We’re looking forward to a great meet this weekend at Oxnard High School!  With 15 teams and well over 1,000 athletes, there should be some great competition and nice opportunity for our team to get the feel for a large high school style invitational.

Some info that might be helpful:

Please see the meet flyer for order of events and field event time schedule:  https://cdn1.sportngin.com/attachments/document/7102-1828596/2019_Co-ConferenceInvitationalFlyerUpdated.pdf?_ga=2.145899572.1243333711.1555124460-283880322.1555124460

Please allow plenty of time for arrival before events.  Parking may be a challenge and getting through staging is a bit of a zoo with that many athletes.  I would recommend arriving no later than an hour before estimated event time.

There are no coaches allowed on the field to help with athletes.  They will do great helping each other get warmed up and into staging.  We’ll have coaches in the Tigers tents to help out with any issues.

There are no athlete stickers needed for this meet.  The meet is pre-seeded and athletes just need to identify themselves in staging and they will be put in their pre-determined heats.  There are no adds or changes to meet entries.  However, relay teams have been entered, so if we have an injury, illness or something else unexpected, we may need some help from an athlete that has room for another event.

Below is a very rough estimation of event times.  It could likely run later than this, but hopefully this will give somewhat of a guide on when events will take place.  Please don’t take this as official!  One of the best practices is to call a friend/teammate and find out what event they are currently running to better judge your time.

Saturday

3000 meters – 8:30-9:30

Hurdles – 9:30-10:00

100 meters – 10:00-11:00

800 meters – 11:00-12:00

4×100 – 12:00-1:00

200 meters – 1:00-2:30

Sunday

1500 – 8:30-10:00

Hurdle Finals – 10:10:20

4×100 relay Finals 10:20-11:00

400 – 10:00-11:00

100 meter Finals – 11:00-11:30

4×400 – 11:30-12:30

If you have any questions, please email youth@venturatigres.org or call/text 650-678-3681

We’ll be talking about this more over the next few weeks, but there are 3 regular season meets left until we start the championship meets, which include Conference Finals (this meet is open to all athletes), Conference Championships (athletes must qualify during our regular season) and the Co-Conference Championship (athletes qualify through the Conference Championship Meet).

In order to qualify for the Championship Meet on May 11th, an athlete needs to be in the Top 9 (Top 12 for the 800, 1600 and 3200) in an event after the last meet is finished on April 27th.  It is a HUGE accomplishment to make the Championship meet and we would like to see as many of our athletes qualify as possible.  Please take a look at the Top 25 lists (below) and see where the best opportunities for each athlete may lie.  Athletes may want to narrow down their focus when choosing events to compete in over the next 3 meets if qualifying for the Championship meet is a goal of theirs.  If you have any questions, please email youth@venturatigres.org or call/text 650-678-3681.

Youth Girl’s Top 25

https://www.athletic.net/TrackAndField/Division/Top.aspx?DivID=102353&depth=25&filter=404&gender=f

Youth Boy’s Top 25

https://www.athletic.net/TrackAndField/Division/Top.aspx?DivID=102353&depth=25&filter=404

Intermediate Girl’s Top 25

https://www.athletic.net/TrackAndField/Division/Top.aspx?DivID=102353&depth=25&filter=405&gender=f

Intermediate Boy’s Top 25

https://www.athletic.net/TrackAndField/Division/Top.aspx?DivID=102353&depth=25&filter=405

A reminder that event sign ups for this weekend’s Southern California Youth Invitational need to be done by end of practice on Wednesday.  This meet is a pre-seeded meet, meaning entries are done before the meet with no changes.  Athletes who are not signed up for their events by end of practice on Wednesday will NOT be allowed to compete.  If you are unable to attend practices before Wednesday, please email youth@venturatigres.org with the athlete’s events.

The event limits are also different for this meet, with 3 total events, up to 2 of which can be individual events (non relays).  All events are considered individual events with the exception of the 4×100 and 4×400 relays.  Also, remember the meet takes place over 2 days (Saturday and Sunday), so pay close attention to what events take place on what days.

This is a really great meet for ALL of our athletes.  It is NOT an elite only meet, with great competition regardless of ability.  We hope to see as many of our Tigres participate as possible!

For more details about the meet, please see the flyer here:

https://cdn1.sportngin.com/attachments/document/7102-1828596/2019_Co-ConferenceInvitationalFlyerUpdated.pdf?_ga=2.86035483.248731053.1554754115-2097202071.1554754115

Please congratulate the athletes in this week’s videos!

Girl’s Bolt of the Week

Boy’s Bolt of the Week

Girl’s Kick of the Week

Boy’s Kick of the Week

Please read the below event sign up information carefully!!!

This week at practice, we will be having event sign up sheets for our next two meets.

This week’s meet at Moorpark will be the usual process, with the usual event limits, etc.

However, the sign up sheet for the Southern California Youth Invitational (April 13-14) will also be at practice and is a very different meet.  First of all, please understand this is NOT an elite meet.  It is a fantastic meet for all athletes to run against competition that is close to them, giving them a great chance to be pushed to a PR.  Because there are so many athletes, heats are typically filled with athletes of very similar abilities.

It is also a great opportunity to see what a high school invitational is like, with 15 teams and close to 2000 athletes competing over two days.  This does not mean you have to be at the track for two days, but can plan your events to whatever is convenient for you to attend.  We really hope to see as many Tigres participating at this meet as possible.

Unlike our normal dual meets, the meet is pre seeded, meaning you MUST sign up in advance and NO MEET DAY ADDITIONS are allowed.  Entries are due NO LATER THAN April 10th, so we are giving athletes plenty of time to choose their events.

Event limits are also different than a normal dual meet, with a maximum of tree events allowed.  An athlete can either do two individual events and one relay or two relays and one individual event.  Field events and running events are both considered individual events (participating without a team).

Please see the meet flyer here:  https://cdn2.sportngin.com/attachments/document/7102-1828596/2019_Co-Conference_Invitational.png?_ga=2.128241420.1840432727.1554148035-1931041558.1554148035

I know this can be very complicated, but please read through the info above carefully.  If you have any questions, please email youth@venturatigres.org or call/text 650-678-3681

Please congratulate the athletes in this week’s videos!

Girl’s Bolt of the Week

Boy’s Bolt of the Week

Girl’s Kick of the Week

Boy’s Kick of the Week

Although it is VUSD Spring Break this week, the Youth/Intermediate team will be practicing as usual.  We will have our normal team practices on Monday and Wednesday, with a full schedule of specialty practices on Tuesday, Thursday and Friday.  If you’re in town this week, we’d love to see as many athletes as possible at practices.

If you are going to be on vacation or out of town for Spring break, please do your best to get in workouts this week.  The workout plan is on the Youth/Intermediate team page on the far left column (https://www.venturatigres.org/youth-intermediate/).   If you don’t have access to a track, you can estimate the times for the distances listed.  If you need any help with creative ideas or how to simulate the workouts, please feel free to reach out to youth@venturatigres.org or call/text 650-678-3681.

Finally our first home meet of the season!  The Tigres face the Thousand Oaks Flyers at Buena High School!  A few reminders for the meet:

• 3200 runners need to be at the track by 7:45 to get warmed up and through staging.
• Hurdlers need to be on the track by 8:00.
• 4×100 relay runners need to be on the field NO LATER THAN 8:30.  Please check in with Coach Paul when you get there.
• The meet is expected to start at 8:30 sharp.
• Please see the order of events here: https://www.venturatigres.org/order-of-events/
• Please remember water, sunscreen and clothes to stay covered (everything should be labeled with names).  There will be a snack bar, but bringing some easily digestible food between races would be a good idea.  There is no food or drinks (other than water) allowed on the field, so please keep food/drinks in the stands.
• Let’s see how many 4×400 teams we can put together!  Stick around for the last and best of the meet!

Can’t wait to see what this team does tomorrow!!!

If you have any questions, please feel free to email youth@venturatigres.org or call/text 650-678-3681

Please congratulate the athletes in this week’s videos!

Girl’s Bolt of the Week

Boy’s Bolt of the Week

Girl’s Kick of the Week

Boy’s Kick of the Week

All of us coaches were so impressed with the team at the Heritage Valley meet that I don’t think we expected to see what we saw on Saturday – WOW!  THIS TEAM WAS ON FIRE!  It shouldn’t have been a surprise after last week’s practices, but the the team continues to get better at an amazing rate.  Realizing that it was some athlete’s first time competing in an event, it is still unbelievable that 76% of the performances were PR’s (119 of 156).  Some of the PR’s were not tiny, but massive improvements.  You can see the results at:  https://www.athletic.net/TrackAndField/meet/372151/results  Pay close attention to how many marks have the PR next to them.

We can also see the team start to build some great friendships and bonds as well as become better leaders.  There are also a few athletes who got out of their comfort zones with some new events.  Please encourage them at home to keep looking for new opportunities to try events at specialty practices.  It’s not too late!

The next two weeks are a very important time in the season.  We have some big meets coming up with the Southern California Youth Championships right around the corner and the toughest clubs in the conference following right after.  Please do your best to be as consistent as possible with practice attendance and if your family will be going out of town for Spring break, PLEASE do your best to get in workouts (the workout schedule is posted on the website).

If you have any questions, please email youth@venturatigres.org or call/text 650-678-3681