Saturday’s meet against Newbury Park marks the end of the regular season, and it was a great one!  Once again, we had some chilly, damp weather, which doesn’t usually equate to fast times.  There were quite a few athletes competing for championship spots and PR’s and it was great to see how hard they all competed and supported each other.

We are now moving on to the championships!  As a reminder, ALL athletes are eligible to compete in the Conference Finals on May 4th.  We will be practicing as normal this week, with regular team practices on Monday and Wednesday and a full schedule of specialty practices on Tuesday, Thursday and Friday.  Wednesday’s practice will be a quick workout, followed by a team BBQ/picnic in the grass area behind the bathrooms until probably around 6:30.  We hope EVERYONE can attend!

This will be the last week of practice for those athletes who did not qualify (unless you are chosen for a relay team) for the Conference Championships.  Let’s make the most of it and have a great last meet on Saturday!

We’d like to congratulate the list of athletes below who have qualified for the Conference Championships on May 11th.  This is a huge accomplishment!  This season has been by far the most challenging year we’ve seen to qualify in just about every event.  The athletes below have qualified for individual events – we will also be working this week to finalize relay spots and should have that solidified by the end of Wednesday practice.  Our goal is to send as many athletes as possible to the Co-Conference Championship on May 18th and we will be asking for many of our athletes to run relays at the Conference Finals on May 4th and the Conference Championships on May 11th.  Please stay tuned for the announcement of those teams.

So, here is your list of 2019 Conference Championship qualifiers!!!

Lovi Jones – 100/200

Donnea Prehn – 100/200/400/hurdles

Ryan Mendez – 200/400/High Jump

Lily Shadden – 400/hurdles/High Jump

Sadie Engelhardt – 800/1600/3200

Chelsea Ochoa – 800/1600/3200

Sofia Stepan – 800/1600/3200

Violet Hurguy – 1600/High Jump

Ryan Maquinalez – 3200

Madi Kasztelan – 3200

Taylor King – 3200

Savannah Sprinkle – Hurdles/Shot Put

Mekaella Villa – Hurdles

Ava Okun – 400/800/1600/3200/Long Jump

Shelby Votruba – 1600/Hurdles

Elsa Safranski – Long Jump

Michael Torres – 800/1600/3200

Henry Hammel – 800/1600/3200

Grant Baysinger – 800-1600

Diego Rodriguez – 800/1600/3200

Braden Herrera – 3200

David Reyes – 3200

Daniel Ortiz – 3200/High Jump

Owen Benedik – Hurdles

Justin De Leon – Hurdles/Long Jump

Warren Turville – High Jump

Jacob Jeffries – 100/200/400/800/High Jump

Jonathan Ocheltree – 100/400

Bennett Torgerson – 800/1600/Long Jump

While the weather was great for our distance runners, the sprinters (and us coaches/parents) didn’t have it quite so nice.  The team performed amazingly well across the board, but the cool weather did make things a bit challenging for the sprinter’s times to reflect how well they did.  Camarillo has a big and very talented team, which brought out the competitiveness in our team.  It was really amazing to see how our athletes laid it on the line and gave it everything they had.  Even more than the performances on the track, as the season has gone on, the support our athletes give each other and the friendships being made has been fun to watch!

Results for the meet can found here:  https://www.athletic.net/TrackAndField/meet/379311/results

With one more regular season meet to go (against another very good club), athletes should be planning what events they would like to participate in for both Conference Finals and Conference Championships (for those who qualify).  We’ll be talking about this at practice this week, but if you have any questions on how the championship meets work, please refer to the previous post here:  https://www.venturatigres.org/youth-intermediate-qualifying-for-conference-championships-and-the-top-25-list/

If you have any questions, please email youth@venturatigres.org or call/text 650-678-3681

Please congratulate the athletes in this week’s videos!

Girl’s Bolt of the Week

Boy’s Bolt of the Week

Girl’s Kick of the Week

Boy’s Kick of the Week

Team pictures will be taken during practice time on Wednesday.  Please be sure to wear uniforms to practice – uniform top, black shorts.  If athletes would like to wear a shirt under their singlet, please make it white.  Please avoid wearing clothing (hats, headbands, shirts, etc) that are not white.

Coaches, please wear your coaches uniforms.

First of all, I want to apologize to any of the athletes that were not allowed to compete because of mistakes made in the entries.  It was my fault for not thoroughly looking through the meet program to verify all of the entries.  I’m very sorry.  Also, we had some confusion over the boy’s 4×100 relay team and a DQ and I also want to apologize to any of the athletes that might have been left out of that situation.

On to the good stuff!  That was a very competitive meet with some amazing athletes!  It just so happens, many of those amazing athletes were our Tigres!  Out of the 209 medals that were given out to the boys and girls in the youth division, Tigres collected 38 of them.  That is over 18% of the possible medals, with 15 teams competing.  If there was an even distribution among the 15 teams, that would be just under 14 medals per team.  Not a bad representation of Tigres at all!!!  It was so great to see so many PR’s!  We had several events where just about all of the participants PR’d.  Watching how hard our team competed was truly inspirational!

Even more impressive than the performances, I had three separate coaches tell me how impressed they were with displays of sportsmanship by our team.  There is no better compliment than when other teams notice how our team treats other competitors.

We have two more dual meets remaining against probably the strongest two clubs in the VCYTC.  I can’t wait to see how our team responds to the competition.  I have a feeling we are in store for some even more amazing performances!  Please make an effort to attend as many practices as possible over the next few weeks as the season is coming to a close quickly.

We’re looking forward to a great meet this weekend at Oxnard High School!  With 15 teams and well over 1,000 athletes, there should be some great competition and nice opportunity for our team to get the feel for a large high school style invitational.

Some info that might be helpful:

Please see the meet flyer for order of events and field event time schedule:  https://cdn1.sportngin.com/attachments/document/7102-1828596/2019_Co-ConferenceInvitationalFlyerUpdated.pdf?_ga=2.145899572.1243333711.1555124460-283880322.1555124460

Please allow plenty of time for arrival before events.  Parking may be a challenge and getting through staging is a bit of a zoo with that many athletes.  I would recommend arriving no later than an hour before estimated event time.

There are no coaches allowed on the field to help with athletes.  They will do great helping each other get warmed up and into staging.  We’ll have coaches in the Tigers tents to help out with any issues.

There are no athlete stickers needed for this meet.  The meet is pre-seeded and athletes just need to identify themselves in staging and they will be put in their pre-determined heats.  There are no adds or changes to meet entries.  However, relay teams have been entered, so if we have an injury, illness or something else unexpected, we may need some help from an athlete that has room for another event.

Below is a very rough estimation of event times.  It could likely run later than this, but hopefully this will give somewhat of a guide on when events will take place.  Please don’t take this as official!  One of the best practices is to call a friend/teammate and find out what event they are currently running to better judge your time.

Saturday

3000 meters – 8:30-9:30

Hurdles – 9:30-10:00

100 meters – 10:00-11:00

800 meters – 11:00-12:00

4×100 – 12:00-1:00

200 meters – 1:00-2:30

Sunday

1500 – 8:30-10:00

Hurdle Finals – 10:10:20

4×100 relay Finals 10:20-11:00

400 – 10:00-11:00

100 meter Finals – 11:00-11:30

4×400 – 11:30-12:30

If you have any questions, please email youth@venturatigres.org or call/text 650-678-3681

We’ll be talking about this more over the next few weeks, but there are 3 regular season meets left until we start the championship meets, which include Conference Finals (this meet is open to all athletes), Conference Championships (athletes must qualify during our regular season) and the Co-Conference Championship (athletes qualify through the Conference Championship Meet).

In order to qualify for the Championship Meet on May 11th, an athlete needs to be in the Top 9 (Top 12 for the 800, 1600 and 3200) in an event after the last meet is finished on April 27th.  It is a HUGE accomplishment to make the Championship meet and we would like to see as many of our athletes qualify as possible.  Please take a look at the Top 25 lists (below) and see where the best opportunities for each athlete may lie.  Athletes may want to narrow down their focus when choosing events to compete in over the next 3 meets if qualifying for the Championship meet is a goal of theirs.  If you have any questions, please email youth@venturatigres.org or call/text 650-678-3681.

Youth Girl’s Top 25

https://www.athletic.net/TrackAndField/Division/Top.aspx?DivID=102353&depth=25&filter=404&gender=f

Youth Boy’s Top 25

https://www.athletic.net/TrackAndField/Division/Top.aspx?DivID=102353&depth=25&filter=404

Intermediate Girl’s Top 25

https://www.athletic.net/TrackAndField/Division/Top.aspx?DivID=102353&depth=25&filter=405&gender=f

Intermediate Boy’s Top 25

https://www.athletic.net/TrackAndField/Division/Top.aspx?DivID=102353&depth=25&filter=405

A reminder that event sign ups for this weekend’s Southern California Youth Invitational need to be done by end of practice on Wednesday.  This meet is a pre-seeded meet, meaning entries are done before the meet with no changes.  Athletes who are not signed up for their events by end of practice on Wednesday will NOT be allowed to compete.  If you are unable to attend practices before Wednesday, please email youth@venturatigres.org with the athlete’s events.

The event limits are also different for this meet, with 3 total events, up to 2 of which can be individual events (non relays).  All events are considered individual events with the exception of the 4×100 and 4×400 relays.  Also, remember the meet takes place over 2 days (Saturday and Sunday), so pay close attention to what events take place on what days.

This is a really great meet for ALL of our athletes.  It is NOT an elite only meet, with great competition regardless of ability.  We hope to see as many of our Tigres participate as possible!

For more details about the meet, please see the flyer here:

https://cdn1.sportngin.com/attachments/document/7102-1828596/2019_Co-ConferenceInvitationalFlyerUpdated.pdf?_ga=2.86035483.248731053.1554754115-2097202071.1554754115

Please congratulate the athletes in this week’s videos!

Girl’s Bolt of the Week

Boy’s Bolt of the Week

Girl’s Kick of the Week

Boy’s Kick of the Week

Please read the below event sign up information carefully!!!

This week at practice, we will be having event sign up sheets for our next two meets.

This week’s meet at Moorpark will be the usual process, with the usual event limits, etc.

However, the sign up sheet for the Southern California Youth Invitational (April 13-14) will also be at practice and is a very different meet.  First of all, please understand this is NOT an elite meet.  It is a fantastic meet for all athletes to run against competition that is close to them, giving them a great chance to be pushed to a PR.  Because there are so many athletes, heats are typically filled with athletes of very similar abilities.

It is also a great opportunity to see what a high school invitational is like, with 15 teams and close to 2000 athletes competing over two days.  This does not mean you have to be at the track for two days, but can plan your events to whatever is convenient for you to attend.  We really hope to see as many Tigres participating at this meet as possible.

Unlike our normal dual meets, the meet is pre seeded, meaning you MUST sign up in advance and NO MEET DAY ADDITIONS are allowed.  Entries are due NO LATER THAN April 10th, so we are giving athletes plenty of time to choose their events.

Event limits are also different than a normal dual meet, with a maximum of tree events allowed.  An athlete can either do two individual events and one relay or two relays and one individual event.  Field events and running events are both considered individual events (participating without a team).

Please see the meet flyer here:  https://cdn2.sportngin.com/attachments/document/7102-1828596/2019_Co-Conference_Invitational.png?_ga=2.128241420.1840432727.1554148035-1931041558.1554148035

I know this can be very complicated, but please read through the info above carefully.  If you have any questions, please email youth@venturatigres.org or call/text 650-678-3681