NOTE: I’m having trouble getting other photos and videos to post…I’ll try and see if I can figure it out. My apologies!
What a busy week it’s been! We jumped in with both feet, and our athletes did amazing! Taking into account the South Weber Days 5K last Saturday (August 10, 2025), many of our athletes ran 3 races in 7 days. We won’t see that kind of racing load again for the rest of the season. Although it was a lot, I think it benefitted out athletes (especially our newer athletes) with lots of good racing experience.
This week is the official start of school and afternoon practices. We have another meet this coming Saturday. It will be busy, but fun! All that said, let’s jump in!
I. Week 1 Recap
We started this week with a Pre-Race practice at Northridge on Monday morning. We are really working to establish a solid pre-race routine this year, with the hopes that will give our athletes the best chance to develop consistent good habits that will allow them to compete routinely at a high level. These practices are light, but focused on race preparation and keeping our athletes active enough so that their legs don’t feel sluggish come race time.
After practice, we had a pre-race pasta dinner put on by the coaches at Oak Forest Park. It was well-attended and a lot of fun! We also did some pre-race visualization work for the first time. We’re hopeful that, as we incorporate this more consistently into our practices it will be helpful to our athletes as they make the quick race-time determinations that set apart a great race from a good one.
Tuesday, we met early in the morning at Northridge to ride the bus to the Weber County Fairgrounds for our Pre-Region meet. UHSAA re-shuffled the regions this year, placing us in a new region with teams to our north. Last year, Clearfield, Northridge, Bonneville, Roy, and Box Elder were the northernmost school in our region joined by three other Davis County schools (Bountiful, Woods Cross, and Viewmont). This year, Northridge is the southernmost school, and, together with Clearfield, Bonneville, Roy, and Box Elder, have been joined by Fremont and Westfield.
We had expected the Pre-Region course to be almost perfectly flat, but were pleasantly surprised to fine a few hills and a nearly all-grass course. Even though the race started very early (8:00 AM), it was hot, and many of our athletes, who have been used to practicing early in the morning, before the sun comes up, struggled a bit in the heat. This is normal for the first couple races of each year. We are not concerned, because, by the time the races that matter come along, our athletes will be more conditioned to warm temperatures (due to afternoon practices) and the race-time temperatures will have cooled pretty significantly.
Addison Waite (6th place overall) was our top boys finished, while Evelyn Cook paced the girls with a 5th place overall finish. Top 7 results are listed in the table below, with full results available on SportTrax.
Boys Race Results (3rd Overall Team)
| Place | Athlete | Time |
|---|---|---|
| 6 | Addison Waite (Sr.) | 17:16 |
| 10 | Stephen Bentley (Sr.) | 17:33 |
| 14 | Parker Ewell (Sr.) | 17:52 |
| 22 | Landon Strong (So.) | 18:37 |
| 26 | Zachary Carnett (So.) | 18:51 |
| 38 | Jeremiah McKean (Jr.) | 19:22 |
| 43 | Michael Griffith (Jr.) | 20:13 |
Girls Race Results (4th Overall Team)
| Place | Athlete | Time |
|---|---|---|
| 5 | Evelyn Cook (So.) | 20:53 |
| 6 | Sarah Hammond (Sr.) | 21:04 |
| 20 | Lyla Wiser (Jr.) | 22:44 |
| 22 | Jane Jeffrey (Jr.) | 23:02 |
| 34 | Natalie Agren (Sr.) | 24:35 |
| 37 | Sofia Wilkinson (Sr.) | 27:09 |
| 38 | Amri Hazard (So.) | 27:45 |
Our next three practices were purposefully kept very easy, to allow athletes an opportunity to recover in advance of Saturday’s invitational meet — the Freber Classic — held at Fremont High School.
The Freber Classic was an invitational meet at which 18 (!) schools competed, and provided some good competition for our team in a very fun atmosphere. Like our Pre-Region Meet, it started at 8:00 AM in the morning. Luckily, the temperatures had cooled down in the intervening days, and it was reflected in BOTH our athletes’ performances AND their enjoyment of the competition!
At the Freber Classic, Jeffrey Hazard took first place overall in the boys varsity race, with Evelyn Cook again pacing our team in the girls varsity race. Emma Warner was our first finisher in the girls junior varsity race, with Koleson Davis leading the boys junior varsity team. Top 7 results for each race are summarized in the table below, with full results available on SportTrax.
Girls Varsity Results (6th Overall Team)
| Place | Athlete | Time |
|---|---|---|
| 13 | Evelyn Cook (So.) | 19:23 |
| 15 | Sarah Hammond (Sr.) | 19:37 |
| 33 | Abbi Frost (Jr.) | 20:30 |
| 51 | Natalie Agren (Sr.) | 21:34 |
| 52 | Lyla Wiser (Jr.) | 21:40 |
| 55 | Jane Jeffrey (Jr.) | 21:43 |
| 80 | Amri Hazard (So.) | 23:58 |
Boys Varsity Results (8th Overall Team)
| Place | Athlete | Time |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jeffrey Hazard (Jr.) | 15:24 |
| 40 | Addison Waite (Sr.) | 16:58 |
| 51 | Parker Ewell (Sr.) | 17:21 |
| 59 | Stephen Bentley (Sr.) | 17:35 |
| 63 | Mason Smith (Sr.) | 17:43 |
| 68 | Landon Strong (So.) | 17:46 |
| 70 | Zachary Carnett | 17:47 |
Girls Junior Varsity Results (10th Overall Team)
| Place | Athlete | Time |
|---|---|---|
| 32 | Emma Warner | 24:11 |
| 38 | Sadie Wiser | 24:42 |
| 55 | Lauren Terrando | 26:49 |
| 66 | Chloe Poff | 29:48 |
| 69 | Bella Corlett | 31:14 |
| 70 | Brielle Allman | 31:27 |
Boys Junior Varsity Results (10th Overall Team)
| Place | Athlete | Time |
|---|---|---|
| 45 | Koleson Davis | 19:36 |
| 51 | Reyse DeArce | 19:51 |
| 56 | Mark Volkanov | 20:04 |
| 73 | Luke Simons | 20:51 |
| 79 | Evan Corlett | 21:21 |
| 80 | Luke Luoma | 21:25 |
| 85 | Jacob Hazard | 22:19 |
We had numerous great efforts put in by our athletes. I couldn’t possibly recognize them all. But I did want to highlight a few standout performances:
- Sarah Hammond (Sr.) breaking 20 minutes for the first time!
- Zachary Carnett (So.) breaking 18 minutes for the first time!
- Mark Volkanov, who ran a huge PR on Tuesday, and PR’d by 40 seconds on Friday!
- Koleson Davis who ran a 3-minute PR over 3 miles on Saturday!
- Avery and Reyse DeArce, who each PR’d by over 90 seconds on Saturday versus Tuesday (which was their first XC race ever)!
- Emma Warner and Sadie Wiser, first finished first and second for Northridge in the girls’ junior varsity race in their FIRST XC race EVER (after having already played in two soccer games over the prior two days)!
There were many others. We are so proud of our athletes for putting in strong consistent effort each race.
II. News & Announcements
A. Practice Schedule
Just a reminder that, starting tomorrow, Monday, August 18, 2025 (the first day of school!), we’ll be meeting to practice after school. Practices will start at 3:15 PM, in order to give athletes time to get to practice from NUAMES or the junior highs.
Athletes who are students at Northridge will have some from when school gets out at 2:20 to do homework until practice starts at 3:15 PM. They may do so quietly in Coach Hutchinson’s classroom (C-242). They may store their belonging in the classroom during practice if they wish.
We will be starting practice each day from Coach Hutchinson’s classroom at 3:15 sharp! Athletes who arrive late should go to Coach Hutchinson’s classroom unless they see the team at the track, in which case they may go directly there.
B. Register My Athlete and Uniforms
The vast majority of athletes should have completed their Register My Athlete and have their uniforms. If you haven’t, please do it ASAP so we can get all our athletes racing! Feel free to message me with any question about RMA or about fees.
C. Fundraiser Update & THANK YOU!
Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU for all your help and support with our fundraiser. We raised around $3,500 between purchases and donations, which, together with the matching contribution from my work, results in almost $7,000 for our team. This will make such a huge difference for our team and what we’re able to do. I will follow-up with some planned potential uses so you have an idea of how this is going to help.
D. Wahsatch Rendezvous
This Saturday, our team will be competing at the Wahsatch Rendezvous, which is a unique format race in Salt Lake City at Big Cottonwood Regional Park. This is also a race where our middle school athletes will have an opportunity to compete on a 2 mile course! I will follow up about this meet separately in the next day or so, so please watch for that information.
III. Weekly Training Schedule
| Date | Location | Time | Type of Practice Days |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monday, August 18, 2025 | Northridge High School | 3:15 PM | Easy run |
| Tuesday, August 19, 2025 | Northridge High School | 3:15 PM | Workout + strength |
| Wednesday, August 20, 2025 | Northridge High School | 3:15 PM | Recovery run |
| Thursday, August 21, 2025 | Northridge High School | 3:15 PM | Light workout + bodyweight strength |
| Friday, August 22, 2025 | Northridge High School | 3:15 PM | Pre-race |
| Saturday, August 23, 2025 | RACE — Big Cottonwood Regional Park (Salt Lake City) | Meet at Northridge to catch the bus. Time TBD. First race (JV) starts at 7:30 AM | Wahsatch Rendezvous |
| Sunday, August 24, 2025 | N/A | N/A | Rest |
IV. Other/Points of Emphasis
No video again this week!