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Due to Holiday travel there will be no after school Track practice tomorrow, Tuesday the 26th.
This doesn’t mean athletes should lay off though! Make sure you get some running and conditioning in over the break. Practice starts again for the Indoor Track Squads on Monday Dec 2 !
Indoor season is upon us!
Tryouts – Girls 800m
Tryouts – Boys 800m
All indoor track meets will be held at the Birmingham “Crossplex”, a multi-million dollar indoor facility in Birmingham and The first Track meet is Saturday Dec. 7th!
As there are very few indoor facilities available for high schools, these meets become like “mini” state track meets. drawing many of the top athletes from around the state and some will even draw from Mississippi! Tenn and Ga actually WANT to bring their athletes to these meets as well but as their states do not have “official” Highschool indoor track seasons, they are not eligible to compete.
So as you can imagine this makes these indoor meets VERY competitive and perhaps not the best experience for new track athletes to start. Given this, the time constraints of preparing for a season that starts so soon, logistics and budgetary issues we will only be fielding a “scaled down” squad for indoor season.
This is why we have “try-outs” for the indoor squads. These teams will probably consist of those who are already competitive at the “State” level and those who have been training on their own in the “off season” but everyone is invited to try-out.
Well the 2013 CC season has reached the finish line.
It has been an exciting year in itself but speaks of great things for coming seasons!
The State Meet itself was quite the challenge for our runners.
Senior, Anthony Parameswaran missed his PR time by just 20 seconds but that was still good enough to finish 19th. An improvement over last years 42nd place finish. Anthony certainly leaves his mark behind as he owns the Sparkman School Record in the Boys 5k!
Sophmore Bailey Herfurth’s first appearance at the State Meet showed that he will be someone to contend with in the coming seasons. He finished 85th out of the 206 competitors, 31 seconds off his best time and (for reasons as yet unexplained to me) got a bloody nose!
8th grader, Renita Vander Schaaf came within 5 seconds of a new PR and finishing 74th and closes out the year owning the School Record in the 2 mile, 2.1 mile and the 3200m!
It didn’t quite seem to be Junior, Kelsey Johnson’s day. Her time was off her best mark by over a minute, leaving her with a 136th place finish. On the positive side though, she DOES currently own the Sparkman School Record for the Girl’s 5k and she DOES get to come back next year for another run at state!
7th grader Emilia Poole was one of ONLY 8 seventh graders who made it to state! Though she was about 40 seconds off her PR time for the 5K, she finished 143rd of the 199 runners. This was only the third time she had competed in this event at the High School VARSITY level. She finishes the season as the 6th ranked 6A, 7th grader for the 5k in the state.
So everyone can take the week off but then … Next season is just 9 short months away!
(10th)Bailey Herfurth,(12th) Anthony Parameswaran, (12)Kelsey Johnson, (8th)Renita Vander Schaaf, (7th)Emilia Poole.
Full Results from Section Meet listed here.
It was a tough meet for our Cross Country squads but several of our athletes rose to the challenge.
For the Boys, 12th grader Anthony Parameswaran again turned in a solid performance and showed why he is one of the top runners in the state. Anthony finished 4th in a race that showed less than 30 seconds between him and a win! This will be Anthony’s 2nd trip to the State CC Meet.
Sophmore Bailey Herfurth also proved himself in this meet. This is Bailey’s 3rd section meet and this time he finished 12th, earning himself a trip to State and one more opportunity to put a new record in the books for this year.
Over all, our boys team finished 6th.
The Girls also showed themselves worthy of the challenge qualifying THREE athletes for the State Meet!
For the 2nd year in a row, 8th Grader Renita Vander Schaaf was our top girl’s qualifier in the 5k. Renita finished 15th with a time that was a minute and 15 seconds faster than her qualifying run last year.
Junior Kelsey Johnson will also be making a return trip to the State! Kelsy improved last year’s qualifying mark by 34 seconds and finished 17th, just 18 seconds back from her team mate.
Our new girl’s qualifier for this year is 7th grade phenome Emilia Poole.
This was only the second time Emilia had competed in the 5k and she dug deep to bettered her PR by a minute and seven seconds, finishing 18th and earning herself a start at State!
Good solid performance by freshman Brooklynne Gallimore, and 7th grader Mary-Frances Burch, helped to take the girls to a 4th place team finish! This was just 9 points out of 3rd place and a huge difference from last year when we did not have enough varsity girls entered to be given any team points.
Appart from Emilia two more of our Senator runners finished out their season in style, digging deep and coming up with NEW Personal Records!
Now it is on to the State Championships!
This Saturday, November 09, at Oakville Indian Mounds Park in Oakville, AL
The State Sectional Meet is just days away.
For many it will be their last chance to put an exclamation point on their year, to dig deep within themselves and find those extra few seconds to end the year with a New PR, a New School record and perhaps … a chance to go to state and do it again.
That’s the beauty of this sport, at the end of the day it is what is inside YOU. Did YOU find what it takes to go faster than you ever have before?
Every runner on this team has that potential and THIS meet is the meet to find it!
Let’s go Senators! One more time. Let’s see EVERY RUNNER get a PR!
+++++++++++++++++++
The latest State Cross Country rankings are out and for the Boys 5K distance, out of 2825 runners …
Sparkman’s own Anthony Parameswaran(Sr) is ranked 15th with a time that puts him on Milesplit’s “2nd US Team Elite”!
For the 6A division Anthony is ranked 3rd in our region and 8th in the state, and Sparkman 9th grader Jake Russell is ranked 10th in our region and 40th 6A state wide.
Sparkman continues to be a strong, 6A Boys presence in our region with (Soph)Bailey Herfurth ranked 11th, (Fresh)Harrison Miller ranked 14th and (Soph)Seth Graham ranked 23rd.
For the girls, Senior Kelsey Johnson is ranked 10th in our Section and 8th grader Renita Vander Schaaf is ranked 14th.
It was the final “regular” season Cross Country meet of the year and our Senator runners ended with authority!
Boys and Girls CC teams with their 1st and 2nd place trophies
All our Girls ran the 5K, for some it was their first race at that distance!
Renita Vander Schaaf led the way, setting a NEW PR for that distance and scoring a personal 5th Place over all ! Kelsey Johnson also had a top 10 run, finishing with a personal 8th Place over all.
Together the girls finish strong, scoring a TEAM 2nd PLACE in the 4a-5a division. They were ONLY 8 POINTS out of first place!
All our Boys also entered the 5K and the results were even stronger! Bringing home a FIRST PLACE TEAM FINISH !!!
Anthony Parameswaran finished with an over-all personal 1st PLACE !!
Jake Russell took an over-all 7th Place and Bailey Herfurth took 9TH PLACE.
Sophomore Brandon Curry also stepped it up and turned in a NEW PR for this distance.
The Metro meet turned out to be very tough competition AND terrain!
For the Girls it was Renita Vander Schaaf once again leading the way. Her individual 3rd Place Finish helped the JV GIRLS secure a 3rd PLACE TEAM finish!
For the Varsity Boys, Anthony Parameswaran finished with an individual 5th and Bailey Herfurth scored an individual 10th!
Our JV teams continued to shine as they turned in a combined TEN NEW PRs!
For the girls, these times put them in podium position as they took a TEAM 3rd PLACE and once again Renita Vander Schaaf, led the way with a new PR time that was good enough for an Individual 3rd!
NEW PR’s for the JV Girls –Renita Vander Schaaf, Hailey Brown,Brooklynne Gallimore, Savanah Wilson, and Makenzi Coley,
NEW PR’s for the JV Boys – John-David Ray, Michael Fulda, Kyler Waters, Isaiah Vasquez, and Riley Edwards,
NEW PR’s for Varsity Girls – Reza, Lauren
NEW PR’s for Varsity Boys – Curry, Brandon
The Jessie Owens Classic is billed as one of the biggest and toughest meets of the year and the 2013 edition lived up to it’s hype. Still, we had several athletes including the entire JV Boys team who rose to the challenge! 
(for complete SHS results, click here)
With well over 200 teams and at least 3756 athletes with recorded times, this was tough meet.
For the Girls Varsity team we are still hampered by not having enough girls entered, to qualify for team points.
Once again Junior, Kelsey Johnson led the way, followed by Sophomores Lauren Reza and Kaitlyn Williams.
The Boys Varsity team was once again led by Anthony Parameswaran who finished 51st out the 320 runners in the “Gold” 5k division. Anthony was not quite on his game, as his PR time would have given him a 13 place finish but to give you some idea of the strength of this field – NO varsity runner from North Alabama finished within the top 15 and only 4 finished in the top 50.
The Girls JV team put up another good showing, finishing just outside the top 10, in 12th place.
8th grader Renita Vander Schaaf once again led the team, finishing 26th out of the 362 runners. Renita was slightly off of her best pace for this distance which would have only moved her up to a 20th place finish. Only 3 girls from North Alabama finished in front of her.
Perhaps our best JV Girls performance of the day came from 9th grader Hailey Brown who stepped it up and turned in A NEW PR for the 2.1 mile distance!
The Boys JV team really turned it on for this meet.
We had TWO 9th grade runners who beat the School Record for the 2.1 mile but alas, there can be only one record holder and that honor goes to Jake Russell who finished with an individual 6th. Harrison Miller who now holds the 2nd fastest time in school history scored an individual 10th place to go with his PR run.
In fact all but one of our JV boys set NEW PR’s in this 2.1 mile race, a major factor in their 9th place team finish.
Scoring NEW PR’s were 7th graders John-David Ray, Isaiah Vasquez, Riley Edwards and 8th graders Michael Fulda and Jake Maier.
Good job Senators!
JV First – 2013 Arab Invitational
(complete SHS results and scoring can be found by clicking here)
We are now about half way through the season and the competition is getting tougher. Our runners turned it up though and gave us another good showing!
Our JV Girls WON the 2 mile … with all 7 of our them finishing in the top 12 with NEW PR’s!
Renita Vander Schaaf took an individual 1st, Emilia Poole placing 3rd, Mary-Frances Burch placed 6th, and Savanah Wilson, Brooklynne Gallimore, Hailey Brown and Makenzi Coley finishing 9th – 12th respectively!
The JV Boys moved three of our runners (including the current SHS record holder in the 2 mile) to Varsity and still finished 3rd !
Freshmn, Steven Underwood’s individual 6th place finish led the squad to their podium finish with his PR run. In fact all 8 JV Boys had PR times. They are John-David Ray, Michael Fulda, Jake Maier, Kyler Waters, Isaiah Vasquez, Dave Mehok, and Riley Edwards.
Our Varsity girls were once again in-eligible for team competition by being one runner short of a full team. Still, they girls turned in good times, with Junior Kelsey Johnson again led the squad, with an individual 5th place finish.
The Varsity Boys went with an all out blitz, entering 10 runners in the 5k event and coming up with a 4th place. Anthony Parameswaran, was the only runner who made it into the top 10 but that was good enough for a podium position 3rd place!
Freshman Kyle Rusak and Sophmore Ryan Magers were able to run NEW PR’s for this event.