Zach had another great meet in Twin Falls. He tried the running long jump for the first time this season and got 2nd. He also got 2nd in the 200 and the 4x100 relay he was in got 1st. He is on a high and looks forward to state in about 6 weeks. We go to Buhl this Thursday. We are hoping for warmer weather........ Here are some pictures of Zach at his last meet and I am also including Alan's letter a week ago. I take my blog entries and put them into a bound book each year so sorry if this is a repeat for some.
Standing in whipping wind and even some snow and rain at Filer High School yesterday watching Zach's 3rd track meet of the season, it occurred to me that some of you who might want to watch him run, need a schedule. Attached and highlighted in yellow you'll find the remainder of his meets this year. As far as best competition, I’d suggest the April 9/23/30 and May 7/12/13 meets. One note, you’ll see the Boise Relays and a meet in Burley scheduled on the same day (April 23), as far as we know they’ll be in Burley that day — but if you need to know let me know early that week and I’ll confirm.
Button-poppers from yesterday: he won the open 200 with a time of 23.7, despite being in lane 8 (worst lane cuz you never see the competition unless it's too late) and high winds. I believe this will be his best individual event the rest of the year. He ran the 3rd leg of the 4x200 relay and took the baton in last place and handed off in 1st, split time of 23.1. He did the same thing in 4x100 relay (his team won both of those). He likes the 3rd leg because he hates the pressure of 1st leg (which he did well with last year) or the last/anchor leg. I say let him run whatever leg he’s most comfortable with (but nobody has asked me yet for my opinion, can you imagine that??). They tried a different 4x100 combination yesterday and I think they’ve found a team that can do well the rest of the season.
But my proudest moment was when he ran his guts out anchoring the 4x400, final race of the day, on a short turnaround after winning the open 200, and although he got beat by a fresher runner by a few feet in a photo finish (and was disqualified anyway for tossing the baton after he crossed the line, AND for intentionally obstructing the winner during the first part of the race (Brandon, you'd have loved it) -- I could care less about who won. He hates that race, has asked not to run it, wanted to throw up, had every reason to quit -- but gave it all he had. It didn’t inspire him, he was upset about not winning, etc. -- but it sure did something for me. I hope I’ll never forget it. The “last part” of that story is that he’s gonna try the long jump in a last-ditch attempt to get out of the 4x400 (you can only be in 4 events and this would give him 2 individual event and 2 relays).
Jerome was the largest school there out of about 10 teams, and the only 4A school there, but we'll take it. It was great to see his confidence boost throughout the meet and hard to describe how strongly he ran, he described it as "an extra gear that I didn't have last year." His running style is not fluid and silky smooth, but works for him and sure is fun to watch!! He knows the kids and times to beat from Minico and Twin and Canyon Ridge, and whether he does it or not, it is fun to see him try. We’ll record the rest of his races this year (I got burnt out at some point and stopped) and keep extended family involved that way.
Zach and another Jerome defensive player are headed to Poky today with their high school defensive coach, Sid Gambles, to observe spring (football) practice and see what coaches there have to say about him possibly walking on at ISU. At this point it appears school for him next year will either be USU (Logan) or ISU (Poke). He has some high school friends who will be in the mission field this summer and fall and that is exciting for all of us to consider. Life is good.
This is my report, Sports Fans of J-Town Nation.
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