Whitman-Hanson @ Plymouth North

The following was provided to Administration and the local media following today's meet at Plymouth North:

Whitman-Hanson Boys Cross Country (1-2) traveled to Plymouth North and lost 19-51 on the 2.9-mile course at Forges at Forges Field.  Junior Captain Ben Andrews was the Panthers top finisher placing 2nd overall in a time of 17:20. Others scoring for Whitman-Hanson included Freshmen Jayden Brzsusek (8th; 19:27) and Dylan Meredith (9th, 19:43), Sophomore Josh Hadden (10th; 19:44), and Junior Caleb Poth (12th; 20:20.)

 

The Girls of Whitman-Hanson fell to 0-3 after losing a close race at Plymouth North's 2.9-mile Forges Field course 26-30.  Chloe Handlin (3rd overall; 23:04) led the Panthers, followed in the scoring by Senior Willa McKay (5th; 24:46), Sophomore Rachael Sirignano (6th, 25:04), Senior Isabella Furtado (7th; 25:36), and Sophomore Lindsey Brzuszek (9th:25:59.)

 

Both teams will host Hingham High School, next Tuesday, October 1st at Burrage Wildlife Preservation Area in Hanson at 4:00PM.

 

Steve George, Head Coach 

Complete Results:

Whitman-Hanson vs. Silver Lake Tuesday, 9/17/24

The following was sent to local news outlets and school administration at the conclusion of today's meet:

Whitman-Hanson Boys and Girls Cross Country hosted Silver Lake Regional at Burrage Wildlife Recreation Area in Hanson, Tuesday afternoon.

 

The Whitman-Hanson Girls (0-2) lost 21-36 to a talented Silver Lake team on the 5K course.  Sophomore Rachael Sirignano placed 2nd overall for the Panthers in 23:45. Also scoring for Whitman-Hanson were Senior Chloe Handlin (5th, 24:22), Senior Willa McKay (8th, 25:22), Sophomore Lindsey Brzuszek (10th, 25:22), and Sophomore Kaylah Randow (11th, 27:08).

 

Whitman-Hanson Boys moved to 1-1 on the season losing to Silver Lake despite the win by Junior Captain Ben Andrews who covered the 5k course in 17:58.  Others scoring for the Panthers included Freshmen Jackson DeLue (7th, 19:41), Jayden Brzuszek (8th, 20:04), and Dylan Meredith (9th, 20:27) and Sophomore Caeleb Rouse (10th, 20:32).

 

Full results of today's meet can be found at the following link:

Whitman-Hanson vs Silver Lake

We are all pretty happy with the efforts of our student-athletes today.  18 Boys ran in today's race on the same course they ran versus Marshfield one week ago.  One ran for the first time, while 15 of the other 17 boys competing today improved his time by between 29 seconds and 4:25, with 10 bettering last weeks' time by more than one minute.  On the girls' side, 10 competed today.  Like the boys, one girl ran for the first time.  7 of the other 9 competing today improved their time as well.  Great job kids.  Improvement is what it's all about!!  Keep up the great work.  See you tomorrow!

 

Paraskavedekatriaphobia (Fear of Friday the 13th) - 9/13/24

I'm told Paraskavedekatriaphobia is a legitimate phobia, but having lived through 126 Friday the 13ths during my admittedly long lifetime, I'm not worried one iota about #127.  In fact, I'm very much looking forward to Fun Friday! We'll be running easy with strides today before Coach S takes over.  The easy day follows what, for some, was a difficult workout yesterday with 4 X 1000 repeats, in which we included a 200-meter quick start in the first two repeats, and a 200-meter sprint to the finish in the last two repeats.  Each athlete maintained his/her 5K pace for 800 meters during each repeat, i.e. the balance of the workout.

Congratulations to Samantha Adams (nee Richner), who will be returning to Whitman-Hanson Track and Field to take the Girls Head Coaching position for both Indoor and Outdoor Track.  Coach Adams has been both a WH athlete and Assistant Track & Field coach, and currently holds the position of Head Volleyball coach as well.  We are all excited about her joining us in the upcoming Track and Field seasons.

Great article in today's Boston Globe, "So, your kid was cut from the team.  What now?" You may be able to access the complete article through this link:

So you kid was cut from the team. What now?

I was especially struck by one young women's decision to join the "more inclusive cross-country team" after being cut from another sport, but more importantly the article details the "heartbreak" associated with not making the cut.  I'm proud of the fact we are able to offer an alternative for those kids, all of whom are welcome (still, even as I write this) to join our team.  Just this week in fact we picked up two student-athletes who we envision being contributors to the success of our teams before the season is through.

Tomorrow, Saturday, we'll again head to Burrage Wildlife Management Area for our 9:00AM practice. We're hoping to see everybody there as we continue to prepare to host Silver Lake Regional on Tuesday, September 17th.  Silver Lake ran very well against Hingham last week and is a formidable opponent in a pretty tough Patriot League Keenan Division.  We'll need our best on Tuesday.  See you all at practice . . .

 

Whitman-Hanson versus Marshfield - September 10, 2024

Our Cross-Country teams opened up their season today.  The following was provided to Administration and local news outlets following the meet:

The Whitman-Hanson Boys and Girls Cross Country teams hosted Marshfield High School at Burrage Pond Wildlife Management area Tuesday afternoon and came away with a split. 

 

The Panther Girls lost 15-50 to the highly ranked Marshfield Girls who crossed their six top runners in a time of 22:56. The top finishers for the Panthers were Senior Chloe Handlin (8th place, 23:55), Sophomore Rachael Sirignano (11th, 25:39), Senior Willa McKay (13th, 26:23), Senior Bella Furtado (14th, 27:10) and Sophomore Kaylah Randow (15th, 27:43).

 

In the 2nd race the Whitman-Hanson Boys won 31-28.  Scoring for the Panthers were Junior Ben Andrews who finished 2nd overall in a time of 17:42. Also scoring for Whitman-Hanson was Freshman Jayden Brzuszek (5th, 20:51), Freshman Jackson Delue (6th, 20:56), Sophomore Caeleb Rouse (7th, 21:01), and Junior Caleb Poth (8th, 21:19.)  

 

Steve George, Head Coach

Full results can be viewed at the following link:

Whitman-Hanson vs Marshfield Results

Great weekend for our XC alums

While we prepare to kick off our 2024 Cross Country season, many of our alums ran his/her first race of the season over the weekend.  Some of the results follow:

1.  Myah Kamperides, Junior, Bryant University - returned to form with a 22nd place finish (19:50, 6:24) to help the D1 Bulldogs to a 2nd place finish (behind Dartmouth College) at the Nassaney 5K Invitational in Smithfield, R.I.

2.  Sky Bucci-Anderson, Freshman, University of New England - in her first college race, Sky was her team's top finisher and placed 2nd overall in the 2.1-mile Ron Ouellette Invitational women's race while leading the team to a 1st place finish at Biddeford, ME.

3.  Brandon Hager, Senior, Westfield State University - placed 109th overall (19:00, 6:07) at the Trinity College Bantam Invitational held at Wickham Park, in West Manchester, CT.

4.  Gordon Johnson, Junior, Westfield State University - placed 46th overall (17:34, 5:39) at the Trinity College Bantam Invitational held at Wickham Park, in West Manchester, CT.

5.  Nathan Tassey, Junior, Roger Williams University - the All-American placed 1st overall at the Trinity College Bantam Invitational with a time of 15:33.9 (5:00 mile) while leading his team to a 2nd place finish.

WHRHS is proud of these incredibly talented former Panther Captains and wishes each a spectacular 2024 season.  Keep up the great work kids, we'll be watching (and posting results!)   

Completing Week #3 - Marshfield up first

We're blessed to have no Cross Country related injuries thus far, as evidenced by a nearly full crew on Saturday at Burrage Pond.  There are some aches and pains, but nothing resulting from the training process over the past three weeks.  Some athletes came into the season with some issues/injuries but our trainer, Corey, has been working with each of them in an effort to get them ready to compete. We actually slowed it down this week with a "Park and Back" on Tuesday, which we followed up with 30 minutes on Wednesday, a 17/15 progression run on Thursday, and 25 minutes on Friday.  Each day included 5 x 20 second strides within the run, and coupled with our post run work each day, have been a factor in keeping everybody healthy.  So, when we got to Burrage to run our home course this Saturday, which will be initiated for real on Tuesday, September 10th when we host Marshfield, everybody was happy and ready to go.  We again confirmed the distance as a legitimate 5K, and everybody was able to cover it without a problem.  An informal poll of the kids revealed the course was "great", even "perfect" with no hills, literally four turns, and comfortable terrain. A look ahead to the weather on Tuesday looks like we'll have a temperature of about 70 degrees, with sun and comfortable humidity levels.  A very good day for racing.

Yesterday we discussed logistics with regard to our Tuesday meet.  We have not run an off-campus home meet in over ten years here at WHRHS.  This season we were essentially forced to do so because there is an ongoing construction project on a good portion of the course.  We've always had some difficulty in maintaining and getting around the school course using any configuration (and there have been many.)  There are several areas where the grass and brush have to be cut and removed by the coaches because those sections which are overgrown are on a right-of-way owned by the utility company.  There are also the problems caused for motorists who are asked to stop for crossing runners on both the driveway leading up to the school and on the crosswalk by the half time building.  The numerous turns on the course and the traffic behind the school and along the gym coming from the pre-school are also a concern and require posting dozens of students out there to direct the runners.  And of course, we have had to navigate sub-varsity soccer athletes and parents attending games, and a couple of football practices as well in order to make our way through the course. I, for one, am ecstatic we have an opportunity to run a nice course within 5 miles of the school which have NONE of the aforementioned obstructions.  But it comes with another challenge.  The athletes don't have to arrive until 3:00PM and will be dismissed from school 90 minutes earlier.  We are asking that our athletes take private transportation to Burrage Pond (located on Hawks Avenue off Pleasant Street in Hanson.)  The coaches will make efforts to drive as many of those needing rides as possible, and upperclassmen have offered to take others with them. I'm hopeful parents can also help get their son or daughter to the meet at or around 3:00PM.  Like each practice day, parents can pick up their son or daughter when the meet is completed.  Starting time for the races is 4:00PM.  We expect the two races to be complete at 5:30. If you have any questions, please don't be afraid to contact one of the coaches (your children have our cell numbers) and thank you in advance for helping out with what I'm hoping will be a great experience.

Once again, this link will provide details for our course on Tuesday:

Whitman-Hanson Burrage 5K

New TEAM, new plan, new attitude

The coaches have discussed our relatively new approach to training this season and its impact on/by TEAM chemistry.  With the graduation and departure of more than one-half of our TEAM, the timing was perfect for implementing a new training plan.  In the past we've established groups, aligned by our perception of the athletes' ability, experience and conditioning level. Each group worked separately, and we set a goal for every athlete to work to move "up the ladder" so to speak.  In retrospect, it was a flawed system.  Groups became tight. The bonds and friendships among the student-athletes served as disincentive for mobility between those groups.  Looking back, the separate groups were detrimental to creating the TEAM unity we'd hoped for. 

So, this year we are practicing each day as a TEAM.  We warmup together, run together, and do our post-run work together.  A new approach requires some creativity and we've been up for the challenge.  And the TEAM has been extremely receptive to that challenge.  Yesterday's workout is a good example.  We began with our new warmup routine which takes about 17 minutes.  Add about three minutes for a water break and discussion about our goals for the day and any new matters of importance, and then we headed out for a run to the Town Park and return (4 miles minimum.)  EVERY member of the TEAM, in its 12th day of practice, accomplished this easily.  Many of the athletes accomplished more in fact.  Some continued looping the Park before returning while others added on by looping the WHRHS front field several times upon their return, with all finishing at approximately the same time.  Each runner was also asked to progress to 5 X 20 second strides within his/her run.  Following that we worked as a group on our post-run strength and mobility exercises which have thus far proven to help us avoid injuries, and when done we'd completed a fairly difficult 1- and 3/4-hour practice.  All left with smiles!!  Which leads me to this.  This TEAM may not, at this point anyway, be championship ready.  It is however an absolute joy for us to coach.  A TEAM full of great kids, with great attitudes, happy with what they are doing, and making marked and visible improvements every day.  The coaches couldn't be happier . . .

To be continued . . .