Event schedule for the US Outdoor TF Championships is posted: Check it out!
Event schedule for the US Outdoor TF Championships is posted: Check it out!
Local favorite Kim Conley will compete in the 10,000m. Run the Billy Mills 10K (7 pm, 6/26) and then stay to cheer her on! Entry to the Billy Mills 10K includes a ticket for the Nationals June 26 events.
Echo Summit Track Dedication to be held the morning of June 27. Press Release
“Capitol Shot” will kick off Championships… at the State Capitol on June 25! Read more.
Her first race was a fun run. Come to think of it, all of her races have been fun runs – even the one where her feet were numb from the cold and her cheeks streaked with tears.
That was the 2008 USATF National Junior Olympic Cross Country Championships in Mechanicsville, Va., where Julia Bounds, a spirited 9-year-old from Redwood City, won the bantam girls title in freezing conditions.
“I actually like running in cold weather, even though you can’t really feel your feet,” she said.
Every race is fun its own way. She’s been fortunate enough to win most of them, but even the occasional defeat brings out the fighter in the 5-foot fifth grader, as she demonstrated a few months ago at the Junior Olympic Track and Field Championships in Greensboro, N.C.
“I’ve never given much thought as to why I like running so much,” Julia said. “I just do.”
Now 10 and in the fifth grade, Bounds will defend her bantam title at the National Junior Olympic Cross Country Championships in Reno on Dec. 12, assuming she makes it through regional qualifying. That’s a pretty safe bet, and her experience from last year’s race should calm her pre-race nerves.
At last year’s cross country nationals in Virginia, Bounds was a wide-eyed novice who had been running competitively for just five months. She was blown away by the sheer mass of runners – 221 entrants – at the starting line
“There was just this big clump,” Bounds said. “I thought, wow, I’m probably not going to do well. But people started dropping back as the race went on.”
She unleashed a strong finishing kick to win by two seconds. Her father, Jay, videotaped the finish, but the camera was shaking from his excitement.
“We knew she could do it,” said her mother, Norleen. “My husband was shaking and Julia was crying as she crossed the finish line. She was used to blowing people away. It wasn’t an easy race for her.”
It wasn’t as difficult as the 1,500-meter final at the 2009 Junior Olympic Track and Field Championships in North Carolina. In the first 75 meters of the race, Julia was spiked and fell to the track after another competitor cut her off. Norleen Bounds said their video of the race showed that Julia was down on the track for 10 to 15 seconds.
She eventually climbed to her feet and managed to pass nine runners en route to a seventh-place finish in 5:18.55.
“The worst part was, they disqualified me,” Julia said. “Fortunately, we protested and I got reinstated.”
“I don’t know many other 10-year-olds who would have had the toughness, competitiveness or confidence to do what she did,” Norleen Bounds said.
Bounds also placed fourth in the 800 meters (2:29.89) and sixth in the high jump (3-9¼) at the track and field nationals. She turns 11 in March and will move up to the midget division at the 2010 Junior Olympic Track and Field Championships in Sacramento. Her personal coach, Michael Davidson, expects her to continue progressing.
“Julia is a very talented young lady,” Davidson said. “Her potential for growth is tremendous. On the track, she’s very focused. Off the track, she’s very much a 10-year-old.”
“She’s very, very social,” her mother said. “The team aspect is very important to her.”
Julia competes for the Pleasanton Heat but trains on the Peninsula with Davidson. She continues to play soccer for a competitive-level team, though cross country now takes precedence in the event of a scheduling conflict.
“In the future, I might change my mind, but right now I love running,” Julia said. “It’s interesting to see my times drop, and I like seeing my friends improve.”
Jay Bounds, an IT manager for Fox Racing, and Norleen, a certified public accountant, have two children. Julia’s older brother, Jason, runs for his middle school cross country team but isn’t terribly interested in the sport.
When she’s not running or socializing, Julia enjoys playing the piano and drawing.
“I like creating things,” she said.
She hopes to create another memorable moment when she defends her title at the upcoming cross country nationals in Reno. She doesn’t mind that she’ll go in as the person to beat, that her opponents will be thinking about her in the months leading up to the race.
“That’s fine,” Julia said. “I think about the other people as much as they think about me.”
Clare Carroll – PAL Roseville Express Distance Star
By Bob Burns
At the JO T&F Nationals, Clare (r) missed a 3000m win by 0.1 second when Amy-Eloise Neale (l) caught her at the finish. Photo courtesy of Kim Carroll
It’s one thingfor a young runner to dream about competing in the Summer Olympics, or for a precocious skier to fantasize about the Winter Olympics.
It’s something else to dream about competing in both.
Meet Clare Carroll, a 13-year-old bundle of energy, talent and smarts. The three-sport standout – four, if track and cross country are considered separate sports – recently asked her mother if she could take tennis lessons after watching the U.S. Open on television.
Kim Carroll had to nix that idea, for the time being at least, but she’s reluctant to discourage her daughter’s Olympic-sized ambitions.
“I think about telling her that it might not be realistic to compete in both, but I don’t say anything,” Kim Carroll said. “It’s OK to have dreams.”
The eighth-grader from Cavitt Junior High School in Granite Bay is gearing up for a big cross country season after finishing second in the youth 3,000 meters at the USA National Junior Olympics in Greensboro, North Carolina. Barely 10 months after running her first race of any kind, Carroll clocked 10:23.94 to finished one-tenth of second behind the winner, Amy-Eloise Neale.
Carroll also placed fourth in the youth 1,500 at nationals in 4:51.01. She earlier clocked a personal-best 4:48.51 in regional qualifying.
“Clare has a whole lot of natural talent,” said Jeanette Allred-Poweless, the cross country coach for the Roseville Express youth team. “We just have to share it with other sports.”
Carroll is also an outstanding soccer player and downhill skier. She plays midfield and defender for Boca Juniors, a Sacramento-area competitive team, and she’s serious enough about skiing that she’ll enroll in the Sugar Bowl Ski Academy this winter.
“She’ll move up there for one trimester,” Kim Carroll said. “She wanted to see what her potential is if she skis full-time.”
Clare’s speed and endurance had long been evident on the soccer field, but she didn’t test herself against other runners until last fall, when she joined her school’s cross country team.
“I always knew I liked to run, so I tried it,” she said. “I won every race and thought, OK, I’ll join a club.’”
She broke her collarbone in a soccer game, forcing her to miss the Junior Olympics in Virginia. The 2009 USATF National Junior Olympic Cross Country Championships will be held Dec. 12 in Reno, Nevada.
“I prefer cross country to track,” Clare said. “Sometimes running laps around a track can get a little boring. Cross country has varied terrain. It’s a pretty environment to be in.”
She knows she’s getting close to the time when she’ll have to drop one or two sports, perhaps as soon as next year, when she enters Granite Bay High School as a freshman. Girls soccer and track are both spring sports.
“I’ll have a lot of choices,” said Carroll, a straight-A student who volunteers with the National Charity League and is president of her eighth-grade class at school. “I’m leaning more toward track. I’d like to keep running and see where it takes me.”
Far, according to Allred-Poweless, who coaches women’s cross country and track at American River College in addition to her work with the Roseville Express.
“I don’t know want to guess which sport she’s going to choose, but Clare really seems to have a love for running,” Allred-Powless said. “She really enjoys it.”
Kim Carroll remembers a parent coming up to her at a soccer game and telling her that Clare was the fastest runner on the field. Kim, a hurdler and sprinter in high school, deflected the praise by saying there were other girls with excellent speed.
“He said, ‘No, she’s the fastest at the start of the game and the fastest at the end of the game,’” Kim Carroll recalled. “That told me that she had both speed and endurance.”
Kim laughs when asked if she ever feels like asking her daughter to slow down.
“I do worry about it a little bit,” Kim said. “But she asks for this, and she gets different things from the different sports.
“With soccer, she enjoys working toward a common goal with her teammates. With individual sports, she knows that when she wins or does very well, it’s because she’s the fastest runner or skier. Running trains her to be disciplined more than any other sport, and ski racing is thrilling – she hits 60 mph in the Super G. It teaches Clare to conquer fear.”
The discipline shows in different ways. When Allred-Powless mentioned that runners should watch their diets, Carroll gave up junk food on the spot. Her 3,000-meter race at last summer’s Junior Olympics provided a glimpse of her competiveness.
Neale, a decorated runner from Snohomish, Wash., was the defending champion, but Carroll matched her older opponent stride for stride on the final lap, losing by less than a stride in a terrific duel. Afterward, Clare celebrated her auspicious debut on the national stage with an ice cream cone.
“It’s always good to win, but training is also fun,” Clare said. “Your friends are out there with you. I don’t know … I just like to run.”
Her first race was a fun run. Come to think of it, all of her races have been fun runs – even the one where her feet were numb from the cold and her cheeks streaked with tears.
That was the 2008 USATF National Junior Olympic Cross Country Championships in Mechanicsville, Va., where Julia Bounds, a spirited 9-year-old from Redwood City, won the bantam girls title in freezing conditions.
“I actually like running in cold weather, even though you can’t really feel your feet,” she said.
Every race is fun its own way. She’s been fortunate enough to win most of them, but even the occasional defeat brings out the fighter in the 5-foot fifth grader, as she demonstrated a few months ago at the Junior Olympic Track and Field Championships in Greensboro, N.C.
“I’ve never given much thought as to why I like running so much,” Julia said. “I just do.”
Now 10 and in the fifth grade, Bounds will defend her bantam title at the National Junior Olympic Cross Country Championships in Reno on Dec. 12, assuming she makes it through regional qualifying. That’s a pretty safe bet, and her experience from last year’s race should calm her pre-race nerves.
At last year’s cross country nationals in Virginia, Bounds was a wide-eyed novice who had been running competitively for just five months. She was blown away by the sheer mass of runners – 221 entrants – at the starting line
“There was just this big clump,” Bounds said. “I thought, wow, I’m probably not going to do well. But people started dropping back as the race went on.”
She unleashed a strong finishing kick to win by two seconds. Her father, Jay, videotaped the finish, but the camera was shaking from his excitement.
“We knew she could do it,” said her mother, Norleen. “My husband was shaking and Julia was crying as she crossed the finish line. She was used to blowing people away. It wasn’t an easy race for her.”
It wasn’t as difficult as the 1,500-meter final at the 2009 Junior Olympic Track and Field Championships in North Carolina. In the first 75 meters of the race, Julia was spiked and fell to the track after another competitor cut her off. Norleen Bounds said their video of the race showed that Julia was down on the track for 10 to 15 seconds.
She eventually climbed to her feet and managed to pass nine runners en route to a seventh-place finish in 5:18.55.
“The worst part was, they disqualified me,” Julia said. “Fortunately, we protested and I got reinstated.”
“I don’t know many other 10-year-olds who would have had the toughness, competitiveness or confidence to do what she did,” Norleen Bounds said.
Bounds also placed fourth in the 800 meters (2:29.89) and sixth in the high jump (3-9¼) at the track and field nationals. She turns 11 in March and will move up to the midget division at the 2010 Junior Olympic Track and Field Championships in Sacramento. Her personal coach, Michael Davidson, expects her to continue progressing.
“Julia is a very talented young lady,” Davidson said. “Her potential for growth is tremendous. On the track, she’s very focused. Off the track, she’s very much a 10-year-old.”
“She’s very, very social,” her mother said. “The team aspect is very important to her.”
Julia competes for the Pleasanton Heat but trains on the Peninsula with Davidson. She continues to play soccer for a competitive-level team, though cross country now takes precedence in the event of a scheduling conflict.
“In the future, I might change my mind, but right now I love running,” Julia said. “It’s interesting to see my times drop, and I like seeing my friends improve.”
Jay Bounds, an IT manager for Fox Racing, and Norleen, a certified public accountant, have two children. Julia’s older brother, Jason, runs for his middle school cross country team but isn’t terribly interested in the sport.
When she’s not running or socializing, Julia enjoys playing the piano and drawing.
“I like creating things,” she said.
She hopes to create another memorable moment when she defends her title at the upcoming cross country nationals in Reno. She doesn’t mind that she’ll go in as the person to beat, that her opponents will be thinking about her in the months leading up to the race.
“That’s fine,” Julia said. “I think about the other people as much as they think about me.”
Her first race was a fun run. Come to think of it, all of her races have been fun runs – even the one where her feet were numb from the cold and her cheeks streaked with tears.
That was the 2008 USATF National Junior Olympic Cross Country Championships in Mechanicsville, Va., where Julia Bounds, a spirited 9-year-old from Redwood City, won the bantam girls title in freezing conditions.
“I actually like running in cold weather, even though you can’t really feel your feet,” she said.
Every race is fun its own way. She’s been fortunate enough to win most of them, but even the occasional defeat brings out the fighter in the 5-foot fifth grader, as she demonstrated a few months ago at the Junior Olympic Track and Field Championships in Greensboro, N.C.
“I’ve never given much thought as to why I like running so much,” Julia said. “I just do.”
Now 10 and in the fifth grade, Bounds will defend her bantam title at the National Junior Olympic Cross Country Championships in Reno on Dec. 12, assuming she makes it through regional qualifying. That’s a pretty safe bet, and her experience from last year’s race should calm her pre-race nerves.
At last year’s cross country nationals in Virginia, Bounds was a wide-eyed novice who had been running competitively for just five months. She was blown away by the sheer mass of runners – 221 entrants – at the starting line
“There was just this big clump,” Bounds said. “I thought, wow, I’m probably not going to do well. But people started dropping back as the race went on.”
She unleashed a strong finishing kick to win by two seconds. Her father, Jay, videotaped the finish, but the camera was shaking from his excitement.
“We knew she could do it,” said her mother, Norleen. “My husband was shaking and Julia was crying as she crossed the finish line. She was used to blowing people away. It wasn’t an easy race for her.”
It wasn’t as difficult as the 1,500-meter final at the 2009 Junior Olympic Track and Field Championships in North Carolina. In the first 75 meters of the race, Julia was spiked and fell to the track after another competitor cut her off. Norleen Bounds said their video of the race showed that Julia was down on the track for 10 to 15 seconds.
She eventually climbed to her feet and managed to pass nine runners en route to a seventh-place finish in 5:18.55.
“The worst part was, they disqualified me,” Julia said. “Fortunately, we protested and I got reinstated.”
“I don’t know many other 10-year-olds who would have had the toughness, competitiveness or confidence to do what she did,” Norleen Bounds said.
Bounds also placed fourth in the 800 meters (2:29.89) and sixth in the high jump (3-9¼) at the track and field nationals. She turns 11 in March and will move up to the midget division at the 2010 Junior Olympic Track and Field Championships in Sacramento. Her personal coach, Michael Davidson, expects her to continue progressing.
“Julia is a very talented young lady,” Davidson said. “Her potential for growth is tremendous. On the track, she’s very focused. Off the track, she’s very much a 10-year-old.”
“She’s very, very social,” her mother said. “The team aspect is very important to her.”
Julia competes for the Pleasanton Heat but trains on the Peninsula with Davidson. She continues to play soccer for a competitive-level team, though cross country now takes precedence in the event of a scheduling conflict.
“In the future, I might change my mind, but right now I love running,” Julia said. “It’s interesting to see my times drop, and I like seeing my friends improve.”
Jay Bounds, an IT manager for Fox Racing, and Norleen, a certified public accountant, have two children. Julia’s older brother, Jason, runs for his middle school cross country team but isn’t terribly interested in the sport.
When she’s not running or socializing, Julia enjoys playing the piano and drawing.
“I like creating things,” she said.
She hopes to create another memorable moment when she defends her title at the upcoming cross country nationals in Reno. She doesn’t mind that she’ll go in as the person to beat, that her opponents will be thinking about her in the months leading up to the race.
“That’s fine,” Julia said. “I think about the other people as much as they think about me.”
Her first race was a fun run. Come to think of it, all of her races have been fun runs – even the one where her feet were numb from the cold and her cheeks streaked with tears.
That was the 2008 USATF National Junior Olympic Cross Country Championships in Mechanicsville, Va., where Julia Bounds, a spirited 9-year-old from Redwood City, won the bantam girls title in freezing conditions.
“I actually like running in cold weather, even though you can’t really feel your feet,” she said.
Every race is fun its own way. She’s been fortunate enough to win most of them, but even the occasional defeat brings out the fighter in the 5-foot fifth grader, as she demonstrated a few months ago at the Junior Olympic Track and Field Championships in Greensboro, N.C.
“I’ve never given much thought as to why I like running so much,” Julia said. “I just do.”
Now 10 and in the fifth grade, Bounds will defend her bantam title at the National Junior Olympic Cross Country Championships in Reno on Dec. 12, assuming she makes it through regional qualifying. That’s a pretty safe bet, and her experience from last year’s race should calm her pre-race nerves.
At last year’s cross country nationals in Virginia, Bounds was a wide-eyed novice who had been running competitively for just five months. She was blown away by the sheer mass of runners – 221 entrants – at the starting line
“There was just this big clump,” Bounds said. “I thought, wow, I’m probably not going to do well. But people started dropping back as the race went on.”
She unleashed a strong finishing kick to win by two seconds. Her father, Jay, videotaped the finish, but the camera was shaking from his excitement.
“We knew she could do it,” said her mother, Norleen. “My husband was shaking and Julia was crying as she crossed the finish line. She was used to blowing people away. It wasn’t an easy race for her.”
It wasn’t as difficult as the 1,500-meter final at the 2009 Junior Olympic Track and Field Championships in North Carolina. In the first 75 meters of the race, Julia was spiked and fell to the track after another competitor cut her off. Norleen Bounds said their video of the race showed that Julia was down on the track for 10 to 15 seconds.
She eventually climbed to her feet and managed to pass nine runners en route to a seventh-place finish in 5:18.55.
“The worst part was, they disqualified me,” Julia said. “Fortunately, we protested and I got reinstated.”
“I don’t know many other 10-year-olds who would have had the toughness, competitiveness or confidence to do what she did,” Norleen Bounds said.
Bounds also placed fourth in the 800 meters (2:29.89) and sixth in the high jump (3-9¼) at the track and field nationals. She turns 11 in March and will move up to the midget division at the 2010 Junior Olympic Track and Field Championships in Sacramento. Her personal coach, Michael Davidson, expects her to continue progressing.
“Julia is a very talented young lady,” Davidson said. “Her potential for growth is tremendous. On the track, she’s very focused. Off the track, she’s very much a 10-year-old.”
“She’s very, very social,” her mother said. “The team aspect is very important to her.”
Julia competes for the Pleasanton Heat but trains on the Peninsula with Davidson. She continues to play soccer for a competitive-level team, though cross country now takes precedence in the event of a scheduling conflict.
“In the future, I might change my mind, but right now I love running,” Julia said. “It’s interesting to see my times drop, and I like seeing my friends improve.”
Jay Bounds, an IT manager for Fox Racing, and Norleen, a certified public accountant, have two children. Julia’s older brother, Jason, runs for his middle school cross country team but isn’t terribly interested in the sport.
When she’s not running or socializing, Julia enjoys playing the piano and drawing.
“I like creating things,” she said.
She hopes to create another memorable moment when she defends her title at the upcoming cross country nationals in Reno. She doesn’t mind that she’ll go in as the person to beat, that her opponents will be thinking about her in the months leading up to the race.
“That’s fine,” Julia said. “I think about the other people as much as they think about me.”
2009 National Junior Olympic XC Youth Boy’s Champion Team
Pleasanton Heat’s Connor McCarthy clocked 14:09 to place 10th among 242 runners in the 4,000-meter race, and to help lead the Pleasanton Heat to a team victory.
Their runners were rested and ready for the 2009 USATF National Junior Olympic Cross Country Championships. In the final hours of preparation, the burden shifted to the shoulders of Pleasanton Heat coaches Kevin McCarthy and Eric Petersen.
They had to fill out the lineup card. In designating their “A” team for the national event in Reno, they had to choose eight runners from a group of 10 evenly matched runners.
“Deciding the top eight was a tough choice,” McCarthy said.
The problem was compounded when it came to Connor McCarthy, Kevin’s son and one of the top runners on the team. Connor was Pleasanton’s ninth finisher two weeks earlier at the Region 16 qualifying race for the Junior Olympics. Connor’s father didn’t want to be seen as playing favorites.
“You’ve got to be kidding,” Petersen told McCarthy. “Connor’s got to be on the ‘A’ team.”
The coaches got it right, judging from Pleasanton’s decisive victory in the Boys Youth Division (ages 13 and 14) at the Junior Olympics. The Heat scored 60 points to finish 49 points ahead of the second-place Equalizers on Dec. 12 at Reno’s Rancho San Rafael Regional Park.
Connor McCarthy was Pleasanton’s top finisher, clocking 14:09 to place 10th among 242 runners in the 4,000-meter race. Caton Avilla, the team’s sixth man at regionals, was the second Pleasanton runner across the finish line at nationals, finishing 17th overall.
Rounding out Pleasanton’s top five scorers were Aidan Goltra (21st place), Gabe Arias-Sheridan (27th) and Nolan Petersen (38th). Pleasanton’s “B” team finished 12th in the team standings.
“It was really gratifying to win because these boys have worked so hard,” Kevin McCarthy said. “We knew we had a good group coming back, but it takes a little bit of luck to win.”
The Heat is a perennial power in Junior Olympic competition, comprised mainly of runners from Pleasanton and Fremont with an occasional Central Valley athlete mixed in. At the 2008 National Junior Olympics Cross Country Championships in Virginia, the Heat placed second in the Youth Boys race. Connor McCarthy and Peterson were scoring members of that team, and two other Pleasanton runners, Goltra and Brynn Sargent, earned medals at the 2009 Junior Olympic Track & Field Championships.
“Six or seven of the boys on this team have been running together for four or five years now,” Petersen said. “They’ve shown a lot of patience to get to this point, because kids get good in different spurts. A lot of our guys are late bloomers. These kids didn’t start out as all-stars.”
The Heat’s “A” and “B” teams finished first and second at the Region 16 qualifying meet on Nov. 29 over the same Reno course that would be used for nationals. But the conditions couldn’t have been more different. The balmy conditions for the regional meet gave way to a full-blown snowstorm for the main event.
“I was really nervous about the conditions going in,” Kevin McCarthy said. “Bad weather adds a variable that you can’t predict. But it turned out to be an advantage because of our depth.”
Connor McCarthy took Petersen’s advice to go out slower than he did at regionals, and the Amador Valley High School freshman ran a solid tactical race to finish 10th.
“I felt ready,” Connor McCarthy said. “I knew it was my time to step up and help my team.”
Avilla, a freshman at Elk Grove’s Pleasant Valley High School, had also run a sub-par race at regionals. Avilla slipped and fell in the early stages of the national race but kept his composure, working his way through the pack to crack the top 20 and earn All-America honors.
“It was an amazing experience,” Avilla said. “My high school coach made a big deal of our win, spreading the news all over the school. I’m grateful for the opportunity to run on this team.”
Pleasanton placed 10 runners in the top 70 finishers at the national championships. Jacob Schlachte, running on the “B” team, finished 43rd, followed by heat teammates Sargent (45th), Tim O’Shea (60th), Adler Faulkner (67th) and Sean Aylward (70th).
“Our top 10 were very similar in ability and their order changed race to race,” Kevin McCarthy said. “The finishing order of the boys will change, but the team result stays constant.”
Avila is a relative newcomer, in just his second season with the Heat, but his mother, Jerrie, marveled at the team’s cohesiveness.
“I don’t know where Coach McCarthy and Petersen found these kids, but they were all so supportive of one another. It was really neat to see.”
