PLEASE NOTE: Because of size, I have uploaded photos/videos from camp to a shared iCloud album, which you can access here: https://www.icloud.com/sharedalbum/#B28GqkRUiGd3C9n
What a week! This was a busy one, but, as always, camp will be a highlight of the season! Thank you, thank you, thank you for supporting us so well and enabling us to put on a camp the kids enjoyed. More importantly, I feel like our athletes became better friends and a closer team. Now, the challenge will be to carry the relationships developed during this past week through the rest of the season!
On we go!
I. Week 8 Recap
The first half of this past week was familiar — we spent Monday running Fernwood, Tuesday doing a workout at Northridge, and Wednesday on the Weber River Trail. Late Wednesday morning we headed up to Eden in Ogden Valley for our annual team camp, which was held at Camp Lomondi.
Camp Lomondi came highly recommended by Jared Jeffrey, and it didn’t disappoint. The facilities were great. The service missionaries at the camp were wonderful and thoroughly enjoyed interacting with all your kids. And it was a great location for many fun and challenging outdoor activities.
I’ll just cover some of the highlights:
Wednesday afternoon we had a presentation from Jon Osborn, a mental performance coach, who talked about pre-race anxiety. He was very entertaining, and gave a great object lesson using ice cubes. Ask your athletes about it, as I think it can benefit all of us.
We did not do a double run on Wednesday, because Thursday morning we were traveling down to Salt Lake City to run in the Deseret News Pioneer Day Races.
Thursday morning we woke up at 3:30 AM (I can’t believe we actually pulled this off!) in order to start driving down to Salt Lake City by 4:00 AM. We left early because the drive was 1:20 minutes and the races started at 6:00 AM. I’m not sure if it was the best decision to try and do this, but, we were committed at this point and had to see it through! We arrived on time, and our athletes did great! We had almost 40 kids run in the races, with 9 running the 10K and the remainder running the 5K.
Here are some highlights:
- Jeffrey Hazard (Jr.) took 12th overall and was the first high school finisher in the 10K, against an incredibly competitive field.
- Our 10K girls team (comprised of Evelyn Cook (So.), Sarah Hammond (Sr.), Natalie Agren (Sr.), Lyla Wiser (Jr.), and Brielle Allman (Sr.) took 3rd place overall in the team 10K competition!
- Mason Smith (Sr.) and Landon Strong (So.) both broke 18:00 in the 5K, with Landon running 17:50 and Mason just behind at 17:52!
- Rheddik Allred (Fr.) PRd by nearly 2 minutes in his 5K, running 22:43!
- Zane Briscoe (Fr.) PRd by NEARLY 3 MINUTES in his 5K, 23:31!
- Brandon Griffith (8th) PRd by nearly 2 minutes in his 5K running 21:36!
- Jacob Hazard (Fr.) PRd by over 2 minutes in his 5K, running 22:42!
- Xi Hazard (8th) PRd by 2:30 in his 5K, running a very speedy 20:38!
- Jane Jeffrey (Jr.) PRd by over 1 minute in her 5K, running 22:16!
- Marcus Moe (So.) PRd by 1 minute in his 5K, running 27:02!
- Dax Nesbit (So.) PRd by ALMOST 3 MINUTES in his 5K, running 21:35!
- Luke Simons (So.) PRd by almost 2 minutes in his 5K, running 21:16!
- Sadie Wiser PRd by…drumroll…OVER 6 MINUTES in her 5K, running 25:35 (and there’s much more to come!)!
- BUT, the PR AWARD OF THE DAY goes to Lucy Johnson (Fr.), who slashed OVER 7 MINUTES OFF HER 5K PR, running 25:04! Way to go, Lucy!!
As you can see, we had some really great races. I was super proud of each of our athletes, who all competed very hard. Full results available HERE.
After racing in Salt Lake, our runners rested up at the finish line, watched a little K-Pop Demon Hunters (see photo below), and then we headed off to float the Weber River, from Henefer to Taggart. Everyone had a blast, even with a few popped tubes (they just hopped on with friends and continued the float).
After finishing on the river, we all drove back to camp, where people showered, and got ready for dinner. After eating, we had a presentation from Steve and Camille Tueller, the Northridge middle distance track coaches, on aspects of mental performance and how to recognize and stop tendencies towards “stinking thinking.”
After the Tuellers presentation, we were all exhausted and headed to bed. The kids till stayed up for a while, but even they succumbed earlier than usual! Some slept out under the stars.
Friday, we woke up and had a late-ish (relatively speaking!) run on the trails around the camp. After that, we had breakfast and prepared to head to Pineview Reservoir for some time on the lake. We were joined there by Abbi Frost and Kaidynce Dawson who were unable to attend all of camp, but drove up for the lake day!
The kids had a ton of fun on the water, and would have stayed longer, but we wrapped it up around 2:00 PM. After that, we headed back to camp, ate dinner, and then had our team talent show. Everything from blow-up Dino costumes, to card tricks, piano solos, violin solos, a rock band, and an impromptu boy band version of “Call Me Maybe” awkwardly directed toward Jared Jeffrey.
After that, we prepared for bed, as many of our runners had an early wake up for a Saturday morning run up Ben Lomond.
The Ben Lomond run went extraordinarily well, after a bit of a false start getting past an unexpectedly locked gate on the way to the trailhead. Your athletes were amazing. The made the 10 mile trip (3,900 feet of elevation gain to the 9,600 summit) in less than 3 hours, including photo stops and time to eat snacks at the summit. This was a highlight for me personally, and I think our athletes enjoyed it, too!
And with that, we cleaned up the camp, checked out, and headed home. Mission accomplished!
I have posted earlier on GroupMe with thank you for all who helped and supported. We couldn’t have done it without each of you!
II. News & Announcements
A. Register My Athlete & Team Fees
It’s that time of year again! Our first race is August 12, 2025, which is now just over 2 weeks away. I need everyone to have Register My Athlete completed before than with team fees paid before your athlete will be eligible to race!
I will be checking out uniforms on Friday, August 8th, 2025. In order to get a uniform, your athlete must have completed Register My Athlete and paid team fees. I will check them out again on Monday, August 11, 2025 (the day before our first race).
PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE get. Register My Athlete done ASAP. Many of you will need updated physicals for your athletes, so get those scheduled!
You can see the current status of registrations that I have (as of July 27, 2025) here: RMA Status
As soon as athletes have completed Register My Athlete, I will have team fees added to their myDSD account. The team fee will be $150 this season. This is an increase, for which I apologize, but it is necessary to cover increased entry fee costs (not including post-season and/or travel meets) and team bus transportation.
Here is the fee disclosure: https://northridgexc.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/2025-XC-Fee-Disclosure.pdf
B. Pre-Region Race (first race of the season!)
The first race will be at Weber County Fairgrounds on Tuesday, August 12, 2025. This is our pre-region meet, and we will be racing our Region 5 competition on the same course we will be running at the Region Championship in October. It will begin with the girls race at 8:00 AM. The boys race will follow at 8:45 AM.
I am still working with the athletic director about a bus. I will let you know as soon as I have final information.
Meet information (and results when posted) can be found on SportTrax here: https://sporttrax.com/meets/833
C. SportTrax App
All of our athletes who are competing during the season should download and install the SportTrax app. The vast majority of our meets will be hosted using SportTrax, with a handful still using RunnerCard. The app can be downloaded here: Apple App Store | Google Play Store
D. Pre-Season Parent Meeting
It’s hard to believe, but it’s already time for our pre-season parent meeting. This is currently scheduled for July 30, 2025, but this has snuck up on me with XC Camp and everything we’ve had going on. I’m going to move it to the following week, as I’m simply not prepared at this point. Sincere apologies! Please watch GroupMe for an updated date and time.
E. Updated Race Schedule
We have had some changes to our race schedule. I’ve linked an updated schedule for the most current information below.
Current NRXC Race Schedule (July 27, 2025)
I will update and supplement as necessary. It may take me a couple days to get this all updated on the website, so, until that happens, this is the governing document.
F. Team Fundraiser
Coach Hutchinson will be discussing our team fundraiser with our athletes this week at practice. There will be prizes for athletes that raise the most funds. Both purchases made through the fundraiser and donations in the name of the athlete will count toward the final totals. We hope that athletes will be excited to participate. Remember, the total raised will be matched by Coach Bentley’s company, up to $5,000…so this is a significant opportunity!
III. Weekly Training
Here is a summary of this week’s training schedule. The full weekly training information is in the linked PDF below.
| Date | Location | Time | Type of Training Day |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monday, July 28, 2025 | Fernwood Recreation Site | 7:00 AM | Easy trail run + hill sprints |
| Tuesday, July 29, 2025 | Northridge High School | 7:00 AM | Workout + weights |
| Wednesday, July 30, 2025 | Weber River Trail | 7:00 AM | Watchless run |
| Thursday, July 31, 2025 | Oak Forest Park | 7:00 AM | Workout + bodyweight strength |
| Friday, August 1, 2025 | Nicholl’s Hollow | 7:00 AM | Coach catch! + breakfast/games |
| Saturday, August 2, 2025 | TBD | TBD | OYO long run |
| Sunday, August 3, 2025 | N/A | N/A | Rest |
Here is this week’s full training PDF: https://northridgexc.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/NRXC-Week-9-Running-Schedule-2025.pdf
IV. Other/Points of Emphasis
No video this week…you’ve all heard enough from me!