The Run Around - Article 1



By DP Daigle

Howdy Folks, your favorite coach on the coast is back and cross country season is upon us once again, I couldn't be more excited.  It's been a while since I've contributed here on MileSplit, and I missed it!  I was studying for my master's degree in teaching and I'm happy to say that is over and I successfully received my master's in the art of teaching.

 

For those of you who don't know me, my name is DP Daigle and I am the Head Coach of Cross Country and Track & Field at Saint Stanislaus in Bay St. Louis.  I'm an English teacher and have experience as a published author so I found myself a little niche here writing for MS Milesplit.  Many thanks to our tireless webmaster Coach Mathews for letting me contribute to his site.

 

For this edition of the run around I want to explain what I have dubbed "The Bottom Six."  After that I'd like to recap the meet we just hosted here at SSC.  The Bottom Six is simply the 6 southernmost counties in Mississippi.  In includes the coastal counties of Hancock, Harrison, and Jackson as well as Pearl River, Stone, and George.  This area comprised of 25 high schools typically produces top track & field teams and state contenders in cross country each year in all classifications.

 

Specifically - the bottom six includes the following schools by classification:

 

6A:  Biloxi, d'Iberville, George County, Gulfport, Hancock County, Harrison Central, Ocean Springs, Pascagoula, and St. Martin

 

5A:  Gautier, Long Beach, Pearl River Central, Picayune, Stone, and West Harrison

 

4A:  Bay High, East Central, Moss Point, Pass Christian, Poplarville, Saint Stanislaus, and Vancleave

 

2A:  Our Lady Academy, and St. Patrick

 

1A:  Resurrection

 

The vast majority of the above teams have both a cross country team and a track team, but there are a few exceptions.  Bay High and Stone do not run cross country, but both have track programs.

 

Alright, let me tell you how our home meet went.  First of all you should know we partnered with the shoe company HOKA ONE ONE for this meet and joined their format of Postal Nationals.  Essentially this was a 3200M run on the track for all athletes.  HOKA ONE ONE keeps track of the team finishes in a national database, and you can compare your team to teams from across the nation.  You are even allowed to enter results of a team time trial if you are interested.  More information can be found here:  http://www.hokaoneonepostalnationals.com/.

 

We had 4 divisions on Saturday, 8/19 for the 2nd Annual Forster Commagere Classic.  First the middle school divisions - St. Jude from Louisiana took both the boys' and girls' divisions while Christian Collegiate Academy was runner-up in both divisions.  Your top finisher for the girls was Macenzie Melancon of St. Jude with a time of 15:08.06.  On the boys' side the top finisher was Bennett Saia of St. Jude, he ran a super-fast 3200M in 11:42.09.

 

The high school field for the girls consisted of 54 entries.  Lina May of Vancleave led the way with an 11:48.97.  Overall, Pass Christian took the title and Biloxi was second.  Mike Seignious led a field of 44 runners on the boys' side with a time of 11:15.25.  Saint Stanislaus had strength in numbers though and was able to hold off Biloxi for the title.

 

Saint Stanislaus and Christian Collegiate Academy have already reported their results to HOKA ONE ONE.  It is early in the season, so only 33 teams have entered results, but SSC ranks 13th nationally while CCA is 28th nationally.  Our Lady Academy ranks 14th and the CCA girls rank 16th out of 19 programs nationally.

 

We hope to continue with the HOKA ONE ONE Postal National Format in years to come and grow the event to be a regional meet.  I hope you enjoyed this introduction into The Bottom Six, and the recap of SSC's Forster Commager Classic... until next time - DP Daigle.