Shalin Dalal is first ROTW

Each Saturday we will present a Kempner Runner of the Week. This week Shalin ran all of his PPM runs right around 6 minutes per mile, all of his CTs were perfect and he set a summer PR in the timed mile with a 4:49 this morning. He is obviously ready for the upcoming season.

Shanup ran a summer PR today also with a 5:07 and that just happens to be his best mile time ever. Errol ran a consistent 5:09. Kyle and Chrandrew should have been under 6 minutes today but they weren't paying attention to their watches and managed 6:02 and 6:03 respectively. Freshman Scott was right behind the 2 seniors with a PR of 6:10. Jaclyn Amadio continued to improve with a 6:55. That's the first time she has broken 7. Hiba ran a summer best of 6:31 and Briana continues to improve with a 6:41. Others ran well and it looks like the team is almost ready. However, there is still tons of work to be done.

Cougar Update

Another new segment on KXC is the new Cougar Update. We will update other cougar athletic teams to make sure we are supporting everyone on campus.

Today I was able to watch the Lady Cougar volleyball team play in their first competition of the season. The Lady Cougs were scrimmaging North Shore, Spring Woods and Hastings this morning at 9 in the KHS gyms. I watched as the Lady Cougs took down Northshore in a 30 minute timed scrimmage. The volleyball team will travel to Langham Creek tomorrow to take on the Lady Lobos squad at 9:00am. Tuesday they will play at Hastings (not far from Kempner) with the freshmen playing at 4pm, JV playing at 5 and the varsity going at 6. Cross Country should plan a road trip to support Lady Cougar volleyball. This coming Thursday the varsity volleyball squad will play in the Katy ISD Tournament with opponents and times to be announced.

The Cougar Football program will start practice Monday. They do have scrimmages scheduled but I am not sure where or when. The first Cougar Football game will be against Pearland at the Oilers home stadium, "The Rig." Lucky for us, the first home game is Saturday night on September 8th at Mercer. The kick-off is set 6:00pm against the Alief Taylor Lions.

Support your fellow Cougars and hopefully they will support you as well.

Schedule Update

Well, due to the SAT and all the boys varsity team scheduled to take it the same day as Nike South we will be going to Cy-Fair on October 5th. Also I have decided to go to the place where I ran my very first cross country meet when I was 14, Sweeney. This meet will take place on Saturday, September 22.

Briana Gifford's motto is "Run for Fun"

Briana Gifford is coming off a great freshman year where she led the lady cougars to a runner-up finish in the district 23-5A meet and ran the fastest time by any female Kempner runner in 2006. Bri is going into her sophomore season expecting to be better than last year.

KXC: How has your summer training been going?

Bri: Alright, the past few weeks have been good. I’m improving.

KXC: Last year you were second at the district meet. Is that what you expected?

Bri: No, I thought Zelda and me would be first and second. My time was faster than the time trial on that course and I think I underestimated Austin a lot.

KXC: What are your goals for this season?

Bri: Well, first get back up there. Second, I want to beat my personal best times.

KXC: What did you like most about this summer?

Bri: I’d have to say the Bastrop Campout and the waterfall we jumped off of..and that Jamadio was scared!

KXC: What meet do you look forward to the most?

Bri: Aldine, because both times we ran there last year I ran my fastest times.

KXC: Are you glad you aren’t a fish anymore?

Bri: Actually I enjoyed freshman year. It was good to me. This year hasn’t started yet so we’ll see how it goes.

KXC: How do you think the girls’ team will do this year?

Bri: I think we’ll have a lot of competition within our district. We’ll just have to work harder and prove that we deserve first.

KXC: How do you think the guys’ team will do?

Bri: I think they have a chance to win district, depending on their attitudes going in?

KXC: What is your favorite pre-race meal?

Bri: What we had last year, spaghetti.

KXC: Is there anything you would like to add?

Bri: My personal quote, “run for fun” and it should be a great year.

KXC: Thank you Briana and good luck this season.

Pull up the page next Thursday as we interview senior boy Errol Hampton. We also have junior Katherine Toy (8/23), seniors Shalin and Shanup Dalal (8/30) junior Gina Keidel (9/6), sophomore David Koistinen (9/13) and sophomore Jena Deitrich (9/20) scheduled for future interviews.

Texas Cross Country Report

This is the first edition of the Texas Cross Country Report made specifically for Kempner Cross Country runners. This is to hopefully keep everyone updated on who is good in Texas, Region III and District 23-5A. (That’s our region and our district for those newbies out there.) I hope the team reads this and maybe prints it out to put in there log books.

We start at the state level where we will recognize last year’s 5A state champions. The Southlake Carroll girls were the state champions and went on to place 3rd at Nike Team Nationals, the highest by any Texas team ever. This matters to us because they use the Paavo Training system just like we do. The Kingwood girls placed third at the state meet and were the highest finishing team from our region. One of our goals this year is to race Kingwood as much as possible and try each week to get closer to them and eventually beat them. Cinco Ranch and Clear Lake placed 5th and 6th respectively. So teams in our region are among the best in Texas. District wise the Austin girls won the district meet last year by 20 points over our girls last year (31 to 51) and are returning virtually everyone. I feel like Bush, Dulles with Jessica Legendre, and Clements will also be good teams this year that we cannot underestimate. Austin’s top runner is senior Caitlyn Howell who ran a 5:08 mile last year. Howell was also 42nd at regional cross country last year with a pretty fast 12:08. The Clements girls have also organized a summer training program and should be ahead of a lot of district teams when the season starts.

On the boys side, The Woodlands won their 13th state championship over Southlake Carroll, as Colby Lowe of Southlake Carroll took the individual title. Kingwood, Strake Jesuit and Cinco Ranch finished 9th, 10th and 11th respectively from our region. These are teams we will see a lot. Strake Jesuit won the region meet and Cinco Ranch had 1st and 2nd place individually. Last year’s regional champion Zac Flowers, is returning for his senior season this year and will be one of the top runners in the state. District-wise freshman phenom, Spencer Buxton, who ran 10:08 for 3200m and 4:36 for 1600m last year will lead a Travis squad who will run varsity for the first time this season. Many of the Travis team have been training with Cinco Ranch all summer and are ready for this season. Austin is the defending district champ and return second place finisher Andrew Maes from last year. They beat us by 4 points and will still be a strong team. Austin is shooting for its 4th straight district championship as it ended Kempner’s run of 8 straight back in 2004. Bush and Dulles look to bring some good teams into district competition as Dulles is lead by Gavino Hernandez who ran a 4:35 1600m on the track last season and Roland Zech, whom you all know. Bush has the only non-Austin and non-Kempner top 10 returner in Carlos Rodriguez. Carlos had a great race at the Freedom 5k this summer and according to his coach, has been training very consistently.

It should be an interesting season. I did mention several teams but no team can be counted out. All 10 schools in the district have the potential to win and we never know what is going to happen until the race is run.

Wariner dominates Stockholm

Jeremy Wariner of Texas ran the fastest time in the world this year for 400m yesterday. The article is below:


Reigning world and Olympic champion Jeremy Wariner obliterated a talented field in the men's 400 meters Tuesday at the 2007 DN Galan IAAF Super Grand Prix Meet in Stockholm, Sweden.
Wariner grabbed the lead early and methodically extended his advantage over the seven other contestants before crossing the finish line in the fastest time in the world this year of 43.50 seconds. Wariner's performance bettered his previous world-leading time this season of 44.02 set in Osaka, Japan, on May 5, and it equals the sixth-fastest time ever run (Quincy Watts, 1992). It also betters Wariner's previous personal best of 43.62 from his win in Rome on July 14, 2006, and it's the fastest time in the world since National Track & Field Hall of Famer Michael Johnson set the world record of 43.18 at the 1999 World Outdoor Championships in Seville, Spain. Only Johnson and Butch Reynolds have ever run faster in the 400m than Wariner. For the second consecutive year Wariner was presented with a 1-carat diamond valued at $10,000, which is emblematic of setting a stadium record in Stockholm.
Two-time U.S. 400m hurdles champion Kerron Clement was the runner-up to Wariner in a personal best time of 44.48 seconds, with 2004 Olympic relay gold medalist Darold Williamson third in 44.90 seconds. 2005 World Outdoor Championships silver medalist Andrew Rock was fifth in 45.12.
In other running events, 2006 Indoor Visa Championship Series winner Lisa Barber captured the women's 100 meters in 11.03 seconds, finishing just ahead of 2006 World Athlete of the Year Sanya Richards, who ran a personal best time of 11.05 seconds. Richards's time easily bettered her previous career best 100m performance of 11.28 seconds set in 2003. Kerron Steward of Jamaica was third in 11.29 seconds.
Richards also competed in the 400 meters in Stockholm, where she came up with another runner-up finish as reigning World Outdoor 200m champion Allyson Felix pulled the upset with her stadium record, diamond-winning time of 49.70 seconds, which is the third-fastest time in the world this year, and is the first time in her career that Felix has bettered the 50-second barrier. Felix posted her previous personal best of 50.17 with her runner-up placing August 3 in London. Richards was the runner-up in 49.72 seconds, with fellow American Mary Wineberg placing fourth in 50.74.
Also in Stockholm, 2004 Olympic Games marathon bronze medalist and reigning U.S.10,000m champion Deena Kastor led an American sweep of four of the top five places in the women's 5,000 meters. Kastor's winning time of 14 minutes 52.21 seconds is a seasonal best and the second-fastest 5,000m time of her career, with her personal best of 14:51.62 coming in 2000. Other top Americans included Lauren Fleshman (3rd-15:02.28), Jennifer Rhines (4th-15:12.64) and Sara Slattery (5th-15:18.18).
Other U.S. men's winners included 2003 World Outdoor Championships finalist and two-time World Outdoor relay gold medalist Joshua (J.J.) Johnson, who won the 200 meters in 20.32 seconds. Elsewhere, 2006 NCAA Outdoor champion Aries Merritt was victorious in the 110m hurdles, hitting the finish line first in a new personal best and stadium record time of 13.09 seconds. His previous career best was 13.12 from last year. Following Merritt were fellow Americans Ryan Wilson (2nd-13.10), Anwar Moore (3rd-13.39), Ron Bramlett (4th-13.46) and David Payne (5th-13.48).
In the women's 100m hurdles, Sweden's Susanna Kallur pulled a mild upset with her win in 12.66 seconds over reigning world champion and world ranked #1 Michelle Perry, who finished second in 12.73. 2007 USA Outdoor Championships third-place finisher LoLo Jones placed third in 12.81.
Americans posted two runner-up finishes in field events Tuesday as 2007 USA Outdoor men's triple jump champion Aarik Wilson soared 17.27 meters/56 feet 8 inches, and 2007 USA Outdoor Championships third-place finisher Rose Richmond leapt 6.49m/21 feet 3.50 inches in the women's long jump.
For more information on the DN Galan Super Grand Prix in London, including the complete results, visit www.iaaf.org.

Re-establishing the Webiste

Mr. Toy reminded me how often the website was updated and the quality of material that used to be on it. As time has passed I have neglected the site. Therefore, I have decided to commit more time updating this page with daily contributions. My plan is this:


Monday - Information, itineraries, etc. about the upcoming meets that week.
Tuesday - Some sort of running related article dealing with training, diet, rest. etc.
Wednesday - Updates on some of the teams we are racing or good teams in the state. (The Texas Cross Country Report)
Thursday - We are bringing back the team member interview, hopefully on video!
Friday - What is happening with Cougar Athletics like football, volleyball.
Saturday - Meet results and runner of the week.
Sunday - Miscellaneous information that needs to be sent out to parents/team members.

I hope this will attract more visitors to the blog and keep everyone more informed. As the season wears on I usually update it less and less but I could use motivation from knowing people are really encouraged by what they see on the site.

Our meet schedule is still not finalized. The meets we are certain of are these:

August 16 Practice meet vs Bush and Stratford girls at Spring Branch Jr. High 6pm
August 24 Practice meet vs Bush and Austin at George Bush Park 5:30pm
August 31 Friday Night Lights at Bear Branch Park in The Woodlands 6pm
September 15 Humble Invitational (N Harris County CC) 8am
October 19 District 23-5A Championships at Missouri City Park 3pm

I am still making sure we can get into the others meets and waiting on coaches to call me back. I will post as soon as possible.