Native American Heritage Month 5k

Our club has been invited to participate in the Native American Heritage Month 5k that will be held this Saturday, November 12th at the Nike Campus.  Bib pick up is at 8:00 AM and the race will  start at 9:03 AM.  For any of our athletes interested in running, especially those running regionals next weekend, we recommend that you participate, but run much easier than a normal race.  This is not something we will be attending as a team like our normal races--just something we wanted to pass along if any families are interested.

Registration is FREE, but you still need to sign up here.  Click the "RSVP" at the bottom to get to the register page.

Pictures from JO State Meet

We have over 200 pictures from the JO State Meet posted in a Flickr album: JO State Album

The pictures are mostly from the Girls' and Boys' 11-12 and 13-14 races. We apologize for not getting pictures of the earlier races. If you have pictures you would like to share from any meet you can join the Bowerman Track Club Group on Flickr and add them. We are still experimenting with the best platform for sharing photos. Flickr has a large amount of free storage so we have settled on that for the moment.

We also have an album of pictures from the Summer Series, PDXC Invite, and the McMinnville Invite. You can view that here.

Regionals Qualfiers Update

There was a mistake in the previous email that was sent out about the regional qualifiers.  It said that we only qualified 2 teams in the Girls 11-12 division when we actually qualified 3 teams.  The regional qualifier lists are updated.  With the update, all BTC girls that ran at state are qualified for regionals.

Practice Time Change JO State Recap

Practice Changes

Starting this week on Tuesday, we will have the following changes to our practice schedule.  All kids are encouraged to continue attending practice regardless of regional qualification.

Nike Campus

Time: Practices will now be held from 5:00 - 6:15 PM
Location: All practices will meet at the Bo Turf field and conclude at the track where it is lighted.

Sherwood

Time: Practices will now be held from 5:30 - 6:45 PM
Location: All practices will meet at Snyder Park

NE Portland - Practice schedule remains the same

JO State Recap

Congrats to all those who competed on Sunday at the JO State Meet.  We qualified at least 1 team in every age group and multiple teams in many age groups.  As a reminder, the qualification requirements for Regionals were top 35 individuals or top 5 teams.  Each team consists of 8 runners, so in age groups where we qualified 2 teams, our top 16 BTC finishers qualify for regionals as a part of the team.  The link below details who qualified for regionals in each age group.  We will assume that those highlighted on this list want to run at regionals in 2 weeks, but if that is not the case, let us know ASAP so we can open up the opportunity to other runners on the list.  

Boys Regional Qualifiers (Highlighted names qualified for regionals)

Girls Regional Qualifiers (Highlighted names qualified for regionals)

**Note About Nationals Qualification**
At the state meet we spread the teams more evenly to try and qualify as many teams as possible for regionals.  At regionals the competition will be tougher and only the top 3 teams and 30 individuals will qualify for nationals, so we will focus on trying to get 1 team qualified in each age group.  Nationals teams will be determined based on regionals place (i.e. If we qualify 1 team for nationals, the top 8 BTC finishers will qualify as part of that team, regardless of which team they are designated to for the regional race).

USATF State Meet Announcement

ATTENTION BTC ATHLETES AND PARENTS,

Sunday morning is the USATF State Meet.  For those of you racing, please plan to arrive at least 1 hour before your race (see schedule below).  There is a $12 entry fee for the race.  We will be collecting this when you arrive, and it can be paid in cash or check (NO Credit Card).  

DIRECTIONS

When you arrive, look for the red BTC tents.  It looks like we might luck out with some nice weather, but make sure you bring rain gear and dry clothes for after.

The state meet is the qualifier for the regional meet.  To qualify for the regional meet, you must be in the Top 35 individuals or the Top 5 teams.  If a team qualifies, that allows 8 runners to advance as part of that team.  We will almost certainly qualify at least 1 team in each age group and in some cases we will multiple teams.  We will construct the regional teams based on descending order finishes this weekend at the state meet

SCHEDULE:

BOYS
9:00 AM - 8 & UNDER (2K)
10:00 AM - 9-10 YEAR OLDS (3K)
11:00 AM - 11-12 YEAR OLDS (3K)
12:00 AM - 13-14 YEAR OLDS (4K)

GIRLS
9:30 AM - 8 & UNDER (2K)
10:30 AM - 9-10 YEAR OLDS (3K)
11:30 AM - 11-12 YEAR OLDS (3K)
12:30 AM - 13-14 YEAR OLDS (4K)

FULL BTC ENTRIES

MORE MEET INFO

Preliminary State Registration List

The following is a list of everyone that we currently have entered for this weekend.  We are waiting on USATF for confirmation of everyone's membership and date of birth confirmation, but this is the list of athletes that we will enter.  If you expected to see your son or daughter's name but do not, please respond to this email.  We will send further confirmation once we know if everyone's membership and birthdate verification comes through with USATF.

State Registration List

JO State Waiver and Last Chance Sign-Up

For those running at the JO State Meet this weekend, the facility has requested that each athlete/parent complete an additional waiver release form.  Please complete the following form and send it directly to Shannon Boyd <shannonb@metlandgroup.com> before this weekend.

Waiver Release

Also, this is the last reminder to make sure you get signed up if you are planning to run at state this coming weekend.  To sign-up, follow the steps below by the end of today!

USATF State Meet and USATF Membership

STEP 1. Purchase a current USATF membership

Here is the link for the sign up:

http://www.usatf.org/Products---Services/Individual-Memberships.aspx

Our Club Number is 0820

(If you aren’t sure if you have a current USATF membership use this link to check https://www.usatf.org/membership/help/number.asp )

STEP 2. Proof of Date of Birth (birth certificate, passport)

Send a copy of birth certificate or passport to usatfmembershiporegon@gmail.com

 (you only need to do this if you haven’t done so in a prior year)

STEP 3. 

Click this State Sign-Up Link here to let us know your child wants to run the state meet. We will enter the athlete in the race.

There is a $12 per registration fee to be paid when you pick up your number at the team tent on Race Day. Please complete steps 1&2 before step 3.

Location: Hidden Creek Polo Club, West Linn, OR

JO Nationals Hotel and Travel

BTC Parents,
Travel and accommodations for the JO State and Regional meet are simple this year because both meets are held here in the Portland area.  Nationals will be held in Hoover, Alabama on December 10th.  While we do not know for certain who will qualify for nationals, we want to provide some hotel and travel information for any of you considering making the trip.

JO Nationals Website

HOTEL

We have reserved a block of 40 rooms at the Courtyard Birmingham/Hoover for the nights of December 8, 9 and 10 (check-in Thursday, check-out Sunday).  The hotel is located 1 mile from the Meet Hotel (Embassy Suites) and about 6 miles from the race course.  Our reservation includes 25 Queen/Queen rooms and 15 King/Sofa bed rooms.  All rooms under our group rate are $94 per night.  We can cancel the rooms up until the week before, so we suggest that if you are even considering going, you sign up for a room below.  There will be 2 weeks between Regionals and when we need to cancel the rooms so you will have plenty of time to see if your son or daughter has qualified for nationals.  Please note, any rooms in our block that are not spoken for by December 2nd will be canceled.  We will not hold extra rooms. If you would like to reserve rooms from our team block, click the link below.

Hotel Sign-Up

If you would like to book your own hotel, here is some information that may be useful.
Hotel Map (Green = Race Course, Red = BTC Hotel, Blue = Other Hotels)
USATF Hotel List

FLIGHTS

Birmingham (BHM) is the closest airport (20 miles) to our meet hotel and the race course.  There are no direct flights to Birmingham (most connect through Atlanta or Dallas).  Round trip tickets in and out of Birmingham are currently in the $450 - $550 range on a variety of different airlines.  Atlanta (ATL) is the closest major airport (150 miles).  There are currently much cheaper options for flying in and out of Atlanta.  If you are looking for the cheapest travel option, especially if multiple family members are traveling, there is currently a Southwest option for $240 round trip in and out of Atlanta (this option includes a very early Sunday departure out of Atlanta).  Another advantage to this option is that Southwest tickets prices are transferable at no charge, so if you booked this flight now and decided later that you didn't want to go or you wanted fly into Birmingham, you can transfer the credit.  

RENTAL CARS

Families will be responsible for their own transportation to and from the airport, hotel and race course.  We encourage you to combine rental cars with other families going if it works for you.  On Kayak.com, rental car reservations look to be about $50 - $80 total for Thursday-Sunday out of both Atlanta and Birmingham.   

Let us know if you have questions.

BTC Coaches

Halloween Run!

Thursday, October 27th: Halloween Run @ Practice

Attention BTC! With Halloween approaching this coming Monday, we will hold our annual Halloween run at the end of practice this Thursday, at Nike Campus.  We will do a normal abbreviated practice to start and finish with a spooky run around Hollister Trail.  The spooky run will start around 6:20-6:30 PM.  Kids from all practice locations are encouraged to attend!  Delicious candy to be served after.  Costumes are encouraged at practice.

**Parents, we strongly encourage you to join us coaches in making the run as spooky as possible.  Bring a scaring mask and join the festivities!**

IMPORTANT! USATF Junior Olympic Season

PLEASE READ FULL MESSAGE

We are now into the USATF Junior Olympic portion of the season.  During this time, kids will compete in races separated by age and gender.

Boys 8 and under (2008 or earlier)

Girls 8 and under (2008 or earlier)

Boys 9-10 (2007, 2006)

Girls 9-10 (2007,2006)

Boys 11-12 (2005, 2004)

Girls 11-12 (2005, 2004)

Boys 13-14 (2003, 2002)

Girls 13-14 (2003,2002)

I want to provide some information about registering for a USATF Membership. This is required prior to the Junior Olympic Oregon State meet November 6th (Entries for which we want to receive by end of day Nov 1st)

Please note – we will enter the kids for the meet  – but for the USATF season we CANNOT enter any child that has not already joined USATF AND provided proof of age.

Parents, you are responsible to get your child registered with USATF and assigned to the Bowerman Track Club. Don’t wait too long to do this! (Steps below)

I'm aware you can get the next two year's of memberships for the price of one if you wait until Nov 1st. It's ok to do this if you are renewing (i.e. you already have had a previous USATF membership and age verification) since you won't need to do the age verification step.

If this is your first year getting a USATF membership - PLEASE DON'T WAIT! - get your USATF membership now to give you enough time to get the age verification process done before the Nov 1st entry deadline.

USATF State Meet and USATF Membership

STEP 1. Purchase a current USATF membership

Here is the link for the sign up:

http://www.usatf.org/Products---Services/Individual-Memberships.aspx

Our Club Number is 0820

(If you aren’t sure if you have a current USATF membership use this link to check https://www.usatf.org/membership/help/number.asp )

STEP 2. Proof of Date of Birth (birth certificate, passport)

Send a copy of birth certificate or passport to usatfmembershiporegon@gmail.com

 (you only need to do this if you haven’t done so in a prior year)

STEP 3. 

Click this State Sign-Up Link here to let us know your child wants to run the state meet. We will enter the athlete in the race.

There is a $12 per registration fee to be paid when you pick up your number at the team tent on Race Day. Please complete steps 1&2 before step 3.

Location: Hidden Creek Polo Club, West Linn, OR

The deadline to complete ALL THREE steps is End of day Nov 1st. 

Regionals – Polo Fields, West Linn, OR on Saturday, November 19th

Running at regionals does require competing and qualifying at the State Meet on Saturday November 6th.  Most BTC runners will qualify for regionals individually or as a part of the team (see qualification criteria below)

We will send out a link for entries to Regionals after the State meet.

Nationals -  Hoover, Alabama on Saturday, December 10th

More info on Nationals will follow later in the week on suggested Hotel's and Flight options.

Please note we will likely qualify one team of 8 runners in ALL age groups. If you are even thinking about the possibility of going to Nationals we strongly recommend that you reserve a hotel room in the next week or two before they all fill up. If you end up not going you can cancel the hotel room after regionals at no charge.

Notes on the USATF Jnr Olympics part of the season:

State meet is November 6th in West Linn, OR – this is the qualifier for regionals  – The kids will run separate races in two year age groups (shown above). Most of our kids will qualify (top 35 individuals and top 5 teams in each age group)

The regional meet is November 19th this year also in West Linn, OR– this is the qualifier for the Nationals meet on Dec 10th in Hoover, AL. Probably about 50% of our kids will qualify for nationals. The top 30 individuals and top 5 teams advance in each age group.

If you want advice on whether your child will qualify – email me directly or catch me at practice – I’ll be happy to advise you on the approx. odds. Chris.Cook@Nike.com

At the state meet we will spread the best kids between 2 or 3 teams to maximize the number of teams we qualify for regionals.

At the regional meet we will field our strongest teams with selection based on finish position at the state meet.

At the national meet we will field our strongest teams with selection based on finish position at the regional meet.

Results for all our meets so far this season and the dates and locations of future meets can be found here:

http://www.athletic.net/CrossCountry/School.aspx?SchoolID=30214

Clicking on your child’s name from any of the results will show you their results from all races they’ve run from all seasons.