http://www.ymsrunning.com The Yorkville Middle School cross country team is a member of the IESA. en-us Content And Design Copyright 2012 Derek Miller demiller@y115.org (Derek Miller) demiller@y115.org (Derek Miller) http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=215 The schedule for the 2012 cross country season has been tentatively set thanks to the work of our Athletic Director, Mr. Howlett. Here are some of the highlights: 3 home meets, including our own invite called the Fox Trot Invite! The Conference meet is now on a Tuesday Meet at the new Oswego school Only 1 week with more than 2 meets (we will... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=214 Every year Coach Draper of the high school team has designed a poster for middle school cross country recruiting. This year Coach Miller has taken those reigns and is designing this year's middle school poster. The image below is a preview of the poster. If you click on it you can use it as a desktop background. The actual poster will have r... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=213 Fitness Club is getting ready to ramp up again. If you aren't in a sport Fitness Club is a great (and inexpensive) opportunity to keep in shape. It only costs $15 and lasts from February 6 to May 17. Girls have access to Fitness Club on Mondays and Wednesdays while boys have access on Tuesdays and Thursdays. You can download the signup sheet... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=212 For the third year in a row Coach Muth of the high school cross country team was named the Illinois Track and Cross Country Coaches Association (ITCCCA) Coach of the Year for 2A Girls. While Coach Muth has won other awards, including the Dyestat Cross Country Coach of the Year,andnbsp;he is most awed by the ITCCCA award since it is an award g... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=211 If you haven't liked Yorkville Middle School Cross Country on Facebook yet now is the time to do it since we have added all of this season's photos to the site for your tagging and commenting pleasure. We also added previous season's photos if you would like to see how much the program has grown in only four years. Facebook will also be an... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=210 Happy New Year from Yorkville Middle School Cross Country! What are some of your goals (running or otherwise) for the new year? ... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=209 Most Yorkville Middle School students were excited to try for a Guiness World Record on the Wednesday before winter break, but it was even cooler to see Chicago news interested enough in the event to put YMS on TV. YMS cross country's own Thor Hester even got his shot at stardom with an interview at the beginning of the segment. You can chec... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=208 You're following YMS Cross Country on Facebook, you're signed up for email updates, and you post comments on the website. Want one more way to keep connected to YMS Cross Country? You're in luck since you can now follow us on Twitter by following @YMSRunning. We use Twitter a little differently than Facebook or the website. While Facebook... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=207 We posted about this last year, and it seems like a good program so it's worth mentioning again this year. North Central College in Naperville is having a distance running clinic this month. North Central tends to have good cross country teams so you could learn a lot. The program runs on December 21, 22, 23, 28, 29, and 30. Registration is ... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=206 A lot of our runners showed up for the Chili Chase on Sunday and ran some great times. Julia Schultz and Gianna Salzbrunn finished 1st and 2nd in their age group to win medals while Cody Hornyak, Kevin Humphreys, and Jake Firrantello swept the medals in their age group. Here are the full results from our team: Name Overall Place Age Divisi... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=205 The Yorkville Chili Chase 5K is on Sunday, November 20. It would be great to get together as a team and run the race so we have worked out a special deal to let YMS runners run the race for $10. That price does not include a t-shirt. Anyone interested in running should bring the registration form the day of the race with "YMS Cross Country"... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=204 It was a great day for Yorkville down at the IHSA State Cross Country Finals in Peoria. The boys team finished in 6th place, which was the team's best finish since 1987 and their best-ever finish since the team moved to the 2A level. The boys were led by Eric Baker in 33rd place with a 3-mile time of 15:28. Eric was followed by Zak Arcara in... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=203 The boys and the girls teams both ran dominant races to qualify for the IHSA State Cross Country Meet in Peoria. This is the fourth year in a row the girls have made it to State and the fifth in a row for the boys. The boys earned a 2nd place finish behind two-time defending state champion Belvidere North while the girls were Sectional Champi... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=202 The Yorkville Patch has recognized our state cross country runners for their great performances at the IESA State Meet with an article denoting their accomplishments and dubbing them "Whiz Kids," which also includes a free pizza from Rosati's. It's great to see the cross country team at both levels getting the recognition it deserves and ... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=201 This may be a sad time for most of our team now that the IESA State Meet is over, but you can still keep in touch with friends at school and remember the good times we had during the cross country season. Over the next few weeks I will be meeting with runners who wanted to talk about their season and personalize their off-season work. At this... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=200 The State meet is getting closer so we wanted to clarify a few things for this weekend. The school will hold a pep assembly for the team on Friday at 2:10pm in the middle school gym. Parents and other family members are welcome to attend. Because the majority of our runners are going down to Normal on Friday afternoon there will be NO PRACTIC... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=199 For the second year in a row Yorkville Middle School Cross Country is heading to State. Unfortunately, the boys missed out by finishing in 4th place, but that doesn't make our season any less successful. This was the best boys team we have ever had and we would have had our best finish at the State meet if we had made it as a team. We were i... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=198 Thanks to everyone for the great turnout at Awards Night. Here were the night's award winners: Captain of the Year: Julia MegazziniFastest Race Pace: Gianna SalzbrunnFastest Race Pace: Cody HornyakFuture Potential: Jessica LizzioFuture Potential: Dawson DiederichGuts Award: Laura WoodardGuts Award: Jimmy KammerMost Improved: Joselyn MendozaM... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=197 Thursday is the Prairie Conference meet, which will be the last race of the season for the majority of our team. The team will leave from the middle school at 3:15pm for Thompson Junior High in Oswego, which is the same course as the Tiger Trail Invite. Those who will not be running at the Sectional on Saturday are still expected to be at pra... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=196 At practice today we announced our final top 7 of the season as well as our alternates for Sectionals and State. Alternates will only run if one of the top 7 can't run. If you have any questions about the top 7 or the alternates please talk to the coaches. For those who didn't make the final top 7 we will talk about what you can do to impro... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=195 The Channahon Invite was a great warm up for Sectionals. The competition was tough, and we will see many of the teams again at the Sectional next Saturday. Our girls finished 2nd to Channahon by only 2 points. We will get the chance to see them again at Sectionals. Our boys just missed a trophy by finishing 4th to Liberty, who we will also se... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=194 Our last invite of the year is the Channahon Invite this Saturday the 1st. We also have a meet on Thursday at Sandwich and while we don't know what other teams will be at the Sandwich meet it is near by so hopefully some of our fans can make it. The bus on Saturday will be leaving at 7am from the middle school. The course is located at Chann... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=193 We're starting to make a habit of setting PRs now, and this is the time of the season to keep it up. If we keep improving at this pace both of our teams have a good shot at taking home some hardware at State. We had a number of accomplishments at the Tiger Trail Invite including 2nd place finishes by both of our girls teams and 1st place fin... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=192 This Saturday is the Tiger Trail Invite, which is at Thompson Junior High in Oswego. We typically do well at this meet and because of the flat course our runners tend to set a lot of PRs so it should be a fun meet. The bus on Saturday will be leaving at 7am from the middle schoolandnbsp;so make sure you are on time. The boys and girls run tog... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=191 We'd like to congratulate our runners for completing our final meet at Hoover for the season. Hoover is a tough course and everyone ran well, including the girls who had to run an extra quarter mile. Even with the tough conditions we had a few PRs that were set. PRs (Personal Records): Lucas Farren - 15:15 Natalie Hrcek - 20:37 Ryan Pizzo -... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=190 We still can't believe how well our team did at the Troy Invite this year. We will post the full results when we receive them from Troy on Monday, but we do want to recognize Maddie Dearborn, Nicole Doles, Alexx Nauman, Erin Reynolds, Gianna Salzbrunn, Rebecca Jasutis, and Julia Schultz for being the first runners in YMS Cross Country histor... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=189 This Saturday is the Troy Invite, which will be the most competitive race we attend all year. We can only take our top 10 runners for each race and the team has already been told who will be running Saturday. Anyone who isn't running is free to take the bus to and from the meet to cheer on their teammates. They don't have to inform the coac... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=188 For the second year in a row Yorkville Middle School is the overall champion of the Belvidere Central Invite. This year was even better than last year. Even though the weather was hot our times were faster, there were more PRs, and we came away with a trophy in every race! The 7th grade girls finished 3rd and were led by Nicole Doles in 5th w... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=187 The competition took a step up at our second Hoover home meet, but we saw some good things out of our team that will make us tough to beat when we run as a full unit. Information on the Belvidere Invite will be sent out Friday, but it should be a fun race. The times for the Hoover Center race are below as well as the hard-earned PRs. Boys Res... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=186 Everyone did a great job at our first home meet at Hoover. The times were slow because of the massive hill and terrain during the second mile, but we still had some PRs. The boys even won the meet with half our team and the girls came in a close second. The results are below along with all of the PRs. Boys Results Girls Results Personal Recor... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=185 In case you didn't get the email the races each runner is scheduled for are listed below. If you need to be switched to the other race please email Coach Miller. Tuesday, September 6: AlexxClarissaDarienDawsonEliGiannaJake F.JessicaJimmy O.KaylaKevin S.Kyle W.LucasMaddieMarissaNatalieNickNicoleOliviaRebeccaRyan P.SamanthaThorTristonWestley T... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=184 There were a lot of PRs set during our first home meet, and, especially given the hot conditions, that was great to see. The boys finished in second behind Belvidere while the girls won our first home meet of the year! You can see the full results in the Excel documents below, or you can scroll down to see all of the PRs set. Boys Results Gir... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=183 Our first home meet is today at Bristol Bay. Runners should stay after school and the bus will leave at 3 for the meet. Runners will need a ride home from the meet since there will not be a bus to take them back to the school. They do not need to sign out like they do at away meets, however. We will be running against a number of Aurora schoo... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=182 Our second top 7 was announced at this Saturday's practice. Without further ado: Boys Top 7 Cody Hornyak Alexx Nauman Thor Hester Kevin Humphreys Ryan Cyr Jake Firrantello Jimmy Kammer Westley Lavaud Triston Robb Jacob Love Girls Top 7 Gianna Salzbrunn Julia Schultz Erin Reynolds Rebecca Jasutis Julia Megazzini Maddie Dearborn Nicole Dole... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=181 This Saturday will be one of our most important Saturday practices since we will be practicing at the Hoover Center, which will be our home course. Everyone who can make practice should make every effort to be there. You can click on the Team Calendar and then click on Saturday's practice to view a map and directions. We will announce our ne... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=180 Tomorrow is our first meet at Shorewood Troy. You can get directions by clicking on the meet underneath the slideshow on our website. Make sure everyone follows our eating guidelines tomorrow. It's important to make sure you have had enough to eat, but don't stuff yourselves right before we leave. The bus will be leaving at 3pm from the mid... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=179 Next week we will have a pretty strange schedule. An email was sent out with the schedule, but if you didn't get it here is the schedule for the week: Monday: Practice from 3:30 to 5pm at the middle school Tuesday: Meet at Troy Shorewood. Bus leaves from the middle school at 3pm Wednesday: Practice from 3:30 to 5pm at the middle school Thurs... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=178 It's been a great three weeks of practice and we are ready to announce our first top 7 of the season at Saturday's practice, which will be held at Maramech Forest Preserve in Plano. You can see a map of Maramech below and you can get directions by clicking on the map. It is important to note that practice will only be 1 hour long on Saturda... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=177 Our final time trial of the year was a pretty successful one. Thanks to a group led by Katy Kellogg we had a lot more runners earn their uniforms on the first try than we expected. Runners earn their uniforms by running a 2 mile race without walking and we're proud of everyone for this accomplishment. Those who haven't earned their uniforms... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=176 Choosing our team captains is never easy and this year was even more difficult. Every runner who applied to be a captain would have done a great job, but we couldn't choose everyone. Those who didn't get picked as captains can still step up and be leaders on our team. A title does not make someone a good leader, it's actions that make a le... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=175 Congratulations to the Black Team, who won the scavenger hunt today with a score of 25 points, which beat the 22 points of the Green Team. The winning team consisted of Thor Hester, Cody Hornyak, Alexx Nauman, Erin Reynolds, Gianna Salzbrunn, and Julia Schultz. We hope everyone had a fun time. This Saturday's practice will be held at Richar... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=174 Our annual photo scavenger hunt will be this Friday from 11am to 12pm. Because we have had so many runners sign up we will not be able to use drivers as we have in the past. The scavenger hunt will be confined to the Beecher Park area and the schools around it. Thanks to all of the parents who volunteered to drive, however. It's not too late... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=173 Yorkville Middle School's Fall Sports Parent Night will be this Tuesday starting at 5pm at the middle school. The cross country coaches will have a lot of important information so we hope everyone can make it. If you can't make it you can get a lot of information from our cross country team packet or you can contact one of the coaches. We h... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=172 We had our first time trial on Wednesday and a number of runners earned their uniforms by running 2 miles without stopping. Alexx Nauman - 13:09 (Set a 7th grade boy's record for the time trial) Brooke Jensen - 17:08 Clarissa Perez - 17:30 Cody Hornyak - 12:54 Eli Smock - 19:08 Erin Reynolds - 14:04 (Beat the previous 8th grade girl's reco... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=171 On Thursday after practice we will be watching the movie The Long Green Line in Coach Miller's classroom at the high school. The movie is a documentary about the 2005 York High School cross country team. York High School has one of the best cross country programs in the country and is a team Coach Miller ran against often when he was in high... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=170 What a great group we had at our first practice! Everyone did a great job, especially given how hot and humid it was when we finally started running at 10. I was going to talk about how to get some relief from the heat on Wednesday, but I may as well cover it now. Make sure you drink water hourly throughout the day and definitely bring your o... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=169 Cross country practice starts tomorrow! That's August 1 for those of you who are calendar averse. We will meet at the athletic entrance of the high school. If you haven't already turned in your forms you will need to bringandnbsp;a $65 activity fee, registration form, physical, and insurance waiver. Also, if anyone is interested in being a ... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=168 A great way to see how you progressed over the summer is to run the Corn Boil 5K in Sugar Grove this Saturday. The cost is $25, but you will have to register between 6:15 and 7:15 am. Many high school runners will be there so it's a good way to see a lot of the runners from Endurance Camp one last time before the cross country season starts.... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=167 We're in a unique situation this season in that we have a week between the end of Endurance Camp and the start of cross country practice on August 1. The coaches cannot run with anyone during this off week, but we have provided information to a few runners about what they can do during the week. A group will be getting together on Monday, We... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=166 Hi, fans of YMS cross country. Endurance Camp is almost over and we will be starting the cross country season on Monday, August 1. We are looking for big things from our runners this season after our first run in the State meet last season. If you haven't already turned in forms to Coach Miller or Coach Martin make sure you bring them on the... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=165 Cross country practice will start on Monday, August 1st from 9 to 10:30am. Our first practice will be behind the main campus of the high school where Endurance Camp meets. If you haven't already turned in your registration form, physical, insurance waiver, and $65 activity fee make sure you have everything prepared by the 1st or you may not ... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=164 Thanks to everyone involved in making the sign for me congratulating me on my marriage this weekend. Christie and I both love Endurance Camp and cross country, and that is one of the biggest things we will miss while we are on our honeymoon in California next week. Thanks again to all of the parents and runners involved. Coach Miller... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=163 Coach Draper posted a list of a number of track meets on the high school team's website. While you may not want to participate in all of the meets it may be a good idea to try one out since you can run in some events that aren't typically held for middle school athletes. A meet that is close by that you may be interested in is the Junior Ol... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=162 Endurance Camp starts today, June 13, and we hope anyone who is considering running cross country in the fall will join us. The main reason our boys and girls made State last season was because most of our top runners ran Endurance Camp. Endurance Camp is important because it will help build up your mileage and, with that, your endurance. Whe... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=161 You like Yorkville Middle School Cross Country in Facebook so why not like it online as well? You can Like YMS Cross Country on Facebook using the link below. ... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=160 The Sweetness Run 5K and 8K races were held on June 4th and we had a number of runners participate. Cody Hornyak won his age division in the 5k with a time of 21:26. Overall, Cody finished 7th in the race. Future YMS runner Eli Smock (Tate's brother) finished 8th in his age division with a time of 29:39. Former YMS runner Colton Pranga also ... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=159 June 1 is National Running Day so why don't you get out there and run? You can go to www.runningday.org to get some good ideas to celebrate the day. One idea would be to sign up for a summer 5K. The Kendall County "Sweetness" run is this Saturday, June 4 at 8:15am at Yorkville High School. There is also an 8k at 8am if you feel up to the c... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=158 The IHSA State Track Meet just finished up with the boys running this past weekend. Both the boys and girls, especially on the distance side, had a great deal of success. Chris Kellogg (Katy's brother) ran a 4:45 mile in the State preliminary race and Matt Anzelc threw 46"5.5' in the preliminary round of the shot put to just miss moving o... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=157 Endurance Camp is the #1 reason why both of our teams made State this past cross country season. Most of our top runners were at camp during the summer so they were in good shape once the season officially started. Endurance Camp is also a great way to meet people as you will be running with the high school team as well as runners your own ag... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=156 Jake Hoffert and Sarah Megazzini were honored at the Board of Education meeting on May 23 at the middle school for their accomplishments during this past school year. While Sarah could not attend she was honored for earning the IESA Scholar Attitude award that we talked about in a previous post. Jake was honored for earning All-State at the I... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=155 The YMS track team had to wait an extra few days to see who would qualify for the State meet. The Sectional meet was held this past Saturday, but only part of the meet could be completed because of the weather. A number of runners qualified for the IESA State Track Meet in East Peoria this weekend. Rebecca Jasutis (Cross Country) qualified f... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=154 May 26 is Step-Up Night at the middle school where incoming middle schoolers can learn about YMS. This year Step-Up Night is also being used for fall sports sign up so you can sign up for cross country at the middle school from 6 to 7:30pm. Coach Miller and Coach Martin will both be available at Step-Up Night to answer any questions about cro... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=153 Here's a chance for cross country runners (or anyone for that matter) to make a difference in our community. Hunter Darnell is the 2-year-old son of Yorkville wrestling coach Shane Darnell, and was diagnosed with Hypolastic Left Heart Syndrome when he was born. He has already been through multiple surgeries and the nature of the syndrome mea... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=152 Track season has already started so if you aren't already running then what are you waiting for? Last season saw a record number of YMS athletes qualify for the IESA State track competition and with the success we had in cross country hopefully we will see even more distance runners qualify this year. Only a few runners make State, but we wa... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=151 We're proud to announce that current 8th grader Sarah Megazzini has been named Yorkville Middle School's nominee for the IESA Scholar Attitude Award. All of the coaches at YMS voted for one student/athlete and Sarah was the resounding choice to represent our school. There are a number of qualifications for an IESA Scholar nominee: They mus... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=150 Before it becomes official I wanted everyone to know that I will be coaching the high school track team this year instead of volunteering for the middle school team. I felt like it would be an opportunity to learn from the high school coaches and athletes as well as be able to coach many runners for 6 years from 7th grade through high school.... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=149 Congratulations to Coach Muth from the high school team for earning the Coach of the Year award for 2A girls from the Illinois Track and Cross Country Coaches Association. This is the second year in a row that Coach Muth has won the award and the second year in a row that the girls finished as the runner-up at the State meet. Great job Coach ... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=148 Every winter we tend to post information about running in the winter, but this winter Coach Draper of the high school team posted an incredibly extensive article about running when it's cold. I'd highly recommend checking it out if you'd like to run outside by heading to their website. If you aren't a fan of running in the cold you could ... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=147 North Central College is hosting a distance running clinic for 5th through 8th grade students during our winter break this year. North Central is consistently one of the top cross country programs in the state and is where Coach Draper from the high school team ran in college. The clinic runs from 5:30pm to 6:45pm from December 21 to December... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=146 A number of our current and former cross country runners came out for the Chili Chase on November 21. It was good to see so many runners at the race and hopefully it means everyone will keep running during the winter. If you would like an example workout plan you can email Coach Miller for one. The results below show the name, overall place, ... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=145 The Yorkville High School Foxes had an even better day at the IHSA State Cross Country Meet this season than they did last season. The boys team improved over last year's State finish by placing 8th. With a young team, and the addition of some great freshmen next season, they should be contending for the top spots at State for the next few y... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=144 The Yorkville Chili Chase 5K will be Sunday, November 21 at 8:30am. Yorkville Middle School's cross country team is being given a special rate for this race. The cost will be $7 without a shirt. If you plan on taking the special rate indicate "YMS Cross Country" on the form and mail it c/o Beth Stricker. You can download the registration f... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=143 The high school cross country teams both advanced to State on Saturday. The boys finished 2nd to go to State for the 4th straight year. They are one of only 6 teams to make State every year since IHSA went to the 3-class system for cross country. The girls won their Sectional for the second straight year and will go into the State meet as the... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=142 The State Series for high school cross country is a little different than the State Series in middle school. Instead of just a Sectionals-State series high school includes a Regional race before Sectionals. The top 5 teams in each Region advance to Sectionals and the top 5 teams in each Sectional advance to State. The Yorkville high school te... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=141 Congratulations to both of our teams for their great performances at the IESA State Cross Country Meet. Not only did Yorkville make State for the first time in only our second year in the IESA, but we made some noise as well. The girls team, consisting of 5 7th graders, placed 22nd in the state of Illinois, with Erin Reynolds finishing in 79t... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=140 Our Yorkville Middle School cross country team is heading to State for the first time and it is only the team’s second year in the IESA! A pep rally is planned for the team on Friday during advisory from 7:30 to 7:44. The team will be leaving at 8am on Saturday for the meet at Maxwell Park in Normal. The girls race will begin at 11:45 and t... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=139 Congratulations to our Yorkville Middle School cross country team! The girls placed 3rd and the boys placed 2nd which means both teams will be moving on to State next Saturday! A big congratulations also goes out to Jake Hoffert, Luke Hoffert, and Kyle Rawle who earned All-Sectionals honors. We don't have practice on Monday so enjoy the firs... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=138 It was incredible seeing how many people showed up to Awards Night. At the beginning of the season we talked about our cross country "family" and it was great to see how much our family has grown this season. Anyone who was not at Awards Night can pick up their awards from Coach Martin. The award winners for this year are listed below, but ... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=137 Our team did great at Conference! Both 7th grade teams took home a trophy for getting first place and both 8th grade teams came in 2nd! It was a great end to the season for most of our runners, but our Sectionals runners still have a little more work to do on Saturday. Remember, the bus leaves at 7:15 and everyone is invited to join us even i... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=136 The bus for Sectionals will be leaving at 7:15am so everyone should be at the middle school by 7. We're inviting all runners to join us even if they aren't a part of the Sectionals team. The race will be held at Sandwich High School and we'd love to have as many fans as possible joining us. You can view a map of the course here. We'd also... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=135 It was good to see so many runners come out for the parade this morning. We also had a good deal at our Red/White run at Silver Springs. It is one of the toughest courses we run all year so it should really make our last few races seem easy. Personal records are tough to come by at the Silver Springs course, but Cody Hornyak set a PR of 12:37... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=134 We have final details for those who are interested in helping decorate the cross country float. Anyone who wants to help can meet at the Pierce/Passarelli home located in the River's Edge subdivision. The address is 897 Flint Creek Lane and parents are asked to stay, if they can, to help with supervision. Everyone will be leaving at 5 to hea... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=133 It's Homecoming Week at the high school and that means a few special things for our cross country team. Firstly, we will be creating a float for the parade on Saturday. If anyone is interested in helping with float design let us know and we will get back to you with more information. Everyone, however, is invited to join our team in the para... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=132 While we still don't have team results from Tiger Trail we do know that both of our 7th grade teams took 1st and our 8th grade boys took 2nd. It was nice to win trophies in 3 out of the 4 races we ran in. Almost everyone who ran set a PR either in the 1.5 mile 7th grade race or 2 mile 8th grade race. Additionally, 3 of our Tiger Trail meet r... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=131 Our boys team finished 2nd to Bednarcik on Thursday and our girls team turned in a great performance to finish first. We weren't too worried about Thursday's practice, though, since we have had a tough week of workouts. Saturday's Tiger Trail meet will be the more important race. Remember that the bus will leave from the middle school at 7... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=130 This Saturday is the Tiger Trail Invite in Oswego and it is a meet we have traditionally done well in. Runners came home with a lot of medals last year and a few team trophies as well. If you don't include the 6th grade races we also had the best score overall at the meet last year so we're pretty hopefully for this year's race. The bus wi... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=129 It's too bad our 8th graders didn't get to run at Troy because our 7th graders ran great! The girls were especially great as they finished in 8th place with a split of 1 minute. Additionally, Rebecaa Jasutis set a team record on the Troy course with a time of 13:40. The girls have definitely proved they are just as likely to make state as t... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=128 We should have results from Troy on Monday. Unofficially, I took a gander at the scores and it looks like the 7th grade boys finished 13th and the girls finished 8th. That's pretty good given the fact that the top teams in the state were present. It's too bad the weather prevented our 8th graders from running, but we loved having all the pa... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=127 This Saturday's Troy Invite is one of the biggest cross country meets in the country. There will be around 50 teams at the meet and some of the top teams in the state will be in attendance. This will be a great test of our team to see how we match up to some of the state's best teams. The bus will be leaving at 7am so runners need to be at ... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=126 Our first home meet is this Thursday at Harris Forest Preserve. We will be facing Kaneland, Simmons, and Waldo. We could use help from parent volunteers at the race, so if you're willing to help please let Coach Miller know. We will try to let volunteers watch their athlete's race and just help out during the other race. The meet is schedul... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=125 All four of our teams won on Monday against Thompson and Sandwich. The 8th grade boys had a perfect score of 15 to Thompson's 49, the 8th grade girls had 20 to Thompson's 43 and Sandwich's 73, the 7th grade boys had 24 to Thompson's 32, and the 7th grade girls had 23 to Thompson's 46 and Sandwich's 73. Jake Hoffert, Brook Stuepfert, and... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=124 Congratulations to our YMS runners for winning the first overall meet award in YMS cross country history! It would be nice if more races combined the 6th and 7th graders since that is what has prevented us from winning in the past, but it was a lot of fun to see the success everyone experienced today. The 7th grade boys and girls both took ho... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=123 This Saturday the team will be participating in our first big meet of the year: the Belvidere Central Invite. A bus will be at the middle school at 7am to take athletes to the meet. As always, we'd like to have everyone ride the bus home as well as to the meet, but if you have to take your runner home from the meet make sure you sign them ou... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=122 We should have the full results from Simmons posted before practice on Wednesday. It was fairly obvious that both our girls and boys won, though, since both teams had perfect scores. The girls even had 9 out of the top 10 runners! We'll put more information up tomorrow.... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=121 We had four runners come out on Saturday to participate in their first 5K, and all four did great! Krysti Pekich finished 3rd in her age division with a time of 23:34, Cody Hornyak finished 2nd in his division with a time of 18:35, Brody Vester was 5th in his division with a time of 20:49, and Chase Pranga was 9th in his division with a time ... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=120 For those who didn't get the email, Yorkville's annual Hometown Days 5K is tomorrow, and we are giving our runners the opportunity to participate in the race as an alternative to practice. We have also gotten a discount for our runners so they only have to pay $10 to race. We will meet at 6:45 at the Beecher Center, which is located across ... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=119 We finally received the results from Tuesday's meet at Minooka. The course was just over a mile, but the hills made it seem like more. The girls took 3rd place with Oliva Reese finishing 8th at 9:27, Julia Schultz in 10th at 9:37, Gianna Salzbrunn in 12th at 9:45, Rebecca Jasutis in 14th at 9:56, Erin Reynolds in 15th at 9:59, Brook Stuepfer... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=118 We hope to have results from the Minooka meet by Wednesday afternoon. As soon as we have results we will post them here. The course was a lot less than the 1.9 miles we were told so the times won't help much, but we are pretty sure the boys won their race with 5 runners in the top 10, including the Hofferts who finished 1-2. We'll have to s... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=117 Our first meet is this Tuesday, August 31 at Minooka. It should be fun to see how our runners have progressed and how they match up against other teams. Runners should not leave on the buses after school, but should meet in the cafeteria. The bus will leave at 3:15 from the athletic entrance of the school. Since our uniforms haven't come in ... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=116 This Saturday we will be running on our home course at Harris Forest Preserve, which is located on Route 71 just west of Route 47. It is the same place the high school cross country team used to hold their home meets. You can see a map below showing the location of the park. We will be running the entire 2-mile course so it is important that ... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=115 The high school cross country team has their first meet today hosted by Sandwich. The meet is at Silver Springs so it is very close and would be a great opportunity for our runners to see what a cross country meet looks like. The meet starts at 3:15, but it should last a few hours so heading there after practice might be a good idea. Coach Mi... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=114 Jake Firrantello was named our Runner of the Week for last week. His work during Saturday's fartlek workout cinched the award for him, although there were a lot of runners who stepped it up on Saturday. For anyone who wants to view the cross country videos we watched at Tuesday's practice you can go to 5min Life to see them. We watched vide... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=113 Everyone had a great practice on Saturday at Maramech. We were interested to see how the team responded to a difficult workout and some runners ended up running for over an hour! Great job everyone! If you haven't turned in the permission slip for Raging Waves you can still do so. We still need 4 more people to qualify for the group rate of ... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=112 Our practice on Saturday the 21st will be at Maramech Forest Preserve, which is just past Silver Springs off Fox River Drive. You can see a map of the preserve below or check out the calendar for driving directions. ... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=111 Thanks to those of you who came to Fall Sports Night. If you couldn't make it you can get most of the cross country information from our cross country packet. You can also download the PowerPoint that Mr. Larson and Mr. Zwemke presented. We also talked about our trip to Raging Waves. It will be a week from Saturday and the cost will be $17.9... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=110 Our last time trial went so well that we thought we had measured it incorrectly. After going back once practice was over and checking the distance we got it right, which means some of our runners drastically improved over the last time trial and records were smashed. Some of the records were broken by so much that the runners thought we had t... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=109 Since we like copying everything the high school team does, this Friday will be the first YMS cross country scavenger hunt. Teams can either drive around town (they must have a parent volunteer to drive them) or run. Each team must be co-ed, but you can have as many team members as you want. To join the runners on the team must turn in a sing... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=108 We forgot to congratulate Luke Hoffert for being named our Runner of the Week for the first week of the season. Luke was a great leader on our team during that week, and ran the second-fastest time during our time trial. For the second week of the season our Runner of the Week is Rachel Strobel. While she isn't the fastest runner on the team... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=107 Saturday was certainly an interesting run, wasn't it? It definitely showed that it is important to know the route you are going to run before running it. This will be even more important during meets. Luckily, there really wasn't anyway to get lost since the forest preserve only had two ways out so everyone made it out okay, with the except... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=106 For those who don't already know, our practice this Saturday will be at Richard Young Forest Preserve, which is located on Route 71. It will be on the left side when you are going east a little past the middle school. Check the calendar to print out driving directions if you need to. We will be announcing our team captains at this practice s... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=105 If anyone is interested in some mini-golf, we will be having an outing at Parfection Park on Thursday after practice. The park is located just south of the corner of Rotues 47 and 126 in Yorkville. The cost will be $5 a person if we have less than 20 runners and $4.50 if we have 21 or more. Please contact Coach Miller by the end of practice o... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=104 Everyone did a great job during Friday's workout. It was our first difficult workout of the year and everybody ran those hills as hard as they could. Brody Vester, Chad Gholson, Chase Pranga, James Daugherty, Luke Hoffert, Mason Brant, Olivia Reese, and Ryan Cyr ran the entire 30 minutes so they deserve some extra recognition. I think Chase ... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=103 A lot more runners participated in our first time trial than I expected. I made this time trial optional and was planning it to be just for our top two groups, but most of our runners stepped up and ran, which was great to see. Even our runners who didn't run the time trial ran their entire route without walking, which was one of our goals f... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=102 Well Tuesday was certainly an interesting practice, wasn't it? Luckily, we avoided the rain, still got some running in, and even had our first game of Ultimate Frisbee. With all the craziness I forgot to mention that Wednesday, after practice, we are having our 1st Annual Movie Night. We will be showing the movie The Long Green Line in room ... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=101 This coming Monday is our first cross country practice. Practice will be from 9am to 10:30am at the Yorkville High School track. Please bring your registration form, physical, sports waiver, and $50 activity fee if you haven't already turned them in to the middle school. We will be giving our runners a lot of information, but most of that in... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=100 Cross country practice will start August 2 and hopefully those who are interested in joining are running, whether it's with Endurance Camp or not. We will be practicing at the high school track until school starts and would love having parents or any other volunteers running with us. If you're interested in running with the team in August s... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=99 An error on the Endurance Camp brochure mistakenly said that Endurance camp starts June 7, but the actual start is Wednesday, June 9. Endurance Camp is highly encouraged for everyone who has an interest in cross country. Those interested in Endurance Camp can go to the YHS Cross Country site. The last time I saw the list Jake Hoffert, Luke Ho... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=98 It was great to see so many potential runners at Step-Up Night. We are going to have quite the team next year. For those who didn't get all the forms tonight you will need a registration form, physical, and sports permission form. You will also need to pay the $50 activity fee. Checks can be made out to Yorkville Middle School. For those wh... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=97 Coach Miller will be at Step-Up Night from 5:30 to 8:30 on Thursday, May 27 at Yorkville Middle School. You can meet him in the cafeteria along with the other sports and clubs, get information about cross country, and register for the team if you're interested. Hope to see you there!... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=96 We don't have all the results from Friday, but we'll post what we have. You can check the IESA website for the full results once they're posted. In the 7th grade boy's 110 meter hurdles Tyrius Porter placed 27th with a time of 18.74 In the 7th grade girl's discus Megan Brineman threw 64"3' for 30th place. We don't have official res... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=95 It will be off to State this Friday and Saturday for the Foxes. There will be a pep assembly in the gym at 7:30 on Friday and then it will be off to Peoria's Eastside Centre where the State meet is held. The girl's field events will be on Friday along with the premilinary races for the boy's 100m dash and hurdles. The rest of the boy's ru... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=94 The Yorkville Foxes had a great day at Sectionals in Romeoville. We will be sending 9 athletes to State this coming Friday and Saturday. Our State qualifiers are listed below along with the times and PRs (marked with stars) from the distance events. Congratulations to all the State qualifiers and everyone who participated in YMS track during ... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=93 Yorkville had a pretty good showing at our Conference meet. It was awesome to see the 4x400 races as we won 3 out of the 4 races to end the meet. Yorkville finished 4th overall with 230 points behind Sandwich in 1st with 354 points, Traughber in 2nd with 308, and Bendarcik in 3rd with 260. Below are the results from the distance races with pe... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=92 I wasn't expecting any fast times at the meet at East Aurora since it was more likely a runner would be blown off the track than set a PR. There were a few PRs that are marked with stars, but even those runners who didn't set personal records ran well. I loved the fact that almost everyone ran strategically and tried to use the wind to thei... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=91 Our last home meet before Conference went off pretty well with a number of runners hitting personal records. Below are the distance race results with PRs marked with stars. I didn't get the 8th grade girl's results so I apologize to Jordan, J'Keyah, and Sara as well as anyone else I may have missed. I will update this if I get those result... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=90 Even though we were down a lot of runners because of the band field trip it was nice to finally have a home meet as well as a meet that was done before 7:30. Everyone ran great and we also loved how much our runners helped out during the home meet. Below are the times from the distance events with PRs marked with stars. 800m Girls Brey Klei... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=89 Although it was another looooong meet (it will hopefully be the last really long one) our runners churned out some great times. Below are the results for the distance events as well as two of the 4x400 races that I timed. PRs (personal records) are marked with a star. 800m Girls Brey Klenwachter - 3:18* Gigi Barajas - 3:22 Jordan Bulliner -... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=88 I didn't expect many of our runners to run the Tax Dodge since it is in the middle of track season, but that didn't stop some. Sorry if I miss any track runners, but I don't know everyone on the track team yet so only those who have run distance are included. If I did miss anyone on the track team please let me know. The only runner from ... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=87 That sure was a long meet wasn't it? Here are the distance results from the 5-team meet with PRs (personal records) marked with a *: 800m Girls Brey Kleinwachter - 3:24* Hannah Leonetti - 3:25 J'Keyah Swope - 3:21* Jordan Bulliner - 3:28 Rachel Strobel - 3:44* 800m Boys Brody Vester - 2:51* Josh Meyers - 2:35* Lucas Grogan - 2:59* Maso... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=86 I will kind of unofficially be posting results from our 2010 track meets here. The full results will be posted in the school, but since I try to get the times for the distance races I thought I would post them here as well. Everyone did a great job at Thompson on Monday and ran some great times even with the wind. Below are the results from t... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=85 Sunday, April 19 is the annual Yorkville Tax Dodge. The race is at 8:30 and there are awards for different age divisions. The younger age divisions usually don't have many runners so it is a good chance to come home with some swag. There is a 5K race (just over 3 miles) and a 10K race (just over 6 miles). I wouldn't recommend the 10K to ma... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=84 Track season is almost upon us! The first informal workout will be on March 15 while March 23 will be the first practice. If you haven't been running during the winter now might be a good time to start up again. Coach Martin and Coach Miller will both be helping out with the track team this year so we hope to see you there.... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=83 Are you already starting to think about the summer even though there is freezing rain outside? If so start thinking about how you will get your running in to be ready for the cross country season. The #1 reason we fell short of State was because we had so few summer runners. Hopefully that will change this year. If you are interested in Endu... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=82 Some sad news out of Minooka. Ryan Rames, a fifth-grader on Minooka's cross country team, died after falling into a retention pond on January 9. He was walking his dog and most likely followed the dog onto the pond. You can read the full story from the Chicago Tribune. Our thoughts and prayers go out to the family of Ryan, and hope they get ... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=81 I hope everyone had a great holiday and is enjoying the new decade. Hopefully those of you who are planning to run cross country again next year have been doing a little running. If not, I can think of a pretty good new year's resolution. While it is much more important to run in the summer than it is the winter for cross country you will he... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=80 Although we only had two of our runners in the race, along with Coach Miller and Mr. Butler, the Ellis Reindeer Run 5K was a lot of fun. The weather was great and since it had snowed the day before we had some nice slop to run through. The last half-mile was through the woods and we had to hop over logs and take sharp turns. I definitely reco... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=79 Coach Muth, the head high school cross country coach, is being honored as the Coach of the Year for Girls 2A Cross Country by the Illinois Track and Cross Country Coaches Association. The girl's team finished 2nd at State and even the announcer at the State meet seemed surprised when he announced the results so the team obviously shocked som... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=78 In case you haven't noticed, it's December and it's cold. Some runners (like Coach Miller) have retreated to the warmth of a treadmill, but a treadmill is not nearly as much fun as running outside. For those of you who love the great outdoors here are some tips for running in the cold. A good tip for cold weather is to dress like it is 20... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=77 Margie's mom told me about another 5K in the area that I wasn't aware of. It's the Reindeer Run that is being held at Ellis House and Equestrian Center in Minooka on December 20. The course should be muddy and wet, but it sounds like a fun race. The race starts at 9:30 and Coach Miller may be running this one. If you're planning on runnin... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=76 It was good to see a number of YMS Cross Country runners participate in the Yorkville Chili Chase 5K. I know that most of those who participated were running in their first 5K. On the girl's side Sarah Butler, Margie Fincher, Jordan Bulliner, and Kaelyn Scull all participated. Unfortunately, Jordan's time wasn't listed but she did well accor... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=75 Yorkville is having their annual Chili Chase 5K on November 22. If anyone is interested in running it you can download the registration form here. If you run it let Coach Miller know how you did. Don't worry too much about running a good time, though. Just go out there and have some fun.... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=74 Anyone who makes the trip down to the IHSA State Cross Country Meet at Detweiller Park in Peoria can't help but enjoy the atmosphere, especially with the great weather for this year's meet. The course is packed with spectators who run back and forth across the course to see some of the best athletes in the state running to find out who has ... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=73 For those of you who don't get the Record Coach Draper posted a great article about A.J. Branson and Tim Pape, who are sophomores on the high school cross country team. It's a really inspiring read and goes to show how inclusive a sport cross country is. You can check out the article here.... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=72 Once again the high school cross country team is off to the State meet in Peoria! The girl's team ran a great race and ended up Sectional champs! Ali Hester placed first individually to lead the team. The boys had a tougher hill to climb as they were ranked 10th out of 10 teams going into the Sectional. They stepped up and ended up in 4th pl... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=71 It was great to see almost our entire cross country team at the meeting this morning. We even had a lot of new faces who plan on joining next year, which was great to see. Coach Martin has copies of the workout plan we handed out so see him if you need an extra copy. You can also talk to or email either of us if you have questions during the ... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=70 It was good to see so many responses to my note about running during the off-season. To make it easy for everyone we are going to have a meeting about it during advisory on Thursday in the gym as opposed to after school. We'd love to see everyone there even if you don't plan on running this winter just so we can see your smiling faces...or ... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=69 Congratulations to the Yorkville High School cross country team for their great performance at Regionals on Saturday. The top 5 teams from each Regional advance to Sectionals and the Yorkville teams both turned in dominating performances to move on. The boy's team won the race with a score of 34 to Oswego's 64. Scott King finished 3rd with... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=68 Hopefully most of our runners have taken the last two weeks to relax and take some time off from running. If you haven't taken any time off it is a good idea to take at least a week off so you can recover from the tough cross country season. Once you've recovered from cross country you may be looking for a way to stay in shape until track ... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=67 The high school cross country team recently chose their Regional/Sectional team, and both Zak Arcara and Eric Baker were chosen for the team as freshmen. Zak ran for Yorkville Middle School last year and it's great to see him having so much success at the high school level. Eric didn't run for YMS, but he ran for Cross Lutheran and we saw h... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=66 Without a 6th grade team Yorkville is at a disadvantage because it is very hard for us to win overall awards at meets. However, even without a 6th grade team we placed 2nd overall at the Prairie Conference meet, and we weren't that far behind the first place team. The 7th grade boys finished 1st, the girls finished 2nd, the 8th grade boys fi... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=65 Thanks to everyone who came to the parade today. Almost 3/4 of our team was there, which is a great turnout given the fact we found out about it after the season. Full Conference and Sectional results will be posted this weekend, although you can check individual times in the Records/Results section now. We will also post some information ... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=64 The Yorkville Homecoming Parade will be this upcoming Saturday, and the YMS Cross Country team has been asked to participate. If anyone is interested in walking in the parade please email Coach Miller at demiller@yorkville.k12.il.us. The lineup for the parade will begin at 9am and the parade itself will start at 10 from the high school parkin... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=63 Most of you knew Coach Miller was running the marathon, and even though he wasn't very confident going into the race he beat his PR from last year by over 10 minutes with a time of 3:49, which is an 8:44 pace. The high school coaches also ran the race with Coach Muth finishing in 3:21 (7:40), Coach Draper finishing just behind him in 3:22 (7... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=62 I know a lot of you are probably disappointed that we won't be going to State, but everyone ran a great race at Sectionals and we almost made it. If you gave it everything you had you have nothing to be disappointed about. We had a great season and I hope everyone plans to run cross country next year. Endurance camp will really help since I... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=61 Well, those conference results were certainly worth waiting for. All four of our teams earned some hardware since the top 3 teams win trophies. The 7th grade girls took third place led by Sarah Butler, who won the race with a 9:58, and Caroline Almas who finished 4th with a 10:03. Anieka Bosman, Brianne Soles, and Sarah Megazzini rounded out ... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=60 Remember that tonight is our Awards Night. We will have it at the middle school cafeteria from 7 to 9pm. You can use Entrance 19 to enter the school, which is the door nearest to the football field. At practice today we will be watching some of the movie Without Limits, which is about the great distance runner Steve Prefontaine as well as his... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=59 Our meet today will be against the Oswego schools and Sandwich, and will be held at Thompson. This is the same course we ran at the Tiger Trail Invite and our runners have done well there. The conditions, though, will not be very good. It will probably be cold and rainy and we are going to run as long as there isn't lightning. This means our... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=58 Thanks to everyone who offered to bring things to Awards Night this Friday. We will be sending a confirmation note home on Wednesday to make sure everyone knows the time and place. The Awards Night will be held at the middle school cafeteria from 7 to 9pm. We will hand out awards towards the end of the meal. If you offered to bring food pl... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=57 I hope everyone enjoyed the great weather at our last home meet. The conditions were great, and it showed with the great times our team ran. These were the fastest times we have run at our course, and Justin Vacha, Jazmin Lazcano, James Daugherty, and Caroline Almas all set course records for our team. The girls came in second behind Traughbe... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=56 I hope everyone had fun at today's race and at mini-golf afterward. I think Tim and I tied for the most hole-in-ones with 2. Photos from today are up already so check them out. We have two meets this week besides Sectionals. We have our last home meet on Monday against Traughber and Sandwich and we have our conference meet at Thompson on Thu... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=55 On Saturday we will be holding YMS Cross Country's annual Red/White Run at Silver Springs. It will be a 2-mile race amongst our team, and we will have trophies for the winners of each grade and gender. After the race we will be announcing the runners we will be taking to Sectionals, which is a week from Saturday on October 10. The rest of ou... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=54 Because of the possibility of rain today the meet at Harris Park has been canceled. We will not have practice today either. Sorry about the late notice but I just found out myself. We will still have practice after school on Friday.... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=53 I had no idea there were going to be so many teams at the Washington Aurora meet, and I have to say I was impressed to see our runners step up to the competition again. Rotolo had an incredibly good team, especially on the girls side, and that is the kind of competition we will see at Sectionals and, hopefully, State. Almost everyone ran a mi... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=52 All I can say is "Wow!" The hits just keep on coming and everyone ran great races at the Tiger Trail Invite. Some of you were disappointed with your places at Troy, but I told you it was the times that matter and Troy had some of the toughest competition in the state. Tiger Trail had some good competition too, but our Foxes did a great job ... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=51 Saturday will be the Tiger Trail Invite at Thompson Junior High in Oswego. It is a bigger meet, but not nearly as big as Troy. It is mainly local teams and our team has a much better chance of bringing home some awards. Runners should be at the middle school at 7:15am as the bus will leave exactly at 7:30. The meet will begin at 9am and the 7... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=50 Our team showed some guts at Tuesday's home meet. The conditions at Harris were awful, and I'm glad everyone gutted through and finished the race despite the wall of gnats. Plank won both the girl's and boy's races. They scored 18 points in the girl's race to our 41 points and Simmons' 194. The boy's race was really close with Plank sc... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=49 I hope everyone enjoyed the Troy Invite. Not only was it one of the biggest middle school meets in the country, but some of the best competition from the state was there. For that reason I wasn't as worried about our team places. The 7th grade girls ended up in 16th, the 7th grade boys had the best finish in 9th, the 8th grade girls finished... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=48 Before I talk about the Troy Meet I want to again congratulate our runners for a great home meet. Although I am happy with the results (the girls beat Waldo 18 to 76 and the boys won with a perfect score of 15 to Waldo's 97) I am even more happy with how our team supported each other by cheering during the other race and how they responded t... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=47 What a great race everyone had at Thompson! The Thompson coaches even complimented our runners. Almost everybody ran PRs, and we won all four races! The 7th grade girls won 18 to 37, the boys 16 to 54, the 8th grade girls 25 to 37, and the boys 26 to 31. James Daugherty won the 7th grade boy's race, Caroline Almas won the 7th grade girl's r... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=46 Jordan's mom is being kind enough to make hoodies for our team again this year. The hoodies we had last year were great, and this year's look even better. I'm not going to give away the final design here, but I do want everyone to take a look at the back of the hoodie and make sure your name is spelled correctly. You can click on the image... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=45 This was our last week to get a lot of hard work in since we have so many meets during the next few weeks. We still have a speed workout on Saturday morning to go, but so far everyone has done great, and it will be fun to see how everyone performs during the meets next week. I'd especially like to congratulate all the runners who ran all ... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=44 The girls and boys both had great races at Simmons, which is our shortest meet of the year. All of last year's record times were beaten. Jake Hoffert set the 7th grade boy's record with a time of 7:11; Caroline Almas set the 7th grade girl's record with a time of 8:30; Justin Vacha set the 8th grade boy's record with a time of 6:47; and A... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=43 Even though we had a meet this afternoon, this post isn't about the meet. The kids did do great today and I believe the girls and boys both won and everyone seemed to run better than they did at Harris last week. We will post results as soon as we get them from Simmons. This congratulations, however, goes out to Coach Martin, who had a go... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=42 All of our runners did a great job on Thursday as evidenced by the fact that so many beat their times from the time trial. Harris Park is a tough course to PR and it was good to see that so many runners did. I also want to recognize Jake Hoffert for beating our 7th grade boy's record at the Harris course with a time of 13:46. The 7th grade b... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=41 It's finally time for our first meet! We will be starting at 4:15 at Harris Park. The girls will run first followed by the boys. We expect to start on time as long as none of the teams are late so we should be done within an hour. If anyone can help out please talk to me at the meet. We could use some help at the finish line and possibly els... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=40 What a great practice today! We gave everyone goal times to beat and I think everyone met, and in some cases far surpassed, their goals. We also named our 2009 captains at the end of practice. Caroline Almas, Tate Smock, Anna Greenawalt, Jazmin Lazcano, and Graham Clark will be our team leaders for the rest of the season and we expect they wi... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=39 The high school had their first meet at Sandwich on Thursday and had a pretty good showing with both the boy's and girl's teams coming in first place. Ali Hester won the girl's race while Scott King won the boy's. YMS Cross Country alums Savanah Sellars, Zak Acara, Shawn O'Malley, Brad King, Alec Hamburg, and Josh Love all finished with ... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=38 We've talked about good form a lot over the first week, and I figured it would help everyone to see some videos describing good form. This should especially help you heel runners out there so you can have a better idea of what it means to run on the ball of your foot. There are three videos I recommend that demonstrate all-around good form. ... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=37 What a great first week of practice! Coach Martin and I are really proud of the runners who have turned out so far. Everyone is showing a lot of heart and it's great to have so many runners out this year. A special shout-out goes to Caroline, Graham, and James who ran over 5 miles at Saturday's practice! It was also great to hear that a few... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=36 It's been a great first week. It was awesome to see so many athletes running with my group on Thursday. No one was walking, and according to Coach Martin very few are walking in his group so we are very near our goal for the first week. Great job! Practice this Saturday will be held at Silver Springs off Fox Road. We will meet here every Sa... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=35 Sorry about the late notice, but there was some confusion about the time practice will start on Monday. The administration wants all sports to practice at the same time so we will be practicing at 9am everyday until school starts, including Monday. We know this may be an inconvenience to a lot of parents but we can assist in setting up car... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=34 With Endurance Camp over we are only a few weeks away from practice starting. Even if you didn't run during Endurance Camp try to get as much running in as you can before practice starts. I have a feeling we will have a lot of new runners this season so if you get a little experience it will help you a lot. Practice will start at 5pm on Au... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=33 It was great to see so many 7th and 8th graders out for Endurance Camp, whether or not you are all going to run cross country at Yorkville Middle School in the Fall. I have already seen everybody improve in just the first week so I can only imagine how much you will all have improved by the end of July. Just make sure you keep running between... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=32 Endurance Camp begins this week. If you are running cross country in the fall you will be a step ahead if you participate in the camp. Even if you don't run everyday at camp anything you do will help. I will be at camp during the first week so if you are there and will be running cross country be sure you introduce yourself. There will be ... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=31 So you've signed up for cross country in the fall. What do you do next? First of all, make sure you have your $50 activity fee, physical, and registration form turned in by the first practice on August 17. You can get the forms from the main office at YMS. After you've done the boring paperwork it's time to do some running. Any running you... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=30 Cross country is a popular sport that involves running a course that may consist of grass, mud, trees, and water. The IESA has stated that middle school athletes, both boys and girls, run a 2-mile (3200 m) course during their meets, although the meets we run in may vary between 1 and 2 miles. Boys and girls normally do not run in the same rac... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=29 The Yorkville High School cross country teams will be starring on the Fox 32 Morning Show on Friday the 19th. There will be a preview of their segment at 8:12am and they will be on during sports at 8:17am. Joe Runkle's sister Julia will be one of the participants along with most of the other varsity runners. Be sure to check them out. CHAN... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=28 The high school boys and girls cross country teams both ran their best races of the year at the East Peoria Sectional to pave their way to the State Meet next week! The boys team was led by Jake Austin who finished 19th in 15:47, Max Sliwa who finished 23rd in 15:56, Dan Szopinski who finished 37th in 16:12, Mike Addison who finished 39th ... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=27 Congratulations to the high school boys and girls cross country teams, who both won the Sandwich Regional today. They will be moving on to Sectionals next week where they will compete for the change to go to State. Head to the high school page for more info.... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=26 Photos are up from the Pasta Party and the Conference Meet. Unfortunately, we don't have photos from the girl's race, but if anyone has any they would like to add to the site let me know. I will post results of the race as soon as I receive them from Traughber. Finally, I'd like to thank everybody for encouraging my attempt at the Chicago ... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=25 Congratulations to everybody on a great Conference race! I think our work for the past few weeks on sprints after all our workouts helped since I saw a lot of great finishing kicks. I hope you will all be running at the Endurance Camp over the summer to get better, even if you aren't running cross country next year. For information on the end... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=24 Thank you to Jana and Dale for hosting our Pasta Party/Awards Night. Also, thank you to all the parents who brought food to the event. I'd also like to again thank the kids for a great season and wish everyone good luck at Conference. The meet will be held at the soccer fields at Oswego High School. Check the schedule or calendar for directio... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=23 Congrats to the runners who ran Saturday morning. The trophies went out to Joe Runkle for the 8th grade boys, Ana Greenawalt for the 7th grade girls, and Lexie Bulliner for the 8th grade girls. Since no 7th grade boys ran we will give that trophy to whoever finishes first at Conference. Speaking of Conference, it will be held at the soccer... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=22 We're in the home stretch of the cross country season now. This week is one of the most important weeks in terms of training so everyone should try to be at every practice. Next week will be much easier since we will be tapering the workouts so everyone is fresh for the conference meet. This Saturday we don't have a meet, but we will have ... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=21 Photos are up from the Tiger Trail Invite. I will post results as soon as we receive them from Thompson. We didn't have the correct location for the mile so we don't have everyone's mile times, but it seemed like everybody had a great race. Monday's meet will be at Harris Park again. The rest of the uniforms are in so we will be taking som... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=20 I'd like to thank the parents who helped out at the first YMS meet. We couldn't have pulled it off without your help. Even with some of the kids following the wrong path we received emails from coaches who said their kids really loved the course so I think we did okay. The results for our team are posted in the results section, but we won't k... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=19 It's almost time for our first home meet at Harris Park! We took a bus to the park at Wednesday's practice so the runners would be familiar with the course. It should be a fun course, and hopefully everyone does well. Given the fact that everyone seemed to run fast at Sandwich even though we had a hard workout the day before I imagine we wi... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=18 Everyone had a great workout today. I want to especially congratulate Alec, David, Jazmin, Joe, Josh, and Savanah for completing the longer run. It's especially great to see David and Jazmin running the longer route as 7th graders. Our meet on Tuesday is in Sandwich and we will be leaving the middle school around 3:15. If any of you are going... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=17 Congrats to everyone for their races at the Troy Invite. It was a fun meet to watch and it seemed like you all had a great time running it as well. Runners caked in mud are a sign of a great cross country meet. The photos from the meet are posted, and if any parents have photos that they wouldn't mind having put up on the website you can give... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=16 The meet starts at 9am tomorrow, but the 7th grade races do not start until 9:30. The 7th grade girls will run at 9:30 and the boys will run at 9:50. 8th grade girls will be running at 10:30 while the boys race will be at 11:00. After the boys race there will be awards at 11:30. You can view a map of the course by clicking this link. Good luc... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=15 Saturday's meet is going to be a fun one! There will be 53 teams participating and around 2500 runners! It will certainly be a different experience compared to our first few meets. Since there will be so many runners free parking is not available at the course. Parking next to the course at Hope Lutheran Church is $10 per car. Free parking is... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=14 The high school varsity runners were in Peoria over the weekend at the Peoria Woodruff Invite. The invite is held at Detwiller Park, which is the site of the IHSA State Meet. The boys finished 8th out of 33 teams with 245 points. Max Sliwa finished 7th followed by Jake Austin at 17th, Mike Addison at 35th, Jack Bilinski at 69th, and Josh Elle... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=13 Because of the thunderstorms and tornado watch practice at Silver Springs has been canceled for today. Try to run a few miles this weekend, and those of you going to the YHS meet at Peoria may want to try running the course down there. It's a great course. Remember that we have a meet on Monday so wear your uniforms.... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=12 What an incredible first meet for YMS Cross Country! Everyone who ran improved on times we ran in practice, and some of our newcomers did great given how little they have run. Our 8th grade boys impressed with the 1-2-3 finish of Zak, Joe, and Shaun and Josh wasn't far behind. Brad was our 5th runner for the 8th grade boys and finished in the... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=11 Our first meet will be on Tuesday at Old Post Elementary. Everyone should have their uniforms, and we recommend a pair of black running shorts so we will all match. Running shorts are lighter than normal shorts, and can be found at any sporting goods store. Here is an example of a pair of running shorts, although you do not need to buy that e... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=10 Practice on Friday will be a little longer than usual since we will be watching a few short cross country videos and handing out uniforms. We should be done around 4:30. Our first meet is on Tuesday at Old Post Elementary. You can check the schedule for a map to the meet. Finally, photos from last week's 2-mile time trial are available in the... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=9 Our schedule for this week is a little different because of teacher meetings on Tuesday and Wednesday, but after Wednesday we will get into the routine of practice right after school. Remember that we meet at the middle school for practice at 3:30pm on Tuesday and Wednesday. The YHS Invite is at 4:30 on Wednesday, and we're encouraging as man... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=8 Congratulations to everyone who ran the time trial on Friday. Everyone ran very well and I hope you all made the times you were shooting for. On the website, you can log-in to see what your race pace is, which we will use during some of our workouts. Again, congratulations to everyone and I hope you all have a good holiday weekend.... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=7 We discussed Saturday practices as a team today and decided that we would rather have practice early so the rest of the day is free. Starting this Saturday all of our Saturday practices will begin at 9am, and we will still meet at Silver Springs.... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=6 These are the tops I ordered for the team the other day. They are suppose to arrive just in time for our first meet. I recommend getting a pair of black running shorts to go along with the top. Running shorts are lighter weight than normal shorts or basketball shorts so they can be an advantage when running, and every advantage helps. You can... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=5 Our schedule for this week has been changed around a bit since we couldn't use the track Monday because of soccer. Our time trial will be this Friday instead, and our hard workout will be moved to Wednesday. Also, thanks to Mrs. Pranga for volunteering to host our Pasta Party in October. If anyone is interested in helping cook that night plea... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=4 Thank you to all the parents and athletes who showed up at Parent's Night on Friday. Hopefully you all had your questions answered, but if you still had questions you can always email me. If any parents are interested in hosting our Pasta Party on October 8th please send me an email. If you missed Parent's Night you can check out a video from... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=3 I hope as many parents as possible will show up at Parent's Night on Friday. We will meet at the YHS track after practice and then go over to the high school as a group. We will talk about the sport of cross country and what will be expected of the athletes this season. Additionally, we will talk about how parents can help out if they are int... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=2 Congratulations to everyone for their effort at Wednesday's workout. It was a difficult workout and you all fought hard and made it through. Just make sure that you all eat well before workouts like this one in the future. I'm going to post the details of the high school team's diet in the FAQ section to give you all a better idea of what to ... http://www.ymsrunning.com/index.php?id=1 What a great first practice! It was a hard workout for a first day and I'm glad so many of you stepped up and decided to run the longer route. Tomorrow's run will be a lot shorter so you can all recover. We're definitely going to get some shirts made up for the team, and I think Colton's line, "I'm not competitive, I just like winning" would ...