Turlock Turkey Trot 2 Mile

Today, Saturday Nov. 21, several of the Warriors ran in the local Thanksgiving classic road race here, the Turlock Turkey Trot. It's a two mile race held at Donnely park in Central Turlock (home of the coolest wood castle playground in the Central Valley, as pictured above). The course is two laps around the square mile park, really flat and on asphalt.

It was bitter cold this morning, in the mid-40's and very windy, but sunny. After the one mile kids fun-run, the Warriors stripped down to their spandex, singlets, and bandanas, taking their place at the front of the starting line. After a rousing chorus of "The Yellow Bird Song" and some half-hearted striders, the starter blew the go-ahead whistle and the race was on.

10-13 minutes later, it was all Warriors as they pulled into the finish chute. Here's some preliminary very unofficial results:

1. Dawson "Dan Lord" Vorderbruegge 9:56
2. Jose "Josie" Morales 10:00
3. Larry "Australian Mosquito" Blaylock 10:23
4. Shane "Escalon HS Singlet" Brookshire 10:34
5. Palmer "Thiele" 10:50
6. Stephen "Freshie" Lenz 10:53
7. Terrance "Unattached" Ellis 10:55

Tyler Thiele didn't register, so he only ran part of the race and helped us draft and pace, thanks Tyler. Big Props to Isaac, a freshman from Livingston who wore flats and broke 11 minutes, a very impressive time for late November and a 15 year old. Also to Joel "Emil Zapotek" Bernard, XC coach at Hughson HS, who ran a great race and helped fire up the Warriors, as well as his young son, who ran in the one mile!

Denali Foldager won the women's division in about 12:30, and was followed closely by April Montgomery and Lindsay Garcia. Congrats ladies!

However, the highlight of the day was not the race itself, but the awards. Following tradition, the awards are as follows:

Age Division 1st: whole Turkey
Age Division 2nd: Cornish game hen
Age Division 3rd: Flat of eggs

Overall Winner: Large pumpkin pie

So, we swept the pies, and won all the awards for the 19-29 age division. Then, they held a raffle to get rid of the rest of the Turkeys that were donated, and we won 4 more turkeys and another chicken, bringing our total haul to:

6 turkeys
3 chickens
60 eggs
2 pumpkin pies

To celebrate, we held the first annual XC Thanksgiving feast at the track house. It was glorious, it was victorious, and it was consumed by the Warriors. Have a great thanksgiving everyone, remember all your blessings!

Regionals Recap

It was an excellent weekend of racing at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco as the Warriors represented Stanislaus well at the 2009 West Regional Meet.

For the Women, Denali Foldager was 25th overall, once again proving that she can run with the best in the West. She was followed by Rubye, Chelsea, Mary, Alyssa, Lindsay and Andrea. The women finished in the 12th spot as a team, scoring 306 points. They were 7 points away from 9th place in an incredibly close finish as follows:

9. BYUH: 300
10. WOU: 303
11: Humboldt: 304
12. Stanislaus: 306

I've certainly never seen a big race finish that close, especially for those coveted top-10 spots. The women fought hard and showed what they were made of though.

For the men, the Warriors placed two in the top 25. Senior Joey Nunes went out with a bang, finishing 23rd overall in a time of 32:23. He was directly followed by Dawson Vorderbruegge in 24th place, 32:26. These two roommates have been training together and beating up on each other for the past two years, and it was finally nice to see them finish together and work off of one another, especially at such a large race.

Shane Brookshire was next for the Warriors, finishing in the 54th spot, a placing pr at his 4th Regional meet. Ivan Bojorquez with Freshman Kanwar Dhaliwal, both of them placing 73rd and 79th. Good races for both of these men as Ivan has suffered from some minor injuries of late, and Kanwar was in high school 6 short months ago. Tyler and Palmer Thiele also ran hard for the Warriors, bringing in the 6th and 7th spots.

Congratulations to the men and women from WWU, Anchorage, and Chico, as well as the Seattle Pacific women on qualifying for Natinals. Good luck in Indiana, rep the Left Coast well.

You can view the Men's Results here:
http://www.sfstategators.com/documents/2009/11/7/Men_s_10K_Results.htm?id=827

Women's Results here:
http://www.sfstategators.com/documents/2009/11/7/Women_s_6K_Results.htm?id=828

West Region Preview

Alright XC fans, it's that time of year, Regionals time! This year the race is held at Golden Gate Park (GGP) and hosted by SF State.

The men's rankings are currently as follows:

1. Chico
2. Western Wash
3. Pomona
4. Anchorage
5. Western Oregon
6. Humboldt
7. NW Nazarene
8. BYU-HI
9. Stanislaus
10. UCSD

The men are shooting for 7th, hoping to knock off BYU and NW Nazarene. If all goes to plan and the pack running is strong, this is definitely achievable. Senior Joey Nunes is looking for an All-Region Performance, hoping to make a statement with his last collegiate XC race. Dawson Vorderbruegge and Shane Brookshire are gunning for big prs and hoping to make up for sub-par performances at CCAA's two weeks ago. Ivan, Palmer, Kanwar, and Tyler are looking ot help the team as much as possible with their placing.

For the women, Denali and Rubye are expecting great performances after their all-CCAA runs last week. The women are currently ranked 10th, and look to maintain or improve that spot this weekend against fierce competition.

CCAA Recap

Sorry for the late update folks, but here's the results of a great weekend up at CCAA Champs in Humboldt.

All-CCAA Performances:

Joey Nunes, 8th overall, 25:32, 2nd consecutive all-conference performance
Denali Foldager, 10th overall, first All-CCAA run
Rubye Foldager, 12th overall, first all-CCAA run

Coach Taylor had the highest finishing teams in her coaching tenure at Stanislaus, with the men placing 4th and the women 5th, each a spot better than last year.

The men edged out UCSD by ONE POINT! Big props to hard finishers Shane Brookshire, Kanwar Dhaliwal, and Dawson Vorderbruegge, who combined to pass 6 UCSD runners in the last 400 meters to help secure the victory. They finished with 118 points, behind 3rd place Humboldt who scored 75 points.

The women ran very well and finished 5th as a team. The beat Humboldt by 4 points, 142-146, an excellent demonstration of strong pack running.

You can see the women's results here:
http://warriorathletics.com/custompages/season_stats/xc/ccaa_wxc.htm

And the men's here:
http://warriorathletics.com/custompages/season_stats/xc/ccaa-mxc.htm