State Champion John Rainbolt

John Rainbolt was the state champion at 3200 meters his senior year. He also was invited to the prestigious Golden West Invitational in Sacramento, California where he set the Kempner 3200 meter record of 9:02. He went to the University of Texas and was all Big 12 in the 10,000 meter run as a freshman. John wishes success to his alma mater.

KXC: I’m going to ask you the same questions I asked JP. When did you start running?

John: I started running my freshman year. I wasn’t real serious about it at that point. I just did it because it was required for basketball. I ran JV and ended up winning. Our varsity team got 6th at state that year. I decided to make basketball second. I missed the first half of track season because of basketball. After freshman year I didn’t play basketball again. I wanted to turn my focus towards running.

KXC: Did you get to run at the region meet your freshman year?

John: No, I first ran regionals my sophomore year. I was on the same team as JP. The attitude of team going into regionals was very confident. Kingwood, Kempner, McArthur were kind of seen as the favorites going into the race. That team was the best team that I was on while at Kempner. We didn’t have a great race that day but the team learned from the experience. We really believed in our training, with the focus being more inward, not being distracted or intimidated by the other runners, which can be easy to do. We knew it would be a battle but we had five guys who had already run sub 4:40 and Frank had run sub 4:20, we had a good team. Frank was winning races all year long and he was having a bad day and every body was running off of each other. If you just take care of your business it all falls into place. But at the same time your teammates feed off each other but don’t let that happen in a negative way. Don’t slack off because someone else is having a bad day. That is what happened to us. Frank didn’t run well and we all kind of fed off of him and the rest of us didn’t do that well. We ended up getting 6th.

KXC: What advice would you offer the current Kempner runners?

John: I cut a race into 4 parts. I try to visualize where I am going to be in the race. I think about what it’s going to look like. Where do you want to be at mile one, two and three. Mile one be comfortable. Stay out of trouble at the start, get to where you want to be. Know where you should be in relation to the field. Mile 1 be comfortable, try to set your self up for a good middle of the race. Mile 2 set, yourself up to be in the front or a good striking position at the end of mile two. Mile three you should really start feeling the hurt feeling the pain. This is why you did the training, always look forward never look back. The main thing is just compete if you run as hard as you can and just run smart there are no regrets. Make the race as efficient as possible for you. There are going to be a lot of people who makes mistakes and you don’t want to be with them .Don’t get out too slow because before you know it you are 30 seconds behind.

KXC: Can you tell us a little about what it was like to go to state?

John: My goal was to get a medal. I was hoping for top 3. It didn’t end up happening but I got a medal. Going to state was a whole different thing. I didn’t have my team with me. There was this lonely feeling. It was a lot better when my team was with me. I just tried to run as even as possible and just work my way up. I didn’t have my whole team around me kind of like support. It is easier when the whole team is there.

Tell them all I said good look and I hope ya’ll do well.

KXC: We really appreciate your words John. John is currently working and living in Houston. He has also learned to fly airplanes. He graduated from the University of Texas in 2006 and was one of Mark Floreani’s roommates. Floreani is the inventor of FloTracker.

Also, on Friday all the regional runners will meet at David Koistinen’s house around 6:00pm for a pre-regionals meeting and meal. We will discuss our expectations and team strategy. See you there. Remember to bring money.

Former KXC Star JP Machemehl has some helpful hints

JP Machemehl was a freshman at Kempner the last time KXC made it to the UIL State Championships. The team placed sixth over all and were led by senior Jayme D’Agnolo. JP recently graduated from Texas A&M where he was a standout cross country runner and one of the team leaders. JP has been dominating the Houston road racing scene lately and took on his first triathlon a few weeks ago. JP has some words of encouragement for his successors on the regional championships this weekend. (JP is #1793 on the right of the pic)

KXC: When did you start running?

JP: I started running my sophomore year. Coach Spano got me to run. My sophomore year I ran my first two mile race in 14:30. I improved by a whole minute the next race and then by district I was placed on varsity. I was the seventh guy and I placed 16th and ran 17:10. Frank Gonzales won it in 14:58 but I think the course was three miles.

KXC: When was the first time you ran at regionals?

JP: The first time I ran was that year. It was at San Jacinto. I was the last runner for Kempner and placed 125th.

KXC: What were the team’s expectations going into regionals?

JP: Well, they lost D’Agnolo but they had Cody (Manuel), Frank (Gonzales) and John (Rainbolt-who was the state champion for 3200m in 2002) so they figured they had the same shot at going to state as they did the year before. They knew they could go to state. The goal for any cross country team is to have five people have a good race on the same day. Unfortunately everyone had a bad race on the same day. We ended up bombing it and the team placed 6th. The years 98, 99, 2000; that three or four year span were just solid years for Kempner. We had a handful of good guys who just hung with it. Chris (Pine ’04) and Eric (Shepard ‘04) and a couple others continued it, but after 2000 we never had that solid talent. I can definitely tell that this year’s team is a lot stronger than we have had in the past 4 or 5 years. It comes in waves, Kingwood has always had the top talent but they don’t really have it anymore. Those 4 or 5 years we were just hot.

KXC: What advice would guys for this Saturday?

JP: The obvious answer is to always stay positive. The Paavo training method has been successful and it has been working. I mean Shalin ran a 15:40 something and I don’t think anyone has run that since John and I had been there. I think believing in your training, believing in your coach. Stay together as a team. Find each other out there. Any good cross country team has all five guys run their best race on the same day and within one minute of each other. If you can have a good group time like that it is a good showing. Finding each other out there on the course, you realize you trained together and it will encourage each other during the race. Stay positive. Listen to coach’s advice during the race. Whether it was Coach Mixon (KHS) or Coach Waters at A&M, if I actually did what they told me I would push through that pain threshold. Just listening to the coach helps a lot. Just group up and if they are smart about it, it is definitely something that will help them out during the race. From now until Saturday it is important to do the little things right. Streching, drinking water, resting, eating right. The smaller things actually do play a big part in the race

One of the things I always had success with was that I never really thought about the race too much. I didn’t stress about it. You always have to visualize the race the night before. I always did that the night before. I thought about strategy. I didn’t think too much about the race, I didn’t worry about it. I just mentally prepared myself with a race plan. Then during the race I would make sure I was sticking to my race plan, mile by mile k by k. Try not to take it three miles at a time. Take it mile at a time or half mile at a time. Have the most positive attitude you possibly can and everything will fall into place.

As far as I’m concerned I haven’t seen a Kempner team this strong since the team that made state in ’98. I have seen some individuals but not a team. The Spencer/Shalin race was the best race I have ever seen at district bar none.

KXC: Thank you so much for your insight. Will you be there Saturday?

JP: Yes, I will definitely be there. Good luck everybody.

KXC: JP improved a lot from that 14:30 two mile race. Before he graduated from KHS he ran three mile cross country in 15:50, he ran the 3200 and the 1600 on the track in 9:37 and 4:26 respectively. He ran for Texas A&M and by his junior year he led the cross country team in a lot of their meets.

I also have an interview with former KXC star John Rainbolt and I will post it tomorrow.

Region III Championships

This week's meet takes place at North Harris Community College where both the Humble Invitational and the Aldine Invitational were held. We will compete in the first two races of the day. The girls will run 2 miles while the boys will run 5k. Click here for the course map. Here are the itinerary and rosters:

7:45am Leave Kempner High School
8:45am Arrive at NHCCC and set up camp
10:00am 5A Girls Race
10:20am 5A Boys Race
10:45am 5A Girls Award Ceremony
11:05am 5A Boys Award Ceremony
12:00pm Lunch at Double Dave's Pizza
1:30pm Arrive at Kempner High School

Varsity Girls Team
Zelda Abadom
Lisette Bogdan
Jena Deitrick
Briana Gifford
Gina Keidel
Hiba Kreidie
Katherine Toy
Lillian Dominguez Alt.
Macy Ramos Alt.
Sahar Halim Alt.

Varsity Boys Team
Evan Bogdan
Matthew Cortez
Shalin Dalal
Shanup Dalal
Errol Hampton
David Koistinen
Abel Simie
Scott Vilas Alt.
Juan Trujillo Alt.
Christian Salazar Alt.