Sectional Meet

Sectional 1600 m Race
Ygnacio Valley High School
Thursday, 4/28, arrive by 5:15, 1st call 5:45, 1st race 6:00
Admission: free

Sectional Meet
Granada High School, Livermore
Saturday, 4/30, arrive by 7:45, 1st call 8:10, 1st race 8:30
Admission: $4 adults, $2 Seniors (65+) and kids (5-13)
Note that they intend to charge admission for volunteers (think of it as a donation to a good cause) but not for coaches with badges and athletes.

At both meets, spikes are limited to 1/4" pyramid shapes. Nothing longer and no needle shapes. There will be a spike check at the entrance gate on Saturday.

I omitted relay qualifiers from my last email. These are the teams that qualified:

4x100 Relay.Girls	3rd Grade	2nd Place	CTK
4x100 Relay.Boys	5th Grade	3rd Place	CTK
Sprint Medley.Boys	7th Grade	4th Place	SC
4x400 Relay.Boys	7th Grade	1st Place	SC

If your athlete was on one of those teams and cannot make it on Saturday, let your primary coach know so that he/she can try to scare up a replacement.

The complete list of qualifiers is here.

Here is the order of events for both days of the Sectional meet: Sectionals Order of Events

Meet Rules

• Athletes check-in on the softball field behind the snack shack for races and the field event locations as usual for jumping and throwing.
• No coaches, parents, or spectators are allowed on the track, infield, or staging area at any time.
• Athletes should stay off the infield when they are not competing.
• Everyone should enter the track area through a manned gate--no fence hopping.
• Check-in ONLY when the grade is called. Events will close. Races take priority. If an athlete is jumping/throwing and hears their race called, they need to:
1. Tell the event official that they have a race and which race it is
2. Get to the clerks behind snack shack, sign in, and stay there
3. Return to the field event as soon as their race is over
• Alternates check in as soon as the race is called. Alternates in races need to stay put with the clerks. You won't know if you're running until the head clerk closes the event or all the regular athletes check in. I would recommend staying until they are actually walked out to the start line.

Have Fun
It's always worth a reminder that in this league and on this team, sportsmanship, effort, friendship, and fun take precedence over winning. So encourage your sons and daughters to put forth their best efforts and let the chips fall where they may.

See you on the track!

News for the Week of April 24th

Qualifying Results coming soon
Results from the Qualifying meet won't be officially released until early Wednesday morning, after a seeding meeting Tuesday night. In general, the top three finishers overall in events are moving forward to Sectionals. Fourth place is an "alternate," which means that athlete becomes a substitute in case another seeded athlete can't compete on Saturday. Alternates are not guaranteed to run. They report to the event, and then bite their nails until last call to see if they get a lane assignment.

In the 800m and 1600m, it's the top four finishers. It's the top four in field events as well. Since all four are in automatically, there are no alternates for these events.

Everyone is welcome and encouraged to come to practice this week (and next), especially if you may have qualified. Practice is at the usual times and places. We should have ribbons from meet #4 to hand out. Also, results from Meet #4 and the Relay Meet are on Athletic.net. You can also get to team records and season records by athlete from our Athletic.net home page.

Sectional Meet
The 1600m event will be on Thursday at YVHS at 5:30pm (1st event 6:00pm). Coaches will split up and cover both this meet and practice at CPHS. The order of events is:

1. Girls grades 3-5
2. Boys grades 3-5
3. Girls grades 6-8
4. Boys grades 6-8

There should be no admission fee charged at Thursday's event.

All other events are on Saturday, April 30th at Granada High in Livermore at 8:00am (1st event 8:30).

There is a small admission fee on Saturday. The usual breakdown is $4 for adults, and $2 for seniors and school-age children. Exact change will be greatly appreciated by the gate volunteers.

Athletes in uniform and coaches with their current cards are free.

There's also a "spike check" at the gate. Athletes with track shoes need to present them for inspection. They are looking for 1/4" (or smaller) pyramid spikes. I have extra metal spikes of this style and wrenches if we need to do a replacement.

The gate will be very, very busy on Saturday. Please arrive before 8:00am, especially athletes in the 4x100 relay. The 4x100 relays start calling at 8:10am. Please don't miss your race because you are stuck in line.

Meet Volunteers
We have a few assignments for Saturday, and for the Diocese meet as well. Gina and I will get these online soon. If you haven't fulfilled your 2 meet volunteer commitment, please do so. You can hire a Granada HS student to fill in for you by giving me a check for $50 at practice, made out to CTK Track.

Miscellaneous
I have two CTK sweatshirts that were left at Meet #4.
You should have received a Signup Genius email about the team picnic on May 28th.
You should have received a Signup Genius email about Team Positions for next year.
Here's the advance scoop on the Diocese Meet.

That's it for now. I'll have more when the Qualifying Meet results show up.

News for the Week of April 18th

Practice
Regardless of qualifying status, all athletes on the team are welcome and encouraged to come to practices as usual. Our last practice is Thursday, May 5.

Also regardless of qualifying status, you'll keep getting peppered with these emails until the end of the season. Consider it a free gift to you from the team.

Qualifying Meet
Don't forget that this weekend's Qualifying meet is at 1:00 pm (athlete and coach arrival time) at Granada High School in Livermore. Last year's Qualifying Meet explanation is still applicable. Read it here. One addition: even if an athlete has not managed to make one practice meet during the season, he/she can still compete in the Qualifying meet, but will not be eligible to move on to the Sectionals.


Championships
Starting with this weekend's meet, we're into the final championship weekends. All the hard work that the athletes have done over the season pays off as we taper for peak performance on these weekends.

All the practice you've done as volunteers gets called upon, too. These are the weekends when we're especially careful with how the meets are run and results are recorded. On that subject, there has been a request that volunteers make sure that every meet result includes an athlete number (not just a name) and that relay results include 4 athlete numbers for each team.

The top three finishers overall earn a place at the next championship meet, which is a change from our normal "fastest in the heat" finishes at practice meets. This can be a hard concept to grasp for younger athletes. ("But I got the #2 popsicle stick. How come I came in fifth?") In track, we always stress the importance of setting personal bests over crossing the finish line first.

After Qualifying
The weekend after Qualifying is the Sectional meet, and the following weekend is the Diocese championship. For the Sectional meet, the 1600 will be run on Thursday evening at YVHS. For the Diocesan meet, both the 800 and the 1600 will be run on Friday evening. See the meet schedule on our website.

News for the Week of April 11th

Awards
Ribbons from the Relay meet are still waiting on results to be processed. As soon as we get them, we'll hand them out.

Practice Meet #4, Saturday April 16 at Granada HS

The final practice meet of the season is coming up Saturday in Livermore. Athletes and coaches should arrive by 8:30. First event is scheduled for 9:00 am.

Qualifying Meet, April 23 at Granada HS

Because of difficulty finding a venue for this meet, it is an afternoon affair. The meet is scheduled for 1:00 - 5:30 pm.

There are some stricter rules starting with the Qualifying meet. I'll recycle and re-send last year's post next week, but in short:

• First and second graders are promoted into third graders via CYO magic
• Field events will compete by grade and gender: no latecomers, listen for your call
• Relay teams members must be a single parish, gender, and grade
• Top 3 finishers in each grade and gender for a given event qualify to compete in the Sectional meet the following weekend

Athletes may attempt any events in which they are eligible -- no third-grade high jumpers, for example, but it can be a new event to the athlete, too.

Athletes cannot do more than three individual events: the usual 2 races and one field, or 2 field and one race. I have to scratch their results if they go over. Relays are unlimited, provided they follow the single parish/gender/grade rules.

Sectional and Diocese Meets

The Qualifying is the start of the process that picks the fastest of the fast to send to the Sectional meet on April 28th and 30th.

From the Sectional, the top finishers go on to compete at the Diocese meet May 6th and 7th.

"Top finishers" means the top three places overall in an event, plus an alternate. Alternates are not guaranteed to compete, but alternates in field events usually have better odds.

If your athlete is on a qualifying relay team but cannot make the Sectional meet: we are allowed to make substitutions on relay teams for another athlete of the same parish and gender.

So, athletes who missed Qualifying could still be called upon to substitute into a relay team. We've had cases where someone was not able to run at sectionals, and we brought in a substitute leg on the relays.

Once we complete the Qualifying meet, coaches who put a successful relay team forward will be very interested in the availability of athletes in their groups for the final two weekends of our season.

News for the Week of April 4th

The Mary Chatterton Relay Meet was lightly attended (by both athletes and coaches), but successful with a lot of good runs and teamwork. Results and ribbons from this meet are a little delayed because the league data czar was on vacation.

Practice Meet #3
...is at Ygnacio Valley High this Saturday. Gates open to athletes and coaches at 9:00am. Our team is hosting this meet. Jake Otsuka is our meet coordinator.

If you have signed up to volunteer at Meet 3 and you'd like to hire a YV student to take your place, let me know and give me a check for $50 at practice this week, made out to "Ygnacio Valley High School Athletic Boosters." (Write small.)

Remember that athletes need to participate in 2 of the 4 practice meets to advance past the Qualifying meet.

Seven-Up Club
I may have failed to mention in previous newsletters that we award a handsome patch to every athlete who has competed in at least 7 different individual events over the course of the 4 practice meets and the Qualifying meet. This is to encourage kids to try new events, even ones they might not excel at.

Practice is at the usual time and places: Tues PHMS, Thurs CPHS, 5:00-6:30.

See you on the track!

News for the Week of March 28th

Happy Easter everyone! If you're in town, we have practice this week and a meet on Saturday.

• Tuesday practice at Pleasant Hill Middle School, 5-6:30pm
• Thursday practice at College Park, 5-6:30pm
• Relay meet at Ygnacio Valley High on Saturday

Mary Chatterton Memorial Relay Meet, Saturday at YVHS

• Athletes and Coaches should arrive: 9:00am

Remember if you are signed up to volunteer at the meet and you intend to hire a YVHS student to sub for you, you need to bring me a check for $50 at practice this week. Make it out to Ygnacio Valley High School Athletic Boosters.

The relay meet is special. We have four events only this week, and they're all relays, with no individual races and no field events.

Event order is:

• 4x100m - the same relay we know and love from practice meets
• Medley - double our normal sprint medley, the distances are 200m, 200m, 400m, and 800m
• 4x200m - another doubling, every athlete runs 1/2 lap
• 4x400m - our usual and the final event of the day

Despite there being only four events, the overall meet length is about the same, owing to the general chaos of staging.

We will still run girls in an event first, and then boys, with an eye toward filling all lanes in the track for each race.

There are no limits to the number of races an athlete may be in this week. Opportunists might even be able to run in the same event twice.

Free Agency

At this meet, there is usually a special "Free Agent" loitering area set up for athletes in search of a relay team. Coaches are urged to look there to round out relay teams.

This means we'll see multi-age and -parish teams this Saturday. It's all good, and it's all for fun. The only two rules for relay teams are:

• Girls' teams must be all girls: co-ed teams count as a boys' team
• Teams run as the grade of their oldest athlete

If it happens that we have four kids in the Free Agent area, they will be instantly transformed into an impromptu relay team and put out on the track. This is always quite a spectacle.

Awards and Results

I have ribbons from meet 2 ready to hand out at practice this week. Personal best results from the first two meets have been assembled and will be converted to ribbons soon. This year, to make the result compilation more automated, I've made the executive decision that, contrary to past practice, the first time an athlete does an event, that constitutes a personal best and gets a ribbon!

See you on the track!

News for the week of March 21st

That's 2 practice meets down and only 2 to go! Be aware that to advance beyond the Qualifying meet, an athlete must have competed in at least 2 of the 4 practice meets. The Warpath meet and the Relay meet do not count.

Practice this week on Tuesday only (5:00-6:30 at PHMS). Enjoy the long Easter weekend. (And make your athletes do a little running!)

Our next meet is the Mary Chatterton Relays at YVHS on 4/2. You can hire a YVHS student to take your place volunteering at the meet for $50. If you'd like to take that option:

1. First sign up for a job on Sign-up Genius, then
2. Email Gina (volunteers@ctktrack.org) and me (info@ctktrack.org) of your desire to hire, and
3. Give me a check for $50 made out to "Ygnacio Valley High School Athletic Boosters" no later than practice on the Thursday before the meet.

You must get the check to me by Thursday at the latest: we have to get our numbers to YVH so they can find a helper to give up their Saturday for you. Emailing Friday night is too late.

Results and awards

The results from meet #1 are up at Athletic.net. I should be faster for meets 2-4 now that I've done it once. Ribbons from that meet will be handed out tomorrow at practice (and subsequent practices). Personal best ribbons will be a little delayed, but they're coming!

Please keep in mind that all the marks are hand-timed and hand-measured by you, our fabulous volunteers. The quality of the results lies literally in your hands. No pressure!

There are some rough spots as we all learn the mechanics of timely button-pushing, tape-reading, and popsicle-stick-dispensing. The key goal is fun for the athletes, not a drawer full of ribbons. Keep perspective, and enjoy the meets.

See you on the track!