best of their abilities!  We finished with a total of 7 All-Americans this year topping our previous high set last year with 5.  We now have a total of 16 All-Americans in the last 3 years!! I am so proud of how you conducted yourself on and off the track!  We showed the nation that our small community can compete with the best of them and that we are not afraid to try!  The lessons and experiences that my athletes learned this week will go with them forever and they are already better people for having done so.  Thank you to our community for supporting these athletes and their dreams of competing at the highest of levels!  We could not have done it without you!!

Day 6

Nothing like starting off Day 6 with a 9am 3000 Meter run (still in HOT and Humid weather) but that is just what Oakley Jackson did today.  This was Oakley's first major meet and even though he was a little nervous did an amazing job by PR'ing by 6 seconds in 10:47!  Just imagine if he actually ate and hydrated properly the day before….;).  I think I need to actually watch them consume the food personally instead of just believing them!  Even though he PR'ed, he learned a valuable lesson!
Next, we were able to watch Jaylon Gardner throw the Shot Put around a few times and tie for 23rd of 43 athletes!  Coach J (as I like to call him) actually threw his farthest throw on the very 1st attempt so he did a great job coming right out and getting after it.  He competes in the Discus tomorrow morning and says he is ready to "pop" a big one!!  Go get 'em "Coach J"!!
Our final competitor of the day was Connor Poulsen in the Final of the 13-14 Boys 800 Meters!  As I mentioned in a previous post Connor came in ranked 20th after our Region Meet with a 2:09.63.  Then in the first round he ran a 2:06.05 PR to make today's Final.  In practice the last 4 weeks since our Region Meet I have had Connor running splits that would put him on 2:02 pace (he did not know this BTW until we talked race strategy last night and I told him he was ready to do it!)  So today he had specific instructions that he was to stay right behind Derek Thomas (our Region Champion and #2 ranked runner).  I told him that after hitting the break line he was to get right behind Derek (who is a much taller athlete) and let him do the work.  He did just that, even though he slowed a little bit to get behind him.  Derek and Connor came into the first 200 meters in 7 & 8th place in just over 28 second.  Conner looked directly at me at the 200 meter mark and had the look of "just like this coach?"  (You will have to watch the video because it was absolutely hilarious to me!)  He even did it on the next lap!    He came through the 400 meters in just over 60 seconds and with 350 meters to go Derek made a move and Connor followed.  Now we talked the night before that we thought he would do it with 250 meters but he did it much sooner.  Connor was up to the challenge and followed!  I told him that I wanted him to do everything Derek was doing, if he moved…you move.  If he sneezed…you sneeze, etc.  When they came to the 200 meter mark Derek opened up a little over a second advantage on Connor and they still were chasing 3 other runners!  Derek caught all of them and won the race but Connor gave it everything he had and in the home stretch caught 2 of the 3 that were ahead of him and it was a dog fight until the finish were Connor finished 5th with a new PR of 2:02.75!!  He hit the 2:02 that we were shooting for and took 7 seconds off his time coming into this meet!  Connor became our 5th official Jr. Olympic All-American at this meet, which equals our highest output from last year!  I love his work ethic and personal desire to do his best every time!  Connor has matured so much this year as a racer and I could not be more prouder of how much he trust me to help him be at his best!
Tomorrow is the final day at the Jr. Olympics and we have 4 more athletes that will be competing this year then we get to go HOME!  So I probably will not be able to update Day 7 for you until sometime Monday afternoon since we will be getting back to Utah around 3am Monday.  So if you want to see how we did you will either have to watch it live or look up the results at usatf.tv.  Thank you for all your support for these athletes and I hope you have enjoyed my little write-ups!!

Here is tomorrow's schedule.  Again all times are UTAH start times!
Go to usatf.tv to watch live!!

8:00am McKay Wells (under 9 Boys) 1500 Meters
approx.9:00am Sophia Jensen (11-12 Girls) 1500 Meters
11:00am Jaslyn Gardner (13-14 Girls) 100 Meter Final
11:00am Jaylon Gardner (13-14 Boys) Discus

Day 5

Another fantastic day at the Jr. Olympics!!  Today was all about the 400's, 100 Semi's and the 4X400 Relay!  Carter Slack (9-10 Boys), Jacob Bastian (11-12 Boys), Kylie Dorius and Lexi Olds (15-16 Girls) and Chris Poulsen (15-16 boys) all did a great job of going out and competing to the best of their abilities today.  They ran aggressively and did their best to compete.  Even though their races didn't go quite like they hoped, I am so proud of what they learned about themselves for competing at this level of competition.  It is not for the faint of heart and this experience will help them prepare for next year.  Myley Alexander and Connor Poulsen also competed in the 400 where Myley ran a SB time and finished 35 of 49 athletes.  Connor ran a PR of 54.43 almost 1 full second from his previous best and finished 30 of 59 athletes.
Next up for Quickfeet athletes was Jaslyn Gardner in the Semi-finals of the (13-14 Girls) 100 Meters.  After the girl next to Jazz had a false start, she quietly (professional like) regained her focus and shot out of the blocks on the restart and ran her way into the finals with a time of 12.15.  This puts her with the 4th fastest time going into the Final.  Jazzy has now made the finals the last two years in this age group!  The race is wide open going into the final so anything is possible for Jaslyn!  I say don't bet against her….but that is just me!!!
Finally, our day ended with the (13-14 Girls) 4x400 team made up of Emme Leavitt, Daviana Vaka, Laveni Vaka and Myley Alexander.  This is the same group of young ladies that finished 4th last year in this event in the 11-12yr old age group.  Now they are the young ones and it showed a little bit.  This year they finished 17th of 39 teams and did a great job!!  They gave it all they had even after having to wait for 1.5 hours longer than the scheduled time.  The heat and humidity took its toll on them maybe a little more than they thought it might.  I have been looking at the results all day from yesterday's 4X100 hoping that maybe they would sneak into the top 8 and into the finals after missing out by 1 spot but unfortunately they are still in 9th!  I know I am silly or crazy…..take your pick!

Here is tomorrow's (Saturday) schedule:
All times are UTAH times:
****Watch us at usatf.tv****

8:00am Oakley Jackson (13-14 Boys) 3000 Meter
11:00am Jaylon Gardner (13-14 Boys) Shot Put
1-2pm Connor Poulsen (13-14 Boys) 800 FINAL