West Valley Track Club | San Francisco Bay Area - powered by AllSportCentral.com

Coach Jack Youngren had declared this spring as the season of the 5k's and the team proved him right at Zippy 5k this past weekend. And how they proved him right. In a very deep, competitive field the WVTC Men's Open team emerged as the winner, edging the big favorites Aggie RC, New Balance Silicon Valley, and Transports Adidas RC. Malcolm Richards (15:01), Jonathan Charmesworth (15:02), Konrad Knutsen (15:26), Matt Kane (15:34), and allergy-plagued Ben Jarret (15:41) combined for a cumulative team time of 1:16:44, a 7-second margin over the Aggies. The WVTC "B" team (Jamey Gifford, Jason Karbelk, Nick Scalfone, John Markell, Joe Wehrheim) placed 5th overall. Chiming in from Arizona while on tour with his newly-formed Blue Turtleneck Comedy Club, Alex Mason, former middle distance star, commented, "What a shear display of athleticism!". [individual results] [team results]

Nicole Campbell (r.) extended her streak of great performances this spring at last weekend's Woody Wilson track meet at UC Davis. Despite challenging conditions (hot, windy, well, it's Davis after all) Nicole ran very strong, and finished 4th in 4:39,26 after taking the lead after 2 laps. Stephanie Downey (l.) ran well, too, placing 15th in 5:03,47. [results]

Several WVTC runners hit the track last Friday at the annual Distance Carnival in San Francisco. Jason "Rookie" Karbelk was up at the crack of dawn to run a big 10K PR of 32:36. Next up in the 1500 were Nicole Cambell (4:37) and Stephanie Downey (4:49) both running within just 1 second of their PRs. We had a big showing in the men's 5000 with Malcolm Richards (14:41 despite a face plant on lap 2), Ben Jarrett (15:17 PR), Matt Kane (15:28 - just missing a PR), Jamey Gifford (15:41 - fastest time in 10 years), John Markell (16:24 - fastest time in 10+ years). Next up is Zippy 5k! [results]

This just in via Jack Youngren: West Valley Track Club are the men's team champions at the World Famous Carlsbad 5000! The combined times of Jonathan Charlesworth (14:57), Konrad Knutsen (15:42) and Nick Scalfone (15:51) produced a 30 second win over Adidas Movin Shoes (46:29 - 46:59). Congratulations on a job well done to everyone who made the trip and laced them up. [results]

Long-time Adidas Transports runner Konrad Knutsen had a great debut in the red WVTC jersey at the "World's Fastest 5k", finishing in 15:42. Jonathan Charlesworth, coming off last week's win at SF State, went sub 15 again, finished 2nd (14:57) in the 29 & Under Division, and Nick Scalfone confirmed his fitness with a 15:51. Great races also for John Markell (16:35) and Dave Kyle (17:01). And always good for a fast time in the 5k, Kyle Brocklehurst (17:53), Nicole Campbell (17:58), and of course our stallion Carlos Castelo (17:35). What a great day for West Valley! [results]

Jane pulled away from YiOu Wang at mile 7 to win the Sactown 10 miler, finishing in 56:55. On the men's side Malcolm Richards also had a fantastic race to find himself in 8th place a mere 7 seconds shy of breaking 50 mins. A day with near perfect conditions saw great races and PRs from Ben Jarrett (53:07), Jason "Rookie" Karbelk (54:12), and Jamey Gifford (54:41). Strong races from Jonah Backstrom (56:01), Joe Wehrheim (57:23) and Edward Randolph (58:32) show how deep the West Valley squad is this year. [unofficial results]

Great track racing this weekend at San Francisco State's Johnny Mathis meet. In spite of a steady cold rain, Jonathan Charlesworth ("I did wear gloves during the race") impressed with a 14:47 that proved to good for everyone else in the field. Charlesworth held off St. Mary's Rajpaul Pannu with a long hard move over the two final laps (2:12). Two PRs cam from Ben Jarrett (15:24) and Matt Kane(15:27), latest recruit Nick Scalfone dipped under 16 (15:58), and Jeff Czyz (17:00) rounded up a great showing for the team. In the 800m Kyle Brocklehurst clocked in at 2:13. Nicole Campbell faced a very competitive 1500m field and had a solid start to the 2012 track season (4:44), while Vanessa Lodi came very close to breaking the 5min barrier (5:01). [results]

Race day at Emerald Across the Bay 12k had perfect conditions for West Valley men to run big PR's. The race unfolded with WVTC Open Men's Team in 3rd place. Malcolm Richards had blazing fast competition from the start, finishing his debut 12k 4th overall in 37:27. WVTC then had a 2,3,4,5 punch by Ben Jarrett (14th in 39:27), Matt Kane (15th, 39:34), and Jason"Rookie" Karbelk (20th, 39:59), all setting personal records. Jonah Backstrom --with an always solid performance-- placed 32nd in 41:20. Our veterans demonstrated again that they will play an important role in this years PA Masters, with Joe Wehrhein's amazing 3rd place finish in 41:57 and Edward Randolph coming in 12th in 43:47. [individual results][team results]

The West Valley open men's team followed up their dominant win at last December's California International Marathon with a solid team performance to take the season opening win at the Nor Cal 10 miler in Redding. In fact it was a subset of the CIM team that represented the club this weekend. Malcolm Richards, who is already looking fit again after a strong showing at the Olympic Trials in January, led the team in 5th place. Next was Jason Karbelk - or Rookie to most of us - carrying his new high and tight haircut across the finish line in 9th place. When asked about his race he confirmed "yeah I think it was the haircut". Rounding out scoring for the open team was Matt Kane, Jamey Gifford, and Jonah Backstrom. Joe Wehrheim & Edward Randolph had very strong showings in the masters ranks, both finishing sub60! (Full results can be found here)

A first highlight of the new season! Ben continued to convert his training efforts into great races with a 38^th place at national XC championships in Saint Louis, MO. Conditions were tough, with a muddy course, 25 deg F and 20-30mph winds. Finishing with a time of 40:21 on the challenging 12k course, Ben was not entirely happy with his race strategy: after a conservative start slowly moving up, place by place, throughout the entire race. However, this meant running solo for most of the race. “Next time I'll put in more surges to catch groups, which would have been early on between 2 to 4km, may have been worth the extra energy early”, BJ said after the race. Let's see how the next races go! Complete results can be found here. You can also check out a photo gallery (photo 39 of 104).

What a great day for WVTC at CIM in Sacramento: 2 OT qualifiers, many PRs, 6 out of 13 top Californian performances, and many other outstanding runs. Kudos to coaches Jack Youngren and Bill Clark. Detailed reports to follow, here are just some results (probably incomplete, pending corrections):