Conference Championships

Well its been a while. Things have been crazy here in track and field. We haven't exactly had the greatest weather but still have had several school records set as well as several events provisionally qualify for the national championships. This weekend is the time we look forward to the most as the year goes on, the IIAC Championships. We always hope to be at our best. So far things have been pointing in that direction as we just keep getting better every week. I think the best part about this team is that they have really grown as a team and now tend to hang out together and really trust each other, especially when it matters most. As a coach I think thats my greatest success. Working together as a team means more than any trophy or award you could recieve; its something that you can use you're entire life. We have a great opportunity to have one of the best years ever on the men's side of things. If everything goes well. One thing I can promise is that each and every person on this team bleeds blue and gold and will not back down. I am very proud of the heart this team has shown this year, and although we may not have the biggest team, we have shown that we can compete with the best. I really hope that anyone who reads this can get out to Waverly and support the Beaver Track and Field Teams. We really want to make our presence known this year! 

Posted by maasn [Track and Field] ( May 08, 2008 02:20 PM ) Permalink | Comments[0]

Dennis Young Classic

Well we had the Dennis Young Classic this past weekend at home and put on a pretty good show. The men did everything they possibly could to win and just missed out. We scraped out every point possible and were narrowly nipped at the end by 4 points. We had a few people sick and and a few little nagging injuries but all in all had a pretty good weekend. The big highlight of the meet was Shawn Olorundami and his 7.75 in the 55 hurdles, which provisionally qualifies him for the national championships. As coaches we knew he was on the verge of running a great time and we still believe he will still drop considerable time. He also went on to win the 200 meter dash and was a part of our 4x400 team. Eric Bertelsen also had a pretty good day considering he was sick all week and is still healing up his ankle. He was still able to win the long jump, place second in the 200 and was also on the 4x400 team. AJ Dahm also was able to pull out a victory and drop a second off of his 400 time. Justin Taylor had a breakthrough in the 800 dropping down under 2 minutes for the first time. It was great to see him really get out and push in this race to test himself. I think he has a long ways to go and will only see improvement as the weeks go on. Chris Rowedder also had a good day winning the 55 dash. Steven Ricke set another personal best in the shot put and just keeps getting better.I know i'm missing some performances, which is easy to do with the way our team has been performing lately. We just want to keep the momentum going into the next few weeks and be at our best at the conference championships. 

On the women's side of things, Andrea Ahrendsen won the high jump and set a pr in the 800 meters. Missy Reinhart ran a tough race in the 400 meters and was able to pull out a pretty good time. Natalie Olorundami placed 3rd in the 55 hurdles and is showing she is on the verge of a great race also. The women's 4x400 team also chopped 5 seconds off their season best! So all in all we are really seeing some good improvement from the women as well.

 The best part of the weekend was that we had a reception for alumni, parents and athletes after the meet. It was great to have that many people who support our program together in one place enjoying a great meal!! I just hope that it can continue to grow each year. It was just great to share memories with alumni and to let them see the present team and the where I see our future going.
 

Posted by maasn [Track and Field] ( February 15, 2008 03:04 PM ) Permalink | Comments[0]

Mankato

We traveled to Mankato this past weekend and things were kind of rough for us. Our hurdlers did a fantastic job this weekend. Especially Shawn Olorundami who smashed our school record in the 60m hurdles and set a big personal best in the event by running 8.39. Tanner Russ also ran a personal best by going 8.64. Justin Taylor tied his personal best by going 8.68. So our hurdlers are doing very well at this point in the year. Also preforming well was Steven Ricke who set a huge personal best in the shot put (45-10.5). The remainder of the team competed very hard but for some reason we all just looked a little flat. Sometimes you just have days like that as a team where things just don't go you're way. We just try to shake it off and move on to the next weekend. 

One thing I truely hated about this meet was how poorly run it was. The weight throw for men and women took almost 4 hours and the same can be said for the shot put. It was just rediculus how slowly the official ran things. They tried to speed the meet up by only marking everyones first throw and then anything over a minimum distance. This was a good idea in theory but they still allowed to much warm-up time and the head official proceeded to do 10 minutes of instruction before and after each flight. When you add that up to about 3-4 flights per men and women, it is over an hour of wasted time. Just a very very poorly run meet from the throws standpoint. What they really needed to do was give everyone 4 attempts with no finals and call it a day. But instead we did not get out of there until 9pm and the throws began at 11am! I love track and field but thats the reason no one watches and why there were no spectators left for the men's shot put.

 Next up we have our Dennis Young Classic meet which is always a fun meet where there are some great awards and we usually seem to come together more as a team. We are combining this with a little alumni and parent reception afterwards to have a little fun and talk about the old days. If you're an alumnus out there we would love to have as many there as possible. It should be a great time for you to catch up.

GO BEAVER TRACK AND FIELD!!!
 

Posted by maasn [Track and Field] ( February 05, 2008 09:41 AM ) Permalink | Comments[0]

Successful BVU Open!

Well for my first home meet here at BVU as a coach, I think everything went very well. As always there were a few little glitches that need to be fixed before we host our next two meets on the 8th and 9th, but overall things went well. As a track coach hosting meets is a little different than most sports that host home events. Coaches are usually considered the Meet Director as well which means I organize the meet in ever facet, including rounding up volunteers, timers, starters, field judges, etc. It also means organizing the set up of the facility, which includes marking sector lines, setting up the pole vault and high jump pits, preparing long jump pits, roping off the track, etc. Then there comes the seeding of events for the meet which usually takes about 2 hours depending on how many teams you have and the organization of the meet. Then you must print up a thousand copies of heat sheets, finish line sheets, field event score sheets and anything else that coaches or workers might need. Often times we will also have t-shirts for event champions which need to be ordered (although this meet we did not have those). Oh and there is also the purchase and supply of food for the workers. As the meet goes on there are always questions and concerns from judges, timers, starters, other coaches, parents, workers, about anything and everything. So the day gets a little crazy for the head coach and it is really hard to coach on those days. However I have a wonderful coaching staff who is very helpful and takes care of all the athletes. I always manage to pull myself away to make it to every event area and provide a little coaching help during the meet. Our next two meets should be a little easier as former coach Brett Carney will be helping out as our meet director. This will definately take a huge load off my shoulders on meet day. Again this all may be hard on my physically and mentally but its my wife who's the tough one as she takes all of this on as well and still manages to keep me sane. If it wasn't for her I wouldn't be able to get through these meets. 

Ok lets move on to the meet itself and how the Beavers preformed!  We had some amazing performances and really improved on last years results at this same meet. I've highlighted some of the improvements but there were many more people who preformed very well behind the scenes and in relays.

 

Posted by maasn [Track and Field] ( January 28, 2008 10:13 AM ) Permalink | Comments[0]

UNI meet

Well we took a very small group of people to UNI for a smaller Open meet. I would say that we had a very good opening meet for this group! To Start the meet off, Eric Bertelsen won the long jump on his final attempt of 22 feet 8.5 inches, and still has a long way to go technique wise, which is great considering he still jumped further than he ever did last year indoors already. He also came through with a 4th place in the 60m Dash (7.15) and a 5th place in the 200 meter dash (22.84) as well as anchored our 4x4. Tanner Russ and Justin Taylor both broke the school record in the 60m hurdles with Tanner ending up with the mark at 8.65. Justin ran an 8.68, so it was very close. Justin also pulled together a pretty good opening 600m Dash with a 1:25.18. Chris Rowedder also competed in the finals of the 60m Dash and placed 6th with a time of 7.19 which is faster than his best last year. AJ Dahm ran a fast 400 than all of last years indoor season and placed 6th.(52.64) He also cleared 6ft in the high jump and just barely missed 6'2 on all three attempts. Natalie had a bit of an off day for her but she will definitely bounce back for our home meet this weekend.  Overall a pretty good weekend! Everyone is very excited and looking forward to this weekend at home and ready to see what the rest of the team has stored up.

If you're in the area, stop by and check out the beavers in action starting with field events at 10am and running events at 10:30. 

Posted by maasn [Track and Field] ( January 21, 2008 01:45 PM ) Permalink | Comments[0]

Track season approaches

Finally everyone is back on campus and I can stop holding my breath. I absolutly hate little breaks in practice and routine. I understand that it actually may be nessasary for everyone to get away from each other and get a break from school. However, track coaches always worry what work was done over break. Not to say that people didn't workout, but sometimes in Iowa the weather gets so bad and we have so many small school kids who have nowhere to get in their running workouts. Lifting isn't usually a problem, but to get someone outside when its -10 windchill and having them attempt to do any type of productive running is rediculus. I just sit in my office and hope that everyone did every workout and comes back at least in the same condition I sent them out in. Today will be the day where we see where we are and where we need to go. I hope everyone had a great holiday season out there.

 IT'S TRACK SEASON!!

Coach Maas
 

Posted by maasn [Track and Field] ( January 02, 2008 09:58 AM ) Permalink | Comments[0]

Time Trials

Friday the BVU track team completed our time trials and look great! Everyone has really shown some great growth over the last 4 weeks and as long as we get it done over the Christmas break, we should definitely make some noise this season. We started with two rounds of the 55 hurdles and saw a great battle with the men. We had each of the 4 men between 7.7 and 7.9. Granted those are hand times so take them with a grain of salt. However I feel like we are definately on the right track and look very good in the hurdles. The heats of the 300 looked great as we had 6 men under 38.5 and 3 of the hurdlers I believe would have been right there but we didn't have them trial at that distance. The biggest suprise was our number one guy who had only practiced for a few days and ran a 36.1 slipping out of the blocks. Our sprints from the 400 down will really be a force to be reckoned with this year. We also had a few mid distance folks take part in the 600 meters and had some decent results. Several of our throws had great throws for the amount of reps they have been getting in. I think both men and women will really see some big improvements once we increase our reps a little and focus on technique. The majority of our work with all groups has been mainly technique and conditioning. When we return from break we'll begin focusing in on our workouts and get into "serious get it done mode." Should be a great season! The best part about Friday is that you could tell that everyone is buying what the coaches are selling and everyone is really starting to come together. We had people cheering on each other and really supporting one another, it's great when a team really turns around and starts to believe in each other and becomes more about each other than themselves.

With the christmas break coming up, I am going to try and post a few blogs that talk about our warm-up routines, lifting, etc. Just to give everyone a little insight into our philosophies and how the Beaver Track team prepares. Conference is just 12 weeks away so time is of the essence. Please feel free to comment and let me know what you would like to know about BVU Track.

Coach Maas 

Posted by maasn [Track and Field] ( December 11, 2007 01:23 PM ) Permalink | Comments[0]

Track Practice Rolling

Well we've had a few weeks of track practice and things are slowly coming along. You really can tell who put in time over the summer and this fall. It seems as though a majority of the team has really put in some good time and work and is really looking pretty fit. The biggest adjustment is the adjustment to a new coach. It's always a challange as everyone has different styles and philosphies, however everyone seems to be adjusting well and the overall has a great attitude. 

The women's team is very slim this year and thats really their only downfall, the ones we do have are really willing to work hard and have done everything we've asked. There are a few potential all-americans in the small bunch and we will add at least 4 members to the team when outdoor season arrives.

 The men's group looks great and should have an outstanding year. Each member of the men's team has bought into what our overall team goal is and what we need to do in order to accomplish that goal. We have a number of conference place winners and have added a few to our already deep sprint core which should help us in the relays. Each member of the team knows that in order to get to our overall goal, we need help accross the board in every event to make it happen. Keep an eye out on these guys as it will be a very exciting year.

 In my next blog I'll talk a little about some individuals we expect to shine and a little about our coaching staff makeup. Hope everyone had a great thanksgiving!
Coach Maas


 

Posted by maasn [Track and Field] ( November 26, 2007 11:36 AM ) Permalink | Comments[0]