2nd Annual Blue & White, Odds & Ends, and All-Conference

Our 2nd Annual Blue & White meet will take place this Saturday at Borton Mill’s Park in Cherry Hill, NJ. It is a flat, two-mile course that all are welcome to race! The idea – for PVIXC’s purpose – is an intra-squad meet in which teams will be drafted by both Coach Bonnette (Blue) and Coach Rankin (White). It will be scored like a regular XC meet with the For the alumni and parents, we challenge you to muster up a team of five capable of beating our current Eagles. The winning squad (Blue or White) will win a dinner on the other squad (this past year’s was held at Villari’s in Sicklerville). There will be prizes for Best Costume (those that dare to dress up – you’ll get negative points if you dress up like either Coach), Top Runner, and Most Improved.

We will have snacks/refreshments afterwards. Alums or parents, please e-mail bbonnette@pvihs.org if you plan on racing! ALL ARE WELCOME TO RACE – younger/older siblings, parents, alums, friends! The full course can be seen here…http://www.mapmyrun.com/route/us/nj/cherry%20hill/597684926998. (For the best view, put it into Satellite View)

Time: 9AM
Date: Saturday, October 31st, 2009
Location: The MAIN Parking Lot is right across the street from 306 Bortons Mill Road, Cherry Hill, NJ 08034.
Rain or shine (hopefully the weather cooperates). The 2-mile course will be marked.
Course Record: Mike Rankin (2008), 10:42

TEAMS will be posted shortly.

BLUE (Coach Bonnette)

Catrino
Nuccio
Vadino
Booth
Smith
Bretschneider
Marino
Madden
Advisors: Hoban, McKean, and Lamberto (as last year’s Blue team members)

WHITE (Coach Rankin)

Mastrando
Gallagher
Verna
Patterson
Boldurian
Munns
Hubbs
Team Advisors: Walter, Rankin (as last year White team members)

Last year’s result - White 27, Blue 28, Vadino’s 9th place finish (5th man) and Rankin’s win seals up a one-point white team win.

Also on tap this week is the Haddonfield Frosh/JV Championships held at Pennypacker Park, a flat and fast 5k course behind Haddonfield Memorial HS. Most of the guys racing the Blue and White will also race at Haddonfield. The details are forthcoming but the meet is this Thursday, 10/29 and the schedule looks like this:

Boys Sub-Varsity 4:00PM
Boys Freshmen 4:30PM

Olympic Conference Championships

The squad finished 5th in the tough Olympic Conference this past weekend. Although we all were somewhat unhappy with the team finish we did have several individuals grab first and second team All-Conference honors. Best performance of the day went to frosh Mike Patterson for a ‘C’ course PR!

1st Team – Michael Rankin, Brian Walter, Thomas Hoban, Richard McKean
2nd Team – Stefano Mastrando, Nick Lamberto

OLYMPIC CONFERENCE Championships: Itinerary

The Championship Season is upon us and we now enter the early stages of what we’ve been working towards for since June.

EARLY DISMISSAL 12:45-1:00PM on Friday, 10/23 (HAVE YOUR EARLY DISMISSAL NOTES at the ready!)

BUS leaves as close to 1PM as possible from PVI (sharing with the Girls squad)

3:00PM Junior Varsity Race

Catrino

Gallagher

Nuccio

Marino

Verna

Boldurian

Patterson

Hubbs

Smith

Bretschneider

Munns

3:40PM Varsity Race

Rankin

Walter

Hoban

McKean

Lamberto

Mastrando

Vadino

EVERYONE returns on the bus to PVI. This is a championship race fellas – we race and whether win or lose, we do it as a team. Plan accordingly.

Come overprepared (dry clothes, warm clothes, warmups, jerseys, spikes, etc.). De-catastrophize (meaning don’t let negative thoughts take over, make this fun). Don’t tell me 7th period was your only time to eat. Plan ahead and eat when you need to eat during the day! Couple quotes to think about:

“The greatest hurdle is convincing yourself that what you want is possible” – Author Unknown

“It is hard to fail, worse though to have never tried at all” – Timothy Dyson

You all know this one - “To give anything less than your best is to sacrifice the gift” – Steve “Pre” Prefontaine

“Run like hell and get the agony over with” – Clarence DeMar

“Racing teaches us to challenge ourselves. It teaches us to push beyond where we thought we could go. It helps us to find out what we are made of. This is what we do. This is what it’s all about.” PattiSue Plumber, US Olympian

And last but not least, take a look at Dathan Ritzenhein’s last mile in his American Record performance recently. He didn’t win the race but watch him move (running just over 4 minutes for his last mile) to break a long-standing 5k record.

We will not run anyone in the frosh race. It is ‘C’ course and the last time this year you will see GCC.

Brown Invitational: A Host of PRs in Rhody

Great competition, new scenery, a flat and fast course (Goddard Park is beautiful) all helped to generate big times. The truth of the matter is, however, that you still have to RACE and our guys did just that, about 80% or so PR’ed in the process. The Varsity guys finished a respectable 6th place, winning on the 6th runner rule, and competing very well with a bunch of great Northeast teams. The guys had three out of the four PR, led by Nick Vadino and Chris Booth, who grabbed a huge PR (pure reward for all of the hard work he’s been doing). The froshies were the first to go off and Adam Verna found that the race was flying through the mile mark, leaving him with a little bit of making up to do. He came on strong in the end finishing 20th in a remarkably competitive race. Patterson wasn’t too far behind in 47th with the frosh pack not too far behind that. Overall, there was a little bit of a daze over the guys as they dealt with the weather, travel, new surroundings but it was a good performance and it’s always good when they come up to you afterwards asking why they couldn’t run the full 5k (I think they sensed PRs).

Freshmen (2.55mi)

20. Verna 14:18 [5:36/mi]
47. Patterson 15:05 [5:54/mi]
76. Pezzano 15:45 [6:10/mi]
78. Boldurian 15:47 [6:11/mi]
79. Marino 15:47 [6:11/mi]
115. Munns 16:38 [6:31/mi]

Junior Varsity

out of 171
43. Vadino 18:22
47. Booth 18:31 [-:22 PR]
84. Hubbs 19:19 [-:02 PR]
111. Bretschneider 20:02 [-:22 PR]

The Varsity guys lined up with some of the best from Massachussetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York, and New Hampshire and fared particularly well. We have been harping over key injuries and not being 100% all year that it’s clear at times, as coaches and athletes, we forget to just go out and race with all you got and see where it takes you. Rankin and Walter established themselves early on latching on to a quick first group and heading through in 4:59 and 5:00 respectively. Tom Hoban was feeling all sorts of bad through the first mile but really helped Rich McKean (sub 17 for the first time!) deliver a fine performance in the end as they jockeyed for position throughout the race with Nick Lamberto around as well. If we can keep you three together, that could be a dangerous pack with Championship season looming. A couple negative thoughts (to get them out of the way) – a deceiving homestretch led us to lose a couple places in the last 200 meters or so, something we have to improve upon for this Friday. We also fell asleep in the second mile, a pattern that is starting to take hold. We have to reverse this and trust that regardless how overextended we feel with 1.1 to go, our fitness and mental toughness will take us to the finish. Overall, you guys raced with a sense of ownership and urgency – something we were lacking just a week or so ago. Let’s gear up because Championship season is here guys and it’s up to us to meet it head on!

Varsity Championship

12. Rankin 15:52 [-:14 PR]
18. Walter 16:11 [-:22 PR]
43. Hoban 16:46
51. McKean 16:58 [-:03 PR}
65. Lamberto 17:12 [-:22 PR]
78. Mastrando 17:41 [-:08 PR]
84. Gallagher 18:08
team avg. 16:36

NEXT UP: Olympic Conference Championship, this Friday, October 23rd. Details to come tomorrow!

BROWN INVITATIONAL: Itinerary

Here goes! Paul VI Boys XC will head up to East Greenwich, RI to compete in the Brown Invitational this Saturday. Thanks to Booster Club president Jerry Hubbs and all of the parents for making this such an easy thing for the kids and coaches.

Friday, October 16th

2:00PM: Kids are permitted to leave school, three “parent shuttles” will take the guys over to the Gallagher residence. If you need the address, e-mail me. We will load up and get out of town.

3:00PM: The absolute latest to leave.

8:00PM-9:00PM: Estimated arrival time. Quick pre-race run, pasta dinner, team meeting.

Saturday, October 17th

As it stands, the race schedule looks like this (and it is subject to change):

9:45AM Freshman Race

11:35AM Junior Varsity – Division II Boys (Large Schools)

2:45PM CHAMPIONSHIP Boys

4:00PM Latest time to get on the road.

9:00PM-10:00PM Estimated arrival time at Paul VI HS.

The race assignments will be posted tonight. Thank you again for all of the tremendous help from the Booster Club to make this possible – it really is a great thing to be able to reward these guys for all of the hard work they have put in. Let’s repay the parents in full by giving them a race to be proud of!

Guys, it will be cold (high 51, low 40 on race day) and rainy. Our favorite conditions. COME PREPARED – hats, gloves, hoodies, Under Armour, whatever you need to keep comfortable.

The Busiest Week of the Season

It has been a busy past week for the Eagles. Some great things, some not so great things. A spirited showing from our JV guys at the South Jersey Open this past weekend was dampened a bit by an equally opposite performance from the Varsity guys. After a couple days of much needed reflection and rest, the guys were right back on the course to defend their Conference Championship.

First, let’s start with the SJ Open. The JV guys started things off with a fine 3rd place performance behind much-bigger and deeper squads in Moorestown and Washington Township. Regardless, the Eagles put four in the top 25 and set huge PRs in the process. Nick Vadino, Dan Marino, and Chris Booth registered some of the best performances of the day but as a whole, the JV took huge steps. Freshman Alex Munns took over a full minute off his time as he gets closer and closer to 20 minute barrier.

out of 166
5. Vadino 18:10 (PR)
9. Nuccio 18:24
13. Verna 18:33
24. Booth 18:52 (PR)
45. Hubbs 19:21 (PR)
49. Patterson 19:31 (PR)
69. Boldurian 19:59
80. Pezzano 20:11 (PR)
85. Marino 20:23 (PR)
86. Bretschneider 20:24 (PR)
100. Munns 21:00 (PR)

Varsity

The Varsity guys will want this one back. Overall, there wasn’t much to be too happy about except maybe the PRs by Lamberto and Mastrando. Overall, however, these guys expected more and most importantly – the results don’t lie, Delsea and Saint Augustine had great performances from some key runners and really made this a tight one. The guys finished 2nd and averaged 17:16, a respectable result but as a squad, they all certainly expected more. More fuel to the fire for Tuesday.

5. Rankin 16:32
7. Walter 16:42
22. Lamberto 17:35 (PR)
23. McKean 17:43
26. Mastrando 17:52 (PR)
32. Catrino 18:03
58. Gallagher 18:47

On to the dual meet…and the bid for a second consecutive conference championship and even more importantly, a step back in the right direction. Seniors Mike Rankin and Brian Walter led the way with Walter registering a 7 second PR in a rather controlled effort. One face surprised people on the line and that was the face of junior captain Tom Hoban back on in the swing of things after a long hiatus and a battle with “growing”. It didn’t seem like he had lost much in the way of fitness as Hoban helped us put 4 in the top 5 with Rich McKean in there as well. McKean ran his fastest race of the season so far by a lot showing a bit of what’s to come. Camden Catholic and Bishop Eustace both put in fantastic performances – showing the newly found depth of this conference. In fact, everyone involved in the race had pretty good days – PRs were abundant as you can tell below. Our freshmen took a good deal off their times – Verna, Boldurian, Marino, Patterson, Pezzano – as they saw what it takes to win a conference championship. Overall, a good day and an encouraging start to the week as Saturday’s trip to Rhode Island looms.

Paul VI 21, Camden Catholic 34
Paul VI 16, Bishop Eustace 40

1. Rankin 16:22
2. Walter 16:33 (-:06 PR)
4. Hoban 17:02
5. McKean 17:20
10. Lamberto 17:34 (-:01 PR)
15. Mastrando 17:49 (-:03 PR)
17. Gallagher 17:56
18. Nuccio 18:00
20. Verna 18:15 (-:18 PR)
21. Vadino 18:29
29. Patterson 19:13 (PR)
32. Boldurian 19:37 (PR)
33. Hubbs 19:38
37. Booth 20:11
38. Pezzano 20:11
39. Marino 20:14 (PR)
40. Bretschneider 20:39
43. Munns 21:19

Next up: BROWN INVITATIONAL, East Greenwich, RI, details to come tomorrow!!!!

As a side note, Coach Bonnette survived his first marathon.