Way To Go Katie!!!

Katie has come a long way in the year and a half since she joined the TEAM. We are so excited about her progress and what is to come for her as she trains leading up to the Olympic Trials.

Here is a story about Katie from her William Penn College town. You can view the story here.

Next up for the TEAM is the Pan Am Racewalk Cup this Saturday in Colombia where Trevor, Tyler and Nicolette will compete for Team USA.

Stay tuned!

TEAM

Rachel Sets Canadian 20km Record

On Sunday, March 13th, five TEAMmates made the trip to Huntington Beach, CA to compete at the USA Master's 20km RW Championships in the open division. Chris, Janelle and Katie decided to get an early 20km race in right after NAIA Indoor Championships to get their qualifying time in before USATF Nationals in June. Rachel and Tim came to show their support and to get a good 2nd workout and hard effort in. Tim also wanted to try and walk under 1:29:00 so that he could "guarantee" travel expense money for USATF Nationals.

Unfortunately, Janelle had a knee injury that started a few weeks before NAIAs and got sick while at NAIAs so she didnt end up finishing the race but she already has a qualifying time for Nationals with her 5km race from Texas in January. Katie however had a fantastic race doing the whole thing alone. She had a big negative split and finished in a time of 1:44:37. It was a 7 minute PR for her. She looked so strong and has a lot more time that she can take off over the next year leading up to the Olympic Trials. This time now officially qualifies her to compete at the 2012 Olympic Trials.

Tim was lucky to have Mike Tarantino to key off of for the first 5k before over taking him. After that it was a lone effort, pushing forward and putting the hammer down. He finished off the race in a time of 1:28:48 which is a great start for him and a time that should be good enough to rank him in the top 4 going into Nationals.

The big story came from Rachel as she felt great going into this race and had no pressure going into it. She had great help from Chris as he did his first 20km (race or workout) in 2 years. His goal was to qualify for the Olympic trials for next year and for Nationals this year. They both just worked together throughout the whole race and Rachel knew by 10km's (47:32) that she had a good chance at breaking the 11 year old Canadian record. As the race continued, they just kept getting fast and did a great negative split finishing the second 10km's in 46:50 to finish the 20km's in 1:34:22 and set a new Canadian record! She finally had a big breakthrough race after a rough 2010 season. Chris qualified for both the Olympic Trials and Nationals for this year with a time of 1:34:21. We are so proud of Chris for being back in the game and he has so much ahead of him. We are looking forward to a big drop in his PR this year!

Below you can watch the race courtesy of Chris Rael with Racewalk Planet TV. Unfortunately, the official results have not become available yet but when they do, we will post them.





Up next for the TEAM is the Pan American Racewalk Cup where we will have three TEAM members (Trevor, Tyler and Nicolette) competing on the USA team. Maria was set to compete also until an injury forced her to not make the trip.

Stay tuned!

TEAM

Three Medals at NAIA Indoor Championships

All three of our TEAM members that competed at the NAIA Indoor Championships last Friday have come away with hardware. Competing for the TEAM were Katie Burnett from William Penn University in Iowa, Janelle Brown of Cornerstone University in Michigan and Chris Tegtmeier of Concordia University in Nebraska. Both men and women were racing over 3,000m's.

First up were the women. Katie and Janelle knew that they would have a tough competitor in Jessica Ching from Lindenwood University. Both women were ready for the challenge and were going for the women. Right from the gun Janelle took the lead and stayed there for about a kilometer when Jessica Ching caught up to her stayed with her for a few laps till she overtook Janelle for the lead. After that, Janelle started to fade but Katie started to try and make her way up. She managed to get a few seconds away from Jessica but was never able to catch her. Jessica pushed her lead even further and managed to win in a time of 14:12 with Katie pushing to her 2nd silver medal performance at this meet. Not far behind was Janelle in 3rd place, her first ever medal at an NAIA Championship. Great job ladies!

Women 3000 Meter Race Walk
================================================================================
Championship: N 13:56.06 2002 Amber Antonia, Wisconsin Parkside
2010 Champ: * 14:25.38 3/6/2010 Jessica Ching, Lindenwood
18:20.00 A
Name Year School Seed Finals
====================================================================
Finals
1 Ching, Jessica JR Lindenwood 14:36.24 14:12.05*A
2 Burnett, Katie SR William Penn 14:40.02 14:22.70*A
3 Brown, Janelle JR Cornerstone 14:28.75 14:32.13 A
4 Furnish, Megan SR Lindsey Wilson 15:07.41 15:09.38 A
5 Conway, Chelsea SO Lindsey Wilson 15:34.07 15:37.55 A
6 Helmuth, Erin SO Goshen 17:04.63 15:51.70 A
7 Gutterman, Alexis SR Lindenwood 16:32.39 16:01.97 A
8 Brickson, Reini FR Lindsey Wilson 16:22.38 16:15.33 A
9 Bonk, Nicole SO Embry-Riddle 16:54.60 16:46.44 A
10 Mancha, Mercedes SO St. Xavier 17:42.62 17:01.08 A
11 Lawrence, Monica FR Cornerstone 17:41.28 17:01.13 A
12 Eichmeyer, Carissa SR Hannibal-LaGrange 18:23.46 18:44.26
-- DeJong, Sunny FR Cornerstone 18:27.75 DQ

Next up were the men. Chris Tegtmeier had just started racewalking a month ago after a year off due to illness. He was very nervous going into this race, not knowing how he could do. The gun went off and the top 2 seeds, Kris Shear and Josh Wiseman took off. Chris stayed behind but within striking distance as he let the other guys fight it out. The leaders took out the pace pretty fast as they were looking to try and break the meet record. First Josh Wiseman fell off the pace and Chris overtook him. Next Kris started falling off and so with 2 laps to go Chris overtook Kris in lead and pushed till the end, winning in a time of 12:15.95, a big personal best and the meet record! What an amazing comeback for Chris. This is Chris's second NAIA Indoor Championship.

Men 3000 Meter Race Walk
================================================================================
Championship: N 12:16.56 2002 Lachlan McDonald, Wisconsin- Parkside
2010 Champ: * 13:19.50 3/6/2010 Mike Mannozzi, Notre Dame (Ohio)
16:00.00 A
Name Year School Seed Finals ====================================================================
Finals
1 Tegtmeier, Chris SR Concordia (Neb.) 13:19.37 12:15.95NA
2 Shear, Kris SR Cornerstone 12:30.28 12:20.49*A
3 Wiseman, Josh SR Cedarville 12:33.45 12:23.54*A
4 Vergara, Ricardo SO Lindsey Wilson 13:14.81 12:54.98*A
5 Vergara, Roberto SO Lindsey Wilson 13:47.03 13:22.49 A
6 Pfahler, Joel SO Cedarville 14:17.20 13:50.92 A
7 Forgues, Matthew FR Ashford 14:30.46 13:55.02 A
8 Gunderkline, Jacob SO Goshen 14:31.71 14:07.58 A
9 Jakobsen, Aleksand SO Ashford 14:55.40 14:19.77 A
10 Lindemann, David SR Lindenwood 14:48.24 14:57.57 A
-- Ikeda, Paul SR Cedarville 14:08.02 DQ


Congratulations to all three of the TEAM members on amazing performances. Next up for the trio is a 20km race this weekend at the USA Master's 20km Championships in Huntington Beach, California. Good luck!

Stay tuned!

TEAM

Maria Becomes 2-Time Indoor Champion

This past weekend in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Maria and Coach Tim competed at the USA Indoor Championships both racing 3,000m's. First up were the men with a small field of 4 competing. Coach Tim was going for his 13th Indoor Championship. The race started off with Patrick Stroupe going into the lead and pushing the pace, opening up the first kilometer in 3:51. Tim decided to just sit behind Patrick and let him do the work. Patrick just kept slowing down every lap as the race went on. They went through the 2nd kilometer in 4:13. Patrick still kept slowing down with Tim on his heels. With 3 laps to go Tim decided to make his move but had unfortunately already accumulated 2 red cards. He had already broken Patrick and so Tim decided to ease up on the pace and just make sure he didnt get another red card. Just as we thought Tim had the title once again, 20m's before the finish line he was shown his 3rd red card, therefore a disqualification. This was a very disappointing race for Tim. He was in great shape and the race felt easy for him but unfortunately the judges decided the race today even though Tim was leading Patrick by over 100m's.



Next up were the women with a very weak field of 3 athletes. Maria was the returning champion and had a lot of confidence coming off the race in Florida 2 weeks ago. Her plan was to start off the race in the lead and push from there. The two other girls tried to hang on to her for awhile but couldnt keep up with her pace. Maria went on to win easily in a time of 13:40, an 11 second improvement from last year.





Next up for the TEAM is the NAIA Indoor Championships in Ohio this Friday where we will see Katie, Janelle and Chris race for the medals. Katie is the returning silver medalist from last year and is hoping to improve upon that this year. Molly also races this weekend at the New York State Championships over 1500m's. Good luck to everyone.

Stay tuned!

TEAM

Big PRs in Florida

On February 13th in Coconut Creek, Florida, 7 of our TEAM members competed at the USA Pan Am Racewalk Cup Trials. For the Americans,they were trying to capture a top 4 finish for the seniors and a top 3 finish for the juniors to qualify to compete for the USA at the Pan Am Racewalk Cup in Colombia on March 26-27th.



Senior Men's Recap

Trevor was the only TEAM member to compete over 20km's. He started off in the pack with Patrick Stroupe, John Nunn and fellow TEAM member Tyler Sorensen (who was racing 10k). He was in contact with them until around 6 or 7k when Trevor and Tyler picked up the pace. At 12k Trevor started to have chest pains and had to stop for about a minute since it gave him a bit of a scare. He then decided to start up again but couldnt push to his full potential because of the pains. Trevor ended up winning the race narrowly ahead of Patrick in a time of 1:27:32 (his 2nd best 20km time ever).

Senior Women's Recap

We had Maria and Rachel in this race. The gun went off and both women went out with Teresa. Starting off the first KM a little bit too fast in 4:38, both women decided to just go with the pace and see what would happen. All three women were together until 12k when the pace had started to slow and Maria decided to take off. Teresa dropped out by 14km's and Rachel slowed down due to fatigue from travelling (she had flown 9,500 miles the 15 days before the race). Maria went on to dominate the race and won in a time of 1:36:30 which is the Olympic B standard and a PR by a minute and 50 seconds. Rachel finished 2nd overall in a time of 1:40:03.

Junior Men's Recap

Tyler was the lone TEAM member in this race and he dominated it. He went out with the 20k leaders and stayed with them through 8k when he then decided to push the pace for the last lap and finished in an amazing time of 42:54 which is a new American Junior Record for 10km's on the road. It is also a PR by just over a minute.

Junior Women's Recap

Nicolette was the only girl for the TEAM in this event. She started off the race with fellow TEAMmate Rachel Zoyhofski (Little Rachel) and then pushed the pace herself after halfway. She went on to place 2nd and had over a minute PR of 54:07.

Open Women's 10km Recap

We had both Katie and Little Rachel in this event. Both were hoping to set big PRs. Both ladies went out smart. Katie walked alone for most of the race and Little Rachel started off with Nicolette. Katie went on to walk a huge 2 minute and 20 second PR to walk 51:55 to win the race. Little Rachel had a bit of a rough day and finished in 56:50 to place 2nd.

Overall we had 4 TEAM members qualify for the USA team that will compete in Colombia. Trevor and Tyler will race the Junior men's 10km, Nicolette will race the Junior women's 10km and Maria will race the Senior women's 20km. Trevor is already over in Colombia getting a good month of altitude training before the race and Maria will head over there 2 weeks before the race to get acclimated. We wish them all good
luck!

Stay tuned!

TEAM