WA Cross Country Invitational

This is just an update as our website is frozen until our new server gets updates. The WA Invitational has moved from October 11th to October 18th. Please make a note of that and plan on coming out to our West Campus Athletic Fields for the competition. The first race begins at 8:30am.

BRADY JAMES BAUR

Well it didn't take long! Here are pictures of the Baur Family! Paul, Ashley and Brady James Baur! He was born at 12:42pm and weighs 7lbs 7oz and is 21 inches long. Ashley started pushing at 12:40 and 4 pushes later he was out!

Thanks for all the prayers today. We really felt God's presence and are so excited. This is crazy!!!!!!

STATE CHAMPIONS

State Champions!!!!! That's right, the 2008 WA boys track team will forever be remembered as the team that won the State Championship. We did it in unbelievable fashion with a very well balanced attack of field event and track athletes beating District rival Dade Christian (State runner-up for the third consecutive year and four in the past five years). It was our first State Championship since 1979 and an improvement from last year's 3rd place finish in which we scored 37.5 points. For the third consecutive Friday in a row we found ourselves in a familiar position on the awards stand taking home the championship trophy and completing the sweep by winning the District, Regional and State Championships. For the meet we ended up defeating Dade Christian 63-55 and finished the season with a perfect 11-0 record and winning major titles at the Angelini Relays, WA Invitational and SACC Championships.

Individual State Champions were Anthony Sheffield in the Triple Jump and Teddy Hess in the 400.

Individual State Runner-ups were Wayne Sears in the long jump who also set a new school record of 22' 4.50" and the 4x400 relay team of Remmy Rickel, Timmy Moses, Anthony Sheffield, and Teddy Hess.

Teddy Hess was also 4th in the 200, Timmy Moses was 3rd in the 300 hurdles and Wayne Sears was 4th in the high jump. The boys 4x100 relay of Remmy Rickel, Elbert Lasley, Van Gray and Anthony Sheffield ran a season best to finish 4th overall.

Others placing in the top 8 at State were: The 4x800 relay team of Mike Critch, Christian Wackes, Eddie Padrino and Julio Perez who finished 8th and Eddie Padrino who finished 7th in the pole vault.

Girls and Boys CC Teams Academic State Runner-Up

Just announced by the FHSAA here are the results for the Academic State Champions. Congratulations to our Girls and Boys CC teams for both being State Runner-up. In addition I want to congratulate our girls volleyball team for being State Champion.

http://www.fhsaa.org/programs/atc/2007_08_fall.htm

Academic Team Champion Awards Program2007-08 Fall Sports Results Winning schools, listed in bold red type, will receive a commemorative state championship plaque by the end of the school year.

Girls Cross Country

Class 1A
School
Cumulative Team GPA
1. Lakeland Christian 3.734
2. Westminster (Fort Lauderdale) 3.711
3. Shorecrest Prep (St. Petersburg) 3.706
4. Holy Trinity (Melbourne) 3.702

Boys Cross Country

Class 1A
School
Cumulative Team GPA
1. Berkeley Prep (Tampa) 3.856
2. Westminster Academy (Fort Lauderdale) 3.821
3. Holy Trinity (Melbourne) 3.796
4. All Saints’ (Winter Haven) 3.713
5. Jay 3.691

TRACK IS FINALLY HERE!!!!!!!

It's about time. After waiting for months track season and practice is finally upon us.

Be at the West Campus everyday after school as our boys look to improve last year's 3rd Place finish at the State Meet and the girls look to put all their youth to work in the same fashion the boys did last year! Go WA!!!!!!

Cross Country Team Awards Banquet

Congratulations to the Boys and Girls CC teams for such a successful year. The Girls finished with record of 9-1 and the boys finished 8-4.

2007 Westminster Academy Cross Country Awards

Step It Up Awards
--Someone who stepped up big time in a major meet to help contribute to the team in a major way.

District
Teddy Hess
Emily Carlson
Kayla Cochran

Regional
Michael Luzinski
Brittany Carey

State
Christian Wackes
Remmy Rickel
Circe Burnett

Bright Future Award
--Someone who showed throughout the year the potential to be a great athlete and never gave up.

Josh Longerbeam
Javier Pulido
Katie Auld

Character Award
--Someone who goes above and beyond displaying Christlike attitude and being a great example as to what we expect from our athletes

Dylan Burns
Ali Battista

Perseverance Award
--Someone who showed they would never give up no matter what obstacles they faced.

Thomas Carrie
Melissa Keightley
Kara Gahagen

Team Captain
Layna Roycraft
Teddy Hess
Michael Luzinski
Remmy Rickel
Christian Wackes

Most Improved Runner
Mark Newsom
Circe Burnett

Most Valuable Runner
Christian Wackes
Layna Roycraft

State Meet

What a great way to end our amazing season. It was a great day with beautiful weather, even if it was a little cold. In the end our kids went out and ran very well and represented Christ and WA well. I can’t be more proud of this group of athletes and the way they have carried themselves all season. What a great group of kids. We are certainly going to miss the Seniors. We had a great drive up on Thursday and Friday turned out to be great. We visited the course in the morning, discussed meet strategy and later in the day had a great relaxing time bowling. That night we had our final team meeting which was a great time to honor those running and let them know just how much of an impact they have made on the team. Saturday was an early, cold morning, but a great day to race. It was so great to have so many families there to cheer everyone on. I don’t recall too many other teams with the amount of parents we had there. Thanks for all you do.

The girls started everyone off running to a 22nd place finish. It was our 2nd best team average of the season, 2nd to our finish at the Markham Park meet which was an extremely fast course. This course was about as tough as it looked, rolling steady uphills and gradual downhills. Our team average was 22:48 which was 36 seconds faster than last week at Regionals. Leading the way for us in her final Cross Country race of a remarkable career at WA was Layna Roycraft. She raced to a 39th place finish running a great time of 20:28. That finish was 5th among all Seniors and overall that was the 10th fastest time among all girls from Broward County. Not only that but Layna did a great job balancing Cross Country training and not overdoing it and re-injuring her leg. On to track season! Running 2nd for us and having a remarkable bounce back race after a tough Regional meet was Circe Burnett. She did an outstanding job running 123rd overall in her first State meet. Her time of 22:49 was also only 7 seconds off her all time Personal Best. Running 3rd was Emily Carlson who also had a great race finishing 142nd with a time of 23:20, just 31 seconds off her Personal Best. That was also a great performance after a tough run at Regionals. Stepping up and running 4th was Kayla Cochran who ran 23:35, just 24 seconds off her Personal Best in her first State Meet. Continuing to impress was Brittany Carey who ran 23:47 which was only 15 seconds off her Personal Best. Kara Gahagen continued to gut out the season despite lots of pain in her knees running 24:46. Running 7th for us this week was Melissa Keightley. She stepped in for, freshman, Ali Battista giving Melissa one last opportunity to race for our Cross Country team running 25:56. I can’t tell you how happy I was to give Melissa one last opportunity, but I am equally happy by the way Ali carried herself knowing her times were just a little bit better than Melissa. Ali showed just how much character she has by asking that she not take a Senior’s place. Not only that, Melissa showed the same character by giving up her spot to Ali for the Regional meet. I pray that God continue to bless WA with girls who have the same character as Melissa and Ali.

The boys also had a great day with two Seniors running their all time Personal Best times in their last race. That’s a tough thing to do, but great job for Christian and Remmy. The team finished 24th overall and despite the place I am glad to say that at no time did they take the opportunity to run in the State meet lightly. Qualifying was not the main goal; it was to go out and run well and represent Christ and our school well. They also did a great job accomplishing that. Christian Wackes finished his Cross Country career by being our #1 runner for the entire season. He finished in 70th place with a Personal Best time of 18:11 taking 27 seconds off his previous PB. Running 2nd for us, which is what he did all year, was Teddy Hess. He finished 137th overall and ran 19:46. Running 3rd was Michael Luzinski who also finished off a great Cross Country career running 20:29, just 22 seconds off his PB. Thomas Carrie ran 4th for us running 20:38 which was just 2 seconds off his PB. He was followed closely by Remmy Rickel who ended his Cross Country career running his PB in a time of 20:39. Josh Longerbeam also had a good day running 20:50 which was 27 seconds off his PB. Running 7th for us was Dylan Burns who ran 20:52. Dylan takes this team over from a great group of Seniors as he will be the most experienced runner next year.

All in all I can’t tell you how much I am going to miss these teams next year. They have made some lasting memories and some great friendships that they will always remember. I am just glad that I had the opportunity to have a small influence in their lives and be a part of the journey that God is taking them on. The great thing is that they leave us in great hands and some high expectations that I believe the returning athletes will follow through on.