WP Wraps Up Regular Season

Team Scores

Girls    1. WS-87    2. Ann-59        3.WP-35     4. Lee-2

Boys    1. WS-92   2. Ann-51        3. WP-50    4. Lee-17

West Potomac wrapped up its regular season with both teams placing 3^rd in its quad meet against Patriot District teams West Springfield, Annandale and Lee.  The boys team was only one point behind runner-up Annandale. 

The girls team was led by two individual winners in senior captains Allison McNulla and Lauren Price.  McNulla won the 1600m in a new personal best of 5:39 and led a Lady Wolverine sweep in the event as Katie Murray (2^nd) and Maura Finn (3^rd) were not far behind.  Price won the 500m in her first try at the event and just missed the District standard, teammate Sophia Passacantando came in second.

Other highlights for the girls team was the second place 4x400m relay of Price, Anna Lorentzen, Kristi Snow and Passacantando, who registered a new season best time of 4:19.24.  Junior Mychelle Gyamfi was 4^th in the 300m and junior captain Katie Genuario placed 4^th in a stacked 1000m field.

Leading the way for the boys team were several event winners, Lozie Goolsby  (300m), Corey Rosenberg (500m), Luca Halladay (1600m) and Brad Schaefer (Pole Vault).  Rosenberg, Halladay, Goolsby and Crispin Bernier teamed up to place first in the 4x400m relay with a new season best time of 3:37.14. 

There were several other strong scoring efforts from the Wolverines as sophomore Nick Cucinotta (1600m) and Collin Davis (Shot Put) placed second in their respective events.  Goolsby was runner-up in the High Jump, clearing 5-10.  Nick McCobb (55m hurdles) and Cullen O’Boyle (1000m) earned third place finishes.

Next up for the Wolverines is the first round of the championship season with the 2013 Patriot District Championships.  The two day competition will start on Wednesday, February 6^th.  Lineups for West Potomac will be sent out at the end of this week.  Congrats to all the athletes for a great regular season, your coaches are proud of all the hard work you put in and all the progress you’ve made!

Thank you to all our wonderful volunteer timers: Abigail Copley, Suzanne Dash, Bob Thomson, Sue Freewalt, Rick Genuario, Fred Amico, Sandra Pinney!!!!!

Coaches Corner

·         UNIFORM COLLECTION: if your season is done please turn in your uniform to your coach….athletes who do not turn in his/her uniform will be placed on the obligation list.

·         Girls uniforms for spring track: We will be re-ordering uniforms, if you are running spring track and would like to purchase your uniform please contact Coach Dietz (jdietz3@vt.edu). 

Sprinters

·         If you are not competing in districts, please bring your CLEAN uniform, in a bag labeled with your first and last name this week.

·         If you received an eligibility form, please bring the COMPLETED form to me, ASAP. You will not be able to compete in the post season without this form.

·         Athletes selected for Districts:

o   Girls: Kelly Slatery, Mychelle Gyamfi, Trudy Adjetey-Doku, Nicole Freewalt, Tanah Kaisa

o   Boys: Angelo Napoli, Dominic Osafoh, Nick McCobb, Brad Schaefer, Tyler McCobb, Lozie Goolsby, Gunnar Cukor, Amilcar Martinez, Tommy Mead, Brennan Vaughan, Sam James

Distance

·         Practice schedule: Monday: OYO, Tuesday: 3pm, Thursday-Friday: regular & Saturday practice in the morning.

·         We are working out hard on Tuesday, come ready to work and we may be ice bathing after.

·         Districts group:

o   Girls: Katie Genuario, Maura Finn, Nikki Amico, Lauren Price, Sophia Passacantando, Zoe Smith, Kristi Snow, Anna Lorentzen, Katie Murray, Allison McNulla (alternate: Kelsey O’Hern)

o   Boys: Luca Halladay, Nick Cucinotta, Cullen O’Boyle, Jeff Rsycavage, Corey Rosenberg, Crispin Bernier, Shreyak Khanal, Eric Turner, Carter Sibley (alternate: David Cate)

·         If you are running spring, but not advancing to districts please contact Coach Dietz (jdietz3@vt.edu) to get information about your break in between seasons.

·         Bring your old running shoes to practice this week please!!!!

Throws

            •           Due to not having practice Monday or Tuesday you must be on time each day for practice (Monday through Friday). No excuses! We have limited number of practices before Districts. Therefore we must make use of the ones we have.

            •           Both Collin Davis and Martha Bervell will be going to Districts for shotput.

Jan. 24: Practice Cancelled

We are cancelling today's practice due to this morning's inclement weather and no access to indoor facilities.  Please try to get some of a workout in this afternoon, indoors of course. 

Sprinters

• 20-30 minutes of cardio workout (treadmill, biking, elliptical, jumping roping, just be active)
• Core/Abs and pushups
• Email Coach McCraith with any training questions drmccraith@fcps.edu 

Distance Runners

• Everyone 25-30 minutes of running
• 4x1 min hard with 3 minutes recovery for (Rosenberg, Bernier, Halladay, Turner, O'Boyle, Cucinotta, Murray, Genuario, McNulla, Passacantando, Price, Finn, Amico, Z. Smith)
• Push-up pyramids, pose drills & lots of stretching!!!!
• Get inside on a treadmill

As for tomorrow (Friday January 25th) practice, we have gotten small gym time and tonight we will update the blog and also send out an email with practice times.  If FCPS cancels afterschool extracurricular activities then we will not be able to practice, so please check the FCPS website (http://www.fcps.edu/index.shtml)  if there is inclement weather.  Even if we cannot practice Friday we will still compete Saturday, the only way that we will not compete Saturday is if FCPS cancels extracurricular activities/athletics events on Saturday morning. 

Coaches Corner

Sprinters

·         There will be practice, Monday 1/21 at 10:00 am.

·         Practice times for Monday 1/28 & Tuesday 1/29 = TBD.

·         Our last regular season meet is scheduled for this upcoming Saturday, 1/26 at Episcopal. Your attendance this week is imperative.

Distance

·         Holiday Practices: Monday, January 21^st @ 11am; Tuesday, January 29^th @ 3pm.

·         Remember to keep up with your Sunday and Tuesday OYO runs; they are important to your training, even in the taper.

·         Some of you will be training through this last meet in preparation for the post-season, the District roster will be finalized after the January 26^th meet.

·         Make sure Coach Dietz knows if you intend on running Spring Track or for those who return next year if you plan on running cross-country.

Hampton Roads Elite HS Invitational: Goolsby Wins High Jump!

The Wolverines traveled down to Newport News, Virginia, to compete in the Hampton Roads Elite High School Invitational at Boo Williams Sportsplex (the site of the VHSL AAA State Championships). Both teams came away from the two day meet with several qualifiers and ended up finishing 11th out of 32 girls team and the boys were 14th out of 29 teams.
Friday night’s events contained a number of exciting performances and included an appearance from gold medalist gymnast Gabby Douglas.  Kelly Slatery placed 7th and tied her season best of 4-8 in the High Jump and competed well in the 55m hurdles with a time of 10.17.  Angelo Napoli continues to lower his time in the 55m hurdles, finishing in 9.56.  Sophomore Lozie Goolsby was the sole winner for the Wolverines as he claimed victory in the High Jump by clearing 5-10.
       Both 4x800m relays opened their season nicely and left with Regional qualifying times.  The girls relay of Sophia Passacantando, Katie Genuario, Lauren Price and Kristi snow placed 3rd overall (9:47.80)and were well under the Regional Standard and not far from the State mark.  The boys relay followed suit and were three seconds below the Regional Standard as Luca Halladay, Crispin Bernier, Cullen O’Boyle and Corey Rosenberg placed 5th in 8:20.55.
      On day two the boys 4x200m relay of Brennan Vaughan, Tommy Mead, Napoli and Amiclar Martinez improved their indoor season best to 1:41.73.  Genuario took 5th place in a loaded girls 1600 field and sophomore Nick Cucinotta was just 2 seconds off the District Standard in the boys 1600m.  In the 500m both Snow and Goolsby placed 9th.  Price lowered her District qualifying mark down to 3:10.38 in the 1000m and Rosenberg placed 9th and was within a second of Regionals.
      Continuing the strong performances was Mychelle Gyamfi who lowered her 300m time (45.53) by 2 seconds and came within 1 second of the District Standard, while teammate Trudy Adjetey-Doku dropped her time down to 46.76.  Mead broke 40 in the 300m with a new personal best of 39.90.
The highest individual finisher for the girls team was Katie Murray, who placed 3rd in the 3200m and qualified for Districts with her new indoor personal best of 11:50.43.  Murray led a slew of Lady Wolverines to new personal bests as Allison McNulla ran a strong race to score in 8th place (12:05.04) and Maura Finn and Nikki Amico ran well.  Halladay improved his District qualifying 3200 to 9:59.08 with his 7th place finish and Eric Turner won his section in 10:25.40.
     The final event of the day was the 4x400m relays, where both teams established new season bests.  The girls team of Price, Anna Lorentzen, Passacantando and Slatery finished in 4:26.77, placing 14th.  The boys finished 7th with their relay of Goolsby, Bernier, Cucinotta and Rosenberg running a solid time of 3:41.71.
     A big thank you to our parent chaperones who made this trip possible: John Slatery, Rick Genuario, Suzanne Dash & Sherri Rosenberg!!!!!

WP Wins Both Tri Meets!

Boys 1.WP 55 2. Wakefield 46 3. Oakton 16
Girls 1. WP 50 2. Oakton 46 3.  Wakefield 5

  The Wolverines swept this weekend’s tri meet against Oakton and Wakefield at Thomas Jefferson Community Center.  Both teams look strong in the second to last regular meet of the 2013 season.  In addition to winning the overall meet there were 13 first place finishes for West Potomac.
  Leading the way for the girls team were double winners Marjorie Woods and Zoe Smith, Woods placed first in the 55m dash and then came back to win 300m. Smith is in her first season of indoor track and had a strong double by winning the 1600m and 3200m, both by considerable margins.  The other individual winners for the Lady Wolverines came from Martha Bervell in the Shot Put and freshman Laura Powell in the 1000m. The girls team swept first and second places in the Shot Put, 1600, 1000m and 3200m.  Kelsey O’Hern was runner-up to Smith in both the 1600 and 3200m, freshman Meredith Barber came in a very close second to Powell as both were timed in 3:35.  Sarah Strzalka placed second in the Girls Shot Put.
In the relay action the boys 4x800m of David Cate, James McNulla, Leonard and Sibley claimed first place.      
     The boys team were led by six different individual winners. Dominic Osafoh won the 55m hurdles ahead of runner-up teammate Nick McCobb.  Osafar came back to place second in the 300m dash to teammate Samuel James.  Sophomore Shreyak Khanal ran a new personal best of 5:04 in the 1600m, to run away with the victory.  Collin Davis won the Shot Put with a throw of 34-7.5.  Sophomore Joseph Leonard won the 1000m and freshman John Whitney won a tight battle in the 3200m over teammate and classmate Carter Sibley.
      Thank you to all our parent volunteers who helped us run our only home meet of the season successful.  Thank you to Mrs. O’Hern, Mrs. Thomson and Mrs. Genuario for serving as scorers for the meet and also to our timers Mr.  Vita, Mr.  Bell, Mrs. Whitney, Mr.  Spitnale, Mr. Barber and Mrs. Powell.

Weekend Recap!

The Wolverines competed indoors and outdoors this weekend, splitting between the Montgomery Invitational and a Polar Bear Meet against Patriot District rivals Lake Braddock, West Springfield and Annandale.  In their first meets of 2013 the Wolverines continued to improve and look strong heading into the rest of the season.

At the Montgomery Invitational the girls 4x800m relay of Kristi Snow, Lauren Price, Allison McNulla and Katie Murray established a new season best of 10:25.  Junior Katie Genuario competed in the Invitational Mile, finishing in 5:18.59, which converts to a 5:16.74 and lowers her automatic Regional qualifying time.  Sophomore Lozie Goolsby ran a new indoor personal best in the 500 with 1:11.43.

Enjoying ideal conditions, the Wolverines took advantage of the unusually warm temperatures from January and established a slew of new personal bests.   Junior Kelly Slatery cleared 4-8 in the High Jump, meeting the District standard in the event.  Sophomore Eric Turner was just off District qualifying in the 1600, running a new personal best of 4:45, classmate Cullen O’Boyle also came close to Districts in the 1000m with his new personal best of 2:47.  Junior Luca Halladay once again was under the District standard in the 1000, running 2:42. 

The Wolverines put together their best performances in the 4x200m relays, with the boys A relay of Angelo Napoli, Amilcar Martinez, Brennan Vaughan and Tommy Mead getting under 1:40 with 1:39.74.  Mead ran under 40 in the 300m for the first time this season. The girls relay of Mychelle Gyamfi, Truty Adjetey-doku, Slatery and Marjorie Woods broke 2 minutes with a season best of 1:57.

Two Meets Again: Weekend of January 18-19

Hampton Roads Elite High School Invitational

January 18-19

Competing Athletes

Girls: Trudy Adjetey-doku, Nikki Amico, Katie Genuario, Mychelle Gyamfi, Maura Finn, Anna Lorentzen,             Allison McNulla, Katie Murray, Sophia Passacantando, Lauren Price, Kelly Slatery, Kristi Snow

Boys: Crispin Bernier, Nick Cucinotta, Lozie Goolsby, Luca Halladay, Amilcar Martinez, Tommy Mead , Angelo Napoli , Cullen O'Boyle, Corey Rosenberg, Brad Schaefer, Eric Turner, Brennan Vaughan

·         Athletes NEED TO TURN in the following:

o   Permission Slip Form

o   Prearranged Field Trip Form (signed off on by teachers)

o   $35 check made payable to West Potomac High School (cash is acceptable also)

·         Driving arrangements will be emailed out on Wednesday evening.

·         Will departing 9am on Friday (student-athletes will attend their first block on Friday).

TJ Tri Meet: January 18

·         Lineups will be sent out on Wednesday

·         NO SPIKES ALLOWED, spikes are not permitted at the TJCC facility

·         There is a bus to this meet.

·         6-7 Parent Volunteers NEEDED!!!

o   This is our home meet; we need 3 parents to assist with scoring.

o   We will need our 3-4 volunteers to time as well.

Coaches Corner

·         Forecast for Monday & Tuesday calls for rain, come prepared.  We still practice outdoors in the rain (only cancel for thunder and lightning).

·         We are approaching the end of the quarter; if a student-athlete needs to stay after with a teacher please make sure your coach is aware.  Academics come first, but we need student-athletes to communicate with the coaching staff.

o   Student-athletes competing in Districts will need to submit grade sheets for teachers to sign off on for eligibility purposes.

·         Charitable drives: old running shoes & jeans.

o   Both of these are optional, if you have any jeans or running shoes you’d like to get rid of we can take them off your hands and donate them to charities.

o   Jeans: donate any jeans you wish to get rid of to be donated to the homeless.  All jeans: mens, womens, child will be accepted and donated.  Jeans can be turned into Coach Dietz at practice on Wednesday, January 16.

o   Shoe drive: we will be collecting any old pairs of running shoes (some of you distance runners have accumulated many over the years).  Coach Dietz will collect these the week of January 21-25^th and through Potomac River Running they will be sent over to Africa.

Thank you for your support!

Thank you for everyone who came out to support the WP Track Team's Fundraiser at the Burger Joint!  We had a great turnout and appreciate everyone making the trip into Old Town to support the fundraiser!

Team Dinner this Friday!

This Friday (January 11) is our first team dinner at the Halladay Residence at 1802 Cool Spring Dr Alexandria, VA 22308 from 5:30PM- 7:30PM.

We still need a few volunteers for some of the food/items, please check out the sign up genius to volunteer to bring something to the dinner. http://www.signupgenius.com/go/30E0949A4A92AAB9-xcteam

Thank you for all of you who have already volunteered to help with any of the 3 team dinners we will be having this season.  Please bring your contributions as close to 5pm as possible.  The parent volunteers and hosts need some time to get all the food, drinks and plates/cups etc set up and ready to feed 80 hungry athletes plus coaches and parent helpers.

Two Meets this Weekend: Montgomery & Polar Bear

There will be a small group competing at the Montgomery Invitational; the majority of the team will be competing at the Polar Bear Meet held @ Lake Braddock. 

Montgomery Invitational

There is no bus to this meet, it is being held at PG Sportsplex (Landover, MD), which is the same site as the past two invitationals

WP Competitors

10:10am: 4x8-Snow—Price—Murray—McNulla/Halladay—Bernier—Cate—Khanal

1pm: 500- Lozie Goolsby

1pm: High Jump-Lozie Goolsby

2:10pm:Girls Invitational Mile- Katie Genuario

2:20pm: 1600-Corey Rosenberg & Sophia Passacantando

Polar Bear Meet (WP vs. LB, WS, Ann)

Lineups will be sent out on Wednesday. Long and triple jump events are tentative and will be determined on day of competition depending on the condition of the pits.

Meet will start at 11am and we will operate on a rolling schedule. There is a bus to this meet.

Parents: There is a $5 admission fee for this meet.  Also, We need 4-5 parent volunteers for timing.

Directions to Lake Braddock Secondary: (9200 Burke Lake Rd, Burke, VA 22015) Mapquest directions from West Potomac can be found here.

Coaches Corner: First of 2013!

Happy New Year!  We hope everyone had a wonderful Winter Break. We are looking forward to getting back into our normal practice schedule and hopefully everyone has kept up with their training routines.

Couple Items:

• Please check the practice schedule in the left column. There is no meet this weekend, Sprinters/Jumpers will practice at 10am on Saturday.
• We have our fundraiser at The Burger Joint (106 N. Washington St., Alexandria, VA 22314) on Thursday, January 3 (4pm-9pm). Plan to get your dinner there, 15% of all purchases will be donated to our team.  When you place your order just tell them you are supporting West Potomac Winter Track.  Hope to see all of you there!!!
• The temperatures have dropped, which means you need to dress appropriately.  Sweatshirts/jackets, pants, hats & gloves are needed for this weather.  NO ONE should show up in shorts, and pack layers to stay warm!
• See everyone on Wednesday for practice!!!!